Fun & learning which crypto software for my Raspberry Pi 5

[Cricktor]

How many Pi's do you own ?

Now that you ask, I may've lost track counting.    It's still in the single digits, four 4Bs and one Compute Module 4. They are fun to play with and reasonably energy efficient, so it doesn't hurt too much to run multiple of them.

I wouldn't run an IBD from scratch, if I don't need to when I have enough samples of full blochchain data. The last IBD on one of my Raspis was more an experiment to check how long it takes with optimized dbcache setting. In the experiment my Raspi finished IBD in just 4 days, but that was some time ago. Now, I assume it'll take more like 5 days (storage being a SATA SSD).

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Mini PCs can be quite efficient, not sure if in the same range as a Raspi 5 though. You can have more RAM than with a Raspi 5 easily which is in most cases always a nice-to-have and proper storage with NVMe SSDs is a given (the Raspi 5 needs a daughter board to use NVMe storage via PCIe; at least a good improvement over a Raspi 4B).

[philipma1957]

I've got 682GB in blocks & 11GB in chainstate folders. There's 953GB available. Mine's a 1TB Silicon Power A55 3D NAND SLC 2.5 SSD. If I'm happy with the RPi5 setup I'm going to buy an Argon case for internal m.2 2280 SSD. If I'm able to find a low price 2TB m.2 I'll use it.

With the 953GB you are fine and set for the next two years if the chain's size maintains 90GB increase per year. Argon case for internal m.2 2280 SSD will obviously provide better cooling and compact setup when you upgrade to 2TB m.2.

And it's also worth mentioning that the chain's size increases rapidly, making 1TB not suitable for long-term.

According to Jameson Lopp's Bitcoin 2024 annual review:

During 2024 the Bitcoin blockchain grew from 537.9 GB to 626.5 GB

Pretty big increase, isn't it?

That's over 90GB increase which is  way too big, if Blockchain continues to grow significantly like this 2TB might not be sustainable for a period of 5-6 years that is when running an unpruned Blockchain since the current bitcoin Blockchain size is around 770GB( blocks + chain state directory + index directory).

5  years is fine by then 4tb ssds will be very cheap and upgrade to that.

But i did enough nodes to know 1tb is small and not a good move for an  unpruned node.

At op find a 2tb ssd either sata or m.2 it should last for 4 years easynpeasy then you can do 4tb

[ABCbits]

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Mini PCs can be quite efficient, not sure if in the same range as a Raspi 5 though. You can have more RAM than with a Raspi 5 easily which is in most cases always a nice-to-have and proper storage with NVMe SSDs is a given (the Raspi 5 needs a daughter board to use NVMe storage via PCIe; at least a good improvement over a Raspi 4B).

I don't know what exactly you mean by "same range". But in terms of price, the gap between Pi 5 16GB (along with all parts) and Mini PC (along with RAM and SSD you buy yourself) is rather small.

But i did enough nodes to know 1tb is small and not a good move for an  unpruned node.

Yeah. Using filesystem that support compression (such as zfs and btrfs) can be used as workaround to delay getting bigger storage, but it's probably not worth the hassle.

[arabspaceship123]

It's funny you don't know how many Pi's you own. I'm waiting to get my first. Buying one's a good way to learn about Pi & using it as a btc node. I've got bitcoin's blockchain downloaded so won't need to run IBD from scratch. It doesn't take long to transfer from another drive.

How many Pi's do you own ?

Now that you ask, I may've lost track counting.    It's still in the single digits, four 4Bs and one Compute Module 4. They are fun to play with and reasonably energy efficient, so it doesn't hurt too much to run multiple of them.

I wouldn't run an IBD from scratch, if I don't need to when I have enough samples of full blochchain data. The last IBD on one of my Raspis was more an experiment to check how long it takes with optimized dbcache setting. In the experiment my Raspi finished IBD in just 4 days, but that was some time ago. Now, I assume it'll take more like 5 days (storage being a SATA SSD).