Just did some changes to my set-up, and I'm finding there's more bits of computer hardware that I would like. Here is the current list:
* A self-powered USB 3.0 hub. (Requirement: Must be able to power a 2.5 inch hard drive, and must be compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4 model B.)
* A USB swtich, so that I can easily switch my keyboard and mouse between the Pi and the laptop. (I have an HDMI switch for switching the display already, and it's extremely convenient.) USB 3 is not needed here (in fact, the one USB 3 device that's currently connected must stay connected, or else the Pi becomes unusable until a hard reboot).
* An SSD, to replace the old one in my desktop, so I can re-install Linux without having to trash the previous installation (and then I can consider wiping and re-purposing it for the Pi if I so choose). The desktop currently has a 120GB SSD and a 2TB HDD; the latter will remain. The Pi is currently running off a 320GB laptop hard drive. Must be a traditional SATA device (no M.2 support on this computer).
* Perhaps an M.2 SATA SSD for my small laptop (which doesn't support nvme, and currently runs of its built-in 64GB eMMC).
* A GPU for the desktop; cpu is an intel i5 4670. To be considered, it *must* be better than the Intel HD 4600 (otherwise there's no point!), and it must not be too expensive. Furthermore, NVIDIA will not be considered, so it pretty much needs to be AMD. Ideally, I would like ot to be able to handle Bard's Tale 4, and it needs to be compatible with games like Ikenfell and Stranger of Sword City Revisited. (There does appear to be a PCIe slot available.)
* An e-flat clarinet. (Ok, this isn't computer hardware, but it's still something I want, so I'm putting it on the list anyway.)

So, any advice on any of these?

Edit: Forgot to mention that I will not consider NVIDIA GPUs.

Edit 2: Why the low rating?

ah the daily spam , pls ban these

*Warning: if you are not interested in a discussion in this thread, please do not participate and please refrain from being rude to others - ponczo_.

I want my new computer nvidia 3080 for which I have been waiting months! I want dizzy at 16k over four monitors!

Honestly this period is the worst time to go buying a GPU. For example, AMD has just released the rx6700 and it comes with an absurd MSRP $500. I'm willing to bet that 1-2 years from now, when the market swings the other way, you'll be able to buy it for $200. Unfortunately it's a seller's market, since everybody is locked in, and is looking to upgrade their computers.

About the rest of your components, it might be a good idea to buy now, if you can get a decent price, because I have a feeling that the prices are going to skyrocket on all electronics.

Any specific suggestions?

Get a used GPU. I'm seeing 1080s (I'm an nvidia fan and their model numbers make sense to me, so I have no idea what the equivalent is). PS why the nvidia hate?

I had a Radeon card ages ago and it was garbage. Nothing would work correctly on it. I've been nVidia since GeForce 5000 series.

Right now is a great time to get a graphics card. Tons of great cards are on the used market and a used GPU will usually last a very long time.

Don't forget about your PSU requirements. Be sure it supports it. I haven't seen a laptop with eMMC that supports an SSD.


Newegg and Amazon have great deals on SSDs. Samsung makes the best. Don't go cheap in them. You roll the dice on the controller board on the cheap ones, and if the board is bad your drive is dead. Se die really quickly. And none are as fast or as long living as Samsungs (firecuda is faster, I should add).

NVIDIA does not provide open source drivers for their GPUs, and I believe actively hinders attempts to make high performance open source drivers.

Using proprietary drivers requires me to trust NVIDIA with kernel level access to my machine (and nobody is allowed to audit the source without signing an NDA), and it also means I would have less freedom in Linux kernel versions.

Also, NVIDIA has some artificial limitations, enforced by drivers, on some of their cards which I consider to be DRM, like not allowing passthrough to a VM (something I might actually try to do at some point), and more recently intentionally reducing the performance of certain calculations. I've read online that my model (Lenovo 110S, 11-inch screen) has such a slot, but perhaps it might make sense to open it to check.

Edit: Forgot to mention, in the anti-NVIDIA part of this post, that I use Linux, which is a rather significant detail here (as much of the argument wouldn't make sense otherwise).

Unpowered USB hub - You might find one somewhere but the Pi4 comes with a 3A recommended PSU (15w with maximum recommended 1.2A (6w) for output via USB ports), and USB 2.5" HDD's typically eat up most of the 0.9A that a USB 3.0 A port can put out (without also needing to power a hub in between them, let alone other devices too). USB C can output more power (1.5-3.0A depending on motherboard) but even then a Pi4 will be at the extreme of what it can put out as a single port without also needing to power a hub plus other devices that will be plugged in so you could see instability issues / crashes. Virtually all unpowered hubs are for very low power stuff like 2-3x 100-200ma each keyboards, mice, game controllers, USB sticks, etc, at the same time vs hanging 1x 1-3A device off of it. You might find one that "technically" works but from the manufacturers point of view it's easier to bundle a power brick than to double the size of their customer support team to deal with many more "Help I plugged in x device and it doesn't work!" support calls.

SATA SSD - Crucial MX500, Samsung 860 EVO, WD Blue / Green are all SATA (both 2.5" & M2)

USB Switch - There's a number on Amazon. Most people I know with a Pi though end up buying one of those mini Bluetooth keyboards just for the Pi that saves a ton of space and is a lot easier to carry around vs full size keyboard + mouse + USB switch.

GPU - Good luck with finding any half-decent GPU (even budget) without extortionate ripoffs at the moment. It really is totally the wrong year to buy one. RX 5500XT is the lowest "mainstream" AMD GPU but it doesn't help that nVidia & AMD have both been neglecting low-end GPU's somewhat over the past year and over-focussing on the top-end, and that was before the miners and the scalpers screwed the whole market up...

I'm actually looking for one that's powered, so that I can plug in another device, like a smartphone without having the USB hard drive (actually a SATA hard drive with an adapter cable) disconnect, making the system unusable.

There actually is a USB hub connected to it, but the hard drive isn't connected to the hub, and the hub I believe is only USB 2.0. Also worth noting that this hub has the two devices I want to be able to easily share with another computer, a keyboard and a mouse. When I'm *not* carrying the Pi around, however, it's much nicer to use a full-sized keyboard, as I am right now.

In any case, the switch is intended for home use, not for use out of the house. If I leave the house, I'll take at least one of my laptops with me, and only take the Pi if it's a special situation (like if I decide to give a demonstration that requires one).

I was looking in the shops for AMD graphics cards the other day (3d ago?) and saw three (2 models) of them to my surprise and looked closer at one and when I was going to look at the other model all three were sold out, minutes after having been added to the shop. There simply are no AMD cards anywhere here where I live in northern Europe.

I was going to make the same SSD recommendation list that AB2012 already made above me but with less detail.

My mum has a no brand USB switch that is so so but for things like that I suspect no reputable brands make them anymore. You will probably have to take your chances on whatever you can manage to find.

I hope you removed the Windows backup partition when installing Linux so you got the full 64GB of eMMC.

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I wish Nvidia would play nicer with Linux.

C'mon, that isn't even funny anymore.

My 1/2 cent:

Any self-powered USB 3.0 will do (as long as it isn't counterfeit).

2.5" SSD vary quite a bit on quality and performance but I've bought quite a few Kingston A400 to use as pen drives (at the time those SSD launched it was actually much cheaper to buy SSD's than USB pen drives of the same size) and while not the fastest copying big files (the 240GB is no where close to saturate the SATA bandwith), they do the job perfectly as a boot drive. Even while abused as pen drives, never managed to kill one.
With that said, if you're not going for big sizes, the price diference from a well regarded brand with nice controller and good performance (like Samsung 870) is not very diferent from a well regarded brand with cheap stuff (like the mentioned Kingston A400).
Also, keep in mind a 240 GB SSD is faster than a 120GB SSD. Up to a point, the bigger the size, the faster the SSD is...

Regarding the GPU, there are no GPU's available at the moment. The last time I was able to buy a sub 300Euros GPU that was not overpriced or a nVidia GT1030 was mid January, and to be able to, I've phoned 10+ small shops that didn't sell online and found one shop that still had a couple of GPU's at decent prices.
The performance of the GPU, only you can decide what's good enough but any new GPU on the non-existent market, like the nVidia GT1030 or Radeon RX 550 are way faster than the intel HD4600, close to a order of magnitude.
I cant recall a single low end GPU launch since the GT1030/RX550 4 years ago. nVidia GTX 1650 Super was a good priced card but the AMD equivalent, the RX5500 was not as competitive overall.

I had good luck buying old RAM from CEX shop, do you have a equivalent shop in your country?

Search "ide to sata adapter 2.5" on your favorite search engine, plenty availabe but depending on the HDD tray size on the laptop, may fit or not. If you're feeling a little DIY, you can open the SSD and remove the case entirelly, thus saving a bit space to be able to fit the adapter.
I had 3 IDE to SATA adapters on the past (3.5" and el-chepo chineesium from ebay, 7 or 8 years ago) and all of them failed in less than a month.

A google search reveals that there do exist PATA SSDs, but they're rather expensive for the amount of storage you get.

Or, you could even get something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-IIDE-MSAT-2-5-Inch-Converter-Aluminum/dp/B017VQT5YW/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=pata+ssd&qid=1616077109&sr=8-8

My old desktop has 16GB of RAM, so I don't really need to worry about it (though lots of browser tabs do tend to eat it up).

The Raspberry Pi I'm typing this on has 4GB of RAM, and it rarely goes above 2GB used, to the point where I would say that the 2GB model is enough for most users.