4 ms·

Honest question: Can somebody explain to me why I would want to get this instead of a Raspberry Pi or a Beagle Bone?

by krylon 10y ago

vegabook 10y ago
Double the ram, twice as fast, gigabit ethernet. 4k. Still usb 2.0 though. Much riskier on OS and software support/community though. If starting out I would go Rpi. But this is defo a very well specced little board.
- ausjke 10y ago
  it is still pretty hard to find ARM with USB3 these days for DIY
  - shoonmcgregor 10y ago
    I had the same issue (no ARM+USB3+gigabit boards) so I had to build a board that had all of that plus mSata and minipcie.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - ausjke 10y ago
      I just use celeron boards (mini-itx) that has everything I need and is still low-power
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
      - shoonmcgregor 10y ago
        I just posted an Ask HN about it. I'm going to produce the boards as part of the Make/100 kickstarter project https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13500403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13500403
- oneplane 10y ago
  The specs might be great, but without proper (DKMS) drivers and/or source code you can't make the chips do anything. Especially when the vendor decides to drop software support a year from now...
dgl 10y ago
Gigabit Ethernet is interesting to me, I've ended up using rather more expensive devices than raspberry Pis because their network performance is poor (particularly on the Pi as the Ethernet is attached via USB).
- AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
  If gigabit Ethernet is what you're after, why not an ODROID? I think almost all of their contemporary boards feature gigabit Ethernet controllers.
intoverflow2 10y ago
To try and help prevent one company having a monopoly on this space?
- suprjami 10y ago
  Open source drivers will be the only way to ensure that. All these fruit clones look great on paper, then you realise you're stuck on an ancient closed source kernel if you want to use the hardware for 3D or video or sometimes even at all. Release drivers, update images. That's all the Pi Foundation has done to ensure they're the best.
krylon 10y ago
Thanks for the answers! Gigabit Ethernet sounds very interesting indeed, so does more RAM! And, yes, competition is always good to stir things up a little. (Even though my home network is stuck in the dark ages and has a 100MBit switch only. I know GBE switches are dirt cheap, but this one has been with me for ~13 years now and has survived me losing consciousness and dropping my head on it, so I really want to find out how long it'll last.)

Honest question: Can somebody explain to me why I would want to get this instead of a Raspberry Pi or a Beagle Bone?

by krylon 10y ago

Honest question: Can somebody explain to me why I would want to get this instead of a Raspberry Pi or a Beagle Bone?

Double the ram, twice as fast, gigabit ethernet. 4k. Still usb 2.0 though. Much riskier on OS and software support/community though. If starting out I would go Rpi. But this is defo a very well specced little board.

ausjke 10y ago
it is still pretty hard to find ARM with USB3 these days for DIY
- shoonmcgregor 10y ago
  I had the same issue (no ARM+USB3+gigabit boards) so I had to build a board that had all of that plus mSata and minipcie.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - ausjke 10y ago
    I just use celeron boards (mini-itx) that has everything I need and is still low-power
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
    - shoonmcgregor 10y ago
      I just posted an Ask HN about it. I'm going to produce the boards as part of the Make/100 kickstarter project https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13500403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13500403
oneplane 10y ago
The specs might be great, but without proper (DKMS) drivers and/or source code you can't make the chips do anything. Especially when the vendor decides to drop software support a year from now...

dgl 10y ago

Gigabit Ethernet is interesting to me, I've ended up using rather more expensive devices than raspberry Pis because their network performance is poor (particularly on the Pi as the Ethernet is attached via USB).

AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
If gigabit Ethernet is what you're after, why not an ODROID? I think almost all of their contemporary boards feature gigabit Ethernet controllers.

intoverflow2 10y ago

To try and help prevent one company having a monopoly on this space?

suprjami 10y ago
Open source drivers will be the only way to ensure that. All these fruit clones look great on paper, then you realise you're stuck on an ancient closed source kernel if you want to use the hardware for 3D or video or sometimes even at all. Release drivers, update images. That's all the Pi Foundation has done to ensure they're the best.

krylon 10y ago

Thanks for the answers! Gigabit Ethernet sounds very interesting indeed, so does more RAM! And, yes, competition is always good to stir things up a little. (Even though my home network is stuck in the dark ages and has a 100MBit switch only. I know GBE switches are dirt cheap, but this one has been with me for ~13 years now and has survived me losing consciousness and dropping my head on it, so I really want to find out how long it'll last.)