Tuesday 10 February 2015

Raspberry Pi 2 - first impressions


  1. First impression is that (in my opinion) it is visibly faster than the previous one (1st gen. model B with 512MB RAM), even on tasks that can't use more than one CPU core - this is a good sign. The difference is even more visible when comparing to 1st gen. model B with 256MB RAM...
  2. I measured power consumption at the wall using kill-a-watt type plug and here are the results:
    • No SD card inserted (not booting) - 0.6W
    • Booted up and idle, with Ethernet connected - 1.4W
    • CPU cores under load (via sysbench prime number test, with Ethernet):
      • 1 thread - 1.8W, 296 sec to complete
      • 2 threads - 2.0W, 148 sec to complete
      • 4 threads - 2.5W, 74 sec to complete
  3. I tried the Xeon flash bug (or feature) and yes, it works. Of course it doesn't react to LED generated light and the usual laser pointers - I'd love to test it against a real lightning flash but I guess I'll have to wait for weather to change. Here's the Xeon flash test:

  4. Finally, the main sticking point for use experience is slow SD card access, so pick the fastest card you can get - it's worth it!