Question 1

What can I use this for?

Accepted Answer

There are plenty of lists online, but I think the primary uses for standard users is:
- As a secondary computer for browsing that is separate from your main one.
- Media player: If you rip DVDs you can put them onto a USB or hard drive and install OSMC or a similar OS.
- RetroPie console emulator: Probably the coolest use. With the RetroPie OS, you can emulate and play all the old-school games. Downloading ROMs is illegal though.
- Portable Media Player: Since it's a computer that hooks up via HDMI, you can use it to display videos and pictures at events instead of bringing a laptop, which you may not have.

Question 2

Do you need the heatsinks and how do you mount them? I'd like to setup Pi-Hole.

Accepted Answer

You do not need heatsinks on a Pi 3 model B+.  If they get too hot they will partially slow down (throttle) to cool off. If you run something intensive you will want to add a heatsink.  The heatsinks with more fins work better and often just have a simple tap adhesive.   A Pi Hole for a house is probably not intensive enough to suffer from thermal throttling, but there are console commands to double check this.

The Pi 4 is much hotter and really needs a heatsink and often a fan.

Question 3

Does it come with instructions so that an amateur computer tinkererget it up and running?

Accepted Answer

Nope. You’re on your own. YouTube and the Raspberry Pi forums are full of content though. Also, the Linux community is the strongest computer programming community in the world, you will learn more about programming faster from others in the Linux community than any other kind of programming guaranteed. If devoted, this could be an excellent gateway to programming that leads you into an amazing career path.

Question 4

Doesn't the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ have a Gigabit Ethernet port (over USB 2.0) instead of a 100mbit Ethernet port?

Accepted Answer

Yes: •Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0 (maximum throughput 300 Mbps)

Questions & Answers