It would definitely be good to see a RPi Zero alternatives video. I would also be interested in a review of SBCs that might compare with what an RPi 5 might look like today if development hadn't stalled in recent years.
I may be wrong but I see the RPI Zero wallowing on its death bed. With the low cost availability of the PI Pico with wifi. I believe it to be superfluous for control applications. I can see using it if the application requires low quality video, but if that were the case I'd use the esp32 with cam and an adapter board to give me usb connectivity. If they would sell those boards for 4 dollars. I would buy a lot of them and use them every chance I got.
Great video, thanks. It’s so good to see alternatives available and improving. The last 2 years has shown how important it is to have more than one option for makers, students, start ups and design engineers
In the case of Orange Pi 5, they do actually include the drivers. The problem is actually the Chromium installation. If you grab the Snap of Chromium and run it with the command line parameters for web GL acceleration, you'll find that it performs quite well.
Chip manufacturers are obsessed with secrecy. They are so nuts about not letting anyone see programmer level information, they would rather not sell any, so they can keep it completely secret.
I think community support is more important for a SBC platform than raw compute power. Most of my compute projects in this space can be performed by my original PI and PI2 . I am exited though that there are multiple options available.
That is also my own experience. The most powerful SBC is not very useful if you need to spend too much time getting the software to run on it. Then you can just buy a cheap x86 box and run any standard linux distro on it without any problems. I myself own two Bananapi M5, but the issue is that it is not clear if upstream uboot has the necessary changes to boot with it, and if the OS is on sdcard you can not reboot because the sdcard is not recognized after a reboot (it needs to be switched off and on to recognize it again). It could probably be solved in uboot but it simply isn't. And Raspbian has the same problems, plus some more that have to do with the graphics driver. You simply do not get a desktop on it after rebooting, last time I tried it (couple weeks ago). The Android distro that is provided for the Bananapi M5 is very old and I failed to get the play store and others on it, so it is not as easy as it could be.
I think community support only goes so far. Bottom line, as long as there are drivers (and acceleration) available for those devices, supported OSes will definitely work properly, and won’t be any different compared to any Raspberry Pi. When it comes to additional hardware, there could be an issue. But when it comes to software, there shouldn’t be any issues, as it’s all the same.
@@Inject0r The issue is that the manufacturers put basically no effort into maintenance so unless you have a fully working toolchain and sources you can not build or upgrade the OS. That is the common problem. For the Bananapi M5 for example, the original sources are just a zip with no git history, so the version is unknown. It's unknown what the changes on top of the original software and the reason and the connection between them are so you can't just apply the changes on top of new releases of the original open source project. You basically have to reverse engineer the differences to figure out what they are for exactly and if the problem was solved upstream already. And that is really, really time consuming. Or you don't do that, but then you're stuck at an ancient kernel with most likely no newer software. So you can't have an up to date chromium or firefox. Or even any newer release of any software due to the dependencies. The dependencies also extend to the kernel through userspace components like modprobe and others. Yes, they should just be compatible, but some package always has a dependency on some kernel version, and then you're stuck there. And by extension you're stuck on old software everywhere then.
Hardware acceleration still seems to be the issue with SBC's, maybe one day it'll get sorted out! I'm looking forward to the Reborn OS video. Thanks Chris for another interesting Sunday video :)
Thank you for making this video. I need to move on from Pi because I just can't find them and will not pay crazy Amazon mark-ups. There are many good alternatives, but they need larger communities to become anything like the Pi. It has to start somewhere.
Well done Sir... you are nearly to 1 Million Subs... Maybe your not a Pop ICON.... But you are Clear and Precise in everything you do... This is appreciated by Senior Level people... I look forward to Congratulating you when you exceed 1 Million...
I still love Raspberry Pi I was lucky enough to get my last one before demand out stripped supply. One thing not touched on was community support behind these alternatives, Raspberry Pi has a strong community behind it. When choosing an alternative the availability of help is just as important as price in my mind. I think so of these alternatives are well worth a look. Something many comments say about price in regards to Raspberry Pi board if you get them from the authorized sellers you pay the best prices, third parties sell for more to line their own pockets.
I disagree. Support is only useful to those who use it. It's far better to understand the problem on your own and learn something than it is to blindly follow someone else's advice without understanding what you are doing. That being said, if you can't figure out on your own, then having a good community as a safety net is preferable but should never be your requirement.
Thank you for the RasPi alternative update. It's good to know there is much progress with these SBCs to run Linux distros efficiently. Please do the Pi Zero alterantive video!
Orange pi is really a good contender in the SBC market. Maybe I will give it a try for my next project. I am not a big fan of built-in Wi-Fi. I rather buy a dongle. Thanks for the video. A nice Sunday to all.
I recently got an Odroid C4, and was surprised how well and effortlessly Armbian works on it (much better than the official images). Hardware acceleration out of the box with the Panfrost driver, decent performance, no issues whatsoever. I have further plans for it as a Pi replacement, so will see how far the compatibility goes when it comes to some 3rd party hardware with its own drivers (I am able to make some adjustments if necessary).
I've had C4 as a NAS box for three years. Two 4 TB and one 8TB USB disks pooled with btrfs. Works nice on some version of Armbian. Official image coredumped with btrfs.
Also got a C4 back in 2020 for a NAS and really like it. It's been retired for the moment as it's now replaced by a Synology NAS, but I'll find a use for it again.
