The new Raspberry Pi is here, and it’s better than ever, with a big boost in processor power and enhanced peripheral support. What’s more, the price is still absurdly low. It’s hardly surprising that when the first shipment of Raspberry Pi 5 boards arrived in October 2023, they sold out almost immediately – although that might also have something to do with the post-pandemic chip shortage, which for the past “few years has made most Raspberry Pi models almost impossible to buy.

Happily, more Raspberry Pi 5 boards are already hitting the shelves via Australian suppliers such as Pi Australia and Core Electronics, so you should have no difficulty getting hold of one. And perhaps for the first time, we’d encourage you to consider one not only for hobbyist projects, but as an everyday desktop computer.

Can you really use the Raspberry Pi 5 as your desktop PC?

If you’ve tried using an older Raspberry Pi board, you might question whether it’s fast or flexible enough to use as a regular, general-purpose PC. But recent versions of the hardware have already proven themselves viable for a desktop role: when the pandemic struck, Raspberry Pi said it saw a rapid increase in the use of Raspberry Pi 4 for home working and studying, and in November 2020 it unveiled the Raspberry Pi 400, with a compact keyboard inspired by classic single-box machines such as the BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum.

The new hardware in the Raspberry