Good news first.
It was announced that prices for RPi4 2GB RAM versions will drop.
The 2g supposedly sells for the same price as the 1g version now/soon.
Bad news.
The 4g version stays where it is.
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Hmmh. Some portal was talking about lower RAM prices as the reason for the drop.
Doesn't make sense. 4g, with even more RAM onboard, remains where it is!
FunFact. The 2g model wasn't the best selling model.
Upton admitted that he was surprised that the 4g model became the bestseller.
Let's keep the fingers crossed that they don't just want to get rid of their 2g overstock/non-sellers.
Therefore you better keep an eye on the board-revisions! 😉
Enjoy.
It was announced that prices for RPi4 2GB RAM versions will drop.
The 2g supposedly sells for the same price as the 1g version now/soon.
Bad news.
The 4g version stays where it is.
****************
Hmmh. Some portal was talking about lower RAM prices as the reason for the drop.
Doesn't make sense. 4g, with even more RAM onboard, remains where it is!
FunFact. The 2g model wasn't the best selling model.
Upton admitted that he was surprised that the 4g model became the bestseller.
Let's keep the fingers crossed that they don't just want to get rid of their 2g overstock/non-sellers.
Therefore you better keep an eye on the board-revisions! 😉
Enjoy.
The announcement I read said the 1Gb version is dropped. Perhaps sales of 1Gb were too low, and sales of the 2Gb enough to manufacture on a higher scale and cheaper.
IMO they want to reduce the number of models manufactured. Cheaper 1GB is OK for headless, more expensive 4GB for GUI, 2GB priced half-way was probably not selling. Since DRAM prices dropped, IMO it makes sense to drop the 1GB model completely and replace it with the better-equipped same-priced 2GB model
They're getting greedy. All they want is to increase profits in the first place.
That's why they keep milking the best cow in the stable. Because I guess they know -- to have maximum flexibility - people simply will continue to go for 4g boards.
I have no problem with their price policy. Apparently the 4GB version is selling well, no reason to cut the price. And getting 2GB for the original 1GB price - good for me and us.
I will be happy if they generate enough cash to release a new version with more cores - RPi is the lowest cost option for a USB gadget. There are no USB-gadget cards for amd64 (apart of some low-performance very expensive Intel chipsets), other ARM gadget-capable SBCs have poor kernel support. A USB gadget with good computing power is still unavailable now, apart of some custom-designed boards. If RPi5 has 8 cores for 50USD, I take it right away 🙂
I will be happy if they generate enough cash to release a new version with more cores - RPi is the lowest cost option for a USB gadget. There are no USB-gadget cards for amd64 (apart of some low-performance very expensive Intel chipsets), other ARM gadget-capable SBCs have poor kernel support. A USB gadget with good computing power is still unavailable now, apart of some custom-designed boards. If RPi5 has 8 cores for 50USD, I take it right away 🙂
...doing a bit if marketing for your own projects . 😛
Call me ignorant. I think the world is not -- what I'd call -- waiting for USB gadgets based on RPi4. 😀
Howdy.
Not sure if you've seen it. pCP6.0 has been released.
Now, since March 7th, you've got full RPi4 support with 64bit kernel and also realtime kernel.
Unfortunately userland is still 32bit - and probably that won't change.
As far as I see, the pCP folks have also taken care of the firmware/eeprom handling.
Which is nice.
I'd strongly advise to give pCP6.0 a try.
You should also try to make use of the LogitechMedia server on pCP6.0-Pi4.
I'm running a Pi4 as server with SSD attached.
Works great since months. I do not use the rt-kernel on the server though. Just the client runs it.
If you do try the server setup, make sure you isolate CPU0 and switch to performance governor
to avoid data loss or mediocre network performance if running GBit ethernet.
Enjoy.
Not sure if you've seen it. pCP6.0 has been released.
Now, since March 7th, you've got full RPi4 support with 64bit kernel and also realtime kernel.
Unfortunately userland is still 32bit - and probably that won't change.
As far as I see, the pCP folks have also taken care of the firmware/eeprom handling.
Which is nice.
I'd strongly advise to give pCP6.0 a try.
You should also try to make use of the LogitechMedia server on pCP6.0-Pi4.
I'm running a Pi4 as server with SSD attached.
Works great since months. I do not use the rt-kernel on the server though. Just the client runs it.
If you do try the server setup, make sure you isolate CPU0 and switch to performance governor
to avoid data loss or mediocre network performance if running GBit ethernet.
Enjoy.
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If you are running PcP, I'd also suggest using the Material skin, for control of all connected players.
Yep. I'm running it too. That puts LMS/squeezelite based solutions on a new level. 😀
How big is your audio collection, Soundcheck? Can Pi4 in this configuration handle big audio collections, e.g. 1,5TB of flacs?
Yes. No problem.
Scanning takes a bit longer compared to my i5 NUC.
IMO more than acceptable though. 10k tracks take around 1.30min on the Pi4.
You can extrapolate that.
With wired GBIT Lan I do not notice any annoying lags on my UIs .
Otherwise a Pi-as-server setup would have been a NoGo.
SSD is highly recommened. It's fast. low power and you don't see these
power surges that you'd face with a HDD attached.
That than allows to use just 1PS.
Hint: Make sure you get yourself a USB3-Sata adapter that supports "trim".
Not all of them do!
And. Running heavy DSP on a PI, even a Pi4, is still something I wouldn't do.
And finally - don't forget to get yourself a quality passive cooling case!
Enjoy.
Approx 1,000 CDs, (1 TB - 10,000 tracks) in WAV/CUE format takes me roughly 5 minutes to scan into database on RPi4B with USB HDD. It looks like the format can effect the scan times as well as SSD vs HDD.
All user interfaces that I use, have no lag even over 2.4 wifi.
Because piCorePlayer is extremely small, I can build a pCP squeezelite player in 5 minutes and a my pCP LMS server in 15 to 20 minutes from scratch. I have had lots of practice though. 🙂
BTW: I agree the Material skin is a great addition to the Squeeze/LMS environment.
All user interfaces that I use, have no lag even over 2.4 wifi.
Because piCorePlayer is extremely small, I can build a pCP squeezelite player in 5 minutes and a my pCP LMS server in 15 to 20 minutes from scratch. I have had lots of practice though. 🙂
BTW: I agree the Material skin is a great addition to the Squeeze/LMS environment.
So 1x LogitechMedia server on pCP6.0-Pi4 with 2TB USB>SATA SSD + 1-2x pCP6.0-Pi4 with Khadas TB as clients should be Ok? Any recommendation for GUI SW while controlling from Win PCs?
I'd separate clients from servers. However. Running both on one machine also works.
I'd avoid at least a shared data and audio USB setup. Of course this would also work.
And there'd be no way I'd be running a server over Wifi, but yep, it'd also work under certain conditions.
As user interface the excellent "Material Skin" plugin, can be enabled during LMS installation from the LMS-Plugin settings menu. MSkin should work on any browser and therefore any OS ( I havn't tested all of them 😉 ).
Once enabled you access the UI via " 192.xxx.x.xxx:9000/material" and that address you bookmark. MSkin comes with mobile and desktop layouts. For easy access I added shortcuts to my homescreens (Android) by using the "bookmark add to homescreen function" that you find in the browser menus.
Let's leave the thread for Pi4 related stuff. Pi4 as LMS server should be discussed elsewhere.
Enjoy.