This is a great video I gave up on raspberry pi a long time ago I refuse to pay scalper prices and it seems like the foundation is not doing squat to prevent scalpers so the hell with them. Right now on Amazon a raspberry pi 4 8 GB is going for $194. If the foundation is not going to do anything about it and it push comes to shove and I have to pay that kind of money I might as well get something that'll blow the raspberry pi 4 out of the water with better capabilities and possibly more memory.
Lots of good Raspberry Pi alternatives to choose from! It's quite a shame about the Rock 3A's software support though. Out of all the SBCs on this list, I quite like the Orange Pi 5 the most. Here's hoping for a Pi Zero alternatives video!
Yes, mr. Pls do it! I looking alternatives raspberry zero from half year. But i want SBC with good software support. I want build small linux terminal with some python builder so I can make some code on the way. PLS PLS PLS PLS DO IT for MR.Scissors
@@ExplainingComputers Hi! I'm doing alright. I watched today's video with a very good cat. I hope you're doing okay yourself, I got a bit worried for a moment!
"Patience is a virtue..." It is interesting to see the software evolution of some SBCs after a few months; some are thus positioning themselves as real alternatives to the beloved Raspberry Pi (sadly!). I would like to highlight your comment: "An SBC made by Apple"... Great and terribly appropriate! Excellent presentation!
Great video Chris. Keeping us up-to-date on the what-to-do's. If I may make a suggestion: I've been buying second hand I5 4-6th gen small FF PC's, They cost 50-75 euro and are extremely complete, only lacking the GPIO and being obviously larger and use a bit more power. My second batch were i7 4th gen and I'm going to use them for multiple VM's per machine. I'd love to see a video about that subject and the discussion afterwards.
Yeh, nice topic to discuss. I will add from myself that there are small thin computers, such as terminal pc. I believe that they are good raspberry pi substitutes. For example, I recently used the HP T620 Plus. And it is useful in various projects ( retro computer for playing old games, and old consoles :).
I've been looking at getting a 2nd hand SFF PC for quite a while prices seem a bit higher in the UK at around £130 or more. I'd want to use them either for VM's or a Proxmox server :)
Thanks for this follow-up. You'd think that the ARM foundation themselves would step in at this point to force/ensure availability of drivers and documentation for all chips that use their licences. Crazy situation that I'm sure I am not alone in being put-off taking the plunge with these boards and similarly poorly-supported ARM hardware. A shame.
These pi alternatives have become the need of the moment since now the original raspberry Pi have become hard to get in many places. And these alternatives are easily available in stock. Interesting video.
Lots of channels review mid-high end computers. But you are - imo - the champion of the little guy/gal. As exemplified with videos like this. And I - for one - really, appreciate it. ☮
This is excellent, since many people tend to just review items and never look at them again. It's important to see if things have improved since the initial review, since an item may look good initially, but the manufacturer might have failed to support/update the device or a community might not have adopted it.
Great video! Its nice to see some alternatives that are in stock. it is unfortunate how all the Pi and Pi alternatives have increased in price so much. The cheap cost was one of the great features of these boards. I hope the prices will drop back down at some point.
Yeah it's like they're reflecting the prices of real fruit and other foods being intentionally destroyed with the purposeful burning down of many food factories, supply chain problems etc jacking up food costs.
Před rokem+5
Thanks for the video! Those crazy prices made me drop all SBCs in favour of thin clients, like HP t620/t630, which also happen to have a serial port, which I use more often than GPIO.
"It's a bit like an SBC made by Apple" - oomph :-) I know there are many factors affecting computing right now, but if the Raspberry Pi people don't get their act together, they will lose their crown, and it may be hard for them to get it back....Time & Tide wait for no man (or Pi) I for one would like to see alternatives for Raspberry Pi Picos..... 🙂
You recently reviewed a mini-PC that was in the same price range as these boards. It seems that the mini-computer beat every one of these ARM-based systems hands-down -- including the Raspberry Pi 4. And you will soon be showing us that you can add GIPO pins to the mini-PC at a low price. So the days of the ARM-based SBC for anything that doesn't actually require the SBC form factor are approaching an end. I think the next generation of SBCs will be RISC-V boards.
Great and timely video! Another one is needed comparing sub-200$US boards like the Rock 5B. My main needs require better I/O than the RPi4 'standard', like say GigE, PCIv3/NVMe, USB4/TBolt, etc. You get the drift ....
Enjoy your commentary on the Raspberry pi boards and alternative boards and extended capabilities, as the video stream consist frames and loss of frames .. very good clip.. sending it on to my friends as adapt or more so than I..Keep them coming , they at least keep me up to date on what is available for medium to modest prices for on board performance..
Blessed Sunday all! Great job as always sir. Nice to see some SBC manufacturers are getting better at sodftware support. Until next time... happy Explaining Computers!
Yes, a video on Raspberry Pi Zero alternatives would be great. I would also like to see a video on multithreaded programming for robotics, allowing independent features like sirens, beepers, sequenced LEDs and maybe audio clips which can be controlled manually.
Hey Christopher! I love the SBC content. I was using the ODRoid C4 for the last two years to host my docker based homelab. It did all of the compute for my Plex, VaultWarden PW Manager Server, NectCloud, etc... All the data was stored on my ODRoid Hc1 and HC2 NAS Servers with OMV6. At the time my Pi 4 4GB was giving me some power issues, and x265 files worked better through plex on the C4. I'm a big fan of the HardKernel boards. I'd love to see a refresh of the HC1 and HC2 form factors.
