Over the past few years, the Raspberry Pi single board computers have climbed from a mere 1GB of RAM to 8 GB. Just last year, people were shocked by the introduction of Raspberry Pi models equipped with 2GB and 4GB of RAM. The Raspberry Pi foundation also cut the price of the 2GB RPi 4 model to $35, the same price as previous models that had 1GB.
The following prices are not guaranteed and vary from store to store.
Now, the Raspberry Pi 4B comes in 1GB ($30), 2GB ($35), 4GB ($55), and 8GB ($75) varieties. The Raspberry Pi foundation has also released a 64-bit version of Raspian OS (they now call it Raspberry Pi OS). The Raspberry Pi has been serving a variety of purposed in projects around the world, including but not limited to:
- IoT projects
- Home servers.
- Home automation.
- Routers.
- Ad and tracker blockers (Pi-hole).
- Home theater systems.
- Set-top boxes.
- GameBoy emulators and other retro console replicas.
- Replacement boards in old computers.
- Budget computers for children to learn on.
- GPIO (controlling motors, lights, appliances, among other things).
- Custom industrial controllers.
Raspberry Pi devices are normally more desirable for projects that don’t require large amounts of RAM (of which there are many). However, the release of the 8GB model might change that. This may also make the Raspberry Pi more attractive for A.I. and machine learning projects. As is normally the case with Raspberry Pi devices, ensure that you purchase a keyboard, mouse (ideally wireless), microSD card, and a power source to use with them.
