I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix them

Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by mopsi on Saturday January 23, 2021 @05:07PM (#25886592)

And I must say that working with business PCs from vendors like HP is a joy, because they are optimized for quick and tool-less maintenance. I can open the PC and swap out power supply, HDD/SSD, 5.25 inch devices and expansion cards without any tools. Only the motherboard, CPU (depending on heat sink design) and cooling fans are screwed in. And there are even spare screws inside the case for unused slots/devices. And while somewhat unpopular, they use custom connectors that reduce the number of cables (modern PCs don't really need the fat ATX bundle), and cables are cut to length, and the case has holders for each cable - virtually no cable management needed.

I wish consumer devices were that easy to maintain and upgrade.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by walrus01 on Saturday January 23, 2021 @07:11PM (#25887442)

This is both a good and a bad thing in my opinion. If you have, for instance, a big pile of near identical Lenovo M78 small form factor desktops (https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-t...), it's easy to swap parts between them.

If you have just one unit and a failed power supply, instead of swapping in an ATX power supply you can buy in any local PC repair shop, you have to order the custom weird power supply online and wait for it to arrive. Or if you have a failed fan, maybe it's a standard 60mm or 80mm 12VDC fan, but it has a weird connector on it for how it plugs into the motherboard, so you'll have to take the 'ordinary' PC heatsink or case fans you have on hand and splice the old connector onto it.

Or if you have a failed motherboard (maybe a blown MOSFET?), but you're fairly certain all the other parts are good, instead of getting an ATX motherboard that will work with your CPU and RAM, you need a motherboard for that specific model of Lenovo M78, to match the weird shape and size of the case and rear I/O panel, and to match the specific DC power connections unique to that series and model of SFF desktop PC.

At least hard drives and RAM are common between whitebox PCs and enterprise type semi-proprietary PCs.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by dannyw on Saturday January 23, 2021 @08:03PM (#25887750)

I mean, there is a legitimate reason for these SFF PCs having unique parts: normal/standard parts wouldn’t fit. A SFF PC is designed to be small.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by walrus01 on Saturday January 23, 2021 @08:11PM (#25887811)

but even a regular midtower sized dell or hp pc has a proprietary motherboard, proprietary power supply, other pieces... and there are industry standards for mini-itx motherboards (170x170mm), microatx motherboards, mini and microatx cases, and power supplies that are designed for use in common mini-itx size cases. and also standards for low-profile expansion slot height microatx size cases.

the lenovo m78 I have which I was using as an example is no smaller than an equivalent spec pc built from standardized parts.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by dannyw on Monday January 25, 2021 @02:46AM (#25900495)

I disagree, I’ve spent hours and hours of research on a build with similar volume as the m78 and it’s generally a nightmare.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by spicybright on Saturday January 23, 2021 @06:58PM (#25887348)

Damn, now that you say that I never thought of business PCs to be easy to fix like that, but it makes complete sense!

I'm preaching to the choir how being able to repair your own stuff is a great thing. I wonder if there are lists of consumer purchasable hardware that follow this same philosophy to a degree. Would make future tech purchases much better for me personally.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by dannyw on Saturday January 23, 2021 @08:04PM (#25887754)

Build your own PC. Quite repairable.

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Re:I bought 200 Raspberry Pi Model B’s and I’m going to fix ... by jamiek88 on Saturday January 23, 2021 @07:07PM (#25887413)

I guess ifixit do that for new products, rating them by how easy to repair they are.

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