First i want to say this was a good video. Its not good away from a raspberry pi, my orange pi 5 crashed all the time, there wasnt a single distro that worked well, for any prolonged period, video play back was bad, maybe it didnt like add block. I did have a nanopi r6s it was a bit better, but still had driver issues, no wifi even with usb, so i sold it, a little device needs to be portable. I have a nanopi m4 that seems to work well, 1080p video is fine, it has out lasted my raspberry pi 4 that have all died with hdmi issues. I do hope a new raspberry pi will arrive soon, as alternatives are not great maybe low end intel or amd pcs, its very easy to be invested well over a hundred pounds and at that point mini pcs or even laptops really do come in to it.
I have an OdroidC4 and OrangePi5. The C4 works great as an ondemand-mediaplayer via CoreElec/Kodi on SD-Card for 4K-HDR10 videos using the onboard-Infrared to control it and switch it on&off. This combined with a Debian test-Server on the eMMC-module accessible via the multiboot platform Petitboot. The OPi5 will be used for various heavier full-time server-functions. Despite the cut-down PCI-E the NVMe drive still offers a major speed upgrade compared to SD/eMMC. I'm still testing a lot of things. Armbian works great on it.
I think it would also be useful to continue demystifying ESP32 etc as most people who think they need Raspberry Pi for their DIY project might be delighted with the cost and efficiency of a simpler (and more available) platform.
Good (underrated) alternative is Raspberry Pi 3A+ which are now generally available every day, somewhere in the world. No… not a desktop replacement, but perfectly excellent for most all server and maker applications!
Yes to a Pi Zero alternatives video. Definitely some good alternatives to a Raspberry Pi, which if you can find one is going to cost you a bit more than it should since the factory supply isn't there.
Many of us today don't realize we are living in a SBC "Utopia" where just about all versions/models are compatible with each other. We can also load various flavors of Operating Systems and the hardware is cheap and the software if FREE! Remember the days in the late 1970's and early 1980's, when nothing was compatible like Commodore, TRS-80, Apple, IBM, Sinclair, etc... and you had to pay for everything. Thanks Chris! -Rich
Great video Chris! As you suggested towards the end of the video, I would very much like to see a comparison of the Raspberry Pi Zero competitors. Thank you for continuing to make interesting content. 😁
As always, great video and comparing the alternatives with the sample video is very useful. Definitely gives us an idea of what's available and what would be ideal for our various needs. And yes, please we would like to see a follow up video for the alternatives for the raspberry pi 0. Thank you, and hoping to see you again, very soon.
I have had 4 Raspberry Pi Zero W boards running as security cameras using motionEye OS over the past roughly 9 years. One is actually still working though refuses to write captured images to the SD at this point. The other 3 died when the PAM2306 chip overheated on each. I also tried 3 ESP32CAM modules and a M5CAM with varying degrees of failure. A roundup review of small cards with camera and wifi would be most appreciated
I had the same experience with my 4 Pi Zero W cams. I just took them all down and will be investigating to see what failed. I had guessed that the SD cards gave up, but it appears your experience indicates that may not be the case. Thanks for posting this.
I have a brand new zero brought ages ago that I totally forgot, recently I got time to play around it and OMG, it barely can do anything, it is way too slow to handle even simple stuff, I even didn't use the lastest Linux I installed Jessie it still slow without any GUI, I also found out it is very easy cause kernel panic, like download files. I really can't think any usage of this.
I really enjoy these round-up videos. Things just change so quickly. Knowing what is still usable and relevant is invaluable information. For example, I have RPi B rev 2's that, while grossly underpowered, are still relevant today. On the other hand, my VIA APC that came with FirefoxOS is, while working, almost useless outside of a conversation piece. It would be great to see the same round-up for the RPi Zero form factor. As usual, great content, Chris! Cheers.
ok I saw an opi 5 on the thumbnail and just wanted to say it is awesome. I preordered in november and it came in feburary but it is totally worth the wait and is super high performance
I watched your recent video about a Mini PC. I'm in the market for a new computer, as none of my computers are Windows 11 compatible. Not being ready to go full Linux, I was looking at two Windows 11 Mini PC's on Amazon; a Beelink Ryzen at around £343, and a Beelink Celeron N at just £159. Thinking the Ryzen was overkill for general purpose computing, I bought the Celeron (2.9 GHz, 8 GB Ram, 128 GB M.2 SATA3 SSD) ... My Beelink is being delivered on Tuesday, and Mr. Scissors and Stanley The Knife are very excited! ... Love the channel!
Great video! I think the fact that the supply of rpi4 went to big business instead of enthusiasts may have helped the sbc phenomenon in the long run. It gave the other competitors in this space more breathing room, both in the form of a growing user base and in the form of greater profit margins. I hope they use this gains to improve their products.
I really like this approach of reviewing the state of the software after a few years since the device has been released. The software has usually been a sore spot for a lot of these boards and checking if things have improved since launch is invaluable!
I didn't know there were Pi Zero alternatives (except of the microcontroller ilk). Please do add it to your list of future content. Thanks for another great video Chris. 🙂
Thanks for all the good info. Yes, I'd love to find a good alternative to a RPi-zero. I'm trying to get a BeagleBone Black to work for a project, and I'd love some alternatives. Great content!
It's interesting how a box board has become a world of SBCs capable of low-end desktop alternatives. What a world! RPI zero alternatives would be fun to see.
Nice Video Chris, showing a change in software support for SBC is always welcome. But there is definitely a lack of showing alternative systems on the SBC. I would add from myself to use alternative Linux distributions such as Armbian or DietPi . Because they are better optimized than SBC manufacturers software. The Armbian and DietPi team just does a great job. By offering support for various SBCs, which often serve as a paper button .. Because they are often useless by using the factory software of a given SBC manufacturer. I mean especially older versions of SBC various manufacturers, which after installing the Armbian or DietPi system receive a second life.
