The Raspberry Pi 500 is a Raspberry Pi 5 inside an official Pi keyboard. Which is the best choice for your first or next computer?
I use the Pi 5, Pi 4, and Pi Zero for lots of things. I use the Raspberry Pi official keyboard and several other keyboards. I am starting to test the Pi500 which is most of a Pi 5 inside an official Pi keyboard. I will update as I find additional differences.
Who?
The Pi 500 is aimed at the bulk of Raspberry Pi users in situations like classrooms where the convenience of an "all in one" computer outweighs any limitations. There is no difference to you when booting from a microSD card or USB disk. You can run anything at the level you would use in an office or a classroom.
You, as a student, might not need anything else. There is plenty of memory and storage for the types of things you do in the classroom. A PHD student might collect terabytes of data for a project and need the extra storage options of a Pi 5 but that is a narrow market.
You, as a teacher, might choose to add one Pi 5, as a server, to the class network of Pi 500s. Your own machine up front of the class would then be exactly the same as theirs which means you can see exactly the same results and problems.
You, as a software developer, might choose a Pi 5 with NVMe storage if your application has a database or file intensive process.
In any group, you might be best off starting with one of each, a Pi 500 and a Pi 5, then divide the workload between individuals and shared group workloads, like file serving. The Pi 5 can have NVMe storage for faster access when 20 people in the group are requesting data.
When?
My background in project management, development, and other areas, says buy big for your first machine then measure what you need for the finished product. A Pi 5 with 8 or 16 GB of memory and NVMe storage would be my starting point. When you are moving the finished project to an every day usage machine, the selection could be a Pi 500 or 5 or 4 or a Zero 2. The memory usage might fit in 4 GB or 2 GB or 0.5 GB. You can measure that usage when you have plenty of memory.
You cannot measure the processing requirement or memory usage when your first machine is too slow or small. Overloads just indicate you need more, not how much more. So start big. Based on experience with Linux desktops up to 64 GB, you rarely need more than 4 GB so the 8 GB of the Pi 500 is plenty. On occasions when you need more than 8 GB, you are usually running applications that need the NVMe storage available in the Pi 5.
Are you teaching code editing? A Pi 400 is fast enough. LibreOffice needs the extra speed of the Pi 500 but not the NVMe speed of a Pi 5. LibreOffice might take longer to start up from a microSD card in the Pi 500 but your typing speed is not altered.
An office full of people typing contracts? They will use different keyboards, making the Pi 500 useless.
A room full of people working though pages on a Web site? A Pi 400 could work for an efficient Web site but you need the extra power of a Pi 500 for Web sites saturated with Javascript.
Where?
A Pi 500 booting from microSD card is more convenient than every other combination when on the road. Back at your desk where space is not a premium, you can mess with a Pi 5.
My desk has a Raspberry Pi official keyboard and a faster 85% "TKL" keyboard with linear red keys. There is a Pi 5, a Pi 4, and a Pi Zero 2 for various experiments. And lots of cables. Taking a combination like that on the road is difficult and I often forget one cable or adaptor. The Pi 500 reduces the complexity.
For some projects, you can use a Pi 5 or 4 in a case with a touch screen. Developing those projects definitely needs a keyboard, mouse, and a big screen. The official keyboard and mouse make a good combination with the set of USB sockets on the back of the keyboard. The Pi 500 could simplify that type of setup.
The Pi 5 is the only choice when you need a Pi camera through the flat cable connection they use. For a Pi 500, you need USB cameras. I looked at a Pi based microscope and compared both types of cameras without choosing either style.
My only prospective use of a Pi camera in a Pi 5 is as part of developing a wildlife monitor eventually moved to a Pi Zero 2 for use outdoors. A Pi 500 version would use a smarter camera with microSD card storage and connecting in to the Pi 500 through WiFi. The problem with the WiFi version is having to transfer all video to the Pi 500 for selection of the sections with wildlife. The Pi Zero 2 version can switch recording on when there is wildlife and switch it off for the rest of the time, reducing the data sent over WiFi. That means developing on a Pi 5 instead of a Pi 500.
