CanaKitRaspberry Pi 4 Extreme Kit - 128GB Edition (4GB RAM)

I bought this to run OctoPrint for my 3D printer. It was fun to put together, came with everything you needed and pretty decent instructions. I consider myself to be pretty tech savvy, but I had never put a Pi together or used one before. Followed the directions to assemble everything and then watched a YouTube video on OctoPrint setup and installation and had this thing running my printer in under 2 hours (while watching a movie). The included on/off switch and the case and other features were a great addition to everything else that was included in the package. It was a little expensive but with the chip shortage, it was in line with anything else I found after days of researching and it came with a lot more little touches that made the overall package a decent deal. The fan is a little noisy on high but I could probably switch it to lower speed with what I am using it for and it is not loud enough that I would deduct from the overall score. Just something to mention and my only real negative thing to say about the whole product, so I would definitely encourage you to get this one if are considering it.

I used this kit together with a Freenove Starter Kit to build many of the 26 projects supported by the Freenove kit. The two kits blend seamlessly and provide a easy way to assemble simple projects demonstrating many aspects of computing and electronics. The processor board fits into the case nicely and allows access to all the many ports as well as the 40 pin connector that connects to the Freenove kit via a ribbon cable. The operating system and a lot of software was preloaded into the micro SD card and made setting up the processor easy. I was not able to get tech support from CanaKit, but was directed to the Raspberry Pi forum where I got good support. I found it convenient to use the VNC Viewer app on my PC as a remote terminal rather than a separate keyboard and mouse dedicated to the Raspberry Pi. However, I found that it was necessary to have a TV connected to the Raspberry Pi vie HDMI in order for the remote terminal to function. I learned via the forum that I needed the Version 11 Bullseye OS to easily avoid this problem, and my kit loaded the Version 10 Buster OS. I decided to stay with present VNC Viewer terminal setup and just keep TV connected. All in all a great way to learn about computers and a base from which to build all kinds of projects.

The MicroSD card comes with a boot-loader called "NOOBS" preinstalled. So when you assemble your PI-4 and power it on, you are presented with a menu of OS options to install. You select one of these, wait a few minutes for the install to complete and verify itself, then the system reboots and you *should* have a working OS. But that would never work for me. I tried every OS option available on NOOBS. In every case, after the install completed and verified itself and the system rebooted, the screen would go blank and then go to sleep. The PI would answer pings. But I had no way to log in.I tended to run my PI-4 headless (without a monitor or keyboard). I only had the monitor and keyboard and mouse hooked up so that I could configure it. After I got it running, I intended to disconnect the monitor/keyboard/mouse, put the PI-4 in a closet and only access it using SSH. I did an internet search and found that you can download a utility program from CanaKit to flash the OS directly onto the MicroSD card, bypassing the NOOBS boot loader. And using that technique, you can set up SSH as you flash the MicroSD card. I did that, got the PI-4 running, and was able to log-in successfully using SSH. Everything is working great. So I'm happy now.On the other hand, if I had intended to use this PI-4 as a desktop computer, with a monitor and keyboard and mouse, I would have probably been disappointed.

This kit is perfect to get started with a project. This is my second one. The first one didn't get fully used, as I made a different case and added a touch screen. This second one is pretty much everything I need for my project. The power supply is great, and had no issues driving the touch screen, and USB accessories. If I could change anything, I'd make the case securely close. Not much of an issue once you plug in to the ports, but that's not my idea of securing a case.

I bought this device to use as my own personal server for small projects. It was super easy to set up, I followed a YouTube tutorial and was surprised how easy it was. Now I can even just SSH into the pi instead of plugging it in to a keyboard and monitor every time, which is fantastic.