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This is an amazing board because among other things it lets you add an NVMe drive making the Pi4 a perfectly reasonable computer for day-to-day tasks that don't

This is an amazing board because among other things it lets you add an NVMe drive making the Pi4 a perfectly reasonable computer for day-to-day tasks that don't push the graphics too hard.

ekianjo 6y ago
The Pi will still struggle for youtube videos though.
- kcb 6y ago
  Yes, and heavy sites like facebook. The Pi is just not quite there yet for seamless day to day use.
techrat 6y ago
I'm struggling to see the point of getting a CM4 and adding this MirkoPC board to it over just getting a Model B and a case that supports adding an M.2 flash card. As far as Pi as a desktop goes? Sluggish is being generous. Even with 8GB Ram, you're hobbled by the weak GPU. Coudn't even stream Twitch without encountering system wide lag. The Pi needs much more than faster storage if it's going to be replacing desktops at any meaningful rate.
- GloriousKoji 6y ago
  You do know that the Model B does not have the PCIE lane connected so there's no such thing as case adding M2 flash support, right?
  - techrat 6y ago
    Who said the M2 had to be connected to PCIe lanes? https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MHYWJCP https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MHYWJCP | About this item | M.2 SATA SSD Compatibility | The SSD Case accepts any size of M.2 SATA SSD with B-Key or B+M Key Hence why I said "getting a Model B and a case that supports adding an M.2 flash card."
    - OJFord 6y ago
      Not GP, but presumably the point is that must be using USB, so the only point is convenience of form factor/you already have the card/whatever - it can't be faster (if anything the converter's going to slow it down) than using a USB storage device.
      - techrat 6y ago
        It uses a USB3 to USB3 bridge. Still faster than MicroSD.
    - imtringued 6y ago
      You're converting from PCIe to USB 3.0 and then back to SATA. Isn't that extremely wasteful?
      - techrat 6y ago
        Honey, *everything* gets converted somewhere, somehow. That's what all those components inside our computers do. MicroSD gets converted from SDIO. USB flash drives get converted from their proprietary NAND/Microcontroller config. Might as well be saying "you're converting from electricity to bits, isn't that extremely wasteful?" Just ran a benchmark in Gnome Disks. 362MB/sec read, 313MB/sec write. But given that there is absolutely no other way for me to connect this flash drive to my Pi4 without defeating the point (replacing both the entire Pi4 and Case), I would say it seems to be doing fine. Especially compared to something with generally equivalent durability like, say, a hard drive over USB 3.
- ThatPlayer 6y ago
  The GPU has supported 1080p hardware h264 decoding since the first Raspberry Pi. If you're having issues with video streams, you're not using the hardware decoder and probably using software decoding on the CPU.
  - techrat 6y ago
    Then that means Raspberry Pi's own OS images are not using the hardware decoders for in Browser streaming.
    - Const-me 6y ago
      V4L2’s h264 stateful video decoder is enabled in official OS images, and works great in practice on Pi4: https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo VLC player shipped in these OS images uses that one as well. If it doesn’t work for you in Twitch, the likely issue is the web browser. Try to upgrade it to latest version, and/or configure it somehow.
    - geerlingguy 6y ago
      Chromium support for hardware decode on the Pi was only added very recently (in the last month or two, I think).
      - HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
        hmmm. This could be root of the problem I described above. We were using the latest release of Chromium, but AFAIK the configuration screens claimed to be using the hardware decode. Good to know for the future. The project already shipped with an Intel PC for the video display.
    - opan 6y ago
      Try it in a video player. They generally play video a lot better than a browser. mpv + youtube-dl can handle Twitch.
      - 6y ago

This is an amazing board because among other things it lets you add an NVMe drive making the Pi4 a perfectly reasonable computer for day-to-day tasks that don't push the graphics too hard.

ekianjo 6y ago

The Pi will still struggle for youtube videos though.

kcb 6y ago
Yes, and heavy sites like facebook. The Pi is just not quite there yet for seamless day to day use.

techrat 6y ago

I'm struggling to see the point of getting a CM4 and adding this MirkoPC board to it over just getting a Model B and a case that supports adding an M.2 flash card. As far as Pi as a desktop goes? Sluggish is being generous. Even with 8GB Ram, you're hobbled by the weak GPU. Coudn't even stream Twitch without encountering system wide lag. The Pi needs much more than faster storage if it's going to be replacing desktops at any meaningful rate.

GloriousKoji 6y ago
You do know that the Model B does not have the PCIE lane connected so there's no such thing as case adding M2 flash support, right?
- techrat 6y ago
  Who said the M2 had to be connected to PCIe lanes? https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MHYWJCP https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MHYWJCP | About this item | M.2 SATA SSD Compatibility | The SSD Case accepts any size of M.2 SATA SSD with B-Key or B+M Key Hence why I said "getting a Model B and a case that supports adding an M.2 flash card."
  - OJFord 6y ago
    Not GP, but presumably the point is that must be using USB, so the only point is convenience of form factor/you already have the card/whatever - it can't be faster (if anything the converter's going to slow it down) than using a USB storage device.
    - techrat 6y ago
      It uses a USB3 to USB3 bridge. Still faster than MicroSD.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    You're converting from PCIe to USB 3.0 and then back to SATA. Isn't that extremely wasteful?
    - techrat 6y ago
      Honey, *everything* gets converted somewhere, somehow. That's what all those components inside our computers do. MicroSD gets converted from SDIO. USB flash drives get converted from their proprietary NAND/Microcontroller config. Might as well be saying "you're converting from electricity to bits, isn't that extremely wasteful?" Just ran a benchmark in Gnome Disks. 362MB/sec read, 313MB/sec write. But given that there is absolutely no other way for me to connect this flash drive to my Pi4 without defeating the point (replacing both the entire Pi4 and Case), I would say it seems to be doing fine. Especially compared to something with generally equivalent durability like, say, a hard drive over USB 3.
ThatPlayer 6y ago
The GPU has supported 1080p hardware h264 decoding since the first Raspberry Pi. If you're having issues with video streams, you're not using the hardware decoder and probably using software decoding on the CPU.
- techrat 6y ago
  Then that means Raspberry Pi's own OS images are not using the hardware decoders for in Browser streaming.
  - Const-me 6y ago
    V4L2’s h264 stateful video decoder is enabled in official OS images, and works great in practice on Pi4: https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo VLC player shipped in these OS images uses that one as well. If it doesn’t work for you in Twitch, the likely issue is the web browser. Try to upgrade it to latest version, and/or configure it somehow.
  - geerlingguy 6y ago
    Chromium support for hardware decode on the Pi was only added very recently (in the last month or two, I think).
    - HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
      hmmm. This could be root of the problem I described above. We were using the latest release of Chromium, but AFAIK the configuration screens claimed to be using the hardware decode. Good to know for the future. The project already shipped with an Intel PC for the video display.
  - opan 6y ago
    Try it in a video player. They generally play video a lot better than a browser. mpv + youtube-dl can handle Twitch.
    - 6y ago