Raspberry pi alternatives (aarch64)

nunotex

nunotex

Hello,

I'm looking for raspberry pi alternatives on aarch64 arch.
I'm waiting to buy a pi4 for months because it's out of stock in Portugal official reseller.

Something with 4+ cores and 8GB+ RAM will be nice.

Thanks
 
RK3568 based SBC or RK3399 would be good choices.

I have a couple Rock3a SBC in 4G(lpddr4) but I think they have 8G models as well.
Haven't gotten FreeBSD to run on it yet but having a m.2 and a mini pcie slot is pretty cool.
 
Fujitsu S920 Thin Client, get it used on eBay for around 40 Euros. This makes also a nice home router/firewall.

Otherwise if you really want to use ARM: Odroid or the Banana Pi.
 
Hey all!

Thanks for sugestions, some are really nice!

I'm in the mood of ARM and raspberry was the first that caled my attention but I will need to wait until they available on official reseler, because they have reached 250 Euros for a pi4 8GB!

Odroid, Banana, nvidia, radxa, etc, I will take a look to see if I can find a cheap one.

Cheers
 
I second the Rockchip recommendation.
RockPro64 with 4GB and 64GB eMMC is nice.
Nicest Arm experience so far.
I too have the Rock Pi 3A and I hope to see support soon.
That has the best feature set for my tastes.
I just bought the M.2 slot NVMe adapter in anticipation.

Rock Pi 4 is supported on -CURRENT I believe. FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE.
Asus Tinker2S looks nice too. Might work with Rock64 image.
Quartz64 has an SATA jack with PCIe slot. That looks attractive too. Supported on RockPro64 image.

What features are you looking for?
 
Phishfry said:
What features are you looking for?
Click to expand...
That is exactly the correct question. What do you actually need?

Do you want a general-purpose computer, to which you connect keyboard, mouse and display, and then run a generic operating system (such as Linux or FreeBSD) to use as a desktop machine (whether CLI or GUI)? The high-end Raspberry Pi are decent at that, a bit underpowered, and with exceedingly slow disks (actually SD cards). They are very inexpensive. Problem is that it is not a complete computer, you still need to organize a case and a power supply. And connecting peripherals that need more IO than USB can provide is hard. If this is your application, then various inexpensive (often used) computers are a good alternative.

Do you need the very small physical size of the RPi? In that case, I think the best alternatives are the various clones, like Banana Pi. Also look at the Beaglebone; it has more good instrumentation/DAQ/embedded control peripherals embedded, but you probably don't care. Supposedly FreeBSD runs on it.

Why do you really need the ARM instruction set?

On the other hand, if you need the computer to also interface (via things like I2C and GPIO), then it gets harder. I would try the various clones (Banana Pi, Orange Pi, Rock Pi), or at a slightly higher price-point (but more good stuff) Beaglebone.
 
I didn't buy the RockPro64 when it came out.
It seemed freakish with x4 slot on baby board. (Why not MiniPCIe or M.2 similar to all embedded boards.)

Now that I have used the device I am good with it. But a key asterisk is I can make my own cases.
Unfortunately the NAS case is too big for my taste so I will build my own.
So do you want freakenstein or spit and polished.

The boards come and go so quick the part supply gets weird for older boards. Mainly cases.
So back to enclosures. What do you want? Build around that premise.

RockPro64 has nice baby case, but then you can't use x4 device even with 90 degree riser.
Too slim. So why bother.
I was faced with too small or too big. Luckily I have the force.
 
Phishfry said:
The boards come and go so quick the part supply gets weird for older boards.
Click to expand...
This was one reason to stick to RPi as they do commit to supply boards for many years but right now they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their first priority is to supply their commercial clients and as per one post they don't anticipate situation to improve until Q2 2023. Wouldn't be surprised if they come out with pi5 before the pi4 shortage is over but this is not something you can plan around.
 
