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  Luis Gutierrez

  5 out of 5 stars

  GREAT starter kit for dev and non dev

  Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2025

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  Been using this bad boy for six months now to automatically shut down my server when it's not in use, and let me tell you, my electricity bill is thanking me. If you're looking for a smart way to save some cash and automate stuff, this is it.

  What's killer about this kit is that it literally comes with everything you need. No hunting around for extra bits and bobs. And the power adapter? Huge win. Trust me, you don't wanna be stuck trying to find the right one. The parts themselves feel solid, not like some cheap plastic junk. You can tell they put some thought into this.

  Whether you're a hardcore developer or just someone who likes to tinker (like me!), this kit is super easy to get up and running. The assembly was a breeze, no complicated steps or anything. Honestly, if you're even thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi, just grab this kit.

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• 

  Michael F. Griswold

  5 out of 5 stars

  Update & Upgrade from Bridger General (1 Star) to General of the Army (5 Star)!

  Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2019

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  An update and upgrade from Bridger General (1 Star) to General of the Army (5 Star): Shortly after posting my review I was contacted by CanaKit. I went over the product review with them in addition to the only two options I can think of that I didn’t do were changing out the micro HDMI to standard HDMI cable that came with it, and a different make/model TV/monitor. At that point I thought maybe there wasn’t enough power coming out of the micro HDMI connector to the stand HDMI connector from the Pi 4 B to display an image blaming fault on the power supply as state in my review. After going through all the troubleshooting steps described in my Amazon review, and in addition to the ones just explained I felt that there wasn’t anything a technical support technician could do that I didn’t already do but willing to make another “go of it” because there has been a lot of exciting projects on YouTube about the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB. They sent me a new Raspberry Pi 4 4GB Starter Kit - 4GB RAM for me to try out. I received the kit Monday morning on the 4th. Again I followed the instructions to the letter supplied in the kit, putting the Pi together and setting it up correctly and taking my time. The basic same problem as before! No activity and nothing was displayed on the screen (monitor/TV)! I didn’t brother going through the standard troubleshooting steps again because I felt it had to be something entirely different. I decided to try using an old VIZO monitor/TV I had laying around the house instead of my newer Seiki 24-inch TV/monitor I had been using before contacting CanaKit. This time it worked flawlessly! As it turned I did a careful examination on both connectors on each monitor and notice that when I connected the HDMI cable to the newer Seiki 24-inch TV/monitor it wouldn’t fully seat like all the other HDMI cables would, including the one that came with my old Pi 3 B+. I would suggest to anyone having similar issues to first check your connectors on the TV/monitor you will be using before returning the device for a refund. Thanks CanaKit, very thoughtful and kind of you to go out of your way to do this, and much appreciated in helping me getting this amazing device up and running! I will be looking forward to the next upgrade soon!

  Very Disappointed, My Heart is Broken! Was looking forward to using this amazing device as a second desktop PC. Problem: the red power light illuminated on the board, but there is was no other activity and nothing was displayed on my screen (monitor/TV). I checked to ensure that the Micro-SD card was fully seated all the way in the Micro-SD card slot of the Raspberry Pi 4 B board itself, ensured that the Micro-SD card is properly formatted with compatible software, Raspbian Buster the official operating system (OS) for all models of the Raspberry Pi by downloading it and installing it on a Micro-SD card or use the NOOBS Micro-SD card that came with the kit which is the easy installer for the Raspbian OS. I tried booting first from the Micro-SD card with NOOBS installed on it and then using a 32GB Micro-SD card with the the new Raspbian Buster OS for the Raspberry Pi 4 B the new standard version of Raspbian OS, and for all earlier Raspberry Pi models too. Both with no success but both of these Micro-SD cards will work on my old Raspberry Pi 3 B+ that I purchased from Amazon April 1, 2018 and is working great so far! Finally, I checked to see if the device’s EEPROM had become corrupted (rare but possible) by following the recovery instructions on the Raspberry Pi 4 B’s website by removing the Micro-SD card, disconnecting the device from power, then reconnect it. If the green LED does not flash then the EEPROM will need to be reprogramed but the green LED was flashing. Returned the item for full refund. Maybe i'll purchased another one again but not sure when. Might wait until they come out with a Raspberry Pi 4+ next year. I suspect it might be the power supply that comes with the kit and is not enough to power the device. What else could it be?

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  Michael F. Griswold

  5 out of 5 stars

  Update & Upgrade from Bridger General (1 Star) to General of the Army (5 Star)!

  Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2019

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

  An update and upgrade from Bridger General (1 Star) to General of the Army (5 Star): Shortly after posting my review I was contacted by CanaKit. I went over the product review with them in addition to the only two options I can think of that I didn’t do were changing out the micro HDMI to standard HDMI cable that came with it, and a different make/model TV/monitor. At that point I thought maybe there wasn’t enough power coming out of the micro HDMI connector to the stand HDMI connector from the Pi 4 B to display an image blaming fault on the power supply as state in my review. After going through all the troubleshooting steps described in my Amazon review, and in addition to the ones just explained I felt that there wasn’t anything a technical support technician could do that I didn’t already do but willing to make another “go of it” because there has been a lot of exciting projects on YouTube about the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB. They sent me a new Raspberry Pi 4 4GB Starter Kit - 4GB RAM for me to try out. I received the kit Monday morning on the 4th. Again I followed the instructions to the letter supplied in the kit, putting the Pi together and setting it up correctly and taking my time. The basic same problem as before! No activity and nothing was displayed on the screen (monitor/TV)! I didn’t brother going through the standard troubleshooting steps again because I felt it had to be something entirely different. I decided to try using an old VIZO monitor/TV I had laying around the house instead of my newer Seiki 24-inch TV/monitor I had been using before contacting CanaKit. This time it worked flawlessly! As it turned I did a careful examination on both connectors on each monitor and notice that when I connected the HDMI cable to the newer Seiki 24-inch TV/monitor it wouldn’t fully seat like all the other HDMI cables would, including the one that came with my old Pi 3 B+. I would suggest to anyone having similar issues to first check your connectors on the TV/monitor you will be using before returning the device for a refund. Thanks CanaKit, very thoughtful and kind of you to go out of your way to do this, and much appreciated in helping me getting this amazing device up and running! I will be looking forward to the next upgrade soon!

  Very Disappointed, My Heart is Broken! Was looking forward to using this amazing device as a second desktop PC. Problem: the red power light illuminated on the board, but there is was no other activity and nothing was displayed on my screen (monitor/TV). I checked to ensure that the Micro-SD card was fully seated all the way in the Micro-SD card slot of the Raspberry Pi 4 B board itself, ensured that the Micro-SD card is properly formatted with compatible software, Raspbian Buster the official operating system (OS) for all models of the Raspberry Pi by downloading it and installing it on a Micro-SD card or use the NOOBS Micro-SD card that came with the kit which is the easy installer for the Raspbian OS. I tried booting first from the Micro-SD card with NOOBS installed on it and then using a 32GB Micro-SD card with the the new Raspbian Buster OS for the Raspberry Pi 4 B the new standard version of Raspbian OS, and for all earlier Raspberry Pi models too. Both with no success but both of these Micro-SD cards will work on my old Raspberry Pi 3 B+ that I purchased from Amazon April 1, 2018 and is working great so far! Finally, I checked to see if the device’s EEPROM had become corrupted (rare but possible) by following the recovery instructions on the Raspberry Pi 4 B’s website by removing the Micro-SD card, disconnecting the device from power, then reconnect it. If the green LED does not flash then the EEPROM will need to be reprogramed but the green LED was flashing. Returned the item for full refund. Maybe i'll purchased another one again but not sure when. Might wait until they come out with a Raspberry Pi 4+ next year. I suspect it might be the power supply that comes with the kit and is not enough to power the device. What else could it be?

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• 

  Yoda

  5 out of 5 stars

  Awesome little linux box...

  Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2023

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  I finally got my hands on a Canakit after waiting nearly two years for one due to the pandemic supply-line shortages. I had to return the first one back to Amazon due to a defective WiFi. The replacement one is working great without any noticeable issues. I'm using it to run pi-hole and as a server for the UniFi controller. I access it via SSH & XRDT, using putty &/or windows 10 remote desktop. Once resbian is installed & configured, mouse, keyboard, and monitor are not necessary. My next purchase will just be the board, a cheap case & power supply to save money because in my humble opinion the kit is a waste of money because some of those extras <cables > are unnecessary after the initial installation. Thus, the kit is an overkill. Recently, I experienced a corrupted microSD card & wasted time formatting & preparing the new microSD for a new image. I didn't know you could just insert the blank microSD & use network installation option instead. This method is so much easier vs manually downloading & creating a new resbian image, which is time consuming. Installing the UniFi controller on Raspberry Pi 4 was lengthy & a tedious process... it was so frustrating 😤. There are so many old & useless information on the web when you use Google on how to install the UniFi controller on Raspberry Pi 4. Some of those websites sent me to that proverbial rabbit hole. To avoid going to that rabbit hole like me... First, you must use the 64 bit version of the Rasbian OS because Ubiquity no longer supports the 32 bit version. Second, you'll see many useless websites still pushing obsolete info if you use Google for help, the website with the current info is..."PiMylife", hopefully Amazon will not block me for listing it. I'm new to linux. I'm learning useful new linux commands to efficiently operate this amazing little machine 😍. It runs quietly even with the fan running, somewhat a little warm & relatively nimble. This credit card sized PC is highly recommended!

