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SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY WITH THIS!
I bought this with the intention of using it for emulation, eventually to be placed in an arcade cabinet that I plan to build if I can ever stop procrastinating. I used Retropie, which while not completely idiot-proof to set up, was straightforward enough.
The Pi itself was exactly what I expected. I went ahead and stuck on the two included heatsinks, because why not, even though I don't plan to overclock. I don't think the heatsinks are completely necessary, but cooler chips are welcome.
The clear case is nice, and the Pi snaps neatly into it. In the case the whole thing is roughly the size of a portable hard drive.
Performance is great for what I'm using it for. Every game I've thrown at it from classic arcade, to atari, to NES, to DOS and Sierra adventures, SNES, Genesis, GBA, PS1, and even N64. However mileage on N64 emulation varies. Some games run flawlessly, while others suffer from slowdown and other issues. However N64 emulation is notoriously finicky, so I was expecting as much. Still very happy.
The built-in wifi has been awesome, and Bluetooth support as well. FOUR total USB ports were way more than I need, so no issues there. Standard Raspberry Pi pin-out header is there for when I eventually set up actual arcade controls later. In the mean time any USB controller I have tried so far has been perfect.
I'm using a 32gb Class 10 Micro SD card (Not included.) Which has plenty of space for all the games, and while the first pile of roms I put on it were via USB thumb drive, I quickly discovered it's even easier to transfer files once connected to a network via FTP. Now if I want to add more games, I just fire up my computer, drag and drop, then reboot the Pi.
One quirk is the lack of any sort of power switch. If I want to turn it off, I can do so through the software, but turning it on again requires unplugging and plugging it back in. I read that I can apparently short some pins to act as a power switch, but I'm hesitant to do that as of right now. It draws so little power though that I'm content to just leave it on all the time and just turn off the monitor it's currently connected to.
Now that I have one, I feel like I should buy more. I might set up a dedicated home-theater Kodi box, or stick one into a non-working NES to breath life into a dead console.
| Processor | 1.2 GHz |
|---|---|
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth |
