What is the best alternative to Novasom Industries M7?

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score 639 · Answer 1

ODROID-XU4

Top Pro

Fast ethernet

Much faster than 10/100 as it contains a gigabit ethernet port. See More

Top Con

SD card corrupts

SD card corrupts easily with the XU4, use emmc for more stability but even then it is not that reliable. Also need to reimage the memory every so often. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

The performance runs laps around competitors in terms of raw power with its impressive specs and octa-core processing. See More

Top Con

No Audio CODEC

To get Audio out of the XU4 you need to use an HDMI device that has built-in speakers. A USB pdif will work, too. See More

Top Pro

Includes cooling system

Includes fan and heatsink combo standard. Fan spins when CPU is load is high. Other single-board computers require a seperate purchase where fan runs constantly, has improper power supply, or requires complex setup for proper funtion. See More

Top Con

Expensive

It’s expensive for a SBC, for ~$20 more you can get a faster x86 PC barebone. See More

Top Pro

USB 3.0 ports

The ODROID-XU4 has two USB 3.0 ports. Making it one of the few single board computers to have them. See More

Top Con

No SATA port

Top Pro

Great OS support

ODROID supports and can run a full desktop version of Ubuntu. Other than that it can run Android, of which there are some excellent ports for ODROID-XU4. See More

Top Con

Requires a separate power supply (no power via USB OTG)

Top Pro

Supports eMMC 5.0 storage

Top Con

Does not natively support most accessories and sensors on the market

The ODROID GPIO pins operate at 1.8V which means that it cannot support most accessories and sensors on the market which operate at 3.3V or 5V. But this can be fixed for the XU4 with the XU4 Shifter Shield which adapts them for voltages used in the market. It comes at an extra cost of $18 though. See More

Top Pro

Includes a power button

Some single-board computers have no power button, requiring the power supply to be unplugged or customization to add a button. See More

Top Con

SD card corrupts

SD card corrupts easily with the XU4, you can use emmc for more stability but even then it is not that reliable. You will also need to reimage the memory every so often. See More

Top Pro

Fast processor and good memory capacity

It is very good for emulation. See More

Top Con

Unstable USB support

Top Pro

Fast processor and good memory capacity

Very good for emulation See More

Top Pro

Practically very usable general purpose computer experience

Practically very usable general purpose computer experience with much lower power consumption when eMMC 5.0 storage is used for booting. See More

Top Pro

Includes power adapter

Many single-board computers require you to purchase a power adapter separately. See More

Specs

Size:83 x 58 x 22 mm approx.(including cooling fan)

RAM:2Gbyte LPDDR3 RAM PoP stacked

CPU:Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5422 (4x up to 2.1 GHz + 4x up to 1.4 GHz)

Storage:Supports eMMC5.0 HS400 and/orMicro SD

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639 143

score 206 · Answer 2

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Top Pro

The most popular

People use this for everything . See More

Top Con

Gets hot

Top Pro

Cheap

Only $35. See More

Top Con

Bad at n64 emulation

It's laggy . See More

Specs

Size:85 x 56 mm

RAM:1, 2 or 8 GB LPDDR4

CPU:Broadcom BCM2711 ( 4 x up to 1,5 GHz)

Storage:microSD card

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206 24

score 576 · Answer 3

Udoo x86 Ultra

Top Pro

Capable of running as a day-to-day PC

With 8 GB of RAM and a 2.56 GHz quad-core Intel CPU, the Udoo x86 Ultra is capable of running most applications an average user would need on a daily basis without any particular problems. You can run an office suite, web browser, or an IDE the same way you would in a normal PC. It can also run some PC games such as DotA, League of Legends and Team Fortress 2 on 720p at 20-30 frames per second. See More

Top Con

Very expensive for an SBC

It’s very expensive though, at least as far as single-board computers go. It’s priced at $259. See More

Top Pro

Huge amounts of RAM

The Ultra version has 8GB of RAM, the Advanced version has 4GB and the basic version has 2GB (which is still more than most SBCs). See More

Top Con

Poor wireless connectivity

The Udoo x86 Ultra does not have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth out of the box. However, it has an M.2 slot where an officially supported antenna module can be mounted. This module provides 803.11n Wireless LAN and 5 GHz Bluetooth 4.2 at for $15. Unfortunately, attaching the antenna will occupy the M.2 slot which could have been used for an SSD instead. Edit: there is 2 M2 slots so you can mount SSD and Bluetooth. See More

Top Pro

Helpful guides and community

Has good guides available online and the community is quite helpful, even if a bit small. See More

Top Con

Small community

The Udoo x86 community is small as it’s just off from the Kickstarter. Not many people have their boards yet, but the fact that Udoo raised over $800,000 at Kickstarter sounds promising. The official forum seems fairly active with an average of 200 views and 5 replies per discussion. See More

Top Pro

Good wired connectivity

For wired connectivity, the Udoo x86 stands out: It has three USB 3.0 ports, a SATA connector, M.2 slot, microSD slot, Ethernet, HDMI, two DisplayPort connectors, and even an IR RC5 interface. This is on par with what regular desktop computers require. See More

Top Con

The official documentation is lacking

The official documentation available at the official website is lacking. Apart from the hardware specification sheet, there’s generally not much information or project examples available for the Udoo x86 at the moment. The users will have a lot of tinkering and hacking to do if they want to achieve any positive results with their projects. See More

Top Pro

spped networn in thermoplastics DVS Pro Decent graphics Intel HD graphics 405 up to 700 MHz with 16 execution units.

