Topic: Advice on Raspberry pi hardware for running full BTC node - page 4. (Read 3216 times)

Most of them won't able to run RPi 4 since RPi 4 require 3A, 5.1V, while most USB product have range between 1A - 2.5A, 5V.


There are many version of Eee PC, so i hope it's not 1GB version where Raspberry Pi would win

And if we're talking about cheap laptop/notebook, Pinebook is better option with more RAM.
The only downside it uses eMMC and can't run windows.

yeah  but I just use the same 1tb ssd to do builds  then wipe for a new build.

I then clone to a 2tb hdd.  Since the vast majority is loaded via the ssd the 2tb hdd is not terrible to synch  although I just

let the unit stay on a do a full node.

Sometimes the empty barebones small form pc's are only 50 bucks.

It is an easy piece of gear to play with.

Not knocking rasp pi's  for a node  as long as you don't  keep coin on them they are okay.

Phil, yeah I agree get a PC, but it's fun to tinker.
The other issue is that in reality that the cost of a SSD is more then the PC or RPi.
Yes, either way you can get a spinning drive but the performance on the cheap ones is meh at best and the better ones are back to not being cheap.

-Dave

i push

 lenovo m700 tiny  so much more versatile

I have had the rasp - rasp pi 3+  and all the ones in-between.

I really like the lenovo gear better.

or the dell

or the hp

fast eBay search

a lenovo
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thinkcentre-M73-Tiny-Core-i3-4130T-2-9GHZ-4TH-Gen-8GB-W-WIFI-NO-HARDDRIVE/274210591567?



a dell
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-3020m-3020-Micro-Mini-Tiny-Computer-i3-4150T-3Ghz-4GB-500GB-Win10/401909056348?

an hp elite
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-Tiny-PC-Intel-i5-4590T-2GHZ-8GB-Memory-500GB-2-5-WIFI/202863414251?



fast search did not try hard.

but to find one under 100 is easy use a 1tb ssd to load blockchain on linux

then clone it to an 2tb hdd

just a better choice.

Costs more to ship.. Crazy. I think the ones who are using multiple raspberry pis, they use name brand powered hubs. Makes it easier for whatever they are doing too, cable management and stuff.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Eee-PC-Windows-Starter-Laptop-Black-with-Power-Suply/362875904326?hash=item547d16e146:g:zhsAAOSwGIJeFiwR

Shits pretty much on every raspberry there is.

I really think both of the below coolers fall into the category of just because you can does not mean you should.
But, yeah the name brand adapters do tend to have better power then the generic ones.
Telling people they are not good is one thing, going "look 1 in 4 did not make the night and the best one still had power issues" makes it a bit more obvious.

Makes you wonder how many RPi issues we have discussed over the years fall into bad power / bad SD

-Dave

That looks bulky, liquid cooling a pi. I think the giant heatsink ones that take up the entire case are better for this purpose, ... I don't even use liquid cooling on my regular desktop and servers. (I used to stick them closer to the window to get cooler air.)

Another thing that helps take the load off the initial download process is do it on your main machine then just copy the data to the PI HD I found this to be much better than leaving the PI to download the chain.

On the cooling side I have noticed some liquid cooling kits and some processor coolers like below, This one is called the Ice Hat seems to have had good reviews in the space and relatively cheap too




I think now we are seeing kit's like this come out the next round of PI may just come with some additional cooling and some more power I hope

Branded power supply works. Like from a "real" phone company, the ones Samsung and Apple provide with their phones seem to be decent ones. Could also try branded powered USB hubs like Anker. However, you might need a little bit more power for the RPi, so just check to make sure it gives more than 1 amp or something.

Some stores sell them with a 0.1 added voltage ... so it puts out 5.1 volts or something.

Morning update.
I have posted about using good power adapter for running your RPi
The cheap ones can run the range from total crap to good.

One of our customers used to have a business selling cheap cell phone accessories, when he stopped doing that we (the people I work for) wound up with a lot of his old stock. The running joke is if you need a phone charger take 2 because one of them probably will not work. Yeah, that bad.

So yesterday I took 4 to run a test.
4 of the exact same setup. RPi3 + high endurance SD card + Toshiba 500GB external usb drive + one of these cheap ass power adapters.
I installed RaspiBlitz on all of them, got them started on the updates and went to bed.
This was the BEST of them:  UndervoltageReports in Logs: 4
This is the worst of them:          [Left blank because it failed]

If you are doing this spend more then the cost of a cup of coffee on your power supply people.

-Dave

*I am doing this testing for things other then running a bitcoin node but whatever you are doing with it the point remains the same.

As long as you don't have heavy and constant R/W on it or put the Pi in a weird place where it can't really dissipate heat. You should be fine with SanDisk. I've used them before on several of my Pis, some failed, some didn't.

oh hey... I'm all for the learning process. The Pi is cheap enough for people to learn from trying to make it work, or actually making it work, despite all it's limitations. And the foundation seems to be always making improvements to the hardware every few years, so we are now at version 4.

