@@joselu90 I don't know your testing method. Run video encoding for 2 hours for example, and log CPU temperature and frequency. Also, it is interesting, how hot and stinky will be the plastic case after it.
This looks great, but they should have wrapped a wifi antenna cables around the keyboard like it's done in laptops (usually around the screen) to increase the reception area. Built in wifi is still the Achilles's heel of all of the Pis I've used
I dont know why but it makes me really happy that your also interested in single board computers. Love your videos was just learning about Jupiters moons!
They do very wise decision not to use wifi built in board. Cheap wifi assembly tends to have different quality issues - either closed source drivers that works with tons of trubles and have conpatibility issues, or issues with recieving/transferring physical module, or issues with decoding/encoding chip or errors in frimware. So if you need wifi connection, they supply this device with additional standard usb hole, where you can insert any favourite usb wifi plug and have wireless connectivity experience. Very good, wise and lucky decision - user have freedom of choice - there plenty different usb wifi plugs on the maket.
What I love about the module inside is that all the ports are on the same edge. I can see a few hardware hackers getting these and removing the case and keyboard.
This perfect for the average home user. It has been frustrating "arguing" with family about them buying $500-$1000 computers to browse the web, watch videos, use Word and Excel.
they have all that space but still went with those crappy tiny HDMI sockets! could be design philosophy? make everything tiny then you notice the gpio header ok maybe not! they probably just did it to save money so they didn't have to stock regular hdmis
@@FunHaverSD Because Mini and Micro HDMI SUCK. They are pretty fragile and break easily. Also, since those connectors suck and almost any device uses full size HDMI or uses USB C for Video (that connector is around a billion times better then Mini/Micro HDMI), nobody got those fucking Cables/Adapters on hand. No, less is not allways more. They really got more then enough space for at least one full sized HDMI on there. Or do it at least over a USB C port, that is actually a good connector. The recourses argument is pretty week btw. The difference between Micro and fullsize is very small, it basically didn't matter. But if those tiny amounts of material mean something to you, think about the adapters to fullsize people need to buy.
Have to say, I REALLY want to see one of these with 8G of ram and an integrated M.2 sata port. Perhaps even with a beefed up SOC of 2Ghz+. I love these little low powered computers for running things during power outages, which happen often in my area. While my neighbors are running around with candles I have a powerbank with a led camping light and a ARM Chromebook running Ubuntu tethered to my phone. Priorities I guess ;-) .
Thanks, Jeff, your video of how to get the keyboard off was very helpful. This work for the Raspberry PI keyboard as well. This comes in handy if you need to switch the keyboard language or have a damaged keyboard. The Pi keyboard and the Pi 400 keyboards are compatible. Also your selection of the tool to pop the seams on the keyboard is spot on. I have not found a better tool.
GAME CHANGER! For real. Tech only gets more compact and lightweight in time. This could be the first of a new breed of systems geared towards coding professionals and engineers of all kinds. Love it!
@@zuryan There's still the cost of the connectors, on both the Compute Module and the hypothetical main board. The Pi is cheap enough that that sort of thing matters.
@@electronics-girl the compute module is already being sold with the connectors. so all they need is two connectors on the keyboard PCB. the only two reasons I can really think of is 1st, it technicly not being a "single board" computer anymore, and 2nd the compute module remains not as easily usable by tinkerers so that way they can don't run into stock shortage for industrial use as easily.
6:40 Nope, the 400 number is not an homage to the Amiga 500. It's an homage to the Acorn Archimedes 400 series, which was the power user version of the Archimedes (the low-end version was the 300 series). All the Raspberry Pi names pay homage to early Acorn computers (the BBC Model A, Model B, Archimedes, etc.). The ARM processor was originally the Acorn RISC Machine CPU -- the first 32-bit desktop RISC processor, released with the Acorn Archimedes. The acronym was later renamed to Advanced RISC Machine. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Archimedes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture
the guy who made the pi said he was inspired by the Amiga already, my guess is the 400 is for 4gig of ram like the amiga 500 the 500 stands for 500k of ram
@@Yahgiggle Did you read what I wrote? Please research the history of the BBC Micro. The creators of the Raspberry Pi were inspired by Acorn computers, not by Amiga. They are British, not American.
@@usethefooorce yes I know all about the Acorn and you could be right as the information I was told was second hand, but from someone I would think would not tell BS his information was that the guy that made the pi 400 got his inspiration from the Amiga 500
Looks really neat! I'm surprised they didn't just put a normal Pi 4 in there, I guess they are expecting to sell enough units to make up for the investment of a new PCB design.
It also saves on the overhead of adding a bunch of extra jumpers/cabling to get the GPI, power, and HDMI plugs on the back of the unit. I think this design was the easiest way to get the whole thing in the same footprint as the Pi Keyboard.
You know what's funny, there's a guy doing exactly that with an old TI-92 calculator, he's calling it a "PI-92". twitter.com/Hacksterio/status/1320913681610383361 (We're thinking of doing something similar with some second-hand Alphasmart keyboards, which would be similar to this PI-400, except with the LCD display as well).
Makes sense. It's being launched for £70-£100 just before christmas in a year where parents don't have a lot of money, and won't be able to go shopping in towns because of Lockdown2.
If you don't have access to a plastic spudger, a guitar pick or old/unused credit/gift card also work in a pinch. These materials have lower hardness compared to metal pry tools, so they won't mar the finish of the product you're disassembling. Terrific teardown and analysis, by the way. Love the attention to detail and the email exchange (actual journalism) you've put in prior to making this video. Keep up the good work.