@@ExplainingComputers Well maybe someday when you find some time you will test these two systems, let's say on one or two sbc. And then will you compare the performance against the factory firmware?. Surely the viewers of this channel would be happy, and it would be useful for many people. But I'm not insisting, I'm grateful anyway for the current content of your channel which is very good :).
Hi Chrise. Great idea to compare available hardware against each other and I hope the RPi availability improves much quicker than anticipated. For me, I'd like to see a comparison of RPi4 projects that can be (reasonably) reproduced on SBCs that are currently in production. e.g. a PiNAS on something other than a RPi4. I'm sure there are other projects too
Thanks for the video Chris as its great to see software support moving along for the alternatives and I would love to see a RPi Zero alternatives video. Greetings from Australia.
Onl;y got to see this late on Tuesday Night, Buisyyyyy!!!!. Gread informative as usual. Thanks Chris. I would have tought the RS manufactured board whoud have been better softeare supported also. Great insite. Thanks again.
Thank you for the excellent reviews. What I would like to see more of from the reviewers and educators on youtube is SBCs that don't focus on desktop usage but instead the "SBC-server-segment" (headless stuff), e.g. SBC devices that can run more high-end applications and services like docker and similar.
I'm hoping that OKdo getting involved with Radxa will help the sorry state of software support. For now I'll put my Radxa 4 se away and come back to it in a few months.
Competition is a good thing. It's good to see improvement in some of these. The Rock 3A looks great and will be very attractive once they get the software side worked out. I like the idea of a socket for WiFi cards so you can put the one you want or none at all. Maybe Raspberry Pi should look into that idea (and NVME SSD slot too)
Been using Ubuntu MATE since 16.04. It has its problems, yes, but I couldn't find an experience as great as the one I've been having all these years. And it's great they're one of the few Ubuntu-based distros (Non-Vanilla) that support ARM. RISC-V in the foreseeable future? I hope so. Go Linux, Go Go 🐧
My orangepi 3 just arrived today. $57. I've have many projects abandoned and some still on hold waiting for rasperry pi's. After 3 years I feel I've been patient enough and moving on to other platforms.
Great video! I'm looking for a new, more powerful SBC to replace my old Raspiberry Pi3 B. The first alternative would be RPi 4, but the prices and lack of availability made me postpone the purchase. I really liked what was said about the Banana Pi M5, maybe i'll end up acquiring it. I would like a video with the alternatives to the Raspberry Pi Zero.
It would definitely be good to see a RPi Zero alternatives video. I would also be interested in a review of SBCs that might compare with what an RPi 5 might look like today if development hadn't stalled in recent years.
But is there any for the same price as the pi Zero 1.3?
I may be wrong but I see the RPI Zero wallowing on its death bed. With the low cost availability of the PI Pico with wifi. I believe it to be superfluous for control applications. I can see using it if the application requires low quality video, but if that were the case I'd use the esp32 with cam and an adapter board to give me usb connectivity. If they would sell those boards for 4 dollars. I would buy a lot of them and use them every chance I got.
@@rickhunt3183I would say zero 2 has some life, it's got some oomph for the cheap price.
Great video, thanks. It’s so good to see alternatives available and improving. The last 2 years has shown how important it is to have more than one option for makers, students, start ups and design engineers
I just wonder why they continue to include GPUs on these boards but never seem to provide software to use them. Thanks for the great review as usual.
They don't include GPUs as such -- they include an SoC which has a GPU, then don't have the resources to sort a driver . . .
In the case of Orange Pi 5, they do actually include the drivers. The problem is actually the Chromium installation. If you grab the Snap of Chromium and run it with the command line parameters for web GL acceleration, you'll find that it performs quite well.
I learned a lot. Thanks everyone.
@@ExplainingComputers have you tried the zimaboard ?
Chip manufacturers are obsessed with secrecy. They are so nuts about not letting anyone see programmer level information, they would rather not sell any, so they can keep it completely secret.
I think community support is more important for a SBC platform than raw compute power. Most of my compute projects in this space can be performed by my original PI and PI2 . I am exited though that there are multiple options available.
That is also my own experience. The most powerful SBC is not very useful if you need to spend too much time getting the software to run on it. Then you can just buy a cheap x86 box and run any standard linux distro on it without any problems.
I myself own two Bananapi M5, but the issue is that it is not clear if upstream uboot has the necessary changes to boot with it, and if the OS is on sdcard you can not reboot because the sdcard is not recognized after a reboot (it needs to be switched off and on to recognize it again). It could probably be solved in uboot but it simply isn't. And Raspbian has the same problems, plus some more that have to do with the graphics driver. You simply do not get a desktop on it after rebooting, last time I tried it (couple weeks ago). The Android distro that is provided for the Bananapi M5 is very old and I failed to get the play store and others on it, so it is not as easy as it could be.
I think community support only goes so far. Bottom line, as long as there are drivers (and acceleration) available for those devices, supported OSes will definitely work properly, and won’t be any different compared to any Raspberry Pi. When it comes to additional hardware, there could be an issue. But when it comes to software, there shouldn’t be any issues, as it’s all the same.
