What Raspberry Pi should I buy?

[D4NZ]

Hi, as the title says, I want to buy my very first Raspberry Pi but I'm not sure what to do. I live in a Developing country so, things are expensive here (unless you want to give me one for free jk),
I need to choose between buying a Raspberry Pi Zero W for around 20 USD or should I invest more and buy a Raspberry Pi B+ for 40 USD or a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B for 60 USD.
Probably it will be the only one I buy and Ill do all my projects in it, so I need it to be able to last long, and be able to do lots of things.

I have never had one so I have some questions hopefully you could answer me:
1:Can these Raspberry Pis run 24/7 without any cooling accessory?
2:Can I just change the SD card to have multiple projects ready to use?

Thanks in advanced, any opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I'm from Mexico

[jamesh]

$60 seems a lot for the 2GB Pi4, should be 35 + local taxes and delivery.

1. Yes
2. Yes

[D4NZ]

$60 seems a lot for the 2GB Pi4, should be 35 + local taxes and delivery.

1. Yes
2. Yes

Thanks for answering!
and yes, it's expensive, but that's the price in amazon (with free shipping), there are other websites that sell them for 30 USD but the shipping are another 30 USD, so it ends up being the same.

[W. H. Heydt]

$60 seems a lot for the 2GB Pi4, should be 35 + local taxes and delivery.

1. Yes
2. Yes

It's probably a matter of import duties, which may or may not be an exercise in trying to protect local producers. IIRC, that was the problem in Brazil, and the solution was to find a local assembler so there are "locally made" Pis there now. Hard to tell, since the OP doesn't specify *where* he is.

IF OP would tell us where he is, we might be able to point him to a source other than Amazon.

[trejan]

and yes, it's expensive, but that's the price in amazon (with free shipping), there are other websites that sell them for 30 USD but the shipping are another 30 USD, so it ends up being the same.

Is there no official reseller for your country in list when you click Buy now on https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/ra ... 4-model-b/ ?

[TideMan]

I'm guessing he's from New Zealand, from his userid.
I recommend he use Element 14 which supplies goods to NZ out of Singapore - next day service, or a few days depending on stocks.
RPi 4B+ 2GB is NZ$64, with free delivery if your order is more than NZ$100's worth.
Adding case, HDMI cable, & PSU will bring it up to almost $100.

[D4NZ]

$60 seems a lot for the 2GB Pi4, should be 35 + local taxes and delivery.

1. Yes
2. Yes

It's probably a matter of import duties, which may or may not be an exercise in trying to protect local producers. IIRC, that was the problem in Brazil, and the solution was to find a local assembler so there are "locally made" Pis there now. Hard to tell, since the OP doesn't specify *where* he is.

IF OP would tell us where he is, we might be able to point him to a source other than Amazon.

Sorry, I forgot. I'm from Mexico. Thanks for answering though

and yes, it's expensive, but that's the price in amazon (with free shipping), there are other websites that sell them for 30 USD but the shipping are another 30 USD, so it ends up being the same.

Is there no official reseller for your country in list when you click Buy now on https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/ra ... 4-model-b/ ?

No there isn't, I'm from Mexico. Thank you for answering

[D4NZ]

I'm guessing he's from New Zealand, from his userid.
I recommend he use Element 14 which supplies goods to NZ out of Singapore - next day service, or a few days depending on stocks.
RPi 4B+ 2GB is NZ$64, with free delivery if your order is more than NZ$100's worth.
Adding case, HDMI cable, & PSU will bring it up to almost $100.

Wrong country lol, I'm from Mexico, thanks for answering tho

[W. H. Heydt]

No there isn't, I'm from Mexico. Thank you for answering

That creates other possibilities... Depends on *where* in Mexico you are. If close enough, can you cross into the US and find a brick&mortar store where you can buy a Pi and just take it home with you? There are certainly such in southern California if you are, for instance, in Baja California del Norte. I dare say there are stores in the other border states, as well. Another alternative is if you, or any of your friends or family travel and could bring one back. (I realize that at the moment crossing international borders is difficult to impossible, but that will probably revert to what passes for normal some time next year.)

[D4NZ]

No there isn't, I'm from Mexico. Thank you for answering

That creates other possibilities... Depends on *where* in Mexico you are. If close enough, can you cross into the US and find a brick&mortar store where you can buy a Pi and just take it home with you? There are certainly such in southern California if you are, for instance, in Baja California del Norte. I dare say there are stores in the other border states, as well. Another alternative is if you, or any of your friends or family travel and could bring one back. (I realize that at the moment crossing international borders is difficult to impossible, but that will probably revert to what passes for normal some time next year.)

hmm, I can't cross to the USA, I'm from the south part of Mexico, I could probably ask a relative who lives in Texas to bring me one, though I'm not sure when he will come to visit (normally is once a year but due to Coronavirus I'm not sure he will come). Right now that seems like the best alternative. Thanks

[bjtheone]

In answer to the original question as a long term dev platform I would suggest a 4B. It is significantly faster and is capable of being a reasonably comfortable desktop. Whatever model you decide on, get a genuine Raspberry Pi branded power supply (especially true if getting parts is an issue).

They certainly can run 24/7 under most indoor weather conditions. What are your normal temperature ranges?

Everything is on the SD card. You can shutdown, swap SD card and boot a completely different OS, or whatever. Depending on what you are trying to achieve you can use PINN or Berryboot and load multiple OSs onto one SD card.

