The 3B+ is two models (7 years?) out of date. Its impressive that it remains available.
Given the tiny price increases over time it seems pointless to me to even consider the 3B+ given the obvious and substantial benefits the later models provide.
I never liked the Pi3's. They were right on the limit of speeds possible with the old 40nm node size.
The Pi3 at first even failed arithmetic tests (Linpack), later the engineers tweaked the voltages and it became stable (just). The 3B+ had some very clever heat sinking using the PCB ground plane which helped. But even then it was virtually impossible to overclock it (a measure of its reserves of stability).
The 4B comes along with a die shrink to 28nm and that brought huge safety margins. It ran cool. Add the GiGe directly connected ethernet, USB 3, fast memory etc, and the Pi4 was a winner. Obviously for a NAS, fast networking and fast disk access is a good thing.
The Pi5 had a die shrink to 16nm and again is very stable. Its $5 more for the 4GB version ...
The Cortex-A76 cores are fast enough to comfortably run a full desktop if you ever change your mind about keeping it for a NAS.
The 4 and 5 models have the option of 8GB of memory. More than you need for a NAS, but it never does any harm. Linux will use as much memory as possible for the disk cache which might help if the NAS is heavily loaded.
Given the tiny price increases over time it seems pointless to me to even consider the 3B+ given the obvious and substantial benefits the later models provide.
I never liked the Pi3's. They were right on the limit of speeds possible with the old 40nm node size.
The Pi3 at first even failed arithmetic tests (Linpack), later the engineers tweaked the voltages and it became stable (just). The 3B+ had some very clever heat sinking using the PCB ground plane which helped. But even then it was virtually impossible to overclock it (a measure of its reserves of stability).
The 4B comes along with a die shrink to 28nm and that brought huge safety margins. It ran cool. Add the GiGe directly connected ethernet, USB 3, fast memory etc, and the Pi4 was a winner. Obviously for a NAS, fast networking and fast disk access is a good thing.
The Pi5 had a die shrink to 16nm and again is very stable. Its $5 more for the 4GB version ...
The Cortex-A76 cores are fast enough to comfortably run a full desktop if you ever change your mind about keeping it for a NAS.
The 4 and 5 models have the option of 8GB of memory. More than you need for a NAS, but it never does any harm. Linux will use as much memory as possible for the disk cache which might help if the NAS is heavily loaded.
Statistics: Posted by jahboater — Mon Apr 15, 2024 3:53 pm