@@Inject0r The issue is that the manufacturers put basically no effort into maintenance so unless you have a fully working toolchain and sources you can not build or upgrade the OS. That is the common problem. For the Bananapi M5 for example, the original sources are just a zip with no git history, so the version is unknown. It's unknown what the changes on top of the original software and the reason and the connection between them are so you can't just apply the changes on top of new releases of the original open source project. You basically have to reverse engineer the differences to figure out what they are for exactly and if the problem was solved upstream already. And that is really, really time consuming. Or you don't do that, but then you're stuck at an ancient kernel with most likely no newer software. So you can't have an up to date chromium or firefox. Or even any newer release of any software due to the dependencies. The dependencies also extend to the kernel through userspace components like modprobe and others. Yes, they should just be compatible, but some package always has a dependency on some kernel version, and then you're stuck there. And by extension you're stuck on old software everywhere then.
I concur, primary use case for Pi is headless server, not desktop replacement. There are better ways to watch CZcams.
Well then you should build a benchmark app for community support. Piece of cake, right? Teasing, but you do have a good point.
Always a wonderful, unbiased comparison across the board. (Pun Intended.) Can't wait to see other SBC's, especially posting their availability!
Greetings Leslie. :)
Hardware acceleration still seems to be the issue with SBC's, maybe one day it'll get sorted out! I'm looking forward to the Reborn OS video. Thanks Chris for another interesting Sunday video :)
Thank you for making this video. I need to move on from Pi because I just can't find them and will not pay crazy Amazon mark-ups. There are many good alternatives, but they need larger communities to become anything like the Pi. It has to start somewhere.
Well done Sir... you are nearly to 1 Million Subs...
Maybe your not a Pop ICON....
But you are Clear and Precise in everything you do...
This is appreciated by Senior Level people...
I look forward to Congratulating you when you exceed 1 Million...
Thanks for this. :)
I still love Raspberry Pi I was lucky enough to get my last one before demand out stripped supply. One thing not touched on was community support behind these alternatives, Raspberry Pi has a strong community behind it. When choosing an alternative the availability of help is just as important as price in my mind. I think so of these alternatives are well worth a look. Something many comments say about price in regards to Raspberry Pi board if you get them from the authorized sellers you pay the best prices, third parties sell for more to line their own pockets.
Well said, both the community and the support are incredibly important. Without either of those you'll end up with a poor choice of product.
I disagree. Support is only useful to those who use it. It's far better to understand the problem on your own and learn something than it is to blindly follow someone else's advice without understanding what you are doing.
That being said, if you can't figure out on your own, then having a good community as a safety net is preferable but should never be your requirement.
@@steelplasma256 how can you understand something without documentation or someone more knowledgeable? are you going to spend all your time tinkering?
Thank you for the RasPi alternative update. It's good to know there is much progress with these SBCs to run Linux distros efficiently. Please do the Pi Zero alterantive video!
Orange pi is really a good contender in the SBC market. Maybe I will give it a try for my next project. I am not a big fan of built-in Wi-Fi. I rather buy a dongle. Thanks for the video. A nice Sunday to all.
I recently got an Odroid C4, and was surprised how well and effortlessly Armbian works on it (much better than the official images). Hardware acceleration out of the box with the Panfrost driver, decent performance, no issues whatsoever. I have further plans for it as a Pi replacement, so will see how far the compatibility goes when it comes to some 3rd party hardware with its own drivers (I am able to make some adjustments if necessary).
I've had C4 as a NAS box for three years. Two 4 TB and one 8TB USB disks pooled with btrfs. Works nice on some version of Armbian. Official image coredumped with btrfs.
Armbian is the only OS I use on OrangePi as well. Works extremely much better than the buggy OEM os.
I am using Odroid C4 as a NAS to store my backups running Dietpi. Been solid for me.
Also got a C4 back in 2020 for a NAS and really like it. It's been retired for the moment as it's now replaced by a Synology NAS, but I'll find a use for it again.
This is a great video I gave up on raspberry pi a long time ago I refuse to pay scalper prices and it seems like the foundation is not doing squat to prevent scalpers so the hell with them. Right now on Amazon a raspberry pi 4 8 GB is going for $194. If the foundation is not going to do anything about it and it push comes to shove and I have to pay that kind of money I might as well get something that'll blow the raspberry pi 4 out of the water with better capabilities and possibly more memory.
Lots of good Raspberry Pi alternatives to choose from! It's quite a shame about the Rock 3A's software support though. Out of all the SBCs on this list, I quite like the Orange Pi 5 the most. Here's hoping for a Pi Zero alternatives video!
Yes, mr. Pls do it! I looking alternatives raspberry zero from half year. But i want SBC with good software support. I want build small linux terminal with some python builder so I can make some code on the way.
PLS PLS PLS PLS DO IT for MR.Scissors
Thanks for your support. :) I hope that you are doing OK.
@@ExplainingComputers Hi! I'm doing alright. I watched today's video with a very good cat. I hope you're doing okay yourself, I got a bit worried for a moment!
"Patience is a virtue..." It is interesting to see the software evolution of some SBCs after a few months; some are thus positioning themselves as real alternatives to the beloved Raspberry Pi (sadly!). I would like to highlight your comment: "An SBC made by Apple"... Great and terribly appropriate! Excellent presentation!
Great video Chris. Keeping us up-to-date on the what-to-do's.
If I may make a suggestion:
I've been buying second hand I5 4-6th gen small FF PC's, They cost 50-75 euro and are extremely complete, only lacking the GPIO and being obviously larger and use a bit more power. My second batch were i7 4th gen and I'm going to use them for multiple VM's per machine.
I'd love to see a video about that subject and the discussion afterwards.
