Video : Review of the Raspberry Pi 400

[NicoD]

Hi all.
I've just made a review video about the RPi400.
I tested RPiOS, Manjaro and Armbian.
All my gathered info under the video.

 

Benchmarks

Board                  | SBC-Bench              | Distro                             | Clockspeeds         | 7z all cores  | 7z small core   | 7z big core   | CPU-Miner   | NicoD-Blender      | Max temp      | C copy backwards      
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xnJ        Armbian Hirsute xfce4 5.13.12        1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz         7760            1267              1857            10.05         14m41s                 78C    ***    1782.9 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xv3        Armbian Hirsute xfce4 5.13.12        1.5Ghz/2Ghz           8288            1348              2070            10.95         13m21s                        ***    1806.7 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xs3        Armbian Hirsute cinnamon 5.13.12     1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz         7766            1267              1851            10            14m33s                 78C           1742.6 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xt0        Armbian Hirsute budgie 5.13.12       1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz         7941            1272              1863            10.05         14m24s/14m18s          78C           1738.3 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xtR        Armbian Buster xfce4 4.4.213         1.5Ghz/2Ghz           8383            1359              1982            10.8          14m17s                               1377.3 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xuf        Armbian Buster xfce4 4.4.213         1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz         7879            1278              1807            10            15m20s                               1392.3 MB/s           
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xux        Armbian Focal xfce4 5.10.60          1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz         8028            1286              1859            10.27         13m29s                         ***   1765.3 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3xuL        Armbian Focal xfce4 5.10.60          1.5Ghz/2Ghz           8427            1351              2076            11.2          12m53s                         ***   1759.9 MB/s
NanoPi M4 2GB            http://ix.io/3EDB        Ubuntu Xenial armhf 4.4 xfce4        1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz         7069            1140              1695                                                               1387.1 MB/s

Board                  | SBC-Bench              | Distro                             | Clockspeeds         | 7z all cores  | 7z small core   | 7z big core   | CPU-Miner   | NicoD-Blender         | Max temp
Odroid C4/HC4            http://ix.io/2LaP        Ubuntu Mate 4.9                      1.91Ghz               7000            1769                              7.2 kH/s                                           2087.5 MB/s
Odroid C4/HC4            http://ix.io/3F6z        Armbian Buster 5.9                   2.10Ghz               7971            2030                              7.9           23m02s                               2020.0 MB/s
Khadas VIM3                                       Armbian Hirsute cinnamon 5.13.12                                                                                           12m55s

Board                  | SBC-Bench              | Distro                             | Clockspeeds         | 7z all cores  | 7z small core   | 7z big core   | CPU-Miner   | NicoD-Blender         | Max temp
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3F6o        Armbian Jammy 5.13                   2Ghz                  8047                              2070             Didn't work  Blender doens't work                 2054.3 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3F6K        Armbian Jammy 5.13                   1.5Ghz                6239                              1572                                                               2556.8 MB/s      
Raspberry Pi4                                     Armbian Hirsute edge xfce4 5.11      1.5Ghz                5832                              1534                          18m11s                   60C
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3Euw        Armbian Hirsute edge xfce4 5.11      2Ghz                  7747                              2037             9.8          14m26s                   68C         2382.2 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3FbW        Armbian Hirsute 5.11 OC GPU+CPU      2.1Ghz                8168                              2147                          Blender crash                        2445.0 MB/s  
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EU7        Armbian Impish edge headless 5.13    1.5Ghz                6251                              1584                          15m39s                               2618.0 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3Ewi        Armbian Impish edge headless 5.13    2Ghz                  8171                              2093                          12m41s                               2713.7 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EPQ        Armbian Bullseye edge headless 5.13  1.5Ghz                6328                              1594             7.3          Blender doesn't work                 2680.5 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EK9        Armbian Bullseye edge headless 5.13  2Ghz                  8242                              2096             9.7          Blender doesn't work                 2505.4 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3ECd        Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye 32-bit      1.5Ghz                7577                              1933                          21m09s                               2511.7 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3ECt        Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye 32-bit      2Ghz                  9746                              2533                          17m05s                               2263.0 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EIe        Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye 64-bit      1.5Ghz                6174                              1567             7.2          17m01s                               2463.5 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EJs        Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye 64-bit      2Ghz                  8026                              2053             9.65         Blender unstable at 2Ghz             2326.1 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EGZ        Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish) 5.13 arm64     1.5Ghz                6160                              1563                          16m50s                               2421.2 MB/s
Raspberry Pi4            http://ix.io/3EHA        Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish) 5.13 arm64     2Ghz                  7965                              2038             Didn't work  Blender unstable at 2Ghz             2501.9 MB/s

