The Pi 5 as a mini server
A sysadmin’s perspective on setting up and running a new Raspberry Pi 5 for Docker and beyond.
I was graciously loaned a Pi 5 8GB version to trial. Many reviews have been written about I the Pi 5 as a new iteration of dual-screencapable SBC desktops, but as a sysadmin, I was more interested in using it in a server context. The low power aspect appeals greatly. The verdict? It’s pretty good. The new generation of Pi is unlike the Pis of the old. Unfortunately, that fact is reflected in the pricing. It is essentially the ‘Premium’ Pi experience. The price increases further when you start to feed in the cost of the peripherals – the essential heatsink and the power supply. The new official power supply can provide 20 watts – far more than previous generations. This is partly to feed the increased CPU power consumption and partly to be more stable when adding external devices via the USB 3 ports. There is no longer onboard sound or standard HDMI. This means buying one or two of the appropriate micro HDMI to full HDMI convertors if looking to use it as a desktop.