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> a more powerful tiny x86 board that takes up less space, probably costs less overall It seems like it should be this way but when it comes down to cases, for

> a more powerful tiny x86 board that takes up less space, probably costs less overall It seems like it should be this way but when it comes down to cases, for example making a network gateway, a lot of the options that get thrown around are frustratingly costly. As in, a laptop motherboard that does twice what this x86 SBC does would cost half what this does costly. I’d really like to know what x86 SBCs are now considered to be real Raspberry Pi competitors, or even considered to be in the ballpark. When the subject of ARM based RPi competitors comes up, it’s usually a conversation about the level of support those boards offer, and in that regard being x86 based is obviously a total game changer.

toast0 5y ago
If this board is $200 and the 4 raspberry pi modules you plug in need an adapter at $10 each and cost between $25 (1g ram, no wireless, no storage) and $70 (8g ram, no wireless, no storage), and we consider Mini-ITX to be tiny (debatable), we've got a budget of $340 to $520 if I can arithmetic. And we need motherboard + cpu + ram. PC parts prices aren't great right now, but a AMD Ryzen 5600G @ $240, an ASRock A520M-ITX/ac @ $105, and a Silicon Gaming 2x 16GB of DDR4-3200 for $90, is $435 [1]; assuming the firmware shipped with the board is new enough for the CPU (i didn't check if you can flash this board without a supported CPU). You can limit the CPU power in firmware settings, and to hold close to the power usage of this cluster board. If you only get 4G ram, you can save some money, but not enough to get under the lowest pi cluster with current pricing. If you need it less expensive, you could maybe get an older AMD processor or look at intel. If you want smaller than itx, it gets hard. Maybe reuse a chromebox or similar, but then you don't have much choice of hardware and connectivity. [1] https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yCj2vf https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yCj2vf
easygenes 5y ago
In amateur astrophotography there’s a few Raspberry Pi based automation rigs which retail for a few hundred dollars (e.g. ASIAIR). This is a case where cheap x86 SBCs are a much better option because they give you access to the vast suites of Windows based astrophotography software available, lately particularly N.I.N.A. I even just came across a video where someone else came to the same conclusion and went into good depth on it. [1] The MeLe Quieter 2 [2] is a similar form factor to little ARM SBCs, is passively cooled, is a couple hundred dollars, and includes Win10Pro. For that you get a quad core 2Ghz+ 14nm processor, 8GB ram, and 128GB eMMC. 1: https://youtu.be/asSfA6HVHAc 2: https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/06/01/mele-quieter2-review-windows-10-ubuntu-20-04-egpu/

toast0 5y ago

If this board is $200 and the 4 raspberry pi modules you plug in need an adapter at $10 each and cost between $25 (1g ram, no wireless, no storage) and $70 (8g ram, no wireless, no storage), and we consider Mini-ITX to be tiny (debatable), we've got a budget of $340 to $520 if I can arithmetic. And we need motherboard + cpu + ram. PC parts prices aren't great right now, but a AMD Ryzen 5600G @ $240, an ASRock A520M-ITX/ac @ $105, and a Silicon Gaming 2x 16GB of DDR4-3200 for $90, is $435 [1]; assuming the firmware shipped with the board is new enough for the CPU (i didn't check if you can flash this board without a supported CPU). You can limit the CPU power in firmware settings, and to hold close to the power usage of this cluster board. If you only get 4G ram, you can save some money, but not enough to get under the lowest pi cluster with current pricing. If you need it less expensive, you could maybe get an older AMD processor or look at intel. If you want smaller than itx, it gets hard. Maybe reuse a chromebox or similar, but then you don't have much choice of hardware and connectivity. [1] https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yCj2vf https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yCj2vf

easygenes 5y ago

In amateur astrophotography there’s a few Raspberry Pi based automation rigs which retail for a few hundred dollars (e.g. ASIAIR). This is a case where cheap x86 SBCs are a much better option because they give you access to the vast suites of Windows based astrophotography software available, lately particularly N.I.N.A. I even just came across a video where someone else came to the same conclusion and went into good depth on it. [1] The MeLe Quieter 2 [2] is a similar form factor to little ARM SBCs, is passively cooled, is a couple hundred dollars, and includes Win10Pro. For that you get a quad core 2Ghz+ 14nm processor, 8GB ram, and 128GB eMMC. 1: https://youtu.be/asSfA6HVHAc 2: https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/06/01/mele-quieter2-review-windows-10-ubuntu-20-04-egpu/