Features:

  • Includes Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Quad-Core BROADCOM 64bit ARMv8 1.2 GHz 1 GB RAM (RPi3)
  • Great Idea for the Technically Minded who enjoy Tinkering and Creating
  • UL Certified 2.5 Amp USB Power Supply with Micro USB Cable and Noise Filter - designed for the Raspberry Pi 3
  • Cool transparent case with all ports accessible for ease of use while providing ultimate protection
  • Order with confidence from Vilros the Raspberry Pi Authority
Small and powerful, and (relatively) easy to setup

I purchased the Pi so that I could setup Homebridge in my home. This was my first time working with this type of machine. Setup was quick and painless, all that was needed was to put on two heat sinks and click into the case, both of which were included in this package. I am just beginning to setup my home as a smart home, and based on all the information that is out there, if you have an iPhone or iPad and want to use the best options available for your home, you either need to switch between multiple apps constantly to control everything, or do as I did, and as many people do. I'm only running a few things off of home bridge currently, so I can't comment too much on how stable the Pi is handling many things, but so far, no problems. I am able to control Smartthings and WeMo from the built in HomeKit app in iOS, and have not run into any problems. Granted, you don't get full functionality of everything, but for my putposes, everything is working wonderfully. Hopefully the major companies who make smart home products will stop being egotistical and just make everything work together seemlessly. With how well the raspberry Pi works, I will definitely be looking into more things to do around the house that utilize the system, like smart mirrors, a media server, and other things.

RP3 IS A GREAT UPGRADE FOR ANY MAKER

I am a hobby Maker and I wanted to see what I can do with the Raspberry Pi 3. I enjoy this versatile little board. It has a supercharging performance and the RP3 has done a great job in eliminating what few lingering setup hassles remained in the Raspberry Pi formula, all while maintaining a dirt cheap price tag. But while the Raspberry Pi 3 is easily the most convenient and powerful Raspberry Pi ever, and the first that can potentially be used as a proper PC, it’s still more of an evolutionary upgrade than a revolutionary one—which is actually a good thing, as it helps the RP3 maintain backward compatibility with previous generations of the beloved mini-PC and maker board. The card-sized RP3’s newfound power lies in a trio of upgrades: A new system-on-chip (SoC) with more potent graphics and computing capabilities, on-board 2.4GHz, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and on-board Bluetooth 4.1/Low Energy support. The new features seem insignificant on paper, but they add up to a serious usability boost in the real world—especially the on-board wireless capabilities, which just plain work out of the box with the default/recommended Raspbian operating system. Developing a Raspberry Pi-specific OS to work solely with RP hardware pays dividends in ease of use, it seems, especially since standard Linux installations are notorious for finicky wireless connectivity. The mere fact that integrated Wi-Fi exists is a huge step up from previous RP models, which required you either to pony up cash for a Wi-Fi adapter or hard wire your board via an Ethernet connection. That’s not the only concession to convenience introduced in the RP3. One of the biggest headaches with the original RP was simply connecting everything you needed to it, as the initial version featured only a pair of USB 2.0 inputs. Connecting the basics—a USB keyboard, mouse, and Wi-Fi adapter—required a USB hub, not even mentioning external storage drives or any other gear you’d like to connect to the board. The RP2 cured that headache by doubling the number of USB ports to four. The RP3 goes one step further with native Bluetooth compatibility, which comes in handy for connecting wireless peripherals (take note, folks who use the RP as a cheap media streaming box) or gadgets and sensors for more advanced maker projects.

The go-to for so many things...

