MiSTer FPGA Forum

Though tenuously related, my (and others') overall MiSTer setup would benefit from hardware info/tech discussion here. I run RetroNAS, and have toggled between a Raspberry Pi 3B and an old laptop. The pi3 is the current win. I am looking to buy a pi 4 or 5 in Oct 2024 (near November) with the following plans and options.

My current retronas pi3 could be repurposed as an SD media player for a CRT for old TV shows with VLC [I have a PVM and a component CRT as well as a VGA pi hat from Antonio Villena I'm looking into using]. My main retronas for Mister can run off a new Pi4 or Pi5 setup for the added gigabit Ethernet.

My use case:
I can run GroovyMister and Mistercast to my arcade cab so I don't know yet if a dedicated Pi setup still makes sense for that.

1. Is a complete new setup of a pi4 worth it compared to a pi 5 just based off of current prices?
2. If you bought a 4 or 5, would you use that for the retronas build and the pi3 for streaming SD content on a CRT, or keep the 3 as is and use the 4 or 5 as a media player / mame setup?

Are there any VGA hats for Rpi 4/5?

I'm out of the loop with RPi things now, but last time I checked there weren't any, and getting a decent CRT image required jumping through some serious hoops (unlike on RPi 3). That was couple or so years ago though, so maybe (well, most likely) the situation has changed.

I get it that a pi 5 vs a pi 4 may be overkill in some scenarios, but as prices fluctuate I currently see negligible $ differences for the pi4 and pi5. So the question may be is a pi4 worth it with current pi 5 prices, or are there other factors to consider other than speed for the majority of projects such as 3.5 mm I/O functionality etc.

I could possibly use 'overkill' if there is benefit to the pi4/5 as my main RetroNAS server where I could also use it for PLEX serving or emulation. If I did this, my current pi3 could be great to migrate to a media server for SD tv show content on a CRT.

Or I could keep my pi3 for retronas if the pi/4/5 would be better suited with a hat for mame/daphne for my arcade cab and or other crts for arcade gaming.

I'm probably overthinking my Mister/media setup but it is fun to consider.