I do intend to make a video along the lines you suggest.
Yeh, nice topic to discuss. I will add from myself that there are small thin computers, such as terminal pc. I believe that they are good raspberry pi substitutes. For example, I recently used the HP T620 Plus. And it is useful in various projects ( retro computer for playing old games, and old consoles :).
@@ExplainingComputers I'd be really interested in a video about that as well :)
I've been looking at getting a 2nd hand SFF PC for quite a while prices seem a bit higher in the UK at around £130 or more. I'd want to use them either for VM's or a Proxmox server :)
Thanks for this follow-up. You'd think that the ARM foundation themselves would step in at this point to force/ensure availability of drivers and documentation for all chips that use their licences. Crazy situation that I'm sure I am not alone in being put-off taking the plunge with these boards and similarly poorly-supported ARM hardware.
A shame.
These pi alternatives have become the need of the moment since now the original raspberry Pi have become hard to get in many places. And these alternatives are easily available in stock.
Interesting video.
Competition is a great thing. They'll drop the prices of these Pi devices to much more realistic and acceptable levels when there is competition.
Lots of channels review mid-high end computers.
But you are - imo - the champion of the little guy/gal.
As exemplified with videos like this.
And I - for one - really, appreciate it.
☮
And I appreciate your kind feedback. Thanks. :)
@@ExplainingComputers 😊☮
This is excellent, since many people tend to just review items and never look at them again. It's important to see if things have improved since the initial review, since an item may look good initially, but the manufacturer might have failed to support/update the device or a community might not have adopted it.
holy cow! i was looking for rasp pi 4 alternatives yesterday. Thanks for the video Chris.
A pi zero alternatives video is a really great idea! Looking forward to that
Have a good rest of your weekend Christopher. Love your top 5s. As Always, Be Smart and Stay Safe.
Great video! Its nice to see some alternatives that are in stock. it is unfortunate how all the Pi and Pi alternatives have increased in price so much. The cheap cost was one of the great features of these boards. I hope the prices will drop back down at some point.
Yeah it's like they're reflecting the prices of real fruit and other foods being intentionally destroyed with the purposeful burning down of many food factories, supply chain problems etc jacking up food costs.
Thanks for the video! Those crazy prices made me drop all SBCs in favour of thin clients, like HP t620/t630, which also happen to have a serial port, which I use more often than GPIO.
I agree, things are changing . . .
"It's a bit like an SBC made by Apple" - oomph :-)
I know there are many factors affecting computing right now, but if the Raspberry Pi people don't get their act together, they will lose their crown, and it may be hard for them to get it back....Time & Tide wait for no man (or Pi)
I for one would like to see alternatives for Raspberry Pi Picos..... 🙂
You recently reviewed a mini-PC that was in the same price range as these boards. It seems that the mini-computer beat every one of these ARM-based systems hands-down -- including the Raspberry Pi 4. And you will soon be showing us that you can add GIPO pins to the mini-PC at a low price. So the days of the ARM-based SBC for anything that doesn't actually require the SBC form factor are approaching an end. I think the next generation of SBCs will be RISC-V boards.
Indeed. Things are changing.
Happiness is digging through my parts box and finding a Raspberry Pi 4 that I had forgotten about.
:)
The video is very helpful. I would love to seen another follow up on this topic. Thank you
Excelent video, thank's, as a Brazilian Developer i'm always looking at those boards on Aliexpress, but i cant...loose to much money testing, thanks !
Ah Good old Sunday mean new video! I love raspberry pi alternative videos you are the best! Have a nice week
"A bit like an SBC made by Apple..." Haha, I laughed out loud at that.
Exactly what I was looking for. SBCs in the same price bracket as an RPI4. Thanks Chris :)
No problem 👍
I just love your reviews. Makes it easier for us enthusiasts to decide for the right SCB for our projects.
Thanks again, as always well done. Keep up the good work I learn a great deal from your productions.
Great and timely video!
Another one is needed comparing sub-200$US boards like the Rock 5B. My main needs require better I/O than the RPi4 'standard', like say GigE, PCIv3/NVMe, USB4/TBolt, etc. You get the drift ....
Forgot to add, 'RPi5' boards won't be here anytime soon!
Chris looks like the Orange Pi for me, Thanks for another informative Sunday video. Have a nice week!
Always the best SBC reviews. Thanks!
Great video. I appreciate how much time it takes to produce it. Thank you!
Enjoy your commentary on the Raspberry pi boards and alternative boards and extended capabilities, as the video stream consist frames and loss of frames .. very good clip.. sending it on to my friends as adapt or more so than I..Keep them coming , they at least keep me up to date on what is available for medium to modest prices for on board performance..
Blessed Sunday all! Great job as always sir. Nice to see some SBC manufacturers are getting better at sodftware support. Until next time... happy Explaining Computers!
Please another alternatives video. Thank you for the always interesting and informative content!
Yes, a video on Raspberry Pi Zero alternatives would be great. I would also like to see a video on multithreaded programming for robotics, allowing independent features like sirens, beepers, sequenced LEDs and maybe audio clips which can be controlled manually.
Hey Christopher! I love the SBC content. I was using the ODRoid C4 for the last two years to host my docker based homelab. It did all of the compute for my Plex, VaultWarden PW Manager Server, NectCloud, etc... All the data was stored on my ODRoid Hc1 and HC2 NAS Servers with OMV6.
At the time my Pi 4 4GB was giving me some power issues, and x265 files worked better through plex on the C4. I'm a big fan of the HardKernel boards.
