Alternative product to Raspberry.

[beanflying]

I wasn't going to but I have a small light industrial job coming up and it ticked most of the boxes so as well as ordering a Passively Cooled N100 PC I have one of these coming too to try in parallel as to my mind it ticks the boxes in this space

Orange Pi 5 Plus. 8Gb with a 64Gb eMMC for around $115 USD equivalent, should be here in another week or so. http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/details/Orange-Pi-5-plus.html

There is a 16Gb model but  it is an SBC not a desktop or laptop in spite of what people turn themselves into pretzels to attempt to make this so when cheaper and faster X86 hardware exists.

Still early days but there is the Orange OS's on the link above and these two below.
https://www.armbian.com/orangepi-5/ (still seems to have a few quirks but it is an early release)
https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip (seems a bit more stable by other user accounts)



Size for size against a passively cooled Intel N100 system.

[dobsonr741]

I see that many raspberry pi versions are coming back in stock. It seems like the Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 was available for a significant portion of the day in the UK, which is fantastic for those who have been eagerly waiting to get their hands on one. If you're looking to grab a Raspberry Pi, you can check out rpilocator.com for real-time stock availability updates. Happy shopping and enjoy your Raspberry Pi adventures and pay no more extra markups!

[beanflying]

Much as Raspberry's are getting 'easier' to obtain for more sensible $ again there is plenty of alternates that are better specced.

Released yesterday as far as I know the Orange Pi Zero3 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005785846814.html

Tweaked SOC, up to 4Gb or DDR4 Ram and all the usual bells and whistles in this sized board. Shame they couldn't find room for eMMC memory. I can land a 4Gb one of there for $30USD there is 1 and 2Gb models available the 1Gb would land at the same price as a locally sourced Pi Zero2 to then have to work around it's 500Mb memory. It doesn't make the actual Pi Zero a bad product either.

[DiTBho]

I would not recommend Allwinner SoCs as the linux kernel and u-boot are very poorly supported.

[ozkarah]

You can check out the Odroid N2+

https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-n2-with-4gbyte-ram-2/

[beanflying]

I would not recommend Allwinner SoCs as the linux kernel and u-boot are very poorly supported.

As a plaything without any real purpose I ordered a 4Gb one and am looking at it more for plugging into a dumb tv so it is likely going to finish up a droid box rather than Linux. But Orange has now released Ubuntu, Debian and Droid images so some playing when it arrives I guess at least initially.

Older generations of Allwinner based stuff based on a quick look have just been ignored but the 618 is already in more general use so  I guess.

[beanflying]

Haven't delved into the bowels of it yet but 4Gb running on a 64Gb card and Ubuntu Jammy apparently running on the 6.1 kernel (Orange Image). Call this a mini review I guess. 300 page manual available so the documentation is 'reasonable'.

Installed straight up, added Libre Office, Gimp, Inkscape and had a good play with them. Took a little fussing to find my network printer but that was minor. WiFi and BT have been rock solid and while it dropped a few frames initially on YouTube not many after that and was very watchable.

Most importantly of course is will it game - YES

Overall a fairly good desktop experience and way better than I expected. If it is broken (or I break it) I will report back here.

EDIT: Stress testing today, tried a small heatsink and it got extra toasty really fast  22x22mm one sits just over the RAM but not attached and it is much happier even after 10 minutes + of 100% stress testing.

[beanflying]

Don't like Allwinner then Rockchip RK3566 based board. up to 8Gb, Emmc and NVMe (PCIe2) storage options and a bunch more. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/OPI-3B-Series/1553371_40000004548379.html Currently a decent launch discount available too.