Choosing a RPi model

Gherry

Hello,

I’ve decided to try to build a magic mirror and, since I’m still in the planning stage, my biggest doubt is which Raspberry to buy.

On one hand I’d like to get a RPi 5, on the other hand the Raspberry will be on 24/7 and the latest model is power hungry, especially compared to older ones.
Also more power means an higher electrical bill and more heat to dissipate (since it will be in a closed frame that’s obviously a problem both because of the enclosed nature of the installation and because of the small space available so I cannot use big heat sinks or fans).

Cost is not an issue since RPi4 costs more or less equal to RPi5

If this helps, I plan to use just a few modules:

a calendar
an IR touch screen
some kind of home assistant module to get some data out of HA
-(optional) a face recognition module, still debating on this tho.

The monitor will be a standard 1920x1080p@60Hz and I don’t plan to do much with MM but these few things (no audio in or out, no AI, no animations).

Which Raspberry would work best in my scenario?
Is RPi 3B+ too old? Is 4B better? Or do I just go with 5?

And, last but not least, how much RAM do I actually need?
I don’t want to buy one to find myself in need of an upgrade in 6 month or 1 year.

Thank you in advance!

sdetweil

@Gherry I answered in Reddit

noholdsbard

@Gherry
I chose to go with a server / client configuration as I wanted multiple displays around the house with the same information.

Server is an RPi3+ and clients are RPi Zero 2W’s.

I use Dietpi as it has the least amount of overhead for both system. The server was easy to set up on Dietpi, same as a normal setup the RPi OS.

For the client, I can provide a bash script that configures the client. It uses a minimal set of installation packages (under Trixie) in Kiosk mode (no window manager).

I’ve also set cron jobs to turn the display on/off during night. I also have aliases setup to control the client.

All the best,
W.