It’s sitting in a drawer somewhere. Seriously, go look. Under that tangled mess of Micro-USB cables and old iPhone boxes, there’s likely a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ gathering dust.
When Eben Upton and the Raspberry Pi Foundation dropped this board back in March 2018, it felt like a victory lap. It wasn’t a revolution; it was a refinement. But honestly? It was the peak of the "classic" Pi era before things got complicated with the Pi 4’s heat issues and the Pi 5’s power requirements.
I’ve been messing with these boards since the original Model B with the giant yellow RCA jack, and the 3B+ is the one I keep coming back to. It’s the Goldilocks zone of single-board computers. It doesn’t need a fan. It doesn’t need a specialized power brick. It just works.
The Specs That Actually Matter (Not Just the Marketing Speak)
The 3B+ was the "Plus" update to the original 3B, and while the jump from 1.2GHz to 1.4GHz on the Broadcom BCM2837B0 SoC sounds like a rounding error, the real magic was in the heat spreader. If you look at the board, you'll see a shiny metal cap on the main chip. That’s not just for looks. It allows the board to sustain higher speeds for much longer without hitting that dreaded thermal throttling icon on your screen.
But the real MVP of the 3B+ wasn't the CPU. It was the networking.
We finally got dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi. If you’ve ever tried to stream 1080p video over the crowded 2.4GHz band in an apartment complex, you know why this was huge. Plus, they gave us "Gigabit" Ethernet—though, okay, let's be real here. It’s technically Gigabit, but it’s throttled by the USB 2.0 bus to about 300 Mbps. Still, that’s a massive jump over the 100 Mbps on the older models.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) support also showed up here. You need a separate HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) for it to actually work, but for anyone building a cluster or mounting cameras in high corners, it changed the game. No more running extension cords to the ceiling.
Why You Shouldn't Just Buy a Pi 5 Instead
Look, the Raspberry Pi 5 is a beast. It’s fast. It has PCIe. It’s also expensive and turns into a space heater if you don't put a fan on it.
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is different. It’s silent. Because it consumes significantly less power than the newer generations, you can run it off a decent phone charger (though 5V/2.5A is the "official" recommendation). It stays cool enough in a standard plastic case for most light tasks.
If you're building a RetroPie rig to play SNES or PlayStation 1 games, the Pi 5 is overkill. The 3B+ handles those perfectly. If you want a Pi-hole to block ads across your entire home network, the 3B+ is actually better because it draws less idle power. It's the "set it and forget it" king.
Real-World Projects Where the 3B+ Still Wins
I’ve seen people try to use these for desktop replacements. Don’t do that. You’ll be miserable. 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM is plenty for a server, but try opening three Chrome tabs in 2026 and the board will start sweating.
Instead, use it for what it’s good at:
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- The Home Assistant Hub: This is arguably the best use for a 3B+. It’s stable. It has the GPIO pins for Zigbee or Z-Wave shields. It’s got enough grunt to handle hundreds of smart home automations without breaking a sweat.
- OctoPrint: If you have a 3D printer, the 3B+ is the gold standard for remote monitoring. It handles the G-code streaming and the webcam feed flawlessly. Most people in the Voron or Ender communities still prefer the 3B+ because it doesn’t have the USB power-backfeeding quirks some newer boards have.
- Vintage Gaming: EmulationStation runs like a dream here. You get that native composite video output (through the 3.5mm jack) which is a nightmare to get working on newer boards. If you want to hook a Pi up to an old CRT television for that authentic 90s feel, the 3B+ is your best friend.
The MicroSD Card Bottleneck (And How to Fix It)
If there’s one thing that kills the experience of using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, it’s the storage. People buy the cheapest SD card they find at the pharmacy, and then wonder why the UI lags.
Standard SD cards aren't meant for the constant read/write cycles of an operating system. They die. Often.
The "pro move" for a 3B+ is to enable USB Boot. You can actually plug in a cheap SATA SSD via a USB adapter and boot the entire OS from that. The difference is night and day. Even though you’re limited by USB 2.0 speeds, the random access times (IOPS) of an SSD make the system feel twice as fast. No more waiting five seconds for a terminal to open.
Troubleshooting the "Lightning Bolt" Icon
We’ve all seen it. That little yellow lightning bolt in the top right corner of the screen.
It’s the Pi’s way of saying "I’m hungry." The 3B+ is notoriously picky about voltage. Because it has that higher 1.4GHz clock speed, it draws more current during spikes than the old 3B. If your cable is too thin or your power supply is sagging to 4.8V, the Pi will throttle itself to save power.
Don't use a random "Phone Charger" block. Use the official Raspberry Pi Foundation power supply. It’s designed to output 5.1V specifically to account for the voltage drop across the cable. It sounds like a marketing gimmick, but it’s actually basic physics.
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Is the 3B+ Secure Enough for 2026?
A lot of people worry that older hardware is a security risk. In this case, it’s mostly about the software.
The Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) is still updated for the 3B+. You can run the latest 64-bit version of Bookworm (the current Debian-based OS), though honestly, on a board with only 1GB of RAM, the 32-bit version often feels snappier.
As long as you aren't leaving the default "pi/raspberry" credentials active (which the new OS installer doesn't even let you do anymore), a 3B+ is just as secure as a Pi 5. It’s the Linux kernel doing the heavy lifting there, not the silicon.
The GPIO Factor
The 40-pin header on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is identical in layout to the newer boards. This is the beauty of the ecosystem. If you have a HAT designed for a Pi 2, it’ll work here. If you have a sensor kit for a Pi 5, it’ll work here too.
The only thing to watch out for is the physical clearance. The 3B+ has the USB and Ethernet ports in the same "classic" positions. When the Pi 4 came out, they swapped the Ethernet port's side and changed the HDMI ports to micro-HDMI. This meant every single case and many HATs became obsolete. The 3B+ uses the full-sized HDMI port, which is arguably much more durable and doesn't require you to carry around a bag of adapters.
Where to Find One Today
Buying these brand new is getting weird. Because they are so popular in industrial applications (think digital signage or factory controllers), the prices for "New In Box" units can sometimes be higher than a Pi 4.
Don't buy them new.
Hit up eBay or local marketplaces. Because schools and hobbyists moved to the Pi 4 and Pi 5, the secondary market is flooded with 3B+ boards. You can often find them for $25 or $30. At that price, it is the best value-for-money computer on the planet.
Actionable Next Steps
If you’ve got one of these boards sitting around, or you're looking to pick one up, here is exactly how to get the most out of it right now:
- Skip the SD Card: Buy a cheap 120GB SSD and a USB-to-SATA adapter. Use the Raspberry Pi Imager to flash the OS directly to the SSD.
- Check Your Power: If you see the lightning bolt, swap the cable. Most "slow" Pi issues are actually power issues.
- Go Headless: Unless you specifically need a screen, run the Pi "headless" (no monitor). It saves a ton of RAM. Use SSH or VNC to log in from your laptop.
- Install Pi-hole or AdGuard Home: It takes 10 minutes and will literally change how the internet feels on every device in your house by stripping out ads at the DNS level.
- Clean the Pins: If it's been sitting in a drawer, the GPIO pins might have some oxidation. A quick wipe with 90% isopropyl alcohol will ensure your HATs actually make a solid connection.
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ isn't the fastest board anymore, but it is arguably the most "solved" piece of hardware in the maker world. Every bug has been found, every forum post has been written, and every project has been tested. It’s the reliable workhorse that just refuses to quit.