Hello

I'd advise you the BeagleBoard AI-64: https://beagleboard.org/ai-64 (I haven't personally tested FreeBSD on it though)

But as otherwise noted, if you want a passively cooled, tiny form-factor, FreeBSD-compatible hardware, and a low-power x86_64 arch is acceptable, then this Gigabyte Brix model is probably a good choice for you : https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BMCE-4500C-rev-10

It draws peanuts in electricity (6W), and I confirm FreeBSD runs beautifully on it, especially since the Intel IGPU support for this model was added very recently to 13.1-RELEASE.
 
Pierre-Marie Baty said:
But as otherwise noted, if you want a passively cooled, tiny form-factor, FreeBSD-compatible hardware, and a low-power x86_64 arch is acceptable, then this Gigabyte Brix model is probably a good choice for you : https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BMCE-4500C-rev-10

It draws peanuts in electricity (6W), and I confirm FreeBSD runs beautifully on it, especially since the Intel IGPU support for this model was added very recently to 13.1-RELEASE.
Click to expand...
Hi,

I am really curious about this fanless brix model, on one hand hardware looks okay and the price too but on the other hand the box itself makes me a bit skeptical, I mean how does the plastic box handles the heat exhaust ? Or may be it's a metal box but it does not look like it though.
Are the little holes behind the box enough ? Of course the proc is only a celeron but still .
What are the temp you get in a normal day (meaning when there is no crazy sun out there) ?
 
gotnull said:
I mean how does the plastic box handles the heat exhaust ? Or may be it's a metal box but it does not look like it though.
Click to expand...
i have a shitty android tv box which has slimmer case and no fans
it has 5W TDP cpu - amlogic s905x3
temperature sensor says about 65C on load (i run armbian on it) with 1core 100% load
running 4 copies of openssl speed made it go to 80C

1666279403328.png
 
gotnull said:
Hi,

I am really curious about this fanless brix model, on one hand hardware looks okay and the price too but on the other hand the box itself makes me a bit skeptical, I mean how does the plastic box handles the heat exhaust ? Or may be it's a metal box but it does not look like it though.
Are the little holes behind the box enough ? Of course the proc is only a celeron but still .
What are the temp you get in a normal day (meaning when there is no crazy sun out there) ?
Click to expand...
The CPU is slightly downclocked so that it never reaches an alarming temperature. But the performance is still very good. In idle/low load mode the box hardly gets over 45°C. It can stand compiling large codebases (such as the LLVM one) without reaching the tripping temperature. I never experienced the plastic box being too hot for being touched or handled. It's safe.

I had previously a GB-BXBT-2807 for the same use (constantly on) and it lasted ~8 years. Actually my own website ran on this nettop from 2013 to 2021. I can't vouch for the durability of the GB-BMCE-4500C but considering it's the same manufacturer and same range of product I'd expect a comparable lifespan.

As for dissipation, the plastic box looks cleverly aerated so that the airflow goes naturally up and out by convection. There's a bit of metal in it that serves as heat pipes to improve dissipation over a larger surface. But I believe you could run it without the casing and provided it's properly oriented (e.g. not top down) you should be able to stay with normal temperatures.

I don't often advertise for hardware but I think the Gigabyte passive nettops are well worth it.
 
Pierre-Marie Baty said:
Hello

I'd advise you the BeagleBoard AI-64: https://beagleboard.org/ai-64 (I haven't personally tested FreeBSD on it though)

But as otherwise noted, if you want a passively cooled, tiny form-factor, FreeBSD-compatible hardware, and a low-power x86_64 arch is acceptable, then this Gigabyte Brix model is probably a good choice for you : https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BMCE-4500C-rev-10

It draws peanuts in electricity (6W), and I confirm FreeBSD runs beautifully on it, especially since the Intel IGPU support for this model was added very recently to 13.1-RELEASE.
Click to expand...
Hi,

Is wifi card supported?

Never understanded why is so hard to find wifi chipsets in most of vendors:
  • LAN
    Gigabit LAN (Realtek 8111HS)
  • Wifi Card
    Dual Band Wireless-802.11 AC
 
Yea Odroid C1 was never supported.

I would be wary of the BeagleBone AI. It has different CPU than Black/Green/Blue.

RockPro64 Wifi/Bluetooth SD-IO module does not work.
 
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