Raspberry Pi 500+ Is a Tinkerer’s Dream With Real Workload Power

Now, before you start dreaming of running Cyberpunk 2077 on this thing, pump the brakes. The Raspberry Pi 500+ isn’t exactly what you’d call a gaming powerhouse. But here’s where it gets weird – and kind of awesome.

Some absolute madlad of a modder has already figured out how to connect an external RX 7900 XT graphics card to this thing. I know, I know – it sounds completely bonkers, but that’s the beautiful chaos of the Pi community for you! While the built-in graphics won’t run AAA titles, the potential for external GPU shenanigans is genuinely exciting.

Why This Thing Actually Matters (Beyond the Novelty Factor)

Look, at $200 for the base unit or $220 for the desktop kit, the Raspberry Pi 500+ is positioned in this weird sweet spot where it’s too expensive to be an impulse buy but too interesting to ignore.

The 16GB of RAM means you can actually run some serious workloads on this thing. We’re talking:

• Large language models (because apparently everyone’s running AI now)
• Computational fluid dynamics (fancy!)
• Build servers for your coding projects
• Keeping truly enormous numbers of browser tabs open (finally, someone understands my workflow)

The Keyboard That Doubles as Your PC

The most bonkers thing about the Raspberry Pi 500+ is that it’s literally built into a mechanical keyboard. The whole thing is designed to be opened up (they even include the tool), and there’s an internal M.2 bay that can fit any 2280-format SSD you throw at it.

And here’s the kicker – the keyboard runs on an RP2040 chip with QMK firmware. You know what that means? Someone’s definitely going to port Doom to run directly on the keyboard. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when, and I’m genuinely excited to see it happen.

The Verdict: Weird, Wonderful, and Surprisingly Practical

The Raspberry Pi 500+ is one of those products that shouldn’t make sense but somehow does. It’s a mechanical keyboard that happens to be a full desktop computer, with enough power to handle legitimate workloads and enough quirkiness to keep the tinkering community happy for years.

Is it going to replace your gaming rig? Absolutely not. Is it going to sit on your desk looking all sleek and silver while quietly handling your daily computing tasks with surprising competence? Yeah, probably. And honestly, in a world where everything seems to be getting more complicated, there’s something refreshingly straightforward about a computer that’s just… a really good keyboard.