Raspberry Pi 5 Essential Kit - 8GB

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The Raspberry Pi 5 comes with some layout and power requirement changes. For those upgrading an existing project to the Raspberry Pi 5, this kit includes the parts that you'll need to update. The 5 is a lot more power hungry, so included is the new 27W Type-C PD Wall Adapter (North American Plug). In more than just a new configuration; the new official case also includes a fan, a previously sold-separately component. The new case also features the ability to mount HATs to the Pi 5 while keeping it protected.

These two components are included in this kit with an 8GB model of the new Raspberry Pi 5.

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  • Member #583403 / about a year ago / 4

    Delivery estimates for those who ordered late October?

    • Hello 1854082!

      Just this week, we have begun to receive shipments from the Pi Foundation to fulfill a chunk of backorders for the Pi5 boards and our Pi5 kits.

      Starting next week and again in January and as we advance, you can expect Monthly Updates from us in the first week of each month. As a reseller of Pi boards, we cannot guarantee exact quantity numbers or ship dates, and some months, we may not have much to report on at all, but these emails will contain that information.

      (I also apologize for any repeated information. We're just trying to respond to as many people as we can)

      Hopefully, this helps!

    • androomerrill / about a year ago / 2

      I can tell you I ordered 2 on September 28th and still nada.

      • TitusFFX / about a year ago / 1

        Hopefully it arives before Christmas since was a gift.

        • Member #1855395 / about a year ago / 1

          I wouldn’t hold my breath. I place a pre-order just a few hours after they went live and it’s still crickets. Meanwhile my buddy has had 2 separate Pi 5’s preorders he place AFTER mine deliver from Cana Kit. Oh, and they were somehow able to give regular shipping eta updates, but SparkFun can’t figure it out…. Live and learn, I guess.

    • TitusFFX / about a year ago / 2

      Have you heard back anything? Some I know already have them but not all suppliers yet apparently.

  • Member #1858309 / about a year ago / 1

    Is it a genuine Raspbery Pi charger?

  • Member #657451 / about a year ago / 1

    Would you recommend this if this is your first R-Pi?

    • Pearce / about a year ago / 1

      It depends on the use case. But generally the 5 or the Zero 2 W would be the best options at the time of this comment.

  • Member #657451 / about a year ago / 1

    How much info comes with the Raspberry Pi 5 Essential Kit - 8GB? Quick start guide, block diagram, that sort of thing?

    • Pearce / about a year ago / 1

      All info is online and available through the Raspberry Pi website.

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5

Based on 10 ratings:

Currently viewing all customer reviews.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Solid piece of kit!

Pi is pretty powerful and the case is great! You need to get a case or you will be sad when you short out your pi!!

Pi 5 is questionably worth it over the 4, especially with the lack of software support right now given the change in bootloader. If you have a very specific project in mind, check compatibility first !!

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Three improvements would make it perfect

The case fits well, and the fan is great. It is a little difficult to remove the SD card, but that isn't done often. There might be some way to make it easer to grasp the card. The hole for the 40 pin cable connector is way smaller than the cable I have. Certainly I can enlarge that opening, but it should be made that way. There is no opening for camera wires. Again, I can modify the case, but why was this overlooked?

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Huge improvement in performance and utility

The Pi 5 board is huge improvement in its performance and utility over its predecessors! I'm currently using it for a RetroPie arcade project. I had tried this with the Pi 3 but, had performance issues and glitches with the controllers. The pi 5 really excels in its emulation and control in the RetroPie arcade project. Next step is to upgrade from the SDCard storage to a NVMe PCIe based storage for better reliability and speed. The Essential Kit from Sparkfun includes enclosure, fan and power supply. All of which works well for the current application. I expect to change the enclosure to accommodate space for the NVMe PCIe storage solution once I decide.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Great for jungle photos

we are using them to create scientific equipment for studying insect biodiversity here in panama. We got the Pi5 teamed up with some of the newer 64mp arducams (get the owlsight, not the hawkeye! better compatibility). and the pi5's are running great so far. We even made a script to use the RTC battery and auto-wake functions so you don't need a pijuice.

sparkfun accidentally didn't send us a couple of the pis we ordered, but they remedied the situation right away. thanks!

1 of 1 found this helpful:

A perfect little PC

Performance much better than RPi 4, it actually can be used as a secondary PC. The kit was easy to assemble and fan uses dedicated header, thus leaving all of the GPIO pins free. The assembled kit looks nice. The only (very minor) gripe with this kit is that power supply does not have an on/off switch on the cable.

PS Running Ubuntu 23.10 on it without any problems.

easy set up. Way more powerful than my Pi 4

Using it for some ham radio applications and python development. So far it's way more powerful then I'm able to exercise it. Glad I have room to grow.

Deside where you are going first

This is a hot little board, but if you want to upgrade to a SSD, the big ones go beneath the CPU card so the case will no longer fit. The big blower heat sink and fan is something else I wanted and at that point the whole case and fan are no longer in use.

The power supply is nice, I definitely recommend that.

Awsome experience

I bought the Pi 5 for my grandson and he is absolutely thrilled with it. While supplies were extremely tight Sparkfun was willing to manage backorders. This freed me from chasing the parts as they popped up on-line and sold-out before you could type your credit card number. I am thrilled with Sparkfun's customer focus.