Glad you liked it! All the guitar picks I had on hand were too soft/flimsy to pop the connectors... but I think I'll invest in iFixIt's kit for the next go-round.
FYI, if you're looking for a Pi in 2022, the Pi 400 is still available at a non-gouged price point. I just received my Pi 400 kit yesterday (Mar 2022) and I paid $100, same as retail when they were released.
@@JeffGeerling The Acorn machines are also Arm based and part of the Pi's heritage like the model B's coming from the BBC micro model B which was made by Acorn.
@@NigelGent A lot of heritage there! I have still never seen an Acorn in the wild, but it seems like a lot of the Pi heritage dates back to that company.
@@JeffGeerling In my loft I've got an Acron A310, A4000 and an A5000 and they all still work Thr RiscOS they ran was brilliant and you can run it on a Raspberry Pi.
I noticed this pop up in my Google News feed and I was curious about its innards. Your video sated my curiosity and I liked the cheeky humour / skits mixed into the overall "box opening" video. Good job on making this video Jeff and keep it up! :)
Thanks for the run-through. I've been curious about what's inside, but leery about disassembling my shiny new Pi 400. I'm glad we have other people on TH-cam to do it for us.
Thank you for the video, I was really curious to see what was inside. I use guitar picks to open electronics, they work well and you can buy a set of 40 for very little money on amazon. Each set includes picks of different thickness. 🙂
The key for this particular case was rigidity. Unfortunately all my guitar picks on hand were too flimsy, and my normal spudger and credit card were both slightly too thick to fit into the gap. But yes, a good solid guitar pick would probably be perfect, and result in less risk to my digits!
@@JeffGeerling then I can recommend guitar picks sets from amazon as they go from super thin and flimsy to thick and sturdy. I used a medium/thin pick to take apart a keyboard with a similar latching mechanism as I needed to change its internal battery.
Yes i always wanted to replace the board of my atom laptop bcz that cpu is so fucking slow like it performs like a pentium 4 from 2000... & A board like this with a custom lcd and keyboard , mouse driver and sata interface with battery controller and omg!! .. it would be so nice but having that custom interface for the keyboard is going to be tough. Lcd controllers r easy to find on ebay and there is millions of them . The laptop has a really god display and keyboard .. & also 47watt hr battery which should be enough for the pi to run about 3 to 4hr.
@@KuntalGhosh have a look at the Pinebook Pro. Quad core ARM based. Runs Manjaro from the factory. $200USD Optional NVMe storage. (requires adapter ~$20)
Thank you for this. Really well done review, answers all my questions, looks up chips, etc. Many many small details you do so well for conveying the picture of this device.
I was wondering about that myself. I guess they were attached to their target pricing and didn't feel they could take the modest bump and put in the bigger ram.
It would be really nice to have that, though I'm guessing the main culprit is the thinness-having a daughtercard to carry the CM4 would make it harder to fit that giant heat sink inside, and it seems the heat sink is necessary to keep the thing from overheating (which it does very well in this case). But it would be very interesting if someone could build a little carrier board for the CM4 that would fit inside (with some modifications to the heat sink).
@@JeffGeerling Don't quote me on this...but I recall there being a sodimm socket that is essentially edge-connector in a recent laptop, allowing the ram to sit flush with the motherboard. Would be super cool to use that style and have a cutout for where compute would sit.
When I first saw it, for whatever reason I was sure it will have a compute module 4 inside. New PCB makes more sense though, as it definitely is cheaper than separate I/O board. Can't wait for new Pi-laptop builds with this new form factor!
i was hoping so too, but i guess that would be more thermally dense? although then it would be easier to heatsink the extra chips... maybe they're just wanting to save the cost of the additional PCB + board-to-board connectors
This is exactly the form-factor folks need for making Raspberry Pi 4 ‘blade’ clusters as the key ports are all on one sides for various cluster mainboard configs: - headless network boot config - ethernet (for pxeboot), power, gpio (serial, i2c, gpio to trigger reboots, etc), - boot with storage - ethernet (for pxeboot), power, gpio (serial, i2c, gpio to trigger reboots, etc), sdcard option, and USB drawn out for USB stick, usb3 sata, usb3 m.2 nve, and other peripherals I also see this slim form-factor helpful for projects helpful for those where a “3×5” style board cannot fit. If the Raspberry Pi foundation or licensees do not release this form factor without the “keyboard wrappings”, makers will gut the keyboard which will be landfill plastic eventually. And that would be bad, m’kay. Jeff, please provide the Pi Org some feedback to sell this mainboard form-factor on its own. They could even optionally leave the keyboard ribbon adapter off.There is a demand for this configuration.
I literally just slimmed down my pi4 to fit it under a Psion 5 keyboard and relocated ports to the back like this.. Now I want the board they used in this!
by the way it has been put together, it seems like they want you to tinker with it, so i expect lots of accessories and perhaps custom cases for this in the near future so this could be interesting.
FINALLY, a usable Board with all external Connectors on one side. I got tired trying to Integrate Pi's in Systems and routing the HDMI-Cables with Adapters to the back. All I need now is SMT for external antenna and a internal USB-header.
The bourns part is the ethernet magnetics (basically a couple of small transformers), on the regular pi they use a jack with integrated magnetics; this board is using a standard 8P8C jack with external magnetics, likely for lower profile.