[D4NZ]

In answer to the original question as a long term dev platform I would suggest a 4B. It is significantly faster and is capable of being a reasonably comfortable desktop. Whatever model you decide on, get a genuine Raspberry Pi branded power supply (especially true if getting parts is an issue).

They certainly can run 24/7 under most indoor weather conditions. What are your normal temperature ranges?

Everything is on the SD card. You can shutdown, swap SD card and boot a completely different OS, or whatever. Depending on what you are trying to achieve you can use PINN or Berryboot and load multiple OSs onto one SD card.

Surely I will make sure to get a Power Supply
About the temperature range, I live in a hot area, the temperatures in a normal afternoon usually are around 34°C-36°C, and at night its usually around 21°C.

Thanks for your answer!

[davidcoton]

Agree with most of what has been written. What are your projects? Software or hardware? Hobby or study/profession?
Pis will throttle themselves to avoid overheating. But if your projects use the processor or graphics hard, you may need a heatsink or fan to keep the performance up. (I have posted my experience with a Pi4B running 24/7 with 4 CPU cores fully loaded.) It seems different individual Pi have different thermal responses. Given your high ambient temperature, your Pi may well benefit from a heatsink or case with fan, but it all adds cost.

Pi0 are good for lowest cost, single core so not brilliant performance and 32-bit only. Get the Pi0W to add WiFi, or the Pi0WH for a fitted GPIO header if you want to connect hardware without soldering. Less need for heatsink because of low power.

Avoid the Pi(1) series, usually only second hand and less capable than Pi0.
Pi1(+) are good for some niche uses, notably with the 7" touchscreen which the Pi0 can't use.

Pi2B is only good if you need a Pi WITHOUT WiFi and Bluetooth. Latest Pi2B and newer models are 64-bit capable.

Pi3B is superseded by Pi3B+, but if you are in that territory go straight to a Pi4B. The Pi3A+ is good if the single USB and no wired Ethernet suit your use.

Generally the Pi4B is the best all-rounder. 2GB memory is enough, if you don't want heavy memory apps, but note the web browsing benefits from more memory. 4GB is reasonable, 8GB is top of the range if you do serious software development but a luxury for most of us.

TLDR: Pi0 (probably Pi0WH) or Pi4B 2/4GB -- read some more and decide what you need to last until you want an upgrade (Hint: that may not be long!)
Make sure you get all the peripherals you need: PSU (official one), HDMI and USB cables, keyboard, mouse and monitor if you don't already have them. And of course two or three SDCards (A1 16GB are best value at present, A2 doesn't help).

Hope you can get one soon, tell us about it here.

[D4NZ]

Agree with most of what has been written. What are your projects? Software or hardware? Hobby or study/profession?
Pis will throttle themselves to avoid overheating. But if your projects use the processor or graphics hard, you may need a heatsink or fan to keep the performance up. (I have posted my experience with a Pi4B running 24/7 with 4 CPU cores fully loaded.) It seems different individual Pi have different thermal responses. Given your high ambient temperature, your Pi may well benefit from a heatsink or case with fan, but it all adds cost.

Pi0 are good for lowest cost, single core so not brilliant performance and 32-bit only. Get the Pi0W to add WiFi, or the Pi0WH for a fitted GPIO header if you want to connect hardware without soldering. Less need for heatsink because of low power.

Avoid the Pi(1) series, usually only second hand and less capable than Pi0.
Pi1(+) are good for some niche uses, notably with the 7" touchscreen which the Pi0 can't use.

Pi2B is only good if you need a Pi WITHOUT WiFi and Bluetooth. Latest Pi2B and newer models are 64-bit capable.

Pi3B is superseded by Pi3B+, but if you are in that territory go straight to a Pi4B. The Pi3A+ is good if the single USB and no wired Ethernet suit your use.

Generally the Pi4B is the best all-rounder. 2GB memory is enough, if you don't want heavy memory apps, but note the web browsing benefits from more memory. 4GB is reasonable, 8GB is top of the range if you do serious software development but a luxury for most of us.

TLDR: Pi0 (probably Pi0WH) or Pi4B 2/4GB -- read some more and decide what you need to last until you want an upgrade (Hint: that may not be long!)
Make sure you get all the peripherals you need: PSU (official one), HDMI and USB cables, keyboard, mouse and monitor if you don't already have them. And of course two or three SDCards (A1 16GB are best value at present, A2 doesn't help).

Hope you can get one soon, tell us about it here.

I want to use it as a hobby, I have in mind using it mostly for software, but I would also like to be able to make some hardware projects every once in a while.
I really appreciate the information, I will take it into consideration when buying my Pi, also about peripherals, I saw, the Pi could be used in headless mode, tho I'm not sure if that has some type of limitation about what I can do with the Pi, though I have most of the peripherals either way.

Thanks for all the useful information

[davidcoton]

There are at least two ways of running a Pi "headless". One is to use a terminal connected to a serial port on the GPIO header (actually the terminal becomes the "head"), more commonly is to use ssh or vnc over the network.

Serial comms need extra hardware on all models -- maybe as simple as a 3V3 serial to USB converter.

Headless via network can be done on any Pi with Ethernet or WiFi, if these aren't built-in to your model then external USB adapters will work. Configuring WiFi completely headless can be tricky, it's best to use a monitor/TV and keyboard for the initial config, and they can be useful for troubleshooting later.

The documentation (Link in "Help" at the top of the page) will tell you more about this and many other things.