Most users seem to use the Pi3 as a retro gaming system, and it works tremendously for that, but its uses go much farther than playing old games. I have three of these: one is a media center, the other a media server, and the last one runs a network-wide ad blocker. Media Center: I had an old WDTV box, which was the most versatile (and legal) set-top box one could buy, but I lost it in a power surge. That thing was a beast - it would play every file format and codec I could throw at it (what is now called "Direct Play"). All my DVDs and Blu-rays are backed up to a NAS in their uncompressed, original codecs (in the "matroska" MKV container format), and all my music is backed up to the NAS in lossless FLAC, and in some rare occasions the compressed .ogg format. However, I learned that buying a Pi 3 and putting OSMC on it would enable me to continue to function the same way, so I put OSMC on it, and it plays everything on my NAS in its original, uncompressed quality just fine. No more clunky BR/DVD player to bother with. And this thing is so small, I actually mounted it to the back of the TV (I can control it via CEC using my TV remote control, or the Kodi remote app from my phone) - out of sight! So that's the media center side of it. (For this to work, I had to enable DLNA in my NAS settings, and I use the NFS file sharing protocol, which seems to be the most universally accepted for media scraping). Media Server: I do have a TV that uses a Roku for streaming video like Amazon Prime, and the Roku is extremely finicky about file codecs and formats, so when I tried to direct play my local files off my NAS, it wouldn't play most of what I have. So instead of setting up another OSMC device and teaching everyone I live with how to switch over to a new device, etc. instead I opted to install a Plex Media Server at my home network switch so that I could transcode the NAS files prior to pushing them out across the network for the Roku to see. So I installed a "headless" Plex media server on one of these little devices, stuck it at the home run drop where my home network switch is located, and for home video viewing, just installed the Plex channel on the Roku and it plays everything on the NAS without any issues. And Plex's versatility also makes it easier to play my NAS backups on other devices like tablets and what not (Plex does have to compress the files, however, so they're not lossless, which probably doesn't matter for most users, who aren't using studio-quality components). Network-wide Ad blocker: what a real life saver this thing is. Just install Raspberry Pi-Hole on one of these, set it on your network (follow detailed instructions online - DHCP router settings are crucial here), and no more irritating ads (so long as you're on your network - if you leave home, obviously it quits working). Those little ads in the middle of pages that know what you've been shopping for... GONE. Irritating full-page advertisements for idiotic stuff that you'll never buy anyway... GONE. It even handles most of what YouTube throws at you. Just make sure you set it to auto-update and you're golden. And it may be psychosomatic, but I think my browsing speed has increased slightly after doing this. Anyway, there are a zillion other things you can do with these things besides games.

Easy Setup - No Glitches

I chose the kit with the best reviews for the case, since that is pretty much the only thing that differentiates it. Setup was easy. The NOOBS download is time consuming as my PC was only transferring at USB1 speeds to the memory card (700 kB/sec). Updates were also a bit slow at 2 MB/sec via internet, but that was of no consequence. The device would not pull a DHCP address immediately from NOOBS, but it was fine after a few reboots. WiFi came up immediately. Sound is not working at the moment, but I understand this is a simple change in the setup file. I will play with that when I have time. Sound is not important to me. I plan to use this device as a NAS server; I understand that I can set up a pair of USB drives in a RAID1 array. We shall see. It's an entertaining toy; I have not used UNIX in 20 years... Please note that this is not the latest version of Raspberry Pi 3 B, which is B+. That came out in April. They clock the processor a bit faster and add gigabit Ethernet with PoE, neither of which is important to me, given my planned application. An 8-port gigabit PoE switch costs $80, and adds no value in my household.

Updated- Fixed by seller - Has weak supply / lightning bolt icon right out of the box.

I loaded an image I have on 3 other PIs; nothing OC'd, just a base image to boot. I get the lightning bolt immediately and it never goes away. I guess I have to send it all back over a crappy supply. It works to start it, it just shows the under-volt warning the whole time, even at idle. The supply shipped is different than the one pictured. I'm not saying that's a big deal, as parts come and go, but it's worth noting. The newer supply has a rocker switch on it. Previous Vilros purchases had the supply and non-switched cord. -Edit- Contacted seller, seller sending replacement supply. Will return this one and update the review with the new supply. Seller immediately replaced the saggy supply and the new unit works as intended. Thanks for looking out; this review has been revised to 5 stars.

and couldn't be happier, the Pi 3 is definitely much faster and ...

This is my second RPI I've ordered, and couldn't be happier, the Pi 3 is definitely much faster and smoother than its predecessor. or this product, you will only need to supply your micro-sd card and you'll have a fun PC to tinker with, I am using it to teach computer science to college-bound HS kids, when they see that behind their monitor, there is this micro-sized velcroed PC and nothing else, it gets them all riled up about learning computers and CS, this package in particular is very good quality, I overclocked the CPU to 1.35 Ghz (make sure you apply the included heat sinks in their corresponding CPU & Video chips) - you can't go wrong with this particular vendor and product.