I'd love to see a refresh of the HC1 and HC2 form factors.
Stats for nerds are accessed in a separate Settings tab in the CZcams app itself instead of being in the video player.
First i want to say this was a good video. Its not good away from a raspberry pi, my orange pi 5 crashed all the time, there wasnt a single distro that worked well, for any prolonged period, video play back was bad, maybe it didnt like add block. I did have a nanopi r6s it was a bit better, but still had driver issues, no wifi even with usb, so i sold it, a little device needs to be portable. I have a nanopi m4 that seems to work well, 1080p video is fine, it has out lasted my raspberry pi 4 that have all died with hdmi issues. I do hope a new raspberry pi will arrive soon, as alternatives are not great maybe low end intel or amd pcs, its very easy to be invested well over a hundred pounds and at that point mini pcs or even laptops really do come in to it.
A very useful, and much needed video. Thanks for making this.
You're very welcome!
Great video, thanks! Seeing a video about Pi Zero alternatives is also a good idea!
I have an OdroidC4 and OrangePi5.
The C4 works great as an ondemand-mediaplayer via CoreElec/Kodi on SD-Card for 4K-HDR10 videos using the onboard-Infrared to control it and switch it on&off. This combined with a Debian test-Server on the eMMC-module accessible via the multiboot platform Petitboot.
The OPi5 will be used for various heavier full-time server-functions. Despite the cut-down PCI-E the NVMe drive still offers a major speed upgrade compared to SD/eMMC. I'm still testing a lot of things. Armbian works great on it.
Very interesting comparisons , please keep the good work up !
I think it would also be useful to continue demystifying ESP32 etc as most people who think they need Raspberry Pi for their DIY project might be delighted with the cost and efficiency of a simpler (and more available) platform.
An excellent idea, noted. :)
Also the newer ESP 32 chips support Micro Python.
Good (underrated) alternative is Raspberry Pi 3A+ which are now generally available every day, somewhere in the world. No… not a desktop replacement, but perfectly excellent for most all server and maker applications!
A very, very good point. I should have mentioned this.
Manufacturer chilling and watching video:
*Chris pulls out their single-board computer first*
Manufacturer begins shaking profusely
thorough and to the point. Liked and subscribed. Excellent work sir!
Welcome aboard!
Great video! I can't wait for the video on the distro with hardware acceleration (orange Pi 5 reborn OS)
Great walkthrough of the possible alternative to RP
Yes to a Pi Zero alternatives video. Definitely some good alternatives to a Raspberry Pi, which if you can find one is going to cost you a bit more than it should since the factory supply isn't there.
Many of us today don't realize we are living in a SBC "Utopia" where just about all versions/models are compatible with each other. We can also load various flavors of Operating Systems and the hardware is cheap and the software if FREE!
Remember the days in the late 1970's and early 1980's, when nothing was compatible like Commodore, TRS-80, Apple, IBM, Sinclair, etc... and you had to pay for everything. Thanks Chris! -Rich
Great video Chris! As you suggested towards the end of the video, I would very much like to see a comparison of the Raspberry Pi Zero competitors. Thank you for continuing to make interesting content. 😁
As always, great video and comparing the alternatives with the sample video is very useful. Definitely gives us an idea of what's available and what would be ideal for our various needs.
And yes, please we would like to see a follow up video for the alternatives for the raspberry pi 0.
Thank you, and hoping to see you again, very soon.
I for one would like to see a follow-up video on Raspberry Pi Zero alternatives. Enjoyed this video and look forward to you next one!
Greetings Perry.
It's good to find alternatives. All the local bakeries are out of stock of Raspberry Pis.
Hardware without software = Paperweights!
You can write the software yourself. You just need to take the daughter of the CEO hostage to get the documentation for the proprietary hardware.
def like the check in on software support
I have had 4 Raspberry Pi Zero W boards running as security cameras using motionEye OS over the past roughly 9 years. One is actually still working though refuses to write captured images to the SD at this point. The other 3 died when the PAM2306 chip overheated on each. I also tried 3 ESP32CAM modules and a M5CAM with varying degrees of failure. A roundup review of small cards with camera and wifi would be most appreciated
I had the same experience with my 4 Pi Zero W cams. I just took them all down and will be investigating to see what failed. I had guessed that the SD cards gave up, but it appears your experience indicates that may not be the case. Thanks for posting this.
I have a brand new zero brought ages ago that I totally forgot, recently I got time to play around it and OMG, it barely can do anything, it is way too slow to handle even simple stuff, I even didn't use the lastest Linux I installed Jessie it still slow without any GUI, I also found out it is very easy cause kernel panic, like download files. I really can't think any usage of this.
It's good to see some alternative options for a Raspberry Pi. Great video!
I really enjoy these round-up videos. Things just change so quickly. Knowing what is still usable and relevant is invaluable information.
For example, I have RPi B rev 2's that, while grossly underpowered, are still relevant today. On the other hand, my VIA APC that came with FirefoxOS is, while working, almost useless outside of a conversation piece.
It would be great to see the same round-up for the RPi Zero form factor.
As usual, great content, Chris! Cheers.
Excellent as always... and yes a Pi Zero alternatives video would be marvellous. Thanks.
ok I saw an opi 5 on the thumbnail and just wanted to say it is awesome. I preordered in november and it came in feburary but it is totally worth the wait and is super high performance
I agree, it is a great RK3588 SBC.