Intel HD graphics 405 up to 700 MHz with 16 execution units. See More

Top Con

It's possible you'll run into problems that haven't been discussed yet

Even through the community is growing, the product is not considered mainstream. When purchasing this SBC, you should be aware that some tinkering will be required. Prolific users will also most likely run into some sort of problem that might not have yet been discussed on official resources. See More

Top Pro

Shear Power

Its sooooooo good See More

Top Con

Its price comes close to decently powerful laptop

Top Pro

Energy efficient

Even though it sports Quad Core x86 next-gen CPUs made by Intel, it's pretty energy efficient as the complete Udoo board consumes less than 11 watts of energy at any given time. See More

Top Con

Expensive board with noisy fan

Never had such expensive board with such shitty noisy fan. Worst design ever in the metal case. Without the fan get super hot. Had to buy a proper fan from noctua. Unbelievable they let this be sold with that shit installed on the heat sink See More

Top Pro

Best storage capabilities

In terms of storage the Udoo x86 is a clear winner. Out of the box it comes with 32GB eMMC (embedded MultiMediaCard, basically a built-in SSD). Then it’s fully up to the user to upgrade the storage as they see fit. If you need fast (but expensive) storage—an SSD is the best option. A microSD card can also be used as a storage option. See More

Top Con

4K only supports 24 FPS

Only supports HDMI 1.4 and DP 1.1a, so 4K is limited to 24 FPS. See More

Top Pro

X86-compatible

Very easy to run all operating systems. In terms of Linux or Android internal 32GB can be used as Read Only and additional SATA HDD/SSD/eMMC drive as /tmp and /home directories. See More

Top Con

Demanding games are virtually unplayable

Demanding games are technically supported, but have such a low framerate that they’re virtually unplayable. See More

Top Pro

Can be used as a gaming emulator

Supports almost all retro gaming emulators available for PC so it can be used as a retro gaming emulator. It can also emulate newer consoles like the Playstation 2 and PSP. See More

Top Pro

Decent GPIO suppoort

The Udoo x86 Ultra comes with 28 GPIO ports in total which may seem small, but considering the fact that it has an Arduino 101 embedded inside, it’s actually a decent amount. The Arduino board has built-in functionality for what some of the pins would be used (like a six-axis accelerometer and gyroscope) and adds 12 additional GPIO pins. Several key communication protocols are also supported: two IIC, two UART, LPC and SDIO. See More

Top Pro

Set-up is easy and straightforward

It’s absolutely straightforward to set up. The installation guides for all supported operating systems are provided in written and video form. See More

Top Pro

Arduino compatible

The Udoo x86 comes with an embedded Arduino 101, with all upgrades enabled (including 6-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and Bluetooth). See More

Top Pro

Great media streaming potential

The relatively high power makes the Udoo x86 Ultra the best single-board computer for high-quality media streaming. It can stream 30Hz 4K video on up to three monitors through HDMI and two mini display ports. This opens the doors for setting up a UHD capable media station. Applications like Netflix, Spotify, Kodi, YouTube, etc. are also supported, as Udoo x86 can run operating systems which support these applications. See More

Specs

Size:Pico-ITX (100 x 72 mm)

RAM:8 GB DDR3L

CPU:Intel Pentium N3710 (4x 1,6 GHz, Intel Burst up to 2.56 GHz)

Storage:32 GB eMMC (embedded MicroMediaCard)

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576 110

score 137 · Answer 4

LattePanda 4G/64GB

Top Pro

Can function as a day-to-day PC

Lattepanda comes with a full Windows 10 installation. While by no means a powerhouse it can easily deal with daily tasks such as checking email, editing documents and browsing the web. See More

Top Con

Only Windows 10 is officially supported

While it may work with other OSes such as Linux or Android, it has no official images for these operating systems and may have compatibility issues. See More

Top Pro

Integrated WiFi and Bluetooth

WiFi and Bluetooth are integrated on the board so your USBs are available for other peripherals. See More

Top Con

Lovely board however, it takes more then 2A on startup.

Power Hungry board. Wow See More

Top Pro

USB 3.0 available

Lattepanda has a USB 3.0 port available. See More

Top Con

Throttles due to poor heatsinks

This thing throttles down to 400 MHz due to poor cooling thus making it useless without some knowledge of computer building and modification. See More

Top Pro

Arduino-compatible

The Lattepanda has a Arduino-compatible coprocessor for any projects which involve an Arduino. See More

Top Con

No support for HDMI-CEC

When you connect it to a TV or projector it sometimes requires extra manual settings on the output device, such as for viewing 3D. Also, you can not control the player on this board with your TV or projector remote via HDMI-CEC. See More

Top Pro

Can fit most Raspberry Pi cases

Since it's almost the same size a the Raspberry Pi 3, it can fit inside most of the cases built for the Pi. See More