"They'll never figure out what happened!" (Insert 30 whole seconds of bootup with code flashing by, and waiting 45 seconds for a video to load in TH-cam)
Excellent video. Subscribed. I love how it's built. I would recommend removing the SD card before removing the board. Yes, I think it was a nod to the Amiga 500 too.
I'm glad I was able to get it back together so easily, too! It's always 50/50 the first time I open something like a keyboard whether I cut myself on it or break off a few tabs. Luckily the Pi 400 is pretty dang robust!
That’s really neat, didn’t know they made one. But I’d never use the power of a pi4 unless I was trying to make it run proper CAD software or whatever, so would probably prefer a cheaper one with a pi3. A trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard would be a nice touch.
much better! I've seen all of these reviews coming out today but... I KNOW WHAT A PI CAN DO! TAKE THE DERN THING APART! I wanna see what's up that petticoat!
If you take this + a basic $50 1080p monitor (considering you'd be buying in bulk) and you buy like 20 of them, you've spent $150 per setup for a total of $3000 on your entire office's computing needs. People don't talk about how good Pis are for office work; this, built into a keyboard, for $100, pushes it over the edge. More offices need to use Pis for computing. They're quick for office work and they're cheap. If I ran an office I'd be using this for sure.
Perfect tear down "but don't dumb it down!" vid of this new Pi system. It does remind me of the good old days of the COMMODORE PET, VIC-20, TRS-80 and SINCLAIR early all-in-one computers. (Except this is probably 64 bit tech, yes?). The Pi Institute may have nailed it as a lost cost solution to get a computer to more students, small businesses and senior living situations. Thanks!
@Shaun ONeil What are the chances an ethernet transformer with center taps is cheaper than one without? Economies of scale, which is why they chose that one? I can't see any traces going from the transformer to a PoE PD chip and the schematics aren't available on www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/schematics/README.md yet. It would make so much sense to implement PoE on this device!
It's a commodore vic-20 replacement, the vic-20 had a connector for a common 44 pin edge connector card of its day, for expansion and experimentation. This version of the raspberry pi seems to capture the essence of the Vic-20 but with modern capability. The commodore 64 was more of a gaming rig back then in the old 8-bit days.
I would really prefer my laptop and tablet to have those slots to open the case! I am in agreement about adding thermal pads for a few of the other chips.
I choose to believe that it is an homage to the AS/400. - The one I told IBM they should have built, but they didn’t listen to me, and now the 400 sits in the corner with it’s cousins, the PS/2 and OS/2. Long live the Pi!
Reminds me of the Acorn Atom... the casing was first used for just holding the keyboard for the Acorn System 1... then Acorn banged together a simple all-in-one microcomputer, which fitted into the same casing to become the Atom.
This would have been a perfect platform for the new Pi4 Compute Module. Instead we have a unit that is only available in 4GB with wifi and no option for eMMC to avoid the need for still using microSD cards (I assume it isn't USB boot from the box).
Yeah, this is a little bit disappointing. Why release CM4 and shortly after that release Pi400 which is not CM4 based? I don't get it. A great machine though
OK, after playing with this in the UK for several days doing lots of ffmpeg based h264 / 265 video transcoding I found that the Pi 400 can run up to +20C compared to using an Ice Tower with a regular Pi 4 4GB, e.g 66 C v 47C. Now most people don’t run video transcodes for hours like me. I ran ffmpeg libx265 CRF 20 for 15+hours (0.043x with 41 mins input file). So definitely usable from a temperature if not performance perspective. On the downside I had a boot USB 3 SSD connected and found that like the Sinclair ZX81 from the early 1980s the connector comes out far too easily thereby freezing the Pi 400. It is crying out for an internal storage option. Just move the keyboard and the USB 3 SSD interface link is interrupted. Sticking with MicroSD might be a better option.
On a side note: the AmigaOS was a linux based OS! That coupled with real multitasking graphics/sound/memory chips made it way more powerful than the ibm compatabiles at that time, even tho they had higher clock speeds :)
I'd been wondering about the formfactor of the actual PI inside the keyboard. I guess I was expecting to find a Raspberry Pi CM4 attached to a backplane providing all the IO ports. I did not expect to see an all new board design.
Something I've NOT noticed at first is that it lacks the CSI and DSI connectors. I guess it makes sense to leave out the DSI in such a design, since it already has two HDMI outputs; but maybe people would want a camera, even if only to use a videoconferencing app. Also, a microphone input would be a great addition. Of course one could add both the camera and the mike with a single USB port, but it would be nice if we could use whatever interface had become available by cutting out the DSI port to add a sound digitizer, and still keep the CSI port for a Pi camera.
@@johnm2012 I think you're wrong there -- I think the metal plate at the back of the keyboard connects directly to the heatsink, and then the conductive pad is to bridge it to the outer casing of the ethernet socket, which is in turn earthed to the PCB.
@@johnm2012 that goes without saying doesn’t it...? Like if I disagree with you, clearly you disagree with me. But you’re not only disagreeing with me, but also with the guy that had one of these things open on his table and has been in direct contact with the Raspberry Pi foundation. Regardless, it is clearly visible in the video that one corner of the pad is on the Ethernet socket and the other is on the heatsink. I would suggest that’s probably deliberate...
Got an email about this today. Looks like an interesting little product. Would've been great for me when I was doing my coursework using a pi and having to lug a full size keyboard around with it.