Pi works great for emulating game consoles, as a media player box, robot projects, and many other things.

The problem is with SanDisk is they have / had many different lines / price points of SD cards
a quick search of 64GB from Amazon:

Ultra $ 10.99
Extreme: 14.99
High Endurance: $13.49
Extreme Pro $25.95
Extreme Plus $12.99

You then have to spend some time searching about which ones have which features.

And then they did (might still do not sure since WD took them over) have some slightly different ones that were sold at some retail spots.
Going back to my car example it's like saying you bought a small Honda so you could drive to work. You can get a $17000 Fit or a $36000 Civic Type R.

And then you have to worry about the knockoffs.

As for the get a real computer comment. There is a point. If you want it done quick and simple getting a used PC can you up and running (possibly for less money) if you want to learn and play and tinker, getting the RPi is good. If you want to get to work get the Honda Fit, if you want to get to work with tires smoking while sliding through corners and engine screaming get the Civic Type R

-Dave

Merited for the links.  Kinda difficult to get good quality SD cards where I am currently and I think poor quality sandisk sd card is the issue I've been having.  
Still going to give this project another whirl after the Tet new year.

Heh, you could read it that way but you are missing the this:


Seriously, it goes back to you don't even need to run a node you can install electrum and be done.

This is more for the seeing what can be done.

If we were gearheads instead of crypto people it goes back to you can buy the mid priced V8 Camaro and work on the motor and suspension and everything else or you can just drop $65,000 on the counter at the dealer and get the ZL1 and be done.

-Dave

I read your post and it looks like this:

1. Get a real SSD.
2. Get a real Power Supply.
3. Get a real case.
4. Get a real SD card.
5. Get a real computer.

I have been doing a lot of testing between RPi models and USB drives  (SSD vs spinning) for setting up nodes and have come to the following and very obvious conclusions.

1) Cheap generic USB to SATA connectors suck. Seriously, there is a difference between the better brands (Startec / SYBA) and the generic off brand ones.
Now, I did not check many but I did check a bunch and on the same hardware the sync time did go up a lot with the cheap cables.

2) Cheap SSDs suck. Although there was not as big a difference as with the USB to SATA adapters there was a difference. The worst off brand SSD drive was actually slower then the best spinning drive. But in it's defense it was LESS money the the spinning dive so there is that.

3) There is not much a difference between the RPi4 with 2GB ram and 4GB ram. There is a big difference between 1 and 2 GB

4) The RPi4 is MUCH faster then the RPi3 IF YOU COOL IT. Initial sync will thermal throttle the RPi4 so you do  some form of cooling on it.

5) Spend the extra few bucks and get a real power supply. Seriously, the cheap "2.1 Amp" models do not do 2.1 Amps and the cheap 4 Amp models don't even come close to it.

6) Somewhere in one of the RPi threads (might even be this one) I mentioned that some cheap cases with cooling are so badly made that they do not even make contact with the chips and you need to add a shim to actively cool. This is still true.

7) Get a real SD card that has a longer rated read / write life: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V5Q1N1I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They do matter. It's not that much more then the generic ones. Yes they are a bit slower, but you have the blockchain and most of the read / writes going to the external drive so the speed it not as important.

I guess it's kind of obvious, but it really shows up here, going cheap will cost you time and grief.
Also, as others have said getting a $100 PC off of eBay will be much better then doing a RPi build. But not as much as a challenging, learning, experience.

My ideal setup now for doing something like this (for now) would be a RPi4 with 2GB ram, some kind of case with active cooling and the Samsung 512GB external SSD drive along with with official RPi 3A power supply.


-Dave

Get a cheaper UPS then, nothing is really "overkill" for this problem. At least you are more or less assured it won't randomly die on you. It'll die because the system is 3 to 5 years old, or some lightning bolt fried everything in your city.

I think cheap but good decent UPS is maybe $50? (I found a "router / modem UPS that's like $90, maybe that's too much.)

Might be a good idea to also have some sort of local backup maintenance schedule, like once a month or so? Just so you don't do all the downloading and syncing crap from zero.

My aim is to keep the system running for a few hours in case there is a random power outage. If the electricity randomly goes away, your database will get all messed up and you'll have to do all the downloading and syncing crap again. A UPS would be overkill for that purpose.

You can have a similar setup with raspberry pi too i guess. Using a powerbank comes to my mind first but I am not sure if that's going to be a stable solution.

There are 2 potential problems:

1- The powerbank will always be on and It may lose its function pretty fast because there will always be current flowing through it. A netbook battery is probably designed to handle this kind of stuff.

2- The output of the powerbank might not have the same stable output as a raspberry pi power adapter.

I'll build 2 nodes, one with rpi, one with my netbook. The database I downloaded to my netbook will serve as a backup when needed.