Top Pro

HDMI plus LCD and touch ports

On the LattePanda you have the choice of the HDMI output for a normal style monitor screen or you can buy the little 7" LCD and if you wish, the touch-screen option which means you free up the HDMI feed for other tasks such as playing a movie file etc. This also gives you the option of not having to plug in a USB keyboard because the LattePanda will default to providing a touch-screen keyboard style interface via the combination touch-screen and LCD. See More

Top Pro

Integrated arduino

Top Pro

Tablet mode enabled (by code)

With the Atom Cherrytail, you could attach the board to a touchscreen to create an ultimate Surface Pro experience (except for the fact that it doesn't have a camera). See More

Top Pro

Full Windows 10

Comes pre-installed with a full edition of Windows 10, including powerful tools such as Visual Studio, NodeJS, Java, Processing, and more. See More

Top Pro

Faster than most other single-board computers

The 64-bit Intel Atom system-on-a-chip used in the LattePanda board offers greater processing power in comparison to ARM-based single-board computers. See More

Top Pro

System installed on internal flash

System is installed on eMMC rather than an SD card like other SBCs. This means no extra physical components are required in order to get the computer to boot. See More

Specs

RAM:4 GB

CPU:Intel Atom x5-Z8350 Processor

Storage:64 GB eMMC

GPU:Intel HD Graphics, 12 EUs @200-500Mhz

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137 59

score 348 · Answer 5

Intel NUC

Top Pro

Low TDPs

The Atom based Celeron and Pentium NUCs have a very low TDP of 10 or 15W. See More

Top Con

Intel is a bitch

For an M2-port, HDR, better GPU power or more RAM support Intel wants you to buy the much higher priced iX-based models even if HDR would be possible on Atom GPU's. See More

Top Pro

Intel based GPU

Almost any OS has support for the intel i9xx based GPUs. See More

Top Pro

x86/amd64-based

Plenty of Operating Systems to choose. See More

Top Pro

HDMI-CEC

6th gen+ models have CEC support. See More

Specs

Size:101.6 × 101.6 mm

RAM:SO-DIMM

CPU:Intel Celeron, Pentium, Core

Storage:SATA, M2

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348 33

score 150 · Answer 6

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

Top Pro

Faster CPU than the original Pi 3 Model B

Thanks to a new thermal management plate (heat spreader), as well as better voltage regulation, the CPU gained a nice little 200 MHz bump in clock speed over the Pi 3 Model B. Applications on the Pi 3 B+ are a little faster and snappier than their predecessor. See More

Top Con

Superseded

the newer Model 4 is available for the same price and can do everything this does and more. See More

Top Pro

World-class support and software

What really sets the Raspberry Pi apart from the competition, and makes it leagues apart from every other SBC out there, it the software and support you get from every corner of the ecosystem regarding anything you want to make, build or do with the Pi. The most up-to-date kernels, the widest supported bundles, hats for every occasion, step-by-step instructions, and if you're trying something and get stuck, chances are high someone else has got stuck at the same spot, got past it, and left detailed instructions on how to get past it so nobody ever gets stuck there again. That is the best feature of the Raspberry Pi. See More

Top Con

USB and Ethernet bandwidth shared

For cloud servers (OwnCloud, NextCloud, FTP, Media Hosting, etc...) it will take a dip on the transfer performance (when using ethernet combined with a USB Storage device) as the same controller handles the USB and Ethernet interfaces. Better performance than its predecessor, but something to keep in mind. See More

Top Pro

Faster networking capabilities

Because of the Gigabit ethernet (although still sharing the USB 2.0 bus which limits its speed ceiling), it goes up to 3x faster than the original Pi 3 Model B. The new wireless chip supports 802.111ac, which also increases its throughput to 3x as well. Bluetooth 4.2 LE is much more stable, and it's just a nice little upgrade. See More

Top Con

Only USB 2.0

It only has USB 2.0 ports which are painfully slow but they are also limited to 0.5 A which is not enough to power a HDD reliable. See More

Top Pro

Great community and developer support

The various addons boards means this is the board to go with for starters into development. Without much knowledge you can get a project up and running in a short amount of time. See More

Top Con

Not for power users

The Pi has a 5V/2.5A DC power input which is not enough. See More

Top Con

Bluetooth is very unstable - never fails to fail

Many times after successfully pairing devices it just stops working. One speaker worked for about 5minutes then stopped. Since then it will pair but will not connect. Yes the speakers work in Windows and with a Samsung Galaxy S8. Its seems to have more to do with the Raspbian OS, since using a BlueTooth dongle with it gives the same results. See More

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150 23

score 106 · Answer 7

Rock64 (4GB)

Top Pro

Gigabyte ethernet

Top Con

Power connector is not MicroUSB or MiniUSB

Can't use power banks as a power source because of that. See More

Top Pro

USB 3 Bus support

Top Con

No on-board Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

Top Pro

Can have up to 4gb of low power RAM

Top Con

Lack of support, Unstable USB 3,

Only Android with TV UI is available. It is almost unusable with a touchscreen display. Community is somewhat helpful but is very small. The board developers do not participate in community discussions. No regular Android build available. Lack of accessories and project guidelines. See More

Top Pro

eMMC

Top Con

Lack of accessories

Top Pro

Beats Raspberry Pi on price and performance

Top Pro

Main header Pi 3 pin layout

Can use Pi shields. See More

Top Pro

Runs Dietpi Debian loads well - MUST use the PINE64 Installer for software loading