Love this starter kit

Great package for the price. I wanted to get my own sdcard, and I already had an HDMI cable to use so I just wanted something simple (Case, heatsink, and power). I am using this for Retropie to play some old school games, and this setup works great for that. The power adapter is long and works good for placing on a desk or in an entertainment center. The case was a little finicky at first, but with some effort it did fit. The included screws didn't seem to work, but the snaps on the case did the job. The sink come with what seems to be double sided tape and stick on both cards just fine. I would definitely recommend this to anyone starting with a pi 3 and need it to be enclosed and set somewhere on a desk of sorts. F.Y.I., It does come with the Pi

A Top Notch Pi 3 Kit!

This is a great starter package from Vilros! The only item you may want to consider is a fan with power adapter from AC Infinity (see my review) for cooling of the Pi 3. I like the clear plastic ABS case that Vilros includes, as it has a camera mount hole on the top. I used this hole not for a camera accessory board, but rather, as another ventilation hole which is close to the cpu heatsink. With the fan on Low Speed, the Pi3 idles at about 35 degC, and when playing a 720p video, at around 51 degC. These temps are very cool, which means that this PI 3 may operate under much more demanding tasks without cpu throttling caused by too high a cpu temp! Also, the power adapter included by Vilros is full rated at 5vdc at 2.5A --- very important if using wireless, Bluetooth, and have external item(s) requiring power. Thank you Vilros!

I like this product so much

I like this product so much. The board fit in the clear case very well. I wish Vilros provides the rubber legs for the case instead of the 2 screws that I don't have any use. I have this device become a web server, serving the nursing home that don't have internet hook-up. I download the image from the raspberrypi.org and burn into a 32Gib microSD. You can find all information needed from the website raspberrypi.org. Plug the microSD card into the RaspberryPI and power-up the device, you'll have the tiny-powerfull computer with Linux OS. Plug in the keyboard, mouse, internet cable (if you have internet service), monitor (my 32inch TV) then you can access the Internet on the big screen. I can access Youtube, Netfix, Google, Yahoo,... I am on the Internet! It is the computer, and I can install many softwares (open source) that available from the internet. Then, I made it a WiFi hotspot, so my Raspberry became the router/switch to serve hundress connections. I install Apache, MySQL, PHP to turn it into a Web Server. I store a lot of music video/audio files in the microSD. A nursing home in the area does not have internet hook-up. I place this device there to serve the senors. They can connect the device's hotspot via iphone, ipad, tablet,... and access the Website on the Raspberry PI. The material in the device is enough to entertain them. I can swap the microSD card for different materials on the next stop when I visit them. Again, all informations needed are on the website raspberrypi.org. Next, I will try to install Windows 10 in this device. Don't know if it can handle the heavy Windows OS. All I have to do is download the Windows image and burn onto the microSD then swap the card. I can do so much with this tiny device. Sincerely, Michael N.

Awesome retro console!

I am so happy I bought this kit! It comes with the case, pi, heatsink, and power cable. I bought a samsung evo 64gb micro sd card for good measure. Installing Noobs is not hard. Once I got it up and running I added retropie. For retro gaming, this is perfect. It plays the majority of old systems well. For example, nes, genesis, snes, 32x, sega cd, mame, psx, n64 (pends on what game), gameboy, gameboy color, and gameboy advance. I use these systems for retropie and they all mostly work well. I also can't believe how smooth the psx emulation is on this. N64 does lag on some games. Goldeneye is on of them. But for the price you can put so many games in here. I suggest to get at least a 128gb micro sd card if you want to truly put complete sets in retropie. Neo geo works as well, and you can overclock this but make sure to cautious as it voids warranty if damage happens because of overclocking. Also, take the time to learn how to fully use retropie, I am still learning although I have spent a lot of time figuring things out and what works and what does not. There is a github about retropie to learn about what this pi can do and I suggest you take a look. I have not used it for a main computer system, but kodi is available to be used. For the price this beats an Nes classic by a long shot. I use this with the xbox 360 wireless adapter and my 360 controller. Of course, you can use xbox one controllers connected by usb, and any other supported gamepad. Me and my friend have had many heated fights on Tekken 3 so far. So if you are a fighting game fan, this will be a great device for your collection. Very portable as well. Just plug and play once you have everything set up. One thing I feel should be put in is a power switch. Although there are cables with a switch, I wish there was a way to just turn it off. From retropie you can shut down the system but a red light will still be on, and there is no way to wake up the system so I have to pull the plug and plug it back in. Kinda bothers me and I don't want to damage the usb port on the side of the pi. Overall, for the price is offers much more value once you figure out how to do everything. Worth the purchase to make into a retro console.

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