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Counterpoint: This is an Amlogic S905X device, presumably similar under the hood to the S905. Armbian already supports at least one such device (ODROID-C2) usin

Counterpoint: This is an Amlogic S905X device, presumably similar under the hood to the S905. Armbian already supports at least one such device (ODROID-C2) using the current kernel, so once the device tree configuration is worked out, NAS software support ought to be practically the same as any other linux box. It has at least one advantage over the Raspberry Pi for NAS applications: a real SATA bus. That means no mucking about with USB-to-SATA bridges, many of which do awful things like meddle with SMART reporting or spin down disks when they should not. The barrel connector for power is also an advantage IMHO, since mysterious failures due to voltage sags turn out to be very common with USB-powered single-board computers. (USB power can be done without such problems, but extra care must be taken to avoid the many cables, power supplies, and connectors that are not up to the task.) The S905 system-on-chip might not be capable of maxing out the throughput of an SSD, but for people who want a spinning rust server that's light on power consumption, it could be a pretty good fit. Thomas Kaiser, as usual, has some good insights over in the CNX Software comments: https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/10/20/odroid-hc4-low-cost-dual-nas-comes-with-4gb-ram-supports-2-5-inch-and-3-5-inch-sata-drives/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/10/20/odroid-hc4-low-cost-... Also worth mentioning: The RockPro64 has a faster CPU, a PCIe slot, a NAS enclosure, and mainline support in Debian unstable (though the Debian installer doesn't yet install a boot loader; that must be done manually for now). https://wiki.pine64.org/ROCKPro64 https://wiki.pine64.org/ROCKPro64

StillBored 6y ago
Your right, the rpi4 is hardly the best in many ways, but it is the one board that likely isn't going to be abandoned in a couple years. Which despite its very long list of failings has basic support in many places today. OTOH, for double the money, the ODROID-H2+ kicks the pants off all these devices, by having dual 2.5Gbit Ethernet, actual sata ports _AND_ usb3, expandable ram, nvme boot options, out of the box software support for pretty much anything you can imagine, including particularly freenas, crashplan, plex, and various other things people want to "just work".
- foresto 6y ago
  > the rpi4 is hardly the best in many ways, but it is the one board that likely isn't going to be abandoned in a couple years. That might have been true once upon a time, but not any more. Once a board is supported by the open source community, it is no longer dependent on vendor updates. I think Armbian has a good track record of long term support, and mainline Debian has a fantastic record of it. The RockPro64 (which I mentioned above) doesn't even require any vendor blobs. > the ODROID-H2+ kicks the pants off all these devices That device uses an Intel Celeron processor, and probably more power, and costs nearly twice as much. I don't consider it comparable to a low-power ARM board outside of a superficial sense. (Nice to know it exists, though; it seems like an interesting middle ground.)
  - StillBored 6y ago
    The rk3399 devices are definitely on the better side of open source support. A large part of that has been rockchip's been more open than other vendors recently, but its still AFAIK not as clean as you suggest. As far as whether the celeron is better or worse power wise, I couldn't answer. But for sure I wouldn't make such sweeping statements. A lot of people think ARM=low power, but the power mgmt on these more "open" boards is actually quite bad. A large part of that is simply the fact that mainline linux is missing much of the finer points of controlling these boards. So, maybe the board could be X watt's with a given workload, but due to the lack of frequency control on the memory controller (or whatever) it ends up being 5-10X. The intel boards tend to be much more dynamic at this point. For example, comparing an rpi4 and an atomic pi, you wouldn't expect from the massive heatsink on the atomicpi that it ends up being much lower power than the rpi4 for quite a number of workloads.

StillBored 6y ago

Your right, the rpi4 is hardly the best in many ways, but it is the one board that likely isn't going to be abandoned in a couple years. Which despite its very long list of failings has basic support in many places today. OTOH, for double the money, the ODROID-H2+ kicks the pants off all these devices, by having dual 2.5Gbit Ethernet, actual sata ports _AND_ usb3, expandable ram, nvme boot options, out of the box software support for pretty much anything you can imagine, including particularly freenas, crashplan, plex, and various other things people want to "just work".

foresto 6y ago
> the rpi4 is hardly the best in many ways, but it is the one board that likely isn't going to be abandoned in a couple years. That might have been true once upon a time, but not any more. Once a board is supported by the open source community, it is no longer dependent on vendor updates. I think Armbian has a good track record of long term support, and mainline Debian has a fantastic record of it. The RockPro64 (which I mentioned above) doesn't even require any vendor blobs. > the ODROID-H2+ kicks the pants off all these devices That device uses an Intel Celeron processor, and probably more power, and costs nearly twice as much. I don't consider it comparable to a low-power ARM board outside of a superficial sense. (Nice to know it exists, though; it seems like an interesting middle ground.)
- StillBored 6y ago
  The rk3399 devices are definitely on the better side of open source support. A large part of that has been rockchip's been more open than other vendors recently, but its still AFAIK not as clean as you suggest. As far as whether the celeron is better or worse power wise, I couldn't answer. But for sure I wouldn't make such sweeping statements. A lot of people think ARM=low power, but the power mgmt on these more "open" boards is actually quite bad. A large part of that is simply the fact that mainline linux is missing much of the finer points of controlling these boards. So, maybe the board could be X watt's with a given workload, but due to the lack of frequency control on the memory controller (or whatever) it ends up being 5-10X. The intel boards tend to be much more dynamic at this point. For example, comparing an rpi4 and an atomic pi, you wouldn't expect from the massive heatsink on the atomicpi that it ends up being much lower power than the rpi4 for quite a number of workloads.