Top Pro

Barrel power connector

More rugged connection. Less likely to be damaged. See More

Top Pro

4K/60h hdmi 2a

Top Pro

Extra Gpio pins

Specs

GPU:ARM Mali-450MP2 Dual-core GPU

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106 16

score 106 · Answer 8

ASUS Tinker Board S

Top Pro

Fair performance

The Asus Tinker Board S is a more powerful single-board computer than a Raspberry Pi Model B since it has a more powerful microprocessor as well as larger and faster RAM memory. See More

Top Con

Comes without a power supply

You'll need to spend some extra money on a power supply unit since this board doesn't come with the one. See More

Top Pro

Stays cool

The ASUS Tinker Board S doesn't have problems related to overheating because it comes with a massive heatsink that can dissipate all heat generated by the board's powerful microprocessor. See More

Top Con

Once eMMC gets stuck it’s a headache

Once you get the eMMc stuck with switching operating system it’s a real nightmare to fix it See More

Top Pro

Simple setup

All you need to do to set this board up and running is to upload the appropriate Android or Linux image. Both images can be obtained from the ASUS's official web resource in the form of downloadable .zip files. Simply download the files and drivers on your computer and use the Etcher to flash the Tinker Board S. Overall, the process takes around 10 minutes to complete. See More

Top Con

MicroUSB power connector

Top Pro

Has on-board WiFi and Bluetooth

You'll have no problem connecting to a WiFi network or Bluetooth peripherals with the Tinker Board S since it comes with an onboard 802.11 b/g/n - compliant WiFi and Bluetooth transceiver. See More

Top Con

Power-hungry

This single-board computer is quite demanding when it comes to power since it is recommended to be used with a 3A power supply. See More

Top Pro

Has some on-board storage

Unlike the previous version of the ASUS's Tinker Board, the model S comes equipped with a 16GB eMMC storage which means that you'll always have some space to store the computer's OS as well as some extra applications. The eMMC memory performs on par with the more commonly known SD memory used on the majority of other single board computers out there since both of those are based on NAND. See More

Top Pro

Fits the Raspberry Pi's case

You'll not have to tinker around finding the case for this single-board computer since it has the same form factor as the Raspberry Pi 3. You can find a variety of cases that start at around $6.50 here. See More

Top Pro

Multi-OS platform

Right now, Tinker Board S can run both Android and Linux. Linux comes in the form of TinkerOS_Debian that is based on a well-known Debian distribution while the TinkerOS_Android is based on the Android 6. See More

Top Pro

Outputs in 4K

This single board-computer has enough juice to stream the 4K media at the frame rate of 30Hz through its HDMI port. See More

Top Pro

Less risk to fry a board with a cheap power supply

You're less likely to fry this SBC than some of the other ones because the Tinker Board S has the low-voltage detection circuitry which will shut down the computer if it detects inappropriately low voltage coming from the power supply. Usually, cheaper power adapters are the ones that fail to reach the needed 5V mark. See More

Top Pro

Better build

Clear and colorful design. See More

Specs

RAM:2GB DDR3

CPU:Rockchip Quad-Core RK3288

Storage:microSD and 16GB eMMC

GPU:ARM Mali-T764

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106 19

score 7 · Answer 9

Radxa Rock2

Top Pro

Built-in Bluetooth

Has a built-in Bluetooth module. Meaning there's no need to buy one. See More

Top Con

HDMI has some problems on Linux

The HDMI port has some issues on Linux, fortunately these issues are not present when using Android. See More

Top Pro

Built-in Wifi wth antenna

Has built-in Wifi capabilities. See More

Top Pro

Can dual boot Linux and Android

Other than supporting several Linux distros along with Android, you can also choose to dual-boot both. See More

Top Pro

Provided with a clear plastic case

Comes with a clear plastic case included in the price, which is pretty useful for most projects people would use a SBC for.. See More

7 3

score 30 · Answer 10

HummingBoard Gate

Top Con

Pretty expensive

Starting at $70, prices can go up to $235 depending on the model and the components that users choose to add to the board. For these prices it's rather expensive relative to other single board computers. See More

Top Pro

Same software runs on single to quad CPU without any problems

Since the HummingBoard Gate comes with different versions, including different CPU versions, it can also run the same software without any problem on any CPU regardless of the number of cores. See More

Top Con

No built-in Wifi for the cheapest version

The cheapest version of the Humingboard Gate doesn't have a built-in Wifi card. You can either buy it separately as an add-on or you can buy a more expensive version of the Humingboard Gate which has a built-in Wifi card. See More

Top Pro

Some models fit inside a Raspberry Pi case

HummingBoard-Pro and HummingBoard-Base fit inside a Raspberry Pi model B case (but be aware that many cases will block the IR). See More

Top Pro

Extremely extendable

Hummingboard Gate has a native mikroBUS system which lets users attach any “click board” that’s compatible with MikroElektronika’s system. This way the board can be extended by adding motion sensors, wifi cards, physical buttons, temperature sensors, NFC or Bluetooth and much more. See More

Top Pro

Can be used as a media streaming device

HummingBoard works really well with Kodi and can be turned into a media streaming device with ease. See More

