From the unboxing to the "what else?" list

So you have the little Pi. Here's how it looks bare bones:

The gorgeous little Raspberry Pi just left the box.

Now what? Actually if I have to be descriptive to extreme detail, here how it goes.

The device didn't come alone. It needs at least a source of energy, so I baught it with a charger. The higher output for the class, the better, they say. In the book I followed first Maik Schmidt suggests output current in the range 1 to 1.2 A. In the store they provided me with exactly the same option:

The charger

At this point the question "What else is necessary?" came in. In short the list is: 

• SD card - for the OS; 
• keyboard and mouse - the basic input peripherals; 
• monitor and HDMI cable - the general output peripheral; 
• network cable or some sort of WiFi extension - for putting the Pi online.

There are some other secondary extensions and items like USB hub - for connecting more USB devices, and probably a case - for basic dust protection, ... Nothing you can't live without. Off of the many different possible combinations this is the exhaustive list of peripherals and the Raspberry Pi itself that I collected prior to first boot:

Component	Properties	Importance
Raspberry Pi	model B, revision 2, 512 MB RAM	Required
Charger	output: 1.2 A	Required
SDHC memory card	16 GB, class 4	Required
Wi-Pi	11n, 11g and 11b standards	Optional
USB hub	7 port, with its own power supply	Optional
Case	clear	Optional
Monitor cable	in my case HDMI-to-DVI	Required
Keyboard & mouse	wireless combo (single USB)	Required

As can be seen I'd rather make the set-up as wireless as possible. This means that once the USB ports are taken by the Wi-Pi and the keyboard & mouse transmitter, the only case I would use the USB hub is if want some flash drives to be attached for additional storage.

Most of it still unpacked would look similar to that:

Most of the components prior to unpacking

The next step: assemble and first boot.