HOT Raspberry Pi DIY Mini Desktop PC Build
Observations and Conclusion
Overall, we were happy with the way our little rainy day project came together. One thing we discovered was that once a Linux image is transferred to an SD card, the partition isn't easily removable even through the Linux operating system. We also tried using the "diskpart" tool under Windows, but experienced an error there as well. Some solution might exist, but we were unable to find a definitive one. Also notable was that the Raspberry Pi is easily able to run off 5V at 1Amp with a variety of accessories attached. In addition, surprisingly, our LCD display ran off 10V comfortably, which was partially blind luck, because the manufacturer doesn’t openly specify what voltage or current to power the display with. All told, from a power consumption standpoint, our portable HOT Raspberry Pi still just sips power.
;)
That said, of course the Raspberry Pi can also be overclocked (to around 1GHz core, 500MHz RAM, 275MHz graphics) to its highest setting for Quake and the like, and still not go over its thermal limitations, given proper airflow. As you'll note, we have a small heatsink mounted to the main processor on board, which did help moderate temps nicely.
Though this little machine isn't going to break any land-speed records or give IBM's Watson a run for its money, our efforts with the Raspberry Pi were spent out of the love of technology and creativity. There are a number of practical uses you could imagine with a little machine like this, especially as a field device for quick monitoring and diagnostic functions, but we just had fun building our own <HOT> Raspberry Pi.