Top Pro

Selection of great operating systems

Hummingboard supports OpenELEC 5.0, GeexBox XBMC, Android and Debian officially, but it can also run ArchLinux, openSUSE and Fedora successfully. See More

Specs

CPU:ARM Quad 1GHz i.MX6

USB:2 × USB 2.0

IR:Yes

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30 12

score 217 · Answer 11

ASUS Tinker Board

Top Pro

Great value for the price

The ASUS Tinker Board offers performance that outclasses other single-board computers in this price range. It can easily be used as a daily PC substitute and it can easily handle some tasks that competitors (like the Pi 3 for example) find difficult. Things like image editing, streaming Full HD videos, and even playing some simple browser-based games can easily be done on the Tinker Board. See More

Top Con

The support behind it is lacking

The technical support provided by ASUS is rather lacking, compared to competitors and knowing how important ASUS is in the tech world. The documentation is lacklustre, the official website is filled with marketing-speak without any actual valuable information for someone who has already bought the board, and to top it off, the download link for the official OS is hidden away inside the ASUS website in the drivers section. See More

Top Pro

Fits on most Raspberry Pi cases

This single-board computer copies the form-factor of the raspberry pi to a T. The size is about the same and most of the connectors are at the same spots as the Raspberry Pi. See More

Top Con

No CEC support for HDMI

Top Pro

The official OS is quite complete out of the box

You can get the official Linux image for the Tinker Board website. It's actually a customized version of Debian that's changed to work as smoothly as possible on Tinker Board's hardware. It comes with all the essential applications every PC has nowadays (web browser, text, editor, etc.) and some more specialized tools that are used to control the GPIO pins and that allow more advanced users to "talk" to the hardware. See More

Top Con

Limited media center support

Top Pro

Built-in WiFi and Bluetooth

This board has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. See More

Top Pro

Possible to connect an external WiFi antenna

Yes, you can add an external WiFi adapter to most SBCs but the ability to connect an external antenna to the embedded WiFi is a pretty rare feature. See More

Top Pro

Unique and pleasant aesthetic

Unlike most boards on the market, the ASUS Tinker Board is rather aesthetically pleasing as well. It has an array of colours which help distinguish the different connectors. Especially nice are the GPIO pin headers which are all colour-coded to identify the various types of pins. See More

Top Pro

Gigabit Ethernet on board

And since it has a dedicated controller which is not shared with USB it's very fast an the speed doesn't depend on USB usage (and vice versa). See More

Top Pro

Previous Raspberry Pi owners will find themselves at ease with the GPIO library

The Tinker Board uses the same GPIO libraries as Raspberry Pi does. This means that users coming from Raspberry Pi who want to play around with the Tinker Board's GPIO pins will find it very easy to do so. See More

Specs

Size:85,5 x 54 mm

RAM:2 GB LPDDR3

CPU:Rockchip RK3288-C (4x up to 1.8GHz)

Storage:64 GB

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217 69

score 101 · Answer 12

ODROID-C2

Top Pro

Good support for Ubuntu

The C2 has pretty decent support for Ubuntu and it can be used with it for basic day-to-day operations such as browsing the web and editing documents with LibreOffice among others. See More

Top Con

No built in WiFi

There is no built-in WiFi, and kernel headers for 3.14 are almost impossible to find, making driver compiling very difficult. See More

Top Pro

Superior performance compared with other boards

Top Con

Old kernel available

Only the 3.14 branche is available See More

Top Pro

Built-in heatsink

The ODROID C2 has a built-in heatsink which covers the CPU and two of the RAM chips. See More

Top Con

Early revisions use a 2.5mm power socket instead of a USB port

Early revisions of the C2 use a 2.5mm power socket instead of the micro USB port available on the board or any of the other USB ports. While not a drawback in terms of strength of the board, it's a bit annoying having to order a new power supply to work with the C2. Later revisions of the board can use the USB port for charging. However, ODROID recommends using the power socket if there are several devices attached to the board because they can increase the draw up to 2A and a lot of cheaper USB power adapters won't do 2A. See More

Top Pro

Can fit inside Raspberry Pi cases

Since its shape and size closely mimic that of Pi 3, it can fit on most Raspberry Pi cases available. See More

Top Con

Might have problems with default HDMI resolution when first starting up

It's not unusual for the C2 to have a "Mode not supported" message when first booted up and connected to a monitor through the HDMI port. This can be fixed by logging through SSH and editing the boot.ini on a FAT partition on the SD card to set the correct HDMI resolution and the process is detailed pretty well on the ODROID wiki but it may be out of scope for some users and pretty annoying for the rest. See More

Top Pro

Will have mainline kernel support

Top Pro

Relatively low power requirements

The board by itself needs about 0.5A to run, but it's advised to use a 2A power supply for when peripherals are attached. See More

Specs

RAM:2GB DDR3 SDRAM

CPU:Amlogic ARM Cortex-A53(ARMv8) quad-core 2Ghz

Storage:eMMC5.0 HS400 Flash Storage slot / UHS-1 SDR50 MicroSD Card slot

GPU:ARM Mali-450 GPU

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101 43

score 407 · Answer 13

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Top Pro

The largest and most active community

Raspberry Pi has the largest following of any single-board computer. The amount of guides, tutorials and software available for the Raspberry Pi is unmatched by any other competitor. A regular user has close to no chance to run into a problem that hasn’t been covered already. If a web search doesn’t yield any results, the users on the official forums are very responsive and will usually reply within a day. See More

