List of Raspberry Pi Essential Accessories For The New Users

In our one old guide, we discussed in details how to setup and run Raspberry Pi from command line and list of Single Board Computers as alternative to Raspberry Pi. Unless You Are Running Raspberry Pi or Some Other Single Board Computer From Command Line, You’ll Need Some Accessories. The listed things are bare minimum and one have to purchase along with Raspberry Pi or similar Single-Board Computer. It is not exactly cheap, unlike microcontroller development boards like Arduino.

List of Raspberry Pi Essential Accessories For The New Users

Power Supply

Obviously a power supply is a an essential item for Raspberry Pi. The power input socket on Raspberry Pi is a micro-usb port which needs minimum 5.1 V power supply rated at 700mA. Obviously we can use any existing mobile phone charger or power supply of computer or modified DIY benchtop power supply.

You should remember that you may be running a cluster of Raspberry Pi in future. Power supply of computer is a professional grade system with own cooling. However, it does not work out of the box.

SD Memory Card

The operating system which will run on Raspberry Pi is stored onto an SD memory card. Most users will need to buy a new SD card dedicated for use on the Raspberry Pi. A 4GB SD card is available for about $10.00. This thing everywhere available.

SD Memory Card Reader

To format and manage that SD memory card, you’ll need an USB MicroSD memory card reader. MicroSD Card will cost minimum $2.

Keyboard and Mouse

Most peoples need a USB keyboard and mouse for Raspberry Pi. Although any keyboard and mouse will work, these days there are beautiful Keyboard-Mouse combo (both wired and wireless) available for Raspberry Pi. They can cost $20.

Monitor

If your television or computer display monitor supports HDMI then there is no need of extra monitor at least for temporary need. However, most users buy some cheap basic display for Raspberry Pi. At minimum, a 3.5 inch LCD display will cost $30.

Others

We have not calculated the cost of ethernet cable (CAT-5e or CAT-6), HDMI cable, Raspberry Pi case and similar things. There are other things like camera, sensors etc.

Conclusion on Raspberry Pi Essential Accessories

So, minimum cost of accessories will be a Keyboard and Mouse plus SD Memory Card provided that other things are present at home. Which means $40 extra. So minimum cost of Raspberry Pi is closer to $100 (just a rough estimation).