Skroutz.eu

Spring 2024
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For desktop use, I no longer recommend it as an Intel n100 is infinitely better and costs around 120-140€ with 16GB of memory and a 250/500GB SSD.

I am writing about the 8GB model, but the same applies to the 2GB model.

The best operating system for this device is definitely Raspbian. There are many tricks to install popular media applications such as Viber, Discord, and it can be customized exactly as you want.

Definitely overclock it to 2GHz, it makes a huge difference in performance. For cooling, I recommend the ICE Cooler, but the old Intel coolers with plastic legs that embrace the heatsink (the heatsink can be removed, of course) are also great for most uses at this speed.
YouTube plays well (objectively, you may see some framedrops in 1080p, but not many) when it is overclocked, Stremio works decently, and Netflix is good.

The system runs on a 64GB SD card, which is overkill.

On boot, the desktop starts at around 200-230MB of memory usage, which is why the 2GB version is more than enough. The 4GB and 8GB versions don't make much sense for desktop use. The LXDE it uses is very lightweight and beautiful, and definitely doesn't compare to the memory footprint of Win7-10.

Things you will need for a complete system:
Pi4 2GB
SD Card 16GB+
Charger (preferably the original one)
HDMI cable MINI-TO-STANDARD
Cooling method (preferably a fan or heatsink+fan)
Mouse/Keyboard, preferably wireless.

Extra things:
Ice cooler case (ice cooler + case combo)
USB SD card reader for using a second SD card to prepare other distros.
USB adapter to SATA or M.2 for transferring the OS to an SSD or M.2