Top Con

Combined USB and NIC controller

The NIC is run through USB so they share bandwidth. See More

Top Pro

Affordable

The Raspberry Pi is very affordable. See More

Top Con

Closed-source bootloader and GPU

Top Pro

Easy setup

Setting up a Raspberry Pi is easy enough even for people who have not installed an OS before. The official documentation is very detailed in explaining how to install the official Raspberry Pi OS, called Raspbian and even a beginner can follow it without a problem. See More

Top Con

Slow WiFi

The WiFi adapter cannot support more than 2.5MB/s under perfect conditions; not enough to stream Blu-ray. See More

Top Pro

Large number of operating systems available

There's a massive number of Raspberry Pi OSes available. Most of them are some kind of Linux flavor and general-purpose and some other OSes are available for specific purposes like media streaming or gaming and emulation. See More

Top Con

Limited onboard NIC capabilities

Because the Pi's ethernet port is powered by the USB bus, it is not ideal for high performance routing and switching. While some network monitoring programs may work, using this device as a content firewall or gateway is not ideal. See More

Top Pro

Good GPIO functionality

The Raspberry Pi 3 model B offers 28 GPIO pins plus 12 power and ground pins to be used within their projects. This is a very reasonable number of pins for most projects that will need them. The special communication protocols officially supported are the following: IIC (Inter-Integrated Circuit), SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter). The GPIO functionality explained above allows the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to be connected with various peripheral devices and, as a result expands the functionality of the board. For example, IIC and SPI buses can be used for attaching multiple analog to digital converters which can be used to “read” analog channels like thermal sensors, humidity sensors, CO2 sensors, etc. Meanwhile UART can be used for communication between multiple Raspberry Pi’s. See More

Top Con

Not as powerful as some other SBCs

While still a very powerful single-board computer, it’s not as powerful as some other SBCs. For example, it has some problems with streaming 4K videos; and even at Full HD, it has problems with YouTube. It is also unable to run newer games even if they are not very demanding such as Team Fortress 2 or DotA. See More

Top Pro

The default OS is great for learning to develop software

Raspbian's main goal is to be used as a teaching tool for schools in CS classes. As such, it has multiple development tools pre-installed. It comes with a Python installation, Wolfram Mathematica and Java IDEs. See More

Top Con

Pretty slow comparatively at the RPI 4B

Top Pro

Great legacy gaming support

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B can be also be used as a console emulator using an OS image called RetroPie. Setting up RetroPie the first time will only take about 30 minutes on average for someone who has never done it before, and even less for experienced users. You can emulate various platforms ranging from early ‘80s legacy consoles like the NES, to more recent ones like the Wii and PlayStation Portable. See More

Top Con

No ADC (analog to digital converter)

This means you need to add an ADC module or use a capacitor charge timing hack to read analog sensors. See More

Top Pro

Can be turned into a fully-functional multimedia center

You can easily turn any Raspberry Pi into a fully functional home media streaming station with its ability to stream 60Hz Full HD videos. You just have to hook the Model B up to a Full HD monitor (through an HDMI cable), decent speakers (the Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity will allow the use of the wireless ones). Then download applications (Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, and Kodi for example are all supported out of the box) and your home multimedia station is ready. Once built, you can even control the media station using an Android or iOS app. See More

Top Con

GPIO voltage too low for some projects

Compared to the 5v of Arduino boards the 3.3v of the GPIO on the Rasberry Pi 3 is much lower and affects project components needed. Although, some add-ons will work with both voltages. See More

Top Pro

Native Bluetooth capabilities

The model 3 B has built-in Bluetooth support. This is very helpful when connecting multiple peripherals and when the number of USB ports on the Pi is not enough. See More

Top Con

No support for UAS

The USB ports do not support USB Attached SCSI to speed up data transfer. See More

Top Pro

Hundreds of apps available through the official store

Raspberry Pi also has an available "Pi Store" which houses hundreds and hundreds of apps ready to download and use on a Pi. See More

Top Con

No SATA

Board has no SATA port or something similar. See More

Top Pro

Many debian (aptitude) packages available in ARM

Many aptitude packages are available for this device. Helping installs go quickly. See More

Top Con

No on-board Microphone

Top Pro

Can handle basic day-to-day operations a PC can without a problem

While older versions of the Pi have had some annoying performance issues, the latest version has had a 50%-60% performance increase from the Raspberry Pi 2. This makes it a pretty decent choice for an everyday PC and it can perform basic tasks like opening and editing documents or browsing the web without a problem. See More

Top Con

Power hungry

The Raspberry Pi 3 is a pretty power hungry single board computer. It needs a power supply of 2.5A to function which may not be already available to users and needs to be bought separately. See More

Top Pro

Good wired connectivity

This SBC's wired connectivity is pretty complete. Users will get four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, a 3.5mm audio jack, CSI (camera interface), and DSI (display interface). See More

Top Con

Lags while browsing and on day-to-day tasks

Keeping in mind Raspberry were designed keeping teaching and education in mind, asking it to replace our daily PC needs would be unfair. However there are many other SBCs that can serve this task easily. See More