Your development workbench needs a Pi 5 as the first machine.
Why?
Why would you choose or not choose a Pi 500?
Memory
The Pi 5 offers the option of 4 GB, 8 GB, or 16 GB of memory. My experiments with lots of software in Linux show 4 GB is enough most of the time and 8 GB is a good reserve. You need 16 GB for a really big file cache when you have terabytes of small files and browse or search the disks. I do not expect many Pi 500 users to plug in giant disks.
PCIe
The Pi 5 offers the option of NVMe storage through a PCIe interface that can run at PCIe 3 speed. You need that for database activity and similar things. In a classroom or office where lots of people are referring to a database, it would be through a Web server with the server on a Pi 5. The people using the Web site need only a Pi 500 or a Pi 400.
The PCIe interface can be used for things other than NVMe SSDs. There is a growing range of adaptors. None of the current range, outside of NVMe, are of use in any project I work on. Some of those adaptors are just complicated expensive alternatives to USB hubs.
Keyboard
The Pi 400 apparently had problems with the keyboard and the Pi 500 has a new keyboard supplier. Is the Pi 500 keyboard better for key pounders? Frequent typers and gamers smashing at keys would be better off with a Pi 5 plus separate keyboard so they can replace only the keyboard when needed.
I prefer an 85% keyboard to the 60% size used for the official Pi keyboard. Some people need or prefer a 100% 101 or 104 key keyboard. We choose a Pi 5 for our primary computer and add a keyboard appropriate to our usage.
People mention arthritis and similar problems as a reason for different keyboards. The two I find most common are vision problems and the need for the dedicated numeric pad in a full keyboard. You can get a plug in numeric keypad for the calculator style of work but you cannot replace keytops and LED illumination for vision problems.
On my notebook frequently used keys, including the + key, require shift. I had a keyboard where I could work for a full day coding without using shift for anything. At one stage, I had a keyboard for one handers with a dedicated "caps lock on full time" key so a one fingered typer could caps lock on, type something, perhaps an upper case keyword, then caps lock off.
Case
The Raspberry Pi 5 component of the Pi 500 is protected by the case of the Pi 500 keyboard. When people pick up a keyboard, they know to be reasonably careful. So, generally, the Pi 5 component of the Pi 500 has some protection.
When you have a separate Pi 5, you need a separate case, which is an additional cost. Because the result is a small item and it looks like a generic device, it'll probably get thrown in a box first, so everything else is dumped on top. A common problem which means you need a strong case to protect the Pi 5. Or a really brightly coloured case with a label, so people don't drop it in the bottom.
My first choice was a strong metal case, and the strong metal case blocks the internal Wi-Fi. Instead of all the Wi-Fi working across the room, the Pi 5 WiFi would not work across the desk. With the Pi 5 on one end of the desk and the Wi-Fi hotspot on the other end of the desk, the Pi 5 could not communicate through the metal case. It would only work with the hotspot at the same end of the desk as the Pi 5.
A distance of half a metre would work but not a metre. A plastic case, or no case, or a wooden case, works easily at 10 to 20 metres. The Pi 5 WiFi would even work through a wall. The Pi 500 has the Wi-Fi inside a plastic case, freeing up the WiFi to work at the full distance.
The Wi-Fi might be partially blocked in one direction by the circuitry of the keyboard and should work in every other direction at full strength with no problems. Something I will test.
Cooling
The official cooling for a Pi 5 has a fan. The Pi 500 uses passive cooling. Some people prefer passive cooling to stop fan noise. With a Pi 5 and a long cable for the keyboard, you could put the Pi 5 behind something to reduce fan noise. I am still testing passive cooling for my Pi 5 as I find fan noise distracting.
The Pi 4 works without a fan. Just add big copper heatsinks. If you use the Pi 5 in a way where it is working harder than what a Pi 4 can deliver, the Pi 5 fan will switch on. Big copper heatsinks on each chip do not provide the cooling for a Pi 5 running at full speed. I am looking at adding on additional copper. If the Pi 500 has something similar and the copper reaches outside the plastic keyboard case, the Pi 5 should be cool at maximum load. Something to test.
