4 ms·

LattePanda Sigma – A Hackable Single Board Server with Mighty Power

peter_d_sherman 4y ago
Related: Dave's Garage YouTube Channel (David Plummer) - The Sigma: The Most Powerful Single Board Windows PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy378_K9Zg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy378_K9Zg
gigel82 4y ago
$579 I think they lost touch with what single board computer buyers are looking for. At that price, there are hundreds of mini pcs with similar (or better) specs, that are just as "hackable".
- amelius 4y ago
  Still 40% more powerful than an M2, according to the benchmark in the article.
- softfalcon 4y ago
  Yeah, I thought it was cool and worth looking into until I hit “buy” and saw that $579 USD price tag. Here in Canada that adds up to $780 CAD. It’s made worse realizing that’s without an SSD or WiFi chip. It’s even more money with that included. All in, I’m looking at almost $1000 converted to use this thing. Why wouldn’t I just buy a 2 year used laptop that comes with screen, keyboard, battery, WiFi, and likely a discrete GPU to hack on? Because it’s a small form factor? $1000 is too much for that in my opinion.
  - gruez 4y ago
    >All in, I’m looking at almost $1000 converted to use this thing. Why wouldn’t I just buy a 2 year used laptop that comes with screen, keyboard, battery, WiFi, and likely a discrete GPU to hack on? Because it’s a small form factor? $1000 is too much for that in my opinion. You don't even need to go used. For instance you can go with this: https://slickdeals.net/f/16371811-lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-laptop-ryzen-7-5700u-16gb-512gb-ssd-14-1080p-ips-529-free-s-h https://slickdeals.net/f/16371811-lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-lapt..., which is cheaper despite being brand new, and comes with a 14" display, 512 nvme drive, and wifi module.
    - softfalcon 3y ago
      This is incredible. That's an amazing device for the price! Thank you for sharing this!
- clnq 4y ago
  It looks quite appealing for mixed cpu-gpu CI workloads for games. Except for the soldered on memory. We need much more for things like cooking and packaging big games nightly in Unreal Engine. It’s not impossible to engineer around this problem but it’s not ideal by far. Still, these machines would be great for such workloads because the TDP is ridiculously low compared to classic Xenon builds (sometimes approaching a kW per machine), the size is great for a “broom closet” CI farm, and you can get at least 6 of these for the cost of one workstation. For AA games, this could be very appealing, if not for the memory making it a raw deal. The same could probably be said for VFX, archvis, and video production companies that likewise have cpu and gpu combined workloads. Unfortunately, they also need much more memory per machine.
- rtp4me 4y ago
  While not quite hackable, I just bought (today) a Minisforum UM773 with 32G DDR5 RAM, 512G NVMe, and an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS (8C/16T - 3.2GHz base clock). Paid $579 shipped to my door. Both the RAM and NVMe drive are easily upgradable. Gonna use it as an ESXi lab node.
- abudabi123 4y ago
  The styling on the hardware has had thought given it looking like Nvidia or Asus offerings. Porcupine slots for adding memory or storage and a way to grid cluster many sbc-slabs adds ergonomy but it looks like the main idea in the picture is to consume AppleTV media and not to attack hacking.
- rektide 4y ago
  Most RK3588 boards are $120+. I would not be surprised to find this is indeed 5X+ more computer. And in a very small package compared to 5X arm sbc.
gruez 4y ago
I find the site slightly dishonest when it's comparing current gen parts against parts from a few years ago. For the cpu benchmarks, it's comparing the i5-1340P (released 2023) against the i9-9900K (2018) and Ryzen 7 2700X (2018). The same goes with graphics. The integrated graphics in the i5-1340P (2023) is being compared against GTX 1050 Mobile (2017) and Vega 8 (2018).
- pseudosavant 4y ago
  Thank you. That is exactly the context I was needing to process the head scratching charts. I have to consult ARK to figure out what decade an Intel CPU model was made in.
- amelius 4y ago
  Eh, Apple M2 is also in that list.
  - gruez 4y ago
    That's true, but you run into another problem: comparing a 64W TDP[1] part (the i5-1340P) against a 20W TDP part (the M2) [1] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/232126/intel-core-i51340p-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-60-ghz/specifications.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/232126/... [2] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.632312.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Processor-Benchmarks-...
    - amelius 4y ago
      Yes, absolutely, but nobody said the SBC was supposed to be portable.
wmf 4y ago
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35711078 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35711078
FpUser 4y ago
At $579? There are way better offerings at this price range. With upgradeable RAM.
jstanley 4y ago
The "Buy" button takes you through to a DFRobot product page: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2671.html https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2671.html I don't know anything about this particular product, but I used a DFRobot product once before. The device behaved strangely and the documentation was bad. Buyer beware! (The device I used was https://wiki.dfrobot.com/Voice_Module_SKU__DFR0534 https://wiki.dfrobot.com/Voice_Module_SKU__DFR0534 - that page is the sum total of the available documentation).
nubinetwork 4y ago
I don't get why x86 is trying to imitate the ARM SBC market. I can literally put any ITX mobo in a case and call it a day... I mean it's great that they're low power, but I already own 3 ARM boards for that.
rektide 4y ago
What a lovely board. Extremely capable with a great CPU, huge memory bandwidth, and a ton of I/O especially via Thunderbolt. The other comments are pervasively negative, but there's nothing else one can get that will be anywhere near as capable and small a general purpose system. It's a lovely offering. I wish we saw more competition in this space, but alas it's a kind of boutique market. AMD keeps making Ryzen Embedded chips for example, but they're vastly less capable systems, offer less IO, and often cost many hundreds more.

