• sleepmode@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I don’t know if it’s still the case but kernel support and related was nearly always an issue when I tested Raspi alternatives for building homebrew robots. OS updates were a gamble and support and documentation was not good to say the least. Raspi also has every HAT you can imagine to extend their capabilities too.

    • TwanHE@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Best way for pi alternatives I’ve found is to see which one is the most popular for the project / community I’m working with.

      It isn’t always the latest and greatest but at least there will be plenty of support.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It’s not a rival. It is in a different sector. And it will rise or fall with the availability of software and support.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    As many have pointed out, price wise it’s not competitive. But more than that, the main feature of the Pi is its software support. I buy a Pi not because it’s got the top specs but because I know I can load a rock solid OS with security support and I won’t have to think about it. This is a problem for every Pi competitor.

  • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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    1 day ago

    I think most of us moved on to x86 by now.

    Price of ARM chips has gone up. Price of x86 has come down. x86 comes with a small energy penalty for a huge boost in speed. Also just a more versatile architecture, since most servers run x86.

    • Piece_Maker@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      ARM boards are just a pain to use right now. There’s always some stupid quirk or driver problem and that’s if you even manage to find an up to date image for your chosen OS that works (because I can just about guarantee the ‘generic ARM’ one won’t). Feels like every few months someone announces something that’ll make all these problems go away yet here we are.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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      2 days ago

      I love ARM so much compared to x86, but speaking from a low-cost consumer server perspective, x86 is a great value, and it comes with a no compromises on software compatibility.

      • sploosh@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That’s the biggest thing. apt install xyz works on my N100 based box every time I expect it will, but it was always a crapshoot on a Pi. If you don’t need GPIO you don’t need a Pi.

    • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      I find it interesting, manufacturers of laptops and maybe even desktops, are looking to switch to arm after decades of x86.

      And home servers, which have run on arm for years, are now switching to x86

            • accideath@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Not too long until Windows 10 joins the list and that’s gonna be a real nightmare because there are so many PCs still running Windows 10 that run perfectly fine but aren’t “capable” or running Windows 11. People won’t just throw away their PCs and they can’t upgrade to 11. Sure, some will try Linux but too many won’t and they’ll be easy targets.

            • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              My main PC is Windows 7. About 10 years ago I remember I had to do something with the firewall. I remember turning it off. I legit do not remember if I turned it back on.

  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    For this price, just get an Intel NUC (one with like an i5 or better). They’re cheaper than this is on ebay.

    They might not have 32GB of memory, but I’m honestly not sure why you’d need that much for a small PC like this.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I googled a cheap Intel NUC and saw power consumption numbers of 15w to 40w. Thats quite a bit of juice (and heat) for small applications.

      • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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        12 hours ago

        Perhaps the newer models consume that much (under load), but the older ones are very power efficient - back in the day they ran Windows 8 and only consumed 4.6W @ idle (this is actually the same one I have, except I run HA on it which is probably much more power efficient than Windows 8 would be).

        Realistically, for something like this, you probably don’t want to exclusively use the full load numbers to calculate power consumption, rather you want to use the idle+load numbers for your specific use case. Home Assistant barely uses any power even over time (I unfortunately misplaced my kill-a-watt or I’d measure it for you), and the NUC barely feels warm.

        Nonetheless, you can disable a bunch of the GPU stuff in the BIOS if you’re concerned about power consumption. The article I linked above explains the settings a bit. These were meant to be the middle ground between a thin client and full PC, so it wouldn’t be surprising if their maximum wattage & TDP was much higher than a Pi; but that doesn’t necessarily mean a higher power bill or more heat.

        Lastly, I mostly meant that this would be a good alternative to the device in the article, which would need a beefier power supply than the NUC. This shop listing says that its TDP is 60W, so just looking at raw numbers the NUC runs much cooler.

    • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Running multiple virtual machines might be one use for all that RAM. I completely agree about going with a NUC (or similar x86-64) unless power consumption is a concern. I stopped buying SBCs once Intel platforms started competing on the low end.

  • K900@lemmy.0upti.me
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    2 days ago

    There’s other RK3588 boards in the $60-$70 range (notably Orange Pi 5). What makes this one different?

  • i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 days ago

    Some one on the comment section said that

    “There’s no innovation here; it uses a Rockchip processor, which is from a Chinese company. Assembling a board with Chinese components isn’t a big deal. I know people who could make an even better board. Innovation would have been if the processor was designed by an Indian company and made entirely in India. But that’s not the case.”

    • Static_Rocket@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Lol, changing the country of origin doesn’t constitute innovation from a consumer standpoint…

      Now if this was using 5nm or chiplit or any of the other buzzwords of the day it could be marketed as innovative in the modern sense of the word.

      Realistically there is no innovation left for ARM platforms. They all use the same core schematics. They only control data flow and peripheral IP as a manufacturer, unless they feel like building their own core from the spec (nobody really does that anymore as ARM has been desperately trying to standardize everything). The most “innovation” I’ve seen has come from stubbornness around keeping legacy bus architecture around instead of adopting AXI (even when all the IP they are trying to use already uses AXI and they keep having to make translation hardware).

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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      2 days ago

      I don’t think the car brand comparison is a great one. While I get your point, the purpose of using different car brand names is not for confusion but actually to reduce confusion — to clarify which products are targeting a luxury market.

      For a counter example, consider how Samsung sells premium and cheap smart phones. The cheap smart phones give Samsung a bad name which might be associated with the higher end offering in the eyes of a consumer.

      It’s not fair to compare to Toyota to Lexus because a Lexus is targeting a different customer and making different trade-offs in their product, even though it’s the same company.

      The recent Pi chips are heavily modified. They’re becoming less and less like their TV tuner roots. I wouldn’t exactly call it a failed product line either. I thought that IP went into numerous devices.