Headless
Lots of people use the Pi 4 and Pi 5 as "headless" machines which means no GUI or terminal access. Instead they connect through the network from other machines. That makes a keyboard useless. True. But they are experienced. When you are learning about the Pi OS or are developing a new project, you need a keyboard. For the small extra cost of a keyboard, I sometimes leave keyboards plugged in. The big cost is a screen. I use cheap HDMI switches to put up to three Pi machines on the one screen. I might have keyboards and mice in two of the machines so I can switch back and forth easily when developing.
Adding a Pi 500 to a Pi 5 setup would let you develop and test client server type systems where the Pi 500 is the client and the Pi 5 is the headless server. The extra speed of the Pi 5, when compared to a Pi 4, lets you run a GUI, a Graphical user Interface, on the server and share the desktop to the Pi 500.
Camera
The Pi 5 has two sockets for camera cables or DSI connections. I can see a classroom of students with the Pi 5 and a Pi camera for use as a microscope in addition to regular desktop computing.
DSI
The Pi 5 has an option for a DSI display but from what I see, you would not use it in a desktop keyboard style computer. It is more for industrial or similar use. For projects where the display is DSI, there would be a machine with a HDMI display used for development. The Pi 5 DSI machine could be along side a Pi 500 where you perform a wider range of software development.
Way?
The Pi 500 is best used with a fast microSD card as that reduces the devices plugged in. The official Raspberry Pi microSD card for the Pi 500 is the Sandisk bulk commercial range labelled Edge. The Edge range appears to be the same as their retail Ultra cards. I find the Ultra range too slow. The Sandisk Extreme range has a better speed and a similar price to the official card. The Extreme range is often on sale at a good discount in our local shops.
The Sandisk Extreme Pro is faster again and costs more and is on sale less often but when it is on sale, it can be cheaper then the Extreme equivalent.
The official card is 32 GB and big enough for students at the start of a year. One of the first things you will teach them is versioning. If their project includes something big, like photographs, and they version every day, they will need 64 GB. With videos included, they will need 128 GB. Shop around. You can get a 64 GB Extreme card for similar price to an official 32 GB card.
The Pi 500 can make use of A2 speed instead of the A1 required for the Pi 4. The Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Pro are already at A2. The Ultra range in our local shops appears to be still A1. At the most expensive local shop, the Sandisk Extreme A2 64 GB microSD card is not much more expensive than the slower and smaller official card. Plus there are lots of places to buy the card for less and it is often on sale at lower prices. I would look around for the Extreme A2 64 GB as a minimum.
Worth?
The Raspberry Pi 500 is an official Raspberry Pi keyboard plus a Raspberry Pi 5 and the Pi 5 is the expensive part of the purchase. If you leave the Pi keyboard on your desk in an open office and you have the Pi 5 in a locked drawer, someone can steal the keyboard but not the Pi 5 or the data inside the Pi 5. With a Pi 500, the keyboard, the Pi 5, and the storage device are all on your desktop where someone can pick it up and walk off with it.
Or they can just remove the storage device, either a micro SD card or a USB disk.
Security is an issue in this situation. While it is not common in an office with a closed door, it does happen. In one office where I worked on a big project, you get out of the lift to face a receptionist monitoring everyone plus signing visitors in and out. Someone walked up and said they are here to fix a notebook computer. The receptionist let them walk through the door to the office. The person walked around picking up notebooks from desks that looked unoccupied. The thief walked out with three notebooks.
They were slim enough that you could not tell whether the person had one or three. The receptionist did not record anything. That was the end of three high end expensive notebooks with potentially lots of customer data on them. The thief apparently wiped the data as it was it was never used. Either the thief did not realise the value of the data or just wanted to clear up some space on the disks.