Top Pro

New free Pixel version has a good Chromium browser

The new free Pixel version of Raspbian (a variety of Debian Jessie) has a good Chromium web browser with Flash and Pdf handling included. Can live with little RAM: 1 GB is ok, more is super. See More

Top Con

Problems with USB 3.0 hubs

It is known that Raspberry Pi has an issue with USB 3.0 hubs in conjunction with the use of Full- or Low-speed devices (most mice, most keyboards). If you have any devices with additional USB 3.0 ports (e.g. a keyboard) they won't work on Raspberry Pi. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight and fast booting Raspbian Pixel now also runs on PCs and Mac with i386 processors and little RAM

It is now also available for free ( USB booted) on PC or Mac based on i386 processors. Works well and boots fast. The minimum USB key size needed is 2 GB. Pi promotors are working on a HDD bootable version too. See More

Top Con

Doesn't have built-in storage

A micro SD card is required for Raspberry Pi to function. See More

Top Pro

Very good documentation

Extensive documentation available for beginners and experts. All sorts of projects covered. See More

Top Con

ARM processor

Some programs are incompatible with the ARM-based hardware. See More

Top Pro

Can be used as an everyday PC

Powerful enough to run standard apps, so it can be used as a home PC. See More

Top Pro

Storage can be upgraded

Uses a separate micro SD card, so the storage can be upgraded or even taken out to read from / install a new OS. See More

Top Pro

Bluetooth 4.1LE

Good for lots of connectivity in projects. connects to keyboards and mice. See More

Top Pro

Downloadable magazine

Has it's own magazine, also available in print with very helpful articles and project ideas. See More

Top Pro

Can play 1080p videos at 60fps

The Pi 3 can play 1080p videos at 60fps, which is a significant upgrade from the previous Pi 2 which ran at 30 fps. However, the built-in browser has problem with running YouTube videos at 60fps but by using another browser such as Firefox which is installed separately there should not be any problems with running videos at 60 fps. See More

Top Pro

Does not require much power to run

Runs off a 5V smartphone charger and can also be powered using a battery pack. See More

Top Pro

Can easily switch OSes and profiles by a simple switch of the MicroSD card

It's super-convenient to have multiple MicroSD cards with different images and switch them on demand. Much better than re-installing and re-configuring an OS every time. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of third-party accessories available

Cases, cameras, etc. See More

Top Pro

Visually appealing

The board looks much prettier than, say, the Banana Pi. See More

Top Pro

Has full HDMI-CEC support

Top Pro

Makes a great home web server

Makes a great little web server. Installed "LAMP" Apache, MySQL, and PHP. See More

Specs

RAM:1 GB

CPU:Broadcom BCM2837 (4x up to 1.2 GHz)

Storage:microSD

GPU:Broadcom video core 4

See All Specs

See All Experiences

407 158

score 29 · Answer 14

Banana Pi

Top Con

Bad software support

Top Pro

Official support for multiple Desktop-version Linux distros

Banana Pi officially supports Fedora, Arch, Lubuntu and openSUSE. It also can be used with Raspbian (Debian derivative) or Android. See More

Top Con

No off-the-shelf camera modules

The A20 chip that the Banana Pi uses lacks a true Camera Serial Interface implementation, instead it uses a parallel camera interface. The problem with this is that there are no off-the-shelf camera modules that support this and can connect to the Banana Pi, but it should be mentioned that the makers of Banana Pi have promised to create a camera module that is supported by it. See More

Top Pro

Additional keys for booting or shutting down

Top Con

Does not fit most Raspberry Pi cases, even though it's where it clearly has gotten the inspiration from

The Banana Pi is pretty noticeable a Rapberry Pi lookalike and the name does not hide this information either. Unfortunately it's a bit larger than the Raspberry Pi, making it very hard to fit into most Raspberry Pi cases. See More

Top Pro

SATA port

Top Pro

Excellent compatibility with Raspberry Pi software

Other than having a port of Raspbian (the official OS for Raspberry Pi) available for use with full capabilities, Banana Pi can also use many applications that were originally written for Raspberry. One of these is WiringPi, a C/C++ library which gives easy access to Raspberry's I/O with a strong Arduino flavor. But that is just one example of the many open source projects being ported to Banana Pi. See More

Top Pro

Onboard Wi-Fi

Most models have an onboard Wi-Fi. See More

See All Experiences

29 15

score 11 · Answer 15

MinnowBoard Max

Top Pro

Completely open source

MinnowBoard is a non-profit backed by Intel. meaning it gets advice for its architecture by Intel. But all hardware and software parts, including all drivers are completely free and open source. See More

Top Con

Multi-USB hub almost a necessity

Because it has only two USB ports, one of which to be used for charging, a multi-USB hub is needed to connect a keyboard and mouse which are the absolute minimal external devices to be able to use and configure the MinnowBoard. See More

Top Pro

USB 3.0 available

The MinnowBoard Max has 2 USB ports, one of which is a USB 3.0. See More

Top Con

No official OS images have the kernel with GPIO enabled

Although this is not the board's fault per-se, no official OS image has enabled support for GPIO. But if the kernel is compiled from source, it can be compiled with GPIO and PWM enabled. See More