Great video as always, thank you. Wonderful channel
Thanks. :)
I watched your recent video about a Mini PC. I'm in the market for a new computer, as none of my computers are Windows 11 compatible. Not being ready to go full Linux, I was looking at two Windows 11 Mini PC's on Amazon; a Beelink Ryzen at around £343, and a Beelink Celeron N at just £159. Thinking the Ryzen was overkill for general purpose computing, I bought the Celeron (2.9 GHz, 8 GB Ram, 128 GB M.2 SATA3 SSD) ... My Beelink is being delivered on Tuesday, and Mr. Scissors and Stanley The Knife are very excited! ... Love the channel!
Enjoy your new mini PC. :) Sounds like a good spec.
Thanks for the excelllent review Chris !!
Great video! I think the fact that the supply of rpi4 went to big business instead of enthusiasts may have helped the sbc phenomenon in the long run. It gave the other competitors in this space more breathing room, both in the form of a growing user base and in the form of greater profit margins. I hope they use this gains to improve their products.
I really like this approach of reviewing the state of the software after a few years since the device has been released. The software has usually been a sore spot for a lot of these boards and checking if things have improved since launch is invaluable!
I didn't know there were Pi Zero alternatives (except of the microcontroller ilk). Please do add it to your list of future content. Thanks for another great video Chris. 🙂
Thanks for all the good info. Yes, I'd love to find a good alternative to a RPi-zero. I'm trying to get a BeagleBone Black to work for a project, and I'd love some alternatives. Great content!
It's interesting how a box board has become a world of SBCs capable of low-end desktop alternatives. What a world! RPI zero alternatives would be fun to see.
Thank you Christopher for an honest assessment!
Beaglebone green is also a good alternative for headless useage.
Competition is good! Lots of great alternatives.
If I wanted an SBC for a server or even a desktop, I'd pick either the Orange Pi or Banana Pi.
Informative video especially the update on the M5 software getting better. I'd also like to see pi zero 2 alternatives.
Nice Video Chris, showing a change in software support for SBC is always welcome. But there is definitely a lack of showing alternative systems on the SBC.
I would add from myself to use alternative Linux distributions such as Armbian or DietPi . Because they are better optimized than SBC manufacturers software. The Armbian and DietPi team just does a great job. By offering support for various SBCs, which often serve as a paper button ..
Because they are often useless by using the factory software of a given SBC manufacturer. I mean especially older versions of SBC various manufacturers, which after installing the Armbian or DietPi system receive a second life.
Point taken, but what you list would be incredibly extensive, and so I stuck to what is officially listed by the manufacturers.
@@ExplainingComputers Well maybe someday when you find some time you will test these two systems, let's say on one or two sbc. And then will you compare the performance against the factory firmware?.
Surely the viewers of this channel would be happy, and it would be useful for many people. But I'm not insisting, I'm grateful anyway for the current content of your channel which is very good :).
Hi Chrise. Great idea to compare available hardware against each other and I hope the RPi availability improves much quicker than anticipated. For me, I'd like to see a comparison of RPi4 projects that can be (reasonably) reproduced on SBCs that are currently in production. e.g. a PiNAS on something other than a RPi4. I'm sure there are other projects too
Thanks for the video Chris as its great to see software support moving along for the alternatives and I would love to see a RPi Zero alternatives video. Greetings from Australia.
Yes a follow-up would be good 👍🙏
Onl;y got to see this late on Tuesday Night, Buisyyyyy!!!!. Gread informative as usual. Thanks Chris. I would have tought the RS manufactured board whoud have been better softeare supported also. Great insite. Thanks again.
Thank you for the excellent reviews. What I would like to see more of from the reviewers and educators on youtube is SBCs that don't focus on desktop usage but instead the "SBC-server-segment" (headless stuff), e.g. SBC devices that can run more high-end applications and services like docker and similar.
Oh nice, I was looking at exactly this yesterday
A big YES to a pi zero review
I'm hoping that OKdo getting involved with Radxa will help the sorry state of software support.
For now I'll put my Radxa 4 se away and come back to it in a few months.
Hi I love your explanation. Also I am eagerly waiting for video in which you add gpio pins to normal pc.
The GPIO for any PC will post two weeks today. :)
@ExplainingComputers thank you.
You inspired me and opened a new world of electronics for everyone.
Competition is a good thing. It's good to see improvement in some of these. The Rock 3A looks great and will be very attractive once they get the software side worked out. I like the idea of a socket for WiFi cards so you can put the one you want or none at all. Maybe Raspberry Pi should look into that idea (and NVME SSD slot too)
Great idea for a video, and very useful for enthusiasts like me, thanks!
Been using Ubuntu MATE since 16.04. It has its problems, yes, but I couldn't find an experience as great as the one I've been having all these years. And it's great they're one of the few Ubuntu-based distros (Non-Vanilla) that support ARM. RISC-V in the foreseeable future? I hope so. Go Linux, Go Go 🐧
What board?
Thanks!
Thanks for your support.
my smart tv struggles playing the sluggish benchmark videos !
My orangepi 3 just arrived today. $57. I've have many projects abandoned and some still on hold waiting for rasperry pi's. After 3 years I feel I've been patient enough and moving on to other platforms.
Chris: "This is a bit like an SBC made by Apple."
Me (in my office, out loud): "Oooooooooo!"
Great video! Thanks for sharing.
Great video! I'm looking for a new, more powerful SBC to replace my old Raspiberry Pi3 B. The first alternative would be RPi 4, but the prices and lack of availability made me postpone the purchase. I really liked what was said about the Banana Pi M5, maybe i'll end up acquiring it. I would like a video with the alternatives to the Raspberry Pi Zero.