4:47 That's not true, pi 4 (and also pi 3b+) both have ethernet magnetics with support for poe, it's just integrated into the RJ45 jack itself. The transformer middle taps needed for POE are routed to the 4 pin header next to the connector. You just need to attach to it the POE hat or other POE power module. But I agree with you, that they missed the opportunity to implement POE into the PI 400.
Great video. As always. I've got almost all the answers to my questions regarding this model internals. Just one left and is about it's overclocking capabilities. For example, if this chip model version it's the same as RPI4 but OC by default, or if it will support a higher OC speed than previous model. Anyway, I'll probably not buying this, but if they ever release an AIO kit for current RPI4 owners at a reasonable price, I'll gladly support them.
If they put CSI and DSI connectors back, we can get a motherboard for a Pi-based ultra thin laptop. They also would need a GPU driver for a DSI to eDP chip since most laptop displays uses that interface. Also includes should be an internal USB 2.0 hub for a trackpad, USB sound card for implementing internal speakers and the keyboard.
You should get a set of plastic prying tools. The metal tool will work but could damage the plastic components. You can get a set of prying tools for like $2-5 on sites like Newegg.
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Finally someone made a modern day Commodore 64 style computer.
Yaaay
Or more like XZ Spectrum, since it is from Uk
It looks like this thing designers have medications a lot of -- next idiotic design without the vent system. What about the heat and throttling, bro?
@@dmitryponyatov2158 There are some test, it never reaches more than 52ºC, this is less than in an aircooled rpi4.
@@joselu90 I don't know your testing method. Run video encoding for 2 hours for example, and log CPU temperature and frequency. Also, it is interesting, how hot and stinky will be the plastic case after it.
This looks great, but they should have wrapped a wifi antenna cables around the keyboard like it's done in laptops (usually around the screen) to increase the reception area. Built in wifi is still the Achilles's heel of all of the Pis I've used
Hello, wonderful person.
i was just watching a lot of your videos
yeah i use ethernet in mine
I dont know why but it makes me really happy that your also interested in single board computers. Love your videos was just learning about Jupiters moons!
They do very wise decision not to use wifi built in board. Cheap wifi assembly tends to have different quality issues - either closed source drivers that works with tons of trubles and have conpatibility issues, or issues with recieving/transferring physical module, or issues with decoding/encoding chip or errors in frimware. So if you need wifi connection, they supply this device with additional standard usb hole, where you can insert any favourite usb wifi plug and have wireless connectivity experience. Very good, wise and lucky decision - user have freedom of choice - there plenty different usb wifi plugs on the maket.
What I love about the module inside is that all the ports are on the same edge. I can see a few hardware hackers getting these and removing the case and keyboard.
This perfect for the average home user. It has been frustrating "arguing" with family about them buying $500-$1000 computers to browse the web, watch videos, use Word and Excel.
they have all that space but still went with those crappy tiny HDMI sockets!
could be design philosophy? make everything tiny then you notice the gpio header ok maybe not! they probably just did it to save money so they didn't have to stock regular hdmis
Two HDMIs are more than one. You know what they say: "The more, the more"
@@FunHaverSD Robustness. Mini/Micro HDMI ports are known to be weak. Maybe that is why it has two, one spare for when the other inevitably dies.
@@FunHaverSD Because Mini and Micro HDMI SUCK. They are pretty fragile and break easily. Also, since those connectors suck and almost any device uses full size HDMI or uses USB C for Video (that connector is around a billion times better then Mini/Micro HDMI), nobody got those fucking Cables/Adapters on hand.
No, less is not allways more. They really got more then enough space for at least one full sized HDMI on there. Or do it at least over a USB C port, that is actually a good connector.
The recourses argument is pretty week btw. The difference between Micro and fullsize is very small, it basically didn't matter. But if those tiny amounts of material mean something to you, think about the adapters to fullsize people need to buy.
@@FunHaverSD they break easier
Even USB-C ports with displayport support would have been better.... mini/micro hdmi ports are crappy and hard to come by.
Definitely buying this for my little brother for Christmas. He’s a littler tinkerer so he’ll love it.
Maybe this is cool for him too : th-cam.com/video/wyvS1FxR4ic/w-d-xo.html
What a nice brother!
aww, that's so sweet :)
try buying him the crowpi2.
th-cam.com/video/FggIxJ5tNmo/w-d-xo.html
I wonder if you'll be able to find one.
Have to say, I REALLY want to see one of these with 8G of ram and an integrated M.2 sata port. Perhaps even with a beefed up SOC of 2Ghz+. I love these little low powered computers for running things during power outages, which happen often in my area. While my neighbors are running around with candles I have a powerbank with a led camping light and a ARM Chromebook running Ubuntu tethered to my phone. Priorities I guess ;-) .
With a fast disk, just use it for swap!
Strangely on the Pi4 4GB I rarely run out of memory, but on the Apple M1 8GB, it creaks!
Thanks, Jeff, your video of how to get the keyboard off was very helpful. This work for the Raspberry PI keyboard as well. This comes in handy if you need to switch the keyboard language or have a damaged keyboard. The Pi keyboard and the Pi 400 keyboards are compatible. Also your selection of the tool to pop the seams on the keyboard is spot on. I have not found a better tool.
"Until next time, I'm Jeff Geerling" - so next time you'll be someone else?!
Just wait and see ;)
Yeah he's going to be red shirt Jeff.
