Bitcoin Full Node on Raspberry Pi 400

[pawanjain]

I am a passionate tech enthusiast and for some reason I like buying tech gadgets. While the rest of my fellow mates are into cars and motorbikes, I am into laptops and desktops.
This craze drove me to purchase an ever wanted Raspberry Pi. I looked into the latest one and bought a Raspberry Pi 400.
At first I thought of using it as a web server and browsing stuff but the moral bitcoiner in me got awake.
I am now running a bitcoin full node on my Raspberry Pi 400 and below are the details how I set it up.

I purchased a full kit of Raspberry Pi 400 for $120
I had to buy a monitor separately and bought an LG 22 inch monitor for $115
For the bitcoin full node I bought a WD 1.5TB HDD for $55

So the total cost of the whole setup was $290
I bought it in India and used a conversion rate of 1USD = 75 INR

And the setup looks like this



Beginners : This can be your side project if you an afford this investment (you can reduce cost on the monitor and HDD). This is fun!

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[Yogee]

.....Beginners : This can be your side project if you an afford this investment (you can reduce cost on the monitor and HDD). This is fun!

Pretty cool. I have little idea about prices of gadgets and devices but I find $290 pretty cheap. Most newbies are probably making that kind of money on this bullrun hehe. Perhaps you can also link a guide for those who are interested?

[pawanjain]

.....Beginners : This can be your side project if you an afford this investment (you can reduce cost on the monitor and HDD). This is fun!

Pretty cool. I have little idea about prices of gadgets and devices but I find $290 pretty cheap. Most newbies are probably making that kind of money on this bullrun hehe. Perhaps you can also link a guide for those who are interested?

I would be glad to help anyone to set it up but I thought as this is a global forum it won't make much sense to put up links to these products as I bought it from Indian websites.
But yeah for the Indian guys out there you can buy the monitor and HDD on amazon and the raspberry pi on electronicscomp.com

And we already have guides to install bitcoin core on the official bitcoin github page.

[dkbit98]

I love this Raspberry Pi 400 compact computer built into keyboard with specs enough for most average users who want to run Bitcoin node.
Most modern monitors have multiple hdmi and other ports so you can connect Pi 400 and use it as your secondary device, so you don't have to buy new monitor or display.
Price for Pi 400 is very decent and it has same specs like Raspberry Pi 4 with 4 GB ram that cost around $50. but big advantage for Pi 400 is that it runs much cooler than regular Pi4.
Perfect setup for Bitcoin full node.

[odolvlobo]

I recommend that anyone interested in this look up established RPi node projects such as RaspiBolt (https://stadicus.github.io/RaspiBolt/) and RaspiBlitz (https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz).

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

I was reading over different topologies and experiences running a node on Raspberri Pi, and while there are quite a bunch of documented cases around, quite a few mention overheating issues when running the Bitcoin node 24/7 for an extensive period of time, even on Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. I believe most I saw were on 4GB, so 8GB may reduce disk access (that, and playing around with the parameters such as dbcache).

The external WD HDD, on the image, seems to draw it’s power from the Raspberry Pi 400, so I wonder if an SSD (obviously more expensive) would contribute significantly to keeping the whole topology cooler in the long run (besides boosting speed).

[dkbit98]

The external WD HDD, on the image, seems to draw it’s power from the Raspberry Pi 400, so I wonder if an SSD (obviously more expensive) would contribute significantly to keeping the whole topology cooler in the long run (besides boosting speed).

HDD may be cheaper but it also produce some noise (that can be reduced with some silencer cases like I have for my HDD) and for SSD there is literally no noise at all.
I would however choose SSD with longer warranty, something like Samsung SSD or Seagate Barracuda 2TB could be found for around $200 with five year warranty.
Prices are going down so I would even be happy with 1TB because I know that will buy larger SSD in few years.

Additionally, Pi 400 is a bit faster than Pi 4 because Pi 400 due to faster clock speed (1.5GHz vs 1.8GHz). However, Pi 400 has 1 less USB port.

And I think that Pi 400 can also be overclocked to 2.2 GHz and give even better performance with slightly higher temperatures.

[NeuroticFish]

I hope it's not off-topic, but I've seen second-hand older generation Intel NUC (I3-4010U/SSD 120GB/8GB DDR3) at 135$.
At this price, with SSD included, it looks to me a lot better than any RasPi, for this job. Am I missing something?

[pawanjain]

The external WD HDD, on the image, seems to draw it’s power from the Raspberry Pi 400, so I wonder if an SSD (obviously more expensive) would contribute significantly to keeping the whole topology cooler in the long run (besides boosting speed).

Yes, the Raspberry Pi 400 emerges out lesser heat when compared to previous models due to the thick aluminium sheet mounted on the back.
I did have a spare 480 GB Kingston SSD and but for some reason it wasn't working fast on the Raspberry Pi may be because of the low processor I guess.
I even tried installing the OS on the HDD directly but since I was booting through an external storage through USB port every time I move the Pi to use the keyboard the HDD used to get disconnected and the Pi used to freeze. Eventually I had to install the OS on the Micro SD card itself and everything is sorted.
Decent speed and the external storage is quite sufficient for more than 5 years from now to store the block data.

And I think that Pi 400 can also be overclocked to 2.2 GHz and give even better performance with slightly higher temperatures.

Yes we can overclock the Pi 400 to 2.2 GHz. So far there's no necessity for me to overclock. May be in future I might overclock it to 2 GHz still saving 0.2 GHz 

I hope it's not off-topic, but I've seen second-hand older generation Intel NUC (I3-4010U/SSD 120GB/8GB DDR3) at 135$.
At this price, with SSD included, it looks to me a lot better than any RasPi, for this job. Am I missing something?

Yup, you are right. I could have also bought a second hand laptop with better configuration than Pi at the same cost of the whole setup.
But there's something about the Raspberry Pi. So far I am happy with the setup.

[dkbit98]

I don't know if you are still running Bitcoin full node on your Raspberry Pi, but adding few heat sinks can significantly reduce working temperatures for 20 or 30 degrees, and adding a fan will reduce temperature even more.
This heatsinks are really cheap, can be purchased for few bucks and they should prolong life for your device and your Bitcoin node will run smoother.
Adding them on Raspberry Pi components is similar like you would do on normal computer so you need Thermal tape for that but it is included in some heatsink packages.
Pi 400 is a bit cooler than regular Pi but with this you can easily reduce temperatures on any Raspberry device.


Example 3-pack for $1.95: https://www.pishop.us/product/aluminum-heatsink-for-raspberry-pi-4b-3-pack/