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Pi 400 Everyday Use Experience

A project log for PiCarts: GPIO ROM Carts

Loading from ROM cartridges plugged into the GPIO port. Just like the old days.

dustinDustin 11/10/2021 at 15:540 Comments

I've had this for a few days now and really enjoy it for the most part. I have a Pi 400 inside the Pidock 400 as my everyday computer as well as the development kit for this project. It is very good so far. My main issue is with the software. I'm having trouble with OS reliability. It crashes randomly and I haven't had the chance to figure out why. I'll keep using it and try to make this my primary PC. I made the switch to Linux in 2018 or so, and have been using it exclusively since. I hope to do the same with the Pi 400. I don't really need much more from an every day computer. I feel it's worth the effort to figure out how to make it more every day friendly. I do need more processing power for video editing and re-encoding, but I have a minimalistic plan for that as well. I'm considering ordering the Minis Forum HX90. It's a very powerful and portable pc that would handle the heavy work the Pi 400 can't. I can even use the Pi 400 as a keyboard and mouse for it, as well as use the Pidock 400 as the monitor, as it has a standard HDMI input. This would let me use my Pi 400 laptop exactly as I already do, but with a very powerful PC running behind the scenes. I plan to travel the country on a motorcycle soon, and don't want to give up a proper desktop PC or my Raspberry Pi projects. This solves many of my issues all at once.

Overall I love the Pi 400 and Pidock 400. The keyboard is good enough for me, it's portable and powerful enough for my everyday research and programming, and I love the fact that I have such an interesting and useful laptop now.

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