@@benp439 I can imagine everything either sliced open or on fire :)
@@JeffGeerling okay, I ran out of patience 😂 can you tell me how much I have to wait ?
He should be Rusty Shackleford next.
GAME CHANGER! For real. Tech only gets more compact and lightweight in time. This could be the first of a new breed of systems geared towards coding professionals and engineers of all kinds. Love it!
I wonder why they didn’t use the new compute module. With that, it would be upgradable in the future.
I agree. the first thing I thought is that it's cheaper to produce the Pi 400 as a single part but they're making both anyways so it shouldn't matter.
Imagine the physical abuse some Pi400s will get from frustrated kids. I think a single board is better.
@@zuryan There's still the cost of the connectors, on both the Compute Module and the hypothetical main board. The Pi is cheap enough that that sort of thing matters.
@@electronics-girl the compute module is already being sold with the connectors. so all they need is two connectors on the keyboard PCB. the only two reasons I can really think of is 1st, it technicly not being a "single board" computer anymore, and 2nd the compute module remains not as easily usable by tinkerers so that way they can don't run into stock shortage for industrial use as easily.
Connector cost; also given they will be hoping to sell this in volume, a single PCB rather than two will save money.
6:40 Nope, the 400 number is not an homage to the Amiga 500. It's an homage to the Acorn Archimedes 400 series, which was the power user version of the Archimedes (the low-end version was the 300 series). All the Raspberry Pi names pay homage to early Acorn computers (the BBC Model A, Model B, Archimedes, etc.). The ARM processor was originally the Acorn RISC Machine CPU -- the first 32-bit desktop RISC processor, released with the Acorn Archimedes. The acronym was later renamed to Advanced RISC Machine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Archimedes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture
the guy who made the pi said he was inspired by the Amiga already, my guess is the 400 is for 4gig of ram like the amiga 500 the 500 stands for 500k of ram
@@Yahgiggle Did you read what I wrote? Please research the history of the BBC Micro. The creators of the Raspberry Pi were inspired by Acorn computers, not by Amiga. They are British, not American.
@@usethefooorce yes I know all about the Acorn and you could be right as the information I was told was second hand, but from someone I would think would not tell BS his information was that the guy that made the pi 400 got his inspiration from the Amiga 500
Looks really neat! I'm surprised they didn't just put a normal Pi 4 in there, I guess they are expecting to sell enough units to make up for the investment of a new PCB design.
It also saves on the overhead of adding a bunch of extra jumpers/cabling to get the GPI, power, and HDMI plugs on the back of the unit. I think this design was the easiest way to get the whole thing in the same footprint as the Pi Keyboard.
I was actually hoping for a (raplacable) Pi 4 compute module. wouldn't it be amazing to be able to replace it in the future?
You know what's funny, there's a guy doing exactly that with an old TI-92 calculator, he's calling it a "PI-92".
twitter.com/Hacksterio/status/1320913681610383361
(We're thinking of doing something similar with some second-hand Alphasmart keyboards, which would be similar to this PI-400, except with the LCD display as well).
Makes sense. It's being launched for £70-£100 just before christmas in a year where parents don't have a lot of money, and won't be able to go shopping in towns because of Lockdown2.
@starshipeleven It's relevant because *other* computers can be bought in town in normal years, so the lockdown puts the Pi 400 on an equal footing.
If you don't have access to a plastic spudger, a guitar pick or old/unused credit/gift card also work in a pinch.
These materials have lower hardness compared to metal pry tools, so they won't mar the finish of the product you're disassembling.
Terrific teardown and analysis, by the way. Love the attention to detail and the email exchange (actual journalism) you've put in prior to making this video. Keep up the good work.
Glad you liked it! All the guitar picks I had on hand were too soft/flimsy to pop the connectors... but I think I'll invest in iFixIt's kit for the next go-round.
@@JeffGeerling better yet, we will write them emails to sponsor you. I am surprised they haven't approached you yet.
I'm always amazed how powerful already the regular Raspberry Pi4 Model B is.
An even better Pi wow!
It is quite easy to overclock Pi 4 Model B to 2 GHz, although it isthen recommended to cool it.
more like a hommage to the old Atari 400 and retro home computers in general
Yeah, it just needs a cartridge port. Someone get Red Shirt Jeff...
FYI, if you're looking for a Pi in 2022, the Pi 400 is still available at a non-gouged price point. I just received my Pi 400 kit yesterday (Mar 2022) and I paid $100, same as retail when they were released.
wow super super slick design, the build pi's 10 minutes from where I live in West UK (Southern Wales). Quality engineering at a great price.
The 400 might be a reference to old Acorn machines like the A4000 or even the A410 and A440. The A4000 was also a keyboard based machine. :¬}
Lots of that form factor back in the day!
@@JeffGeerling The Acorn machines are also Arm based and part of the Pi's heritage like the model B's coming from the BBC micro model B which was made by Acorn.
@@NigelGent A lot of heritage there! I have still never seen an Acorn in the wild, but it seems like a lot of the Pi heritage dates back to that company.
@@JeffGeerling In my loft I've got an Acron A310, A4000 and an A5000 and they all still work Thr RiscOS they ran was brilliant and you can run it on a Raspberry Pi.
Or maybe Atari 400. That would make a bit more sense.
I noticed this pop up in my Google News feed and I was curious about its innards. Your video sated my curiosity and I liked the cheeky humour / skits mixed into the overall "box opening" video. Good job on making this video Jeff and keep it up! :)
Thanks, I'll take it!