Board                  | SBC-Bench              | Distro                             | Clockspeeds         | 7z all cores  | 7z small core   | 7z big core   | CPU-Miner   | NicoD-Blender         | Max temp
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3HLw        Armbian Jammy Edge 5.15.7 cinnamon   2Ghz o.v. 6           7913                              2085                          19m34s                  69C          2224.5 MB/s 
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3HSI        Armbian Impish current 5.13.0 cin    2Ghz o.v. 6           7869                              2104                          14m20s                  63C          2443.5 MB/s 
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3HTx        Armbian Impish current 5.13.0 cin    2.1Ghz + 700GPU o.v.6 6930                              2069                          13m27s                  65C          1500.0 MB/s
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3HTR        Armbian Impish current 5.13.0 cin    2.1Ghz o.v.6          8188                              2205                          14m03s                  65C          2450.4 MB/s
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3HMm        RPiOS bullseye armhf 5.10.63         1.8Ghz                8705                              2350                          18m46s                  55C          2390.5 MB/s 
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3HRl        RPiOS bullseye armhf 5.10.63         2Ghz o.v. 4           9834                              2601                          17m07s                  61C          2455.0 MB/s 
RPi400                                            Manjaro KDE 5.10                     1.8Ghz                7426                              1886                          14m28s                  58C
RPi400                   http://ix.io/3IgG        Manjaro KDE 5.10                     2Ghz                  8156                              2092                          13m16s                  65C          2473.3 MB/s

Board                  | SBC-Bench              | Distro                             | Clockspeeds         | 7z all cores  | 7z small core   | 7z big core   | CPU-Miner   | NicoD-Blender         | Max temp
Odroid N2+               http://ix.io/3EwQ        Armbian Impish xfce4 5.14            2Ghz/2.4Ghz           11714           1765              2517                           8m51s                               2053.0 MB/s

Additional info

Power consumption
-----------------
No wifi/on-board sd-card reader idle               0.45A
Wifi-on-board sd-card reader idle 2Ghz ov 6        0.5A
Wifi-on-board sd-card reader maxed out 2Ghz ov 6   1.3A
Wifi-USB3SD idle 2Ghz ov 6                         0.75A-0.9A
Wifi-USB3SD idle 1.8Ghz                            0.75A-0.9A
Wifi-on-board sd-card reader idle 1.8Ghz           0.5A
Wifi-on-board sd-card reader maxed out 1.8Ghz      1.1A
Wifi-USB3SD maxed out 1.8Ghz                       1.3A 

 
Official Armbian Jammy Nightly 5.15 has no GPU acceleration
Images from RPardini do have GPU acceleration, but no sound

Manjaro KDE is nice. Works well, except video playback in browser. Max 720p.

++ Good cooling solution, doesn't overheat even at high overclocks
++ the Pi 400 is the first in the line of Raspberry Pi products to have an on/off power button
   This is done by pressing Fn+F10. To restore power, you press the pair of buttons for two seconds
++ Default clock of 1.8Ghz vs 1.5Ghz on RPi4 performs 20% better. OC to 2Ghz 30% more performance than 1.5Ghz

-- Bad keyboard
-- Bad arrangement of the cursor keys
-- SD-card reader still rather slow with max 45MB/s. Better to use a sd->USB3 adapter for fast sd-cards
-- Still the undervoltage problem as with all other RPi devices when using a normal PSU. PSU's that deliver 5.3V perform best.

*** GPU overclock makes it perform worse
*** SD-card slot isn't very fast 45MB/s vs 90MB/s with the same card in sd->USB3 adapter

 

[connectable]

Hi,

Many thanks for your thorough and informative review. In a difficult year, and with two of my development machines failing, I rashly bought 3 4Gb Pi-400s and 2 of the pi keyboard/hub units.

I too, had problems with under-voltage on both machines. Fortunately, I have installed an uninterruptible DC 14v ring in my house, and use DC-DC converters to step the voltage down to around 5.3, for these machines, which as you have noted, gets around the problem. As for the keyboard? All 5 of the keyboards have at least one consistent problem - 'h' key, and lesser so, some of the number keys.

By far the worst problem, and one which you haven't mentioned, is during editing - particularly cut & paste using the mouse. I'm using 'Buster', and no editor is safe, whether it is geany, Thonny, Visual Studio or editing a WordPress post. 'cut sections get dropped into inappropriate places in a file or in BOTH files if I'm transferring from one to the other. The only 'safe' option is VIM, which points very strongly to the mouse and/or it's driver.

raspberry.pi.org have apparently lost the plot. There are other issues, especially with the Raspian OS'es. The last decent version of Raspbian was jessie. Everything after it is a mess.

My main development focus is on monitoring and control, and this includes website development, backend server, plus wifi-connected slaves such as the pi-zero, and latterly WEMOS D1.

Your review has prompted me to do two things: 1 - try Manjaro on thhe Pi400's, and 2: examine using Armbian on an Odroid XU4 which is currently unemployed.

Many thanks again NicoD.

 

[arox]

After struggling many days with alsa, vlc and usb audio devices, I inevitably was confronted with "RPI usb problem". My feeling so far is that there are some bugs in the linux USB2 kernel driver, but those bugs are making havoc the "RPI firmware", that is to say the underlying OS witch manage the GPU and all devices.

 

The consequence is that any power or driver (video driver, usb driver) problem can turn the RPI in a state where it become unusable (not because of Linux but the firmware itself) until a reboot and electrical reset ! In such case, the fs on a disk plugged in the USB3 bus is also corrupted. (force fsck is greatly encouraged). So, it is quite difficult to reproduce and diagnose linux or devices problems !