The Raspberry Pi 5 is leagues ahead of its brethren in terms of performance thanks to a plethora of hardware improvements. I used it as my daily driver for a week, and the superior processing capabilities of the SBC made it a solid alternative to my laptop for everyday work (minus gaming).

Of course, if you’re going to get this expensive board, you’re probably more interested in building DIY projects than using it as a desktop replacement. So, I’ve put together a list of four effortless projects that I plan to create with my Raspberry Pi 5.

1 Retro gaming console

It can even run PS2 and (2D) Switch games

Ever since the release of the original Raspberry Pi in 2012, the devices have a strong history of powering emulation machines. While the older Pi devices are good enough if you want to run NES, GBA, and PSP games, the fifth iteration of the SBC has enough horsepower to run games meant for newer consoles, including PS2, Wii, and Switch, at playable FPS.

Thanks to RetroPie, creating a retro gaming system isn’t all that difficult, and you can start playing your favorite games within minutes of installing the app. Since Raspberry Pi OS is a Linux-based distribution, it has great compatibility with a variety of controllers. So, you can connect pretty much any controller to the Pi 5, and it’ll work just fine with your favorite ROMs.

2 NAS system

A cheap NAS-berry Pi server

From data archivists to content creators, a NAS server is a great investment if you regularly deal with huge files. Sadly, some of the best NAS cases can cost you an arm and a leg, and that’s before you include the prices of the hard drives. Those with spare PCs can use them as makeshift NAS servers, but if you don’t have a system lying around, you can just as easily use a Raspberry Pi.

The only caveat is that the Pi 5’s lack of SATA connectors means you’ll have to deal with the relatively slow transfer speed of USB 3.0 ports. But if you just want to set up a simple file-sharing server, creating a NAS out of a Raspberry Pi is the cheapest way to go!

3 Minecraft server

An Open-world sandbox inside a tiny Pi👁 A screenshot of the Raspberry Pi OS running Minecraft Java server

Minecraft: Pi Edition is a free version of the sandbox game crafted (pun intended) specifically for Raspberry Pi devices. Although it can run on relatively low-power devices, it has certain limitations that prevent you from getting the full Minecraft experience. For one, you’re restricted to creative mode, where you can’t craft anything. This mode also removes enemies from the game, which is quite the buzzkill if you like the survival aspects of Minecraft.

But if you’re a proud owner of a Raspberry Pi 5, it’s possible to create a fully functional Minecraft Java server on the device. Although the Pi 5 still isn’t powerful enough to run a huge server for a ton of people with hundreds of different chunks loaded, it’s more than enough to host a local Minecraft Java server large enough for your friends and family.

4 HTPC media server

Capable of streaming all your favorite shows

Since the Raspberry Pi 5 supports 4k video output, the SBC can also double as a home theater system. If you just want to stream videos to your premium TV, Kodi is a great media center with an intuitive UI and solid collection of mods that’s pretty easy to set up on a Raspberry Pi.

Alternatively, you can even go with Plex if you wish to access your videos over a remote media server. Having used a Pi 4 as a Plex server in the past, I found the palm-sized system to be quite capable for all purposes except transcoding videos. From all the benchmarks we’ve seen so far, the newest addition to the Raspberry Pi lineup has enough horsepower to support 1080p video transcoding.

The reason why I put the home theater project in the last position is because neither Plex nor Kodi officially support Raspberry Pi 5. Sure, I was able to set up a Plex server on my SBC, but I had to replace the Raspberry Pi OS with Ubuntu just to get the server up and running. Hopefully, the developers will integrate support for the Pi 5 in the near future.

Sky’s the limit with the Raspberry Pi 5

Those were easy projects that could make full use of the Raspberry Pi 5’s computing power. I also wanted to include Pi-powered time-lapse cameras and Pi-Hole ad blocker setups, but the newest Raspberry Pi board is pretty overkill for such setups. The Pi 5 was only released a few months ago, so not many projects have been ported to the device. But with the highly active Raspberry Pi community, I’m certain we’ll see some new and whacky projects created with the device when it finally comes back in stock in 2024.