Thanks for the run-through. I've been curious about what's inside, but leery about disassembling my shiny new Pi 400. I'm glad we have other people on TH-cam to do it for us.
That heatsink looks much more like an EMC shield that is serving a double purpose.
Thank you for the video, I was really curious to see what was inside.
I use guitar picks to open electronics, they work well and you can buy a set of 40 for very little money on amazon. Each set includes picks of different thickness. 🙂
The key for this particular case was rigidity. Unfortunately all my guitar picks on hand were too flimsy, and my normal spudger and credit card were both slightly too thick to fit into the gap.
But yes, a good solid guitar pick would probably be perfect, and result in less risk to my digits!
@@JeffGeerling then I can recommend guitar picks sets from amazon as they go from super thin and flimsy to thick and sturdy. I used a medium/thin pick to take apart a keyboard with a similar latching mechanism as I needed to change its internal battery.
I did not know this was a thing, glad to see someone already opening it
Slap Amiga sticker on it, install Emulator, break out the Competition Pro (USB) and we're good to go.
When I first saw this It reminded me of the Comodo C64. Thanks for the teardown.
You know what they say - _Don't turn it on, take it apart!_
You, me, and AvE!
@@JeffGeerling nooooo more like eevblog!
@@AMalas eevblog too!
Snaps into four pieces, "there you go!"
@@Grunchy005 Ah, the red-shirt-jeff approach.
Looks like a perfect board for a laptop. I'm sure someone will make it into one.
agreed except for the gpio, wonder if anyone makes a gpio plastic cover or something that can easily slide on and off and is sleek
Yes i always wanted to replace the board of my atom laptop bcz that cpu is so fucking slow like it performs like a pentium 4 from 2000... & A board like this with a custom lcd and keyboard , mouse driver and sata interface with battery controller and omg!! .. it would be so nice but having that custom interface for the keyboard is going to be tough. Lcd controllers r easy to find on ebay and there is millions of them . The laptop has a really god display and keyboard .. & also 47watt hr battery which should be enough for the pi to run about 3 to 4hr.
@@KuntalGhosh It's going to be difficult to cram all of those things into a laptop body.
@@KuntalGhosh have a look at the Pinebook Pro. Quad core ARM based. Runs Manjaro from the factory. $200USD
Optional NVMe storage. (requires adapter ~$20)
@@jq6413 i dont think so.. its an older laptop & has enough depth to fit a board of raspberry pi without any of those usb and ethernet ports.
Thank you for this. Really well done review, answers all my questions, looks up chips, etc. Many many small details you do so well for conveying the picture of this device.
Thanks for the teardown. I wanted to see the "innerards" as soon as I saw the announcement ! Sure wish it had 8GB.
I was wondering about that myself. I guess they were attached to their target pricing and didn't feel they could take the modest bump and put in the bigger ram.
*innards
Maybe next month
Kind of sad to see its not compute module based. Otherwise it's rather cool.
It would be really nice to have that, though I'm guessing the main culprit is the thinness-having a daughtercard to carry the CM4 would make it harder to fit that giant heat sink inside, and it seems the heat sink is necessary to keep the thing from overheating (which it does very well in this case).
But it would be very interesting if someone could build a little carrier board for the CM4 that would fit inside (with some modifications to the heat sink).
@@JeffGeerling Don't quote me on this...but I recall there being a sodimm socket that is essentially edge-connector in a recent laptop, allowing the ram to sit flush with the motherboard. Would be super cool to use that style and have a cutout for where compute would sit.
When I first saw it, for whatever reason I was sure it will have a compute module 4 inside. New PCB makes more sense though, as it definitely is cheaper than separate I/O board.
Can't wait for new Pi-laptop builds with this new form factor!
With the DSI port being removed, there won't be any laptops based on this hardware.
i was sort of hoping that it used the computer module, that would of been interesting for future upgrades. but still pretty cool, ty for the vid
i was hoping so too, but i guess that would be more thermally dense? although then it would be easier to heatsink the extra chips...
maybe they're just wanting to save the cost of the additional PCB + board-to-board connectors
*module. That
*would've (contraction of "WOULD haVE")
This is exactly the form-factor folks need for making Raspberry Pi 4 ‘blade’ clusters as the key ports are all on one sides for various cluster mainboard configs:
- headless network boot config - ethernet (for pxeboot), power, gpio (serial, i2c, gpio to trigger reboots, etc),
- boot with storage - ethernet (for pxeboot), power, gpio (serial, i2c, gpio to trigger reboots, etc), sdcard option, and USB drawn out for USB stick, usb3 sata, usb3 m.2 nve, and other peripherals
I also see this slim form-factor helpful for projects helpful for those where a “3×5” style board cannot fit.
If the Raspberry Pi foundation or licensees do not release this form factor without the “keyboard wrappings”, makers will gut the keyboard which will be landfill plastic eventually. And that would be bad, m’kay.
Jeff, please provide the Pi Org some feedback to sell this mainboard form-factor on its own. They could even optionally leave the keyboard ribbon adapter off.There is a demand for this configuration.
I literally just slimmed down my pi4 to fit it under a Psion 5 keyboard and relocated ports to the back like this.. Now I want the board they used in this!
by the way it has been put together, it seems like they want you to tinker with it, so i expect lots of accessories and perhaps custom cases for this in the near future so this could be interesting.