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  Yoda

  5 out of 5 stars

  Awesome little linux box...

  Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2023

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

  I finally got my hands on a Canakit after waiting nearly two years for one due to the pandemic supply-line shortages. I had to return the first one back to Amazon due to a defective WiFi. The replacement one is working great without any noticeable issues. I'm using it to run pi-hole and as a server for the UniFi controller. I access it via SSH & XRDT, using putty &/or windows 10 remote desktop. Once resbian is installed & configured, mouse, keyboard, and monitor are not necessary. My next purchase will just be the board, a cheap case & power supply to save money because in my humble opinion the kit is a waste of money because some of those extras <cables > are unnecessary after the initial installation. Thus, the kit is an overkill. Recently, I experienced a corrupted microSD card & wasted time formatting & preparing the new microSD for a new image. I didn't know you could just insert the blank microSD & use network installation option instead. This method is so much easier vs manually downloading & creating a new resbian image, which is time consuming. Installing the UniFi controller on Raspberry Pi 4 was lengthy & a tedious process... it was so frustrating 😤. There are so many old & useless information on the web when you use Google on how to install the UniFi controller on Raspberry Pi 4. Some of those websites sent me to that proverbial rabbit hole. To avoid going to that rabbit hole like me... First, you must use the 64 bit version of the Rasbian OS because Ubiquity no longer supports the 32 bit version. Second, you'll see many useless websites still pushing obsolete info if you use Google for help, the website with the current info is..."PiMylife", hopefully Amazon will not block me for listing it. I'm new to linux. I'm learning useful new linux commands to efficiently operate this amazing little machine 😍. It runs quietly even with the fan running, somewhat a little warm & relatively nimble. This credit card sized PC is highly recommended!

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  25 people found this helpful

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• 

  Dave

  5 out of 5 stars

  Great little sandbox to get started with Raspberry Pi or jumping off point for another project

  Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2020

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  This Cana kit came with just about everything I needed to get started with my first raspberry pi project. Used this and the ThinLinx OS deployment to setup a dedicated thinclient to use at home to connect to Citrix for work without going downstairs to my main computer setup. Works wonderfully as the raspberry pi hardware is the basis for the official Citrix Workspace Hub hardware (please do understand this is not the same software setup as the workspace hub and Citrix hdx support is based on Citrix example code so your mileage may vary for this purpose, but at half the cost and if you're a tinkerer well worth it - just don't try to get your IT department [or me for that matter] to help you out with this if you try it based on my experience)

  My only disappointment here was that there was only one micro-hdmi to HDMI cable included, but that isn't a fault of the product just one of the distinguishing factors between this and the next kit up)

  I am looking forward to buying more Raspberry Pi's for other projects and now that I've gotten my first project out of the way I likely won't go with a kit and will specialize for the project now that I have a feel for it. Though the kit does make for a great initial sandbox and who knows for random tinkering I may do another kit order or two.

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• 

  Jake Hayden

  4 out of 5 stars

  Great product overall, power supply leaves something to be desired

  Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2026

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  This is a great kit, it's got just about everything you could need for your Raspberry Pi to function to its best ability. And it's got everything you need (apart from keyboard, mouse, monitor obviously) to get going. My main gripe is that the power supply has the shape of plug that makes it hog multiple slots in a vertical alignment of plugs so that it won't fit neatly into a power supply. The previous model I had from CanaKit for the 3+ had a plug with the sideways alignment so it wouldn't hog multiple slots, so this is a step down in that regard. This is kind of a big deal in today's world, and it's mystifying why they would've taken a step backward with this design. However, the fact that Amazon's version of this kit has the toggle-able power switch and the manufacturer's site doesn't, for the same price, makes this a better value. I suppose you could use a different power supply than what comes with the kit, but it's unfortunate that they provide one that's got this weakness.

