Raspberry Pi 5: The Complete Beginner Setup Guide (Start to Finish!)

Hi, I'm Natasha from Element 14 Community and today we're going to do an absolute basics video on how to set up the Raspberry Pi 5. This video is for you if you're an absolute beginner, a hobbyist with some experience, an educator, or even if you just need a refresher if it's been a while since you've set up a Raspberry Pi. Let's jump in. First, let's go over what you'll need to follow along with this video. Of course, the Raspberry Pi 5 board. You can get it in 2, 4, 8, or 16 GB of RAM. A micro SD card that's 32 GB or more, and class 10 or better. Mine is 32 GB and class 30, so I should be good. You'll also need a micro SD card reader or an SD card reader with an adapter like the one that mine came with. You'll need a USBC power supply that's 5V 5 amp. I'm using the official Raspberry Pi 27 watt USBC power supply here. Next, you'll need an HDMI compatible monitor or TV and a USB keyboard and mouse. I'm personally in love with the official red and white monitor, keyboard, and mouse, but any HDMI monitor or USB keyboard and mouse will do. You'll also need a micro HDMI to HDMI cable to connect the monitor to the Pi and an internet connection using Wi-Fi or Ethernet will work, too. It's optional, but a very good idea to get a case for your Pi with active cooling. I have the Raspberry Pi 5 case. And if you plan to use your Pi for intense tasks, you can add the Raspberry Pi Active Cooler, which can be used together with the case, but we have to remove the fan and the cover that came with it. I'll show you that in a little bit. Now that we have all of our gear, here's a quick overview of how the setup process works. Raspberry Pi comes as a blank computer with no operating system. So, we'll use our PC to download the latest operating system to our SD card. Then, we'll configure the settings, including the host name, username, and password. We'll set up Wi-Fi, and then move our SD card to the Pi to continue there. So, let's do it. First, go to raspberrypi. com/software to download the Raspberry Pi Imager to your PC or Mac. I'm on a Mac, so I'll choose Mac. locate the imager in my downloads folder and drag it to my applications folder. Then I'll go ahead and connect my micro SD card to my computer. Next, I'll open Raspberry Pi Imager and choose Raspberry Pi 5, Raspberry Pi OS 64bit, and the SD card as the location. Now, as you can see, I have another drive plugged in. For good measure, I'm going to eject and disconnect it. It has important data on it and choosing the wrong drive here would erase it. So, I like to play it safe. Now, I only have my new SD card to choose from in the list. I'll click next and move through these customization prompts. I'll set the host name as Raspberry Pi 5, but you could be more creative if you want. Then, I'll set my city, time zone, and keyboard. Then, hit next. And here I'll set up my user account. So I'll use my own name, Natasha, and create a user password for myself. For Wi-Fi, my network name here is Technoshic. And I'll fill in my Wi-Fi password here. And next, you can turn on SSH, which I might use. So I'll enable it here. I'll show you where you can toggle this setting later in the video, too. You can also enable Raspberry Pi Connect, which I won't go over in this video, but you can read more about it by clicking the link. And we're all set. So, my Raspberry Pi 5 will run the 64-bit operating system on my SD card, and it will write the customizations that I chose. So, I'll hit write, and I get this warning. So, I'm double-checking that the correct drive is selected. It is. So, I'll go ahead. It asked for my computer password and takes a few minutes to complete. So, once it's done, I'll just remove the SD card. And now it's time to open our Pi. Oh, yay. There she is. Let me give you the tour around the Raspberry Pi 5. On this side, you have Ethernet, two blue USB 3. 0 0 ports and two black USB 2. 0

ports. Over here we have the USBC port for power and two micro HDMI ports. And across the way we have our 40 GPIO pins that you can use to connect LEDs, sensors, and more. On the far edge, you have the power button. And if you flip the Pi over, you'll find the SD card slot for the card we just imaged. So, I'll push it in right here. Now, before I put the pie in its case, I'll install the active cooler. The install instructions are right on the box. I'll remove the protective paper, place it down gently, aligning the pins, and push them down until they click. And I can check on the back that they've seated correctly. Then I'll remove the fan connector cover and plug it in. — Now it's time for the case. First, I'll place the rubber feet on the bottom. Then put the pie into the base. And since I installed the active cooler already, I don't need the fan that came with the case. So, I'll just pop it out like this. Now, I can place the white frame and the lid on top. Great. Now it's time to connect everything. So I'll plug in the micro HDMI cable to the monitor, plug in my USB keyboard and mouse, and finally the USBC power supply. So we are powered on and good to go. It takes a few moments and then the Pi 5 boot screen appears. Yay. And it looks like a computer. And the first thing I always like to do when I get a new computer is customize my desktop. So to do this, I can go to the Raspberry Pi icon, go to preferences, control center, and choose a new image under picture. My favorite is aurora. jpeg. Beautiful. Also in control center, you can find settings for your peripherals like displays, keyboard, and mouse. And under interfaces, it makes it easy to toggle SSH and VNC on or off. SSH lets you control your Pi from another computer instead of using a screen called running it headless. And VNC lets you control your Pi's screen from another device like your phone. A few more things to explore in the Raspberry Pi logo menu are the pre-installed applications like an internet browser, video player, file browser, terminal, and more. You can also browse more recommended software under preferences. On the top right, you can find settings for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, sound, and more. Rolling over the Wi-Fi icon is also an easy way to find your IP address. If there's a download arrow here, that lets you know to install software updates. Or you can open the terminal application and run the pseudo apt update command to do so as well. Another thing to share before we wrap up is this handy SD card copier application. This lets you clone your SD card to duplicate or back up your whole setup. So, now we're off and running with a fully functional Raspberry Pi 5, but what's next? I could turn it into a Plex media server, install the Retro Pi gaming console, or browse the projects on the Element 14 community for more inspiration. Look for the links mentioned in this video in the description below. And if you liked this video, please subscribe, like, and comment to let us know what Raspberry Pi projects you'd like to see next. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the Element 14 community. Bye.