In our local shops, the Pi 500 is over AU$20 cheaper than buying a Pi 5 with the official cooler, the official case, and the official keyboard. A Pi 5 is cheaper if you choose an alternative case and keyboard. You need a different case for the Pi 5 when you choose an adaptor for a full length NVMe SSD. You need a different keyboard when you want a full set of keys or different key movement or a Bluetooth connection.
The cost of a Pi 500 is a consideration when you do anything out of the ordinary as you risk wasting your money when you need a slight change. The Pi 5 offers more options for change without throwing everything away. As an example, you can buy a cheap alternative case then throw just the case away when you need a bigger case to fit an NVMe adaptor. This is a big consideration when buying a Pi setup for development work and one of the reasons I would buy a Pi 5 as my first computer then a Pi 500 for an additional machine.
The value is different when you buy ten or twenty at a time for a classroom. You would almost always by twenty of the Pi 500 plus one each of the Pi 5, the Pi 4, and Pi Zero2 to demonstrate the options. 20 times $20 saved.
What?
What are the physical differences? Internally the Pi 500 board has a different layout to put all the connectors along the back of the keyboard. If you use lots of connections, your desk will be messy. You might prefer a Pi 5 up on a shelf with the connections filed away out of sight. For development work, having everything out on the desktop can be easier.
The Pi 500 motherboard layout is similar to some of the "IO board" mounts for a CM5. The Pi 500 is cheaper than a CM5 plus IO board and you get the free keyboard included plus it is all in a neat case.
PCIe
The Pi 5 has a PCIe connection. The Pi 500 does not. The PCIe connection is useful for NVMe speed. Your first computer for development work can benefit from PCIe NVMe speed when compared to NVMe in a USB 3 enclosure.
The PCIe connection can be used for other things and I have not tested anything other than NVMe. The PCIe option is the biggest advantage of a Pi 5.
Keyboard
Frequent typers have serious reasons to choose specific keyboards and rarely put up with keyboards like the official Pi keyboard. A Pi 500 keyboard will not satisfy them. Often they are paying more for a good keyboard than the whole cost of the Pi 500. I meet lots of people buying in the $200 ~ $300 range.
The Pi 500 keyboard is a 60% keyboard. I buy at least 85% keyboards. Lots of people need the full 100% 101 or 104 key keyboards.
The Pi official keyboard (I have not yet tested the Pi 500 keyboard) has a nice but limited movement and not much feedback. My notebook keyboard has the same layout and same distance of movement but feels better. My keyboard with Cherry red key equivalents is a totally different feel with superb movement. Keyboards with Cherry brown style keys have better feedback.
A good keyboard matched to the user can double their typing speed and improve their gaming experience.
Memory
The main difference for memory is the Pi 5 option for 16 GB as compared to the Pi 500 limit of 8 GB. this is not significan for the classroom or office. It can make a different for software developers and for some types of servers.
Cooling
The Pi 500 has built in passive cooling for no noise. The Pi 5 official cooler has a fan that switches on when the Pi 5 is used at the full potential of the Pi 5. Some companies sell alternative coolers including huge passive heatsinks but the heatsinks interfere with WiFi.
The Pi 5 cooling option works for me when the Pi 5 is hidden behind something and the Pi 5 is not running continuously at maximum load. The heatsink blocks WiFi in one direction which is annoying. I designed a heatpipe base cooler to maximise cooling without a fan and without blocking WiFi. Unfortunately the best you can do is move the blockage to a different location.
Some of my projects will give up on excellent cooling with WiFI active by using a big block heatsink and an external USB 3 WiFi device. The external device will also add greater range and MIMO.
For real number crunching in a quiet room, the Pi 5 fan would annoy me.
USB2
The Pi 5 has two USB sockets and the Pi 500 has one USB 2 socket because one USB 2 connection is used internally for the keyboard. If you use a Pi 5 with the official keyboard, you get a USB 2 hub in the keyboard which means one connection from the keyboard to the Pi 5 and one socket in the keyboard used for the mouse, leaving one spare USB 2 socket in the Pi 5 and two spare in the keyboard. Not a big difference but convenient. I wish more keyboards had USB hubs built in.
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