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Raspberry Pi enough for this project?

K

krogen

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
1,076
I'd like to build a kiosk-like machine that would run Chrome or Firefox fullscreen. It needs to be as cheap as possible and needs to come in a small form factor. I'm considering getting Raspberry Pi (model B) for this, but I'm not sure if it's powerful enough. The software would be:

Arch Linux (possibly other Linux distro?)
X / no window manager
Chromium or Firefox
Node.js

Monitor:
1920x1080 screen

Is the Raspberry enough to run this? If not, what are the alternatives, up to $100?

$100 would need to include case, storage (sdcard?), power supply and the obvious that Raspberry already comes with.

Thanks!
 
yes, but how about a chromebox for $180?

Or, hell, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV for $99.

And, heck, this for $38.
 
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It can do it, but if this is something that's customer-facing, in my experience RasPi = superlag with GUIs I used. In case that's a problem for you.
 
Maybe look at the Beaglebone black, or the new units on offer from Intel? They both should be faster than the rPi. The Android models should be promising, or if you really need power there's a company that now makes a tiny Pi-like device with a quad-core CPU for around $150.
 
I ended up getting Cubieboard 2. Beaglebone Black seems to be out of stock at authorized sellers and everywhere beyond that the pricetag is completely outrageous ($100?). From my research Raspberry would probably be too laggy for GUI to work flawlessly.

The total cost came up to be ~$90, including shipping and handling (Cubieboard 2 $65, case $9, power supply $8, shipping $10).

The only thing I don't like about it are the power requirements, probably due to the dual core CPU. Beaglebone has an advantage of not needing any extra power beyond what normal USB2 can deliver.

I've got Arch Linux up and running with X. Haven't tried how well Chrome works yet.

CHANG3D said:
yes, but how about a chromebox for $180?

Or, hell, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV for $99.

And, heck, this for $38.
Click to expand...

Chromeboxes are too expensive (again, max $100), too large, and include a screen which I don't need. I also need to provide some custom functionality with Node.js, so the device needs to double as a server.

Similarly, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV don't quite cut it for same reasons.
 
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The MinnowBoard MAX isn't released yet, but looks like a huge improvement over the original MinnowBoard (the most egregious problem w/ the original was lack of drivers for the PowerVR GPU. The MAX has switched to Intel HD graphics so yay).

krogen, hope the Cubieboard works for you - I've run into issues w/ GPU acceleration w/ the Mali 400 GPU in the past but maybe it's good enough for 2D. I've the best luck w/ i.MX6 chips, like the Wandboard or the UDOO. Those will be about the same price as the MAX (all about $100)
 
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