I'm new on the forum. I searched for this topic, but I didn't find an existing post. I might have missed it, so if this has been discussed already, I will appreciate being pointed in the right direction.
I'm considering upgrading from my existing PI3B to a PI4B.
Can I just swap the SD card from the 3B to the 4B, or will I have to re-install the software?
(I guess this might be more of a hardware question than a software question.)
Thanks in advance for any inputs!
Yes you can I believe.
Only one not interchangeable is the Raspi 1 series.
But why would you ?
A Pi 1 or even a zero will do just fine.
A Pi 3 is already overkill for home use.
Pi 1:
pi@noads:~ $ arch
armv6l
Pi 2/3/4:
pi@ph5:~ $ arch
armv7l
EDIT: ow before switch the card, you can create a disk image file from the current SD card for backup.
On Linux you've got the "disk destroyer" tool named dd.
For Windows I believe you have the "Win32 Disk imager".
Mainly for the Gigabit ethernet, to maximise data transfer speed. Pi3's Gigabit ethernet has a maximum throughput of 300Mbps, where I understand that the Pi4 has true Gigabit speed. This is actually the only reason. And if it is as simple as just swapping the SD card into the Pi4, I thought that it might be something to consider...
Only DNS traffic gets routed through Pi-hole and not the regular network trafic bound for the internet.
And as DNS is just tiny little packets, you wont need gigabit.
100mbit will do just fine.
If it's not worth it I'll stick to what I have. I just thought I'd level-up my hardware.
Thanks for your input deHakkelaar, I appreciate it!
The more powerfull your Pi is, the more power/current it will draw.
As noted, none of the data traffic goes through Pi-hole. The only data to/from Pi-hole and the client is very small DNS packets (hundreds of bytes). If you could connect a Pi to the network with a serial cable, that would likely be adequate bandwidth.
I have both wired 3B+ and wireless Zero W Pi-holes in operation. There is no noticeable difference in DNS performance between the two.
Got it.
Just to add (because I actually forgot about it), I'm using the same Pi as an OpenVPN server when connecting to my network remotely. Would the Pi-hole together with the OpenVPN server benefit from Gigabit speed?
(I'm a noob with all of this, so I apologise if I'm asking dumb questions.)
Probably not. The VPN adds overhead, and if the upload speed for your ISP connection isn't gigabit, you are not limited by the ethernet speed on the Pi.
You can also configure split-tunnel on the VPN, so only the DNS traffic routes to the home Pi-hole. The data traffic stays where the client is.