how to hook it all up?

1.  More ram means you can have more demanding applicatons running.  Such as games, 3D modelling, etc. It also gives you more speed in general because you are not writing to the swap file as much.

2. No,  You will need a Model B for ethernet and connecting more than one USB device.

3. No, the model B is the highest model avaiable ($10 more than Model A - there's your more expensive one ).

If you want general setup information see this link:  http://www.raspberrypi.org/quick-start-guide

thanks for the response,

I was wodering if I get a usb hub with 7 ports and I hooked it up to the one usb port on the pi Model A, couldn't I just hook the rest of the usb stuff up to the hub and have it all work?  Has anyone even thought of this or tried it?

yes I know the price of the hubs.

thanks,

charles......

charles shultz jr wrote:

 

I was wodering if I get a usb hub with 7 ports and I hooked it up to the one usb port on the pi Model A, couldn't I just hook the rest of the usb stuff up to the hub and have it all work?  Has anyone even thought of this or tried it?

Yes, that should work assuming that the hub has an external power jack with a good 5V supply.  The hub's upstream cable connects to RasPi model A's single full-size USB A port.  If the 7-port hub back-powers the upstream cable (which it's not supposed to do, but many hubs do it anyway) then the upstream cable can power your RasPi.  Otherwise, you can usually connect a USB A male to Micro USB B male cable between a one of the hub's 7 downstream ports and RasPi's power jack.  This way you only need a single power supply for everything.

The USB cable powering RasPi should be as short as possible.  You can actually get a sizeable voltage drop across some Micro USB cables, in some cases enough to prevent RasPi from working reliably.

That would work with many USB devices, but it would not work for network.  You would need to get a Ethernet to USB adapter OR a wireless dongle (which would work with the hub - but it would be slower and less reliable than ethernet).

So in answer to your second question again:

2. is it possible to connect a keyboard, mouse, monitor, ethernet, and hard drive to a Model A?

    with or without a hub?

That would still not give you ethernet.

Cian Byrne wrote:

 

That would work with many USB devices, but it would not work for network.  You would need to get a Ethernet to USB adapter OR a wireless dongle (which would work with the hub - but it would be slower and less reliable than ethernet).

 

So in answer to your second question again:

2. is it possible to connect a keyboard, mouse, monitor, ethernet, and hard drive to a Model A?

    with or without a hub?

That would still not give you ethernet.

The RasPi model B has Ethernet, but it's a USB-to-Ethernet adapter that's built into the LAN9512 chip along with a 3-port USB hub to provide two USB A ports.  As far as I know, that's functionally the same as plugging a USB-to-Ethernet adapter into an external hub, except that in the latter case you can choose between wired and wireless.

The RasPi model B has Ethernet, but it's a USB-to-Ethernet adapter that's built into the LAN9512 chip along with a 3-port USB hub to provide two USB A ports.  As far as I know, that's functionally the same as plugging a USB-to-Ethernet adapter into an external hub, except that in the latter case you can choose between wired and wireless.

I understand that.  But the compatibility with some "USB - Ethernet adapters" is limited because linux does not accept it right away.  You would need to set-up linux to work with the adapter.

I think for all purposes here: BUY a MODEL B.  It will be cheapers than buying a wireless dongle / ethernet -usb adapter + USB hub + model A + time (to set-up the USB-Ethernet adapter and/or wireless)

Cian Byrne wrote:

I understand that.  But the compatibility with some "USB - Ethernet adapters" is limited because linux does not accept it right away.  You would need to set-up linux to work with the adapter.

That's true of any piece of hardware with any OS, for example Windows won't work with some random USB-Ethernet adapter until you setup windows to work with the adapter by installing the driver.

Linux isn't any different here.

So the answer to 2. is yes, with a hub.  The question was "is it possible", not "is it a good idea", or "will it be easy".

Answer to 3. should really be:  We don't know. Anything is possible, but when asked the Raspberry Pi Foundation consistently deny they have plans for an upgraded version.  As the question was whether there was some future upgraded version, not what was available today.

Cian Byrne wrote:

 

I understand that.  But the compatibility with some "USB - Ethernet adapters" is limited because linux does not accept it right away.  You would need to set-up linux to work with the adapter.

 

I think for all purposes here: BUY a MODEL B.  It will be cheapers than buying a wireless dongle / ethernet -usb adapter + USB hub + model A + time (to set-up the USB-Ethernet adapter and/or wireless)

The RasPi Verified Peripherals Wiki lists a number of USB-to-Ethernet adapters that work "out of the box": http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#USB_Ethernet_adapters

Model B is indeed the best choice for most people since it has 512MB DRAM and Ethernet.  Model A is attractive for embedded projects that can get by with 256MB DRAM and don't need wired Ethernet.  Besides being US$10 cheaper, Model A uses less power, so it's a better fit for battery-operated applications.

2. is it possible to connect a keyboard, mouse, monitor, ethernet, and hard drive to a Model A?

    with or without a hub?

The above question is dependant on what @charles shultz jr  is going to use his/her Raspberry Pi for.  Then I think we could answer the question with less strain.

By the Way: I am not disagreeing with any of the above suggestions;  they are all very good.