Farnell introduces powerful, entry-level Raspberry Pi 5 2GB

For approximately $50 USD, developers can deploy Raspberry Pi 5 2GB, a highly cost-effective and innovative option that is suitable for hobbyists and RPi enthusiasts around the world. 

Simon Wade, Senior Global Product Manager, Single Board Computing, at Farnell, said: “This is a major development in the world of Raspberry Pi 5. The promise of an affordable Raspberry Pi 5 model has now been fulfilled, and we are delighted to provide access to this impressively specified SBC option.

“We announced the availability of variants of Raspberry Pi 5 when it was launched in September 2023, and since then it has been generally understood that Raspberry Pi would produce a more affordable version, dependent on the ability to reach an attractive price point. This has now been achieved with the Raspberry Pi 5 2GB.”

The entry level Raspberry Pi 2GB includes a 2.4GHz, quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, with cryptography extensions with 512KB per-core L2 caches, and a 2MB shared L3 cache 50MHz system clock.

Its VideoCore VII GPU supports OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2 and also includes HDR support channelled through a dual 4Kp60 HEVC decoder and HDMI display output.

Improved power efficiency is realised with well-managed 2GB LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM; dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and the inclusion of Bluetooth 5.0 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Eben Upton, CEO at Raspberry Pi said: “We're excited to be bringing the full power of the Raspberry Pi 5 platform to a new, lower price point, in partnership with Farnell. Our ongoing investments in optimising the resource footprint of Raspberry Pi OS allow many use cases to run within the 2GB memory capacity of this new variant, while the 4GB and 8GB variants remain available for those users with more demanding requirements.”

Wade added, “Raspberry Pi 5 has long proven itself as a hugely versatile, powerful and popular SBC that can be used for an almost limitless range of DIY, education, media, server, desktop computer and other IoT applications. This new version further extends that range of possibilities by placing the power of RPi 5 within easy reach of all.”