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  One person found this helpful

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• 

  Chris C

  5 out of 5 stars

  A Ton Of Support Everywhere (YouTube, All Over The Internet, Raspbian.org, AND From CanaKit!

  Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2020

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  What you get is a desktop computer that isn't a desktop computer. It has a fully functional (Claws) e-mail client, a fully functional (Chromium) browser and a fully functionally desktop Libre Suite that uses about 15 watts. It's under four inches long by two and a half inches wide and one inch high. I'm guessing it would be great for a 20 foot shipping container home with off'-grid solar. It's got lots of developer tools and lost of games included. lots of GUI settings in Preferences. It's got WiFi, Bluetooth, and Gigabit Ethernet (That can all ge turned off or unplugged at will.)

  Since this is a CanaKit, you also get stick-on heat sinks and a tiny, silent fan, a plastic case, a really nice quick start booklet, a GPIO (that 40 or so pin IO connector in there) reference sheet, and a 32 gig memory card that's got a Raspbian OS image on it. You come up with a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse (optional if you REALLY know whatyou're doing), you put it together (no tools), plug everything in, and you're off to the races. Install starts the first time you turn it on and it's flawless and largely unattended. Plug in everything you plan to have | can think of. The more you have plugged in the first time, the less headaches later, trying to set it up manually. Murphy's Law Disclaimer: I don't know what happens if you have a power outage as it's installing because I didn't have one - and I have some off-grid solar anyway....

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  5 people found this helpful

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• 

  Nick Shades

  5 out of 5 stars

  Learn Linux, change the world!

  Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2020

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  This is the best version of the Raspberry Pi with the best all in one kit, yet!

  I got this to run a local web server thru an Ubuntu Server Stack. This went together quicker than my Intel NUC.

  A background with Linux is definitely a plus, but anyone who knows their way around a computer, a search engine, and has patience can figure this little bad boy out.

  The 4gb of on board ram are not expandable, but they are all you need in order for this to be a desktop computer to do all your basic computing needs, or more advanced tasks if you are able to install a minimal system.

  While some folks will use this for tinkering on a hardware level, this particular unit excels as home-based server for things like file storage, media broadcast, VPN and similar.

  Easy to put together, but my one single complaint is that the copy of NOOBS it comes with is almost a year old and does not include any of the 64 bit options out of the box.

  Considering that this unit is capable of handling a 64 bit architecture and there are ARM bases distributions available in official releases that work for it, it is frustrating that they were not included on the memory card it comes with.

  However, just about anyone with another laptop or desktop can install one of them with a little search engine gumption and patience, onto the SD card it comes with or another SD card.

  If you have read this far, buy two or more 32GB MICRO SD cards to have in addition to the one 32GB MicroSD card that this kit comes with.

  It will really make a difference if you want to play around with other systems, setups, or always have a ready made backup to fall back on when you are tinkering around.

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  Nick Shades

  5 out of 5 stars

  Learn Linux, change the world!

  Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2020

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

  This is the best version of the Raspberry Pi with the best all in one kit, yet!

  I got this to run a local web server thru an Ubuntu Server Stack. This went together quicker than my Intel NUC.

  A background with Linux is definitely a plus, but anyone who knows their way around a computer, a search engine, and has patience can figure this little bad boy out.

  The 4gb of on board ram are not expandable, but they are all you need in order for this to be a desktop computer to do all your basic computing needs, or more advanced tasks if you are able to install a minimal system.

  While some folks will use this for tinkering on a hardware level, this particular unit excels as home-based server for things like file storage, media broadcast, VPN and similar.

  Easy to put together, but my one single complaint is that the copy of NOOBS it comes with is almost a year old and does not include any of the 64 bit options out of the box.

  Considering that this unit is capable of handling a 64 bit architecture and there are ARM bases distributions available in official releases that work for it, it is frustrating that they were not included on the memory card it comes with.

  However, just about anyone with another laptop or desktop can install one of them with a little search engine gumption and patience, onto the SD card it comes with or another SD card.

  If you have read this far, buy two or more 32GB MICRO SD cards to have in addition to the one 32GB MicroSD card that this kit comes with.

  It will really make a difference if you want to play around with other systems, setups, or always have a ready made backup to fall back on when you are tinkering around.

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  15 people found this helpful

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• 

  Stan Kyles

  5 out of 5 stars

  Nice mini-computer

  Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2026

  Size: 4GB RAM

  Verified Purchase

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  This was very easy to assemble, and the design is pretty good. I was able to be up and running in about 30 minutes. from unbox to surfing the web. I plan on buy a few more for various projects.

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