FINALLY, a usable Board with all external Connectors on one side. I got tired trying to Integrate Pi's in Systems and routing the HDMI-Cables with Adapters to the back. All I need now is SMT for external antenna and a internal USB-header.
The bourns part is the ethernet magnetics (basically a couple of small transformers), on the regular pi they use a jack with integrated magnetics; this board is using a standard 8P8C jack with external magnetics, likely for lower profile.
Always wondered what's in my Pi400.
Now I know.
Thank you.
"They'll never figure out what happened!"
(Insert 30 whole seconds of bootup with code flashing by, and waiting 45 seconds for a video to load in TH-cam)
Whoever came up with the idea to put the pc inside the keyboard was genious.
Thanks for the video. There were plenty around for the Pi 400 when it first released, but none of them opened it up, which is what I wanted to see.
Great to the point tear down, it's the first one I could find on this new release.
Excellent video. Subscribed.
I love how it's built.
I would recommend removing the SD card before removing the board.
Yes, I think it was a nod to the Amiga 500 too.
Very happy with my Pi400👍
My next will be Pi400/8G
or Pi Notebook😎
thank you for opening it!
I'm glad I was able to get it back together so easily, too! It's always 50/50 the first time I open something like a keyboard whether I cut myself on it or break off a few tabs.
Luckily the Pi 400 is pretty dang robust!
That’s really neat, didn’t know they made one. But I’d never use the power of a pi4 unless I was trying to make it run proper CAD software or whatever, so would probably prefer a cheaper one with a pi3. A trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard would be a nice touch.
much better! I've seen all of these reviews coming out today but...
I KNOW WHAT A PI CAN DO!
TAKE THE DERN THING APART!
I wanna see what's up that petticoat!
I wish it was CM4 based, for the options and upgradeability. Hitting the price point would be tough, however.
Good bloopers at the end. Thumbs up. Good video thank you
If you take this + a basic $50 1080p monitor (considering you'd be buying in bulk) and you buy like 20 of them, you've spent $150 per setup for a total of $3000 on your entire office's computing needs.
People don't talk about how good Pis are for office work; this, built into a keyboard, for $100, pushes it over the edge. More offices need to use Pis for computing. They're quick for office work and they're cheap. If I ran an office I'd be using this for sure.
A guy with a mullet! OMG, I can't stop rewinding...
Explaining Computers: Does thermal stress test.
This guy: Looks at coolant system.
I wonder if EK has a water block for it yet?
And doesn't redo the thermal paste upon reassembly. 😲
@@cgraham6 thaaaaaats what was keeping it on lmao.
Fantastic teardown, mate! 😊👍
Perfect tear down "but don't dumb it down!" vid of this new Pi system. It does remind me of the good old days of the COMMODORE PET, VIC-20, TRS-80 and SINCLAIR early all-in-one computers. (Except this is probably 64 bit tech, yes?). The Pi Institute may have nailed it as a lost cost solution to get a computer to more students, small businesses and senior living situations. Thanks!
Finally all connectors on the same side!
They really should've added PoE support imo. * has 24 802.3af 8P8C sockets in the house *
@Shaun ONeil What are the chances an ethernet transformer with center taps is cheaper than one without? Economies of scale, which is why they chose that one? I can't see any traces going from the transformer to a PoE PD chip and the schematics aren't available on www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/schematics/README.md yet. It would make so much sense to implement PoE on this device!
It's a commodore vic-20 replacement, the vic-20 had a connector for a common 44 pin edge connector card of its day, for expansion and experimentation. This version of the raspberry pi seems to capture the essence of the Vic-20 but with modern capability. The commodore 64 was more of a gaming rig back then in the old 8-bit days.
Reminds me of the Atari 400
Red Shirt Jeff is great. Maybe he should have his own video. He could really do a destructive review on sub par hardware.
Red shirt Jeff let me know I should like your comment.
I can't believe that this thing is more powerful than the desktop PC I had 20 years ago.
Just ordered it. Will have it this week. Happy days.
I love this design!
I was hoping there would be an EMMC on this Pi4 variant, I'm hoping someone finds a way to shoehorn a drive in there!
Something so satisfying about watching the keyboard come apart..
I would really prefer my laptop and tablet to have those slots to open the case!
I am in agreement about adding thermal pads for a few of the other chips.
I choose to believe that it is an homage to the AS/400. - The one I told IBM they should have built, but they didn’t listen to me, and now the 400 sits in the corner with it’s cousins, the PS/2 and OS/2.
Long live the Pi!
Great job Jeff. 👍🏻
The Pi 400 laptop will likely be coming soon.
Reminds me of the Acorn Atom... the casing was first used for just holding the keyboard for the Acorn System 1... then Acorn banged together a simple all-in-one microcomputer, which fitted into the same casing to become the Atom.
This would have been a perfect platform for the new Pi4 Compute Module. Instead we have a unit that is only available in 4GB with wifi and no option for eMMC to avoid the need for still using microSD cards (I assume it isn't USB boot from the box).
Na, Pi4 does USB boot by default. Pi3B+ does it too, and so does the Pi3B but you need SD boot to enable it for the first time
Yeah, this is a little bit disappointing. Why release CM4 and shortly after that release Pi400 which is not CM4 based? I don't get it. A great machine though
OK, after playing with this in the UK for several days doing lots of ffmpeg based h264 / 265 video transcoding I found that the Pi 400 can run up to +20C compared to using an Ice Tower with a regular Pi 4 4GB, e.g 66 C v 47C. Now most people don’t run video transcodes for hours like me. I ran ffmpeg libx265 CRF 20 for 15+hours (0.043x with 41 mins input file). So definitely usable from a temperature if not performance perspective. On the downside I had a boot USB 3 SSD connected and found that like the Sinclair ZX81 from the early 1980s the connector comes out far too easily thereby freezing the Pi 400. It is crying out for an internal storage option. Just move the keyboard and the USB 3 SSD interface link is interrupted. Sticking with MicroSD might be a better option.