Top Pro

Great for hacking away

Other than releasing all drivers as open source, Intel has also made the schematics of the board available to download. This way, hackers can give it a try and build anything they want without restrictions. See More

11 7

score 35 · Answer 16

BeagleBone Black

Top Pro

Extendable hardware

There are 92 expansion pins, with 46-pin female connectors on both sides of the board with other 6 serial pins to be used for debugging. See More

Top Con

Only one USB available for peripherals

There's only one USB port available for peripherals, which is a bit annoying considering how two USB ports is a minimum to have a keyboard and a mouse hooked up without having to use a powered USB hub. See More

Top Pro

On board storage

Has on board integrated storage of 4GB. It can also have an SD card in addition to the integrated storage and can boot from either of them. See More

Top Con

Lack of a proper OpenGL driver

It sounds like the driver is possible, but the information is spread out over forums and GitHub. See More

Top Pro

Programmable Real Time Units with GPIO control

Real-time coprocessors allow for embedded systems control and bit-banging communication See More

Top Pro

Analog Inputs

There are 7 1.8V analog inputs. See More

Top Pro

Responsive, helpful online community

Top Pro

Easy of use

It hosts a web service over USB so it is super simple to get started with plenty of source code and examples available. See More

Specs

CPU:1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8

Video:1×HDMI Mini

Power source:1×5V barrel jack + 1×Mini-A USB

SoC:Amlogic AM335x

See All Experiences

35 22

score 67 · Answer 17

PINE A64

Top Pro

Can stream 4K video

The Pine64 has a HDMI port which offers 4K streaming capabilities and coupled with support for Kodi it can be transformed into a pretty powerful media streaming centre. See More

Top Con

Bad support

Top Pro

Extremely powerful for its price

With a price of $15 it's one of the most powerful and fast single board computers on the market today, able to compete with products that are more than double its price. See More

Top Con

Finicky PSU support

It's very hard to find a PSU (power supply unit) that works with Pine64. While other single board computers (such as the ODROID, MK802IV, and MK808) work with virtually any 5V/2A PSUs, the power supply is a bit too sensitive (even when using a power strip with 8 USB ports with all SoCs running off the 1A or 2.4A connections). See More

Top Pro

Optional and bespoke 7" Touchscreen and Analog Audio DAC

Range of accessories now available that expand core functionality without worrying [too much] about compatibility. See More

Top Con

No onboard Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

Not included by default, but an optional WiFi 802.11 b/g/n & Bluetooth module can be added. See More

Top Pro

Additional GPIOs (Euler bus)

A GPIO (general purpose input/output) port is included, which allows for more flexible use. See More

Top Con

Huge size

The A64 is 127mm x 79mm which is significantly larger than other single board computers on the market. See More

Top Pro

Versatile hardware

The board already comes with a lot of things. See More

Top Con

You can't use an adapter to DVI VGA

It only supports HDMI. See More

Specs

RAM:512MB / 1GB / 2GB

CPU:1.2 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit

Storage:microSD

GPU:Dual Core Mali 400 MP2 Graphics card

See All Specs

See All Experiences

67 71

score 36 · Answer 18

Intel NUC boards

Top Pro

On paper the J5005 maxes out at 8gb DDR4 RAM however it can accommodate at lease double that

You can have 16GB GSkill DDR4 Memory + 500gb SSD and 10TB external HDD. Go with the kit so you can be assured that it runs Linux and only Linux (or whatever your preference) out of the box and isn't subjected to any unnecessary use/abuse at the hand of Doors. See More

Top Con

Cost as much as other Barebones

Price is almost the same as a full Intel/Zotac barebone, which can also be dismantled. See More

Top Pro

Has at least one SATA port

Top Con

No GPIO

So it is not really useful for DIY projects. See More

Top Pro

DRAM is not soldered

DRAM modules are not soldered to the board so they can be changed, upgraded or replaced. See More

Top Con

No DRAM included

DRAM modules must be bought separately. See More

Top Pro

x86-based

Can run all IBM-PC compatible software. See More

See All Experiences

36 2

score 4 · Answer 19

SanCloud BeagleBone Enhanced WiFi 1G

Top Pro

Pin to Pin Compatible with the BeagleBone Black

Top Pro

Onboard Storage

4GB 8-bit eMMC onboard flash storage for main firmware image and also a micro-SD for programming and extra storage See More

Top Pro

Excellent Support

Super support from SanCloud and the wider BeagleBoard community See More

Top Pro

Connect up to 20 devices.

Connect 10 devices out of the box. Up to 20 devices can be connected by a simple OTG port and config modification. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of I/Os and more speed & power than the BeagleBone Black.

Specs

RAM:1GByte

CPU:TI AM3358 ARM® Cortex A8 1GHz

Bluetooth:2.1/3.0/4.0

Ethernet:Gigabit Network Port

See All Specs

4 0

score 4 · Answer 20

esp32

Top Pro

Many variants available

Many different variants are available depending how good you are at soldering or how small it needs to be. See More

Top Con

Some variants require soldering

Not all variants include easily plugable pins. Usually only the more expensive variants include these. See More

Top Pro

Very small

Can fit inside small devices. See More

Top Pro

Very cheap

Without case can be below $5. See More

Top Pro

Has ultra-low power mode

Top Pro

Has bluetooth and wifi modules

4 0