Related: Dave's Garage YouTube Channel (David Plummer) - The Sigma: The Most Powerful Single Board Windows PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy378_K9Zg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy378_K9Zg

gigel82 4y ago

$579 I think they lost touch with what single board computer buyers are looking for. At that price, there are hundreds of mini pcs with similar (or better) specs, that are just as "hackable".

amelius 4y ago
Still 40% more powerful than an M2, according to the benchmark in the article.
softfalcon 4y ago
Yeah, I thought it was cool and worth looking into until I hit “buy” and saw that $579 USD price tag. Here in Canada that adds up to $780 CAD. It’s made worse realizing that’s without an SSD or WiFi chip. It’s even more money with that included. All in, I’m looking at almost $1000 converted to use this thing. Why wouldn’t I just buy a 2 year used laptop that comes with screen, keyboard, battery, WiFi, and likely a discrete GPU to hack on? Because it’s a small form factor? $1000 is too much for that in my opinion.
- gruez 4y ago
  >All in, I’m looking at almost $1000 converted to use this thing. Why wouldn’t I just buy a 2 year used laptop that comes with screen, keyboard, battery, WiFi, and likely a discrete GPU to hack on? Because it’s a small form factor? $1000 is too much for that in my opinion. You don't even need to go used. For instance you can go with this: https://slickdeals.net/f/16371811-lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-laptop-ryzen-7-5700u-16gb-512gb-ssd-14-1080p-ips-529-free-s-h https://slickdeals.net/f/16371811-lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-lapt..., which is cheaper despite being brand new, and comes with a 14" display, 512 nvme drive, and wifi module.
  - softfalcon 3y ago
    This is incredible. That's an amazing device for the price! Thank you for sharing this!
clnq 4y ago
It looks quite appealing for mixed cpu-gpu CI workloads for games. Except for the soldered on memory. We need much more for things like cooking and packaging big games nightly in Unreal Engine. It’s not impossible to engineer around this problem but it’s not ideal by far. Still, these machines would be great for such workloads because the TDP is ridiculously low compared to classic Xenon builds (sometimes approaching a kW per machine), the size is great for a “broom closet” CI farm, and you can get at least 6 of these for the cost of one workstation. For AA games, this could be very appealing, if not for the memory making it a raw deal. The same could probably be said for VFX, archvis, and video production companies that likewise have cpu and gpu combined workloads. Unfortunately, they also need much more memory per machine.
rtp4me 4y ago
While not quite hackable, I just bought (today) a Minisforum UM773 with 32G DDR5 RAM, 512G NVMe, and an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS (8C/16T - 3.2GHz base clock). Paid $579 shipped to my door. Both the RAM and NVMe drive are easily upgradable. Gonna use it as an ESXi lab node.
abudabi123 4y ago
The styling on the hardware has had thought given it looking like Nvidia or Asus offerings. Porcupine slots for adding memory or storage and a way to grid cluster many sbc-slabs adds ergonomy but it looks like the main idea in the picture is to consume AppleTV media and not to attack hacking.
rektide 4y ago
Most RK3588 boards are $120+. I would not be surprised to find this is indeed 5X+ more computer. And in a very small package compared to 5X arm sbc.

gruez 4y ago

I find the site slightly dishonest when it's comparing current gen parts against parts from a few years ago. For the cpu benchmarks, it's comparing the i5-1340P (released 2023) against the i9-9900K (2018) and Ryzen 7 2700X (2018). The same goes with graphics. The integrated graphics in the i5-1340P (2023) is being compared against GTX 1050 Mobile (2017) and Vega 8 (2018).

pseudosavant 4y ago
Thank you. That is exactly the context I was needing to process the head scratching charts. I have to consult ARK to figure out what decade an Intel CPU model was made in.
amelius 4y ago
Eh, Apple M2 is also in that list.
- gruez 4y ago
  That's true, but you run into another problem: comparing a 64W TDP[1] part (the i5-1340P) against a 20W TDP part (the M2) [1] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/232126/intel-core-i51340p-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-60-ghz/specifications.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/232126/... [2] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.632312.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Processor-Benchmarks-...
  - amelius 4y ago
    Yes, absolutely, but nobody said the SBC was supposed to be portable.

wmf 4y ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35711078 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35711078

FpUser 4y ago

At $579? There are way better offerings at this price range. With upgradeable RAM.

jstanley 4y ago

The "Buy" button takes you through to a DFRobot product page: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2671.html https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2671.html I don't know anything about this particular product, but I used a DFRobot product once before. The device behaved strangely and the documentation was bad. Buyer beware! (The device I used was https://wiki.dfrobot.com/Voice_Module_SKU__DFR0534 https://wiki.dfrobot.com/Voice_Module_SKU__DFR0534 - that page is the sum total of the available documentation).

nubinetwork 4y ago

I don't get why x86 is trying to imitate the ARM SBC market. I can literally put any ITX mobo in a case and call it a day... I mean it's great that they're low power, but I already own 3 ARM boards for that.

rektide 4y ago

What a lovely board. Extremely capable with a great CPU, huge memory bandwidth, and a ton of I/O especially via Thunderbolt. The other comments are pervasively negative, but there's nothing else one can get that will be anywhere near as capable and small a general purpose system. It's a lovely offering. I wish we saw more competition in this space, but alas it's a kind of boutique market. AMD keeps making Ryzen Embedded chips for example, but they're vastly less capable systems, offer less IO, and often cost many hundreds more.