Designed to cover the most commonly asked questions – computing performance, graphical performance, software compatibility and suitability as a general purpose PC – the review spans nine pages, and is based on the retail Model B which started shipping to customers at the end of last week.
The section which has proven the most popular is ‘Overclocking,’ a look at whether it’s possible to boost the Broadcom BCM2835 at the heart of the Pi to something above its default 700MHz clockspeed. In short: yes, it is, but by ‘eck it’s risky.
The review, the first to appear on a mainstream site rather than engineering publications allied to production partners Element14 and RS Components, has generated a substantial amount of traffic and comment. Following its publication, the review was re-tweeted by the official @Raspberry_Pi account (56,201 followers at the time of writing,) fellow technology journalist and Gruaniad technology editor Charles Arthur (33,614 followers) and digital trouble-stirrers @YourAnonNews (569,649 followers.) The review was also linked from the Gruaniad, with a fairly hefty extract, and front-paged on Digg and reddit.
Given the popularity of the Pi, this is far from the last piece I’ll be writing about it. A Linux-oriented review for Imagine Publishing’s Linux User & Developer Magazine is due to appear in the next issue, while pieces in Dennis Publishing’s Custom PC, Micro Mart and on the IT Pro website are planned.
There’s also a secret project in the works – but more about that I cannot say…