This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
I am planning on getting a rasberry pi b+ for a specific use case and I have many questions(mostly about kits)Do I need the kit versions?Do they have things I need to use the rasberry pi?(Other than the case)Can I just buy only a rasberry pi?(of course ill need things like an HDMI cable to use it on a monitor but do these kits have necessary things or can I just use a rasberry pi by itself?)
I don't think you really need kits, when I bought mine they seemed very expensive compared to the cost of the Pi and accessories alone. You just need the SD card with adapters, and you can put the OS image on it yourself using easy online tutorials.
Purchasing a case is good as well to protect it from possible damage through rough handling.
I have a raspberry Pi 3B (not 4) from a few years ago. The performance I've heard is much better with the model 4 Pi, but also draws a bit more energy, so I agree with poVoq that it's a good idea to have a heatsink to prevent overheating at least, especially if it will be used for long periods of time.
According to this site, at 400% CPU load, the Pi 4B draws 6.4 Watts of energy, the Pi 3B+ draws 5.1 W, the Pi 3B draws 3.7 W. It really isn't much energy at all, but the chips will get hot over time.