# Time sensitive - Raspberry Pi or Micro:bit for 9yo? **URL:** \ **Category:** BBC Micro:Bit\ **Created:** [December 18, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611 "2020-12-18T12:47:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ameliapeabodyemerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@ameliapeabodyemerson](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/ameliapeabodyemerson)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611/1 "2020-12-18T12:47:07Z")
Hi, would a raspberry pi or a micro:bit starter kit be more appropriate for a 9yo? Kiddo has some Scratch experience, very little hardware experience (beyond circuits), mother used to programme in Basic (!) and C++, reasonably technical and handy. Any advice super appreciated - I have focused on raspberry pi and Micro:bit , but if there is something different and more appropriate, I can look at that too. Thanks in advance ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 1:00pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611/2 "2020-12-18T13:00:06Z")
Keep in mind that a MicroBit is a Microcontroller, and the Pi is basically a PC. These are two different things, and how you use them program them is different. The MicroBit runs machine code while the Pi runs a full Linux OS. I’m leaning towards a Raspberry Pi being a better and easier experience. ---
**Author:** ![ameliapeabodyemerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@ameliapeabodyemerson](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/ameliapeabodyemerson)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611/3 "2020-12-18T15:56:44Z")
thank you so much which kit would you recommend ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611/4 "2020-12-18T16:08:10Z")
That kind of depends on what you have on hand now. If you don’t have a spare keyboard mouse etc then maybe this, [Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit – Pimoroni](https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-personal-computer-kit?variant=32280730140755) Or this, I linked to the 2gig version but there are 4 gig and 8 gig versions. I’d get at least the 4gig. And select you local etc. I’m in Canada so I got the US version. [Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit – Pimoroni](https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-desktop-kit?variant=31856454467667) I have a Pi400 and a couple of Pi 4’s. The Pi 4’s are more hat friendly IMHO. Hats will work just fine on a Pi400, but the orientation is a bit awkward. You can fix that with this though. [Flat HAT Hacker – Pimoroni](https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/flat-hat-hacker) If you don’t buy the kit, I would at least get the official power supply and the matching official HDMI cable. ---
**Author:** ![isb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9dc877/32.png) [@isb](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/isb)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611/5 "2020-12-18T17:21:36Z")
If it’s within your budget I’d definitely recommend a Pi. The Pi 4 has the camera and DSI display interfaces, whereas the Pi 400 does not - a camera is great fun and a good option for next gift time. In addition to alphanumeric’s advice, if you don’t get a kit, you’ll need a micro SD card. The micro:bit v2 is cheaper, but more dependent on other stuff like a PC for development. We’ve not used it as much as the Pi. ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 7:12pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/time-sensitive-raspberry-pi-or-micro-bit-for-9yo/15611/6 "2020-12-18T19:12:47Z")
I have two of the original Micro-Bits. I did play around with them for a while at first. Not so much now though. @isb Good point, forgot about the Pi400 not having the camera or display ports. I have half a dozen or so camera setups with Pi’s running Motion Eye OS. Two of them are pan tilt setups. 3A+'s mostly, a 3B+, and a 4B with the new HQ camera. Something that could be a lot of fun and a good learning experience is the Sense Hat. It’s loaded with sensors and has an 8 x 8 RGB LED matrix. And the Pi foundation did a great job with the python code. I found it really easy to get it doing cool stuff. IMHO it’s a great value versus what’s on it.