I am getting ready to order but am wondering whether I should take the risk of getting no core and hoping CM4108000 come into stock, or if I should just play it safe and get the core included. So, considering the small display and limited USB extensions, is 4GB enough memory? Have anyone every hit full memory?
Thank you!
My first Raspberry Pi only had 256MB (that was many years ago!). So 8GB seems like a lot! I have an RPi4 with 8GB that I use as a desktop and it’s the CPU speed and SD card speed that holds it back, not the RAM. I’m using a CM4 w/ 4GB on a uConsole and it’s fine.
Generally everything depends on what you want to do and how patient you are willing to be. It’s not like you’ll want to have a bunch of browser tabs open when you have a tiny little screen and a slow CPU.
For what it’s worth I got Arch Linux working on my uConsole and it’s compiling packages (AUR) without a problem on only 4GB. For me the uConsole is mainly about the form factor and not about performance. A CM4 performs above and beyond what I want out of the uConsole, but I think of it as a small calculator or PDA that is easy to hack my own apps into. I cheat and plug a small keyboard into it (HHKB) when I want to do anything complicated.
IMHO… If i wasn’t waiting currently for a CM4 model… i would go headless… get the adapter and source my own CM4… i don’t think you would wait quite as long… currently the wait is like 8 months… (i have waited 4 months… there is approx 1 batch sent out a month… and yesterday CPi said i have 5 batches before mine)
beyond that… normal debian takes about 2Gb source for the GUI to run recommended (1gb min)… if you want to run something else… ubuntu std wants 4g… ubuntu MATE needs 1gb wants 4gb… just to run the os… so really… dippends what you want to do… if you’re doing retropie or something… more than a
4gb CM4 can be “used” but isn’t really needed… if you run command line only with no desktop… you need 256mb…512mb recommended… if you just want to browse on something cooler than a chromebook… 4gb is all that is needed… chomeOS is based on a linux kernel… i think that is why they get away with such low ram…
Thats just my opinion… you may run higher demanding stuff…for fun i opened the linux on my chrome os and installed Gimp and it opens using only like 200mb or ram… this is an example… you can do quite a bit with 4gb…
Thank you very much for your ideas and experience! I am a little uneasy about the availability of CM4s in the US, but from what you say, something should show up before the uConsole kit arrives. Although 4GB may be enough for basic stuff, compiling veracrypt on a RPi 4B 8GB while trying to do some other basic work on another terminal the other night makes me think I will be looking for an 8GB CM4. I look forward to sharing my experiences once everything arrives and I begin running different DEC PDP emulators, emacs, LaTeX, etc on my handy uConsole.