Red shirt Jeff is my spirit animal. But legit that joke keeps getting better lol
Is the board still good for other things? I think it would be cool to get that board out of the keyboard and into something else.
This is going to be so cool for those DIY Raspberri Pi Laptops.
so.. i look for both the raspberry pi 400 and the game teardown like 2 hours apart.. and the algorithm gives me this
On a side note: the AmigaOS was a linux based OS!
That coupled with real multitasking graphics/sound/memory chips made it way more powerful than the ibm compatabiles at that time, even tho they had higher clock speeds :)
Good, thoughtful teardown. Thanks Jeff.
5:10 How he just kept talking after that voice crack
+1 for including the bloopers :-) no seriously, thank you and I would +more if I could!
5:10 voice cracked on “improvements” 🤣
In the bloopers it happened again. maybe I'm reaching puberty!
@@JeffGeerling We can only hope, maybe someday. ;-)
I use various guitar picks to open such things. Works very well
Nice video .... I am going to link this video into my video description as I need a teardown
nice that all the ports are down one side , would make it easy to design a cluster baseboard for it
I'd been wondering about the formfactor of the actual PI inside the keyboard. I guess I was expecting to find a Raspberry Pi CM4 attached to a backplane providing all the IO ports. I did not expect to see an all new board design.
Something I've NOT noticed at first is that it lacks the CSI and DSI connectors. I guess it makes sense to leave out the DSI in such a design, since it already has two HDMI outputs; but maybe people would want a camera, even if only to use a videoconferencing app. Also, a microphone input would be a great addition. Of course one could add both the camera and the mike with a single USB port, but it would be nice if we could use whatever interface had become available by cutting out the DSI port to add a sound digitizer, and still keep the CSI port for a Pi camera.
That "grouding" pad is deffinetly an afterthought because they could have found a way of grounding the shield directly to the board.
Yeah normally done through the screws
It isn't to connect the shield to the circuit board but to the keyboard.
@@johnm2012 I think you're wrong there -- I think the metal plate at the back of the keyboard connects directly to the heatsink, and then the conductive pad is to bridge it to the outer casing of the ethernet socket, which is in turn earthed to the PCB.
@@nialltracey2599 That makes two of us, because I think you're wrong too!
@@johnm2012 that goes without saying doesn’t it...? Like if I disagree with you, clearly you disagree with me. But you’re not only disagreeing with me, but also with the guy that had one of these things open on his table and has been in direct contact with the Raspberry Pi foundation.
Regardless, it is clearly visible in the video that one corner of the pad is on the Ethernet socket and the other is on the heatsink. I would suggest that’s probably deliberate...
Got an email about this today. Looks like an interesting little product. Would've been great for me when I was doing my coursework using a pi and having to lug a full size keyboard around with it.
Hey nice video! Hadn't heard of it till now. Well done.
Great review
Nice to see the teardown
Thanks for sharing👍😀
4:47 That's not true, pi 4 (and also pi 3b+) both have ethernet magnetics with support for poe, it's just integrated into the RJ45 jack itself. The transformer middle taps needed for POE are routed to the 4 pin header next to the connector. You just need to attach to it the POE hat or other POE power module. But I agree with you, that they missed the opportunity to implement POE into the PI 400.
First worth watching video about this thing. Thanks 👍
Love that shaping noise
The first video where I saw somebody open & put things back in place so fixable
Great video. As always.
I've got almost all the answers to my questions regarding this model internals. Just one left and is about it's overclocking capabilities. For example, if this chip model version it's the same as RPI4 but OC by default, or if it will support a higher OC speed than previous model.
Anyway, I'll probably not buying this, but if they ever release an AIO kit for current RPI4 owners at a reasonable price, I'll gladly support them.
If they put CSI and DSI connectors back, we can get a motherboard for a Pi-based ultra thin laptop. They also would need a GPU driver for a DSI to eDP chip since most laptop displays uses that interface. Also includes should be an internal USB 2.0 hub for a trackpad, USB sound card for implementing internal speakers and the keyboard.
I like this. I think being able to power the p400 over PoE would be amazing for schools
Sadly it can't be powered directly that way-but you could get an adapter that takes the PoE connection and splits it out to the USB-C power port.
@@JeffGeerling yes, seems like a missed opportunity... also doesn’t appear to be any CSI connectors, so no pi cam support? 🤔
Thank you for showing this! Needed to know how to open this thing so I can try and sway the white keyboard for the black one!
Just don't use a knife like me; find a spudger or guitar pick!
Imagine when someone do a board replacement with a more power chip! It can be crazy, faster than a regular cheap computer.
You should get a set of plastic prying tools. The metal tool will work but could damage the plastic components. You can get a set of prying tools for like $2-5 on sites like Newegg.
i wanna see a raspberry pi laptop like this. the pine64 is probably the best we have rn.
May be you answered your question, 'Why the name Pi400' in the first seconds of your video!:
The Pi-4-$100! ;)
Nice video Jeff!