# Raspberry pi alternatives (aarch64)



## nunotex (Oct 6, 2022)

Hello,

I'm looking for raspberry pi alternatives on aarch64 arch.
I'm waiting to buy a pi4 for months because it's out of stock in Portugal official reseller.

Something with 4+ cores and 8GB+ RAM will be nice.

Thanks


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## kpedersen (Oct 6, 2022)

The NVidia Jetson Nano is very nice. It used to be $99 but has since increased a little.

I see there has been some work to get it running on FreeBSD (https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/commit/?id=e903478919602c90fdc202a8628b89eb7c3bc104)

However it is currently quite a manual process to get running and not provided as a pre-made image (likely never will due to the lifespan of SoCs).


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## Alain De Vos (Oct 6, 2022)

I own a Raspberry PI4. It just needs a cheap external USB-Audio for FreeBSD.


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## covacat (Oct 6, 2022)

you may be better off with a low powered intel box (probably about the same price/performance/power requirements and better hardware support)


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## kpedersen (Oct 6, 2022)

True. For my own purposes I bought a batch of 10x Thinkstation m73 a while ago.

That is only £30 each!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295216842297

If you remove it from the shell, it is little over double the size of a Pi and so much more powerful.


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## Jake0162 (Oct 6, 2022)

RK3568 based SBC or RK3399 would be good choices.

I have a couple Rock3a SBC in 4G(lpddr4) but I think they have 8G models as well.
Haven't gotten FreeBSD to run on it yet but having a m.2 and a mini pcie slot is pretty cool.


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## hardworkingnewbie (Oct 6, 2022)

Fujitsu S920 Thin Client, get it used on eBay for around 40 Euros. This makes also a nice home router/firewall.

Otherwise if you really want to use ARM: Odroid or the Banana Pi.


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## nunotex (Oct 6, 2022)

Hey all!

Thanks for sugestions, some are really nice!

I'm in the mood of ARM and raspberry was the first that caled my attention but I will need to wait until they available on official reseler, because they have reached 250 Euros for a pi4 8GB!

Odroid, Banana, nvidia, radxa, etc, I will take a look to see if I can find a cheap one.

Cheers


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## Phishfry (Oct 6, 2022)

I second the Rockchip recommendation.
RockPro64 with 4GB and 64GB eMMC is nice.
Nicest Arm experience so far.
I too have the Rock Pi 3A and I hope to see support soon.
That has the best feature set for my tastes.
I just bought the M.2 slot NVMe adapter in anticipation.

Rock Pi 4 is supported on -CURRENT I believe. FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE.
Asus Tinker2S looks nice too. Might work with Rock64 image.
Quartz64 has an SATA jack with PCIe slot. That looks attractive too. Supported on RockPro64 image.

What features are you looking for?


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## ralphbsz (Oct 7, 2022)

Phishfry said:


> What features are you looking for?


That is exactly the correct question. What do you actually need?

Do you want a general-purpose computer, to which you connect keyboard, mouse and display, and then run a generic operating system (such as Linux or FreeBSD) to use as a desktop machine (whether CLI or GUI)? The high-end Raspberry Pi are decent at that, a bit underpowered, and with exceedingly slow disks (actually SD cards). They are very inexpensive. Problem is that it is not a complete computer, you still need to organize a case and a power supply. And connecting peripherals that need more IO than USB can provide is hard. If this is your application, then various inexpensive (often used) computers are a good alternative.

Do you need the very small physical size of the RPi? In that case, I think the best alternatives are the various clones, like Banana Pi. Also look at the Beaglebone; it has more good instrumentation/DAQ/embedded control peripherals embedded, but you probably don't care. Supposedly FreeBSD runs on it.

Why do you really need the ARM instruction set? 

On the other hand, if you need the computer to also interface (via things like I2C and GPIO), then it gets harder. I would try the various clones (Banana Pi, Orange Pi, Rock Pi), or at a slightly higher price-point (but more good stuff) Beaglebone.


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## Phishfry (Oct 7, 2022)

I didn't buy the RockPro64 when it came out.
It seemed freakish with x4 slot on baby board. (Why not MiniPCIe or M.2 similar to all embedded boards.)

Now that I have used the device I am good with it. But a key asterisk is I can make my own cases.
Unfortunately the NAS case is too big for my taste so I will build my own.
So do you want freakenstein or spit and polished.

The boards come and go so quick the part supply gets weird for older boards. Mainly cases.
So back to enclosures. What do you want? Build around that premise.

RockPro64 has nice baby case, but then you can't use x4 device even with 90 degree riser.
Too slim. So why bother.
I was faced with too small or too big. Luckily I have the force.


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## bakul (Oct 7, 2022)

Phishfry said:


> The boards come and go so quick the part supply gets weird for older boards.


This was one reason to stick to RPi as they do commit to supply boards for many years but right now they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their first priority is to supply their commercial clients and as per one post they don't anticipate situation to improve until Q2 2023. Wouldn't be surprised if they come out with pi5 before the pi4 shortage is over but this is not something you can plan around.


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## acheron (Oct 7, 2022)

Don't buy nvidia SOC.


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## lessless (Oct 19, 2022)

Hi folks!

I'm eyeballing Pine Quartz64. Did anyone try it out? Is WiFi working ok?


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## Pierre-Marie Baty (Oct 20, 2022)

Hello

I'd advise you the BeagleBoard AI-64: https://beagleboard.org/ai-64 (I haven't personally tested FreeBSD on it though)

But as otherwise noted, if you want a passively cooled, tiny form-factor, FreeBSD-compatible hardware, and a low-power x86_64 arch is acceptable, then this Gigabyte Brix model is probably a good choice for you : https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BMCE-4500C-rev-10

It draws peanuts in electricity (6W), and I confirm FreeBSD runs beautifully on it, especially since the Intel IGPU support for this model was added very recently to 13.1-RELEASE.


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## gotnull (Oct 20, 2022)

Pierre-Marie Baty said:


> But as otherwise noted, if you want a passively cooled, tiny form-factor, FreeBSD-compatible hardware, and a low-power x86_64 arch is acceptable, then this Gigabyte Brix model is probably a good choice for you : https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BMCE-4500C-rev-10
> 
> It draws peanuts in electricity (6W), and I confirm FreeBSD runs beautifully on it, especially since the Intel IGPU support for this model was added very recently to 13.1-RELEASE.


Hi,

I am really curious about this fanless brix model, on one hand hardware looks okay and the price too but on the other hand the box itself makes me a bit skeptical, I mean how does the plastic box handles the heat exhaust ? Or may be it's a metal box but it does not look like it though.
Are the little holes behind the box enough ? Of course the proc is only a celeron but still .
What are the temp you get in a normal day (meaning when there is no crazy sun out there) ?


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## covacat (Oct 20, 2022)

gotnull said:


> I mean how does the plastic box handles the heat exhaust ? Or may be it's a metal box but it does not look like it though.


i have a shitty android tv box which has slimmer case and no fans
it has 5W TDP cpu - amlogic s905x3
temperature sensor says about 65C on load (i run armbian on it) with 1core 100% load
running 4 copies of openssl speed made it go to 80C


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## Phishfry (Oct 20, 2022)

lessless said:


> I'm eyeballing Pine Quartz64. Did anyone try it out? Is WiFi working ok?


I doubt it. We have very limited WiFi.

What I wonder is does the SATA port work on Quartz64 ?


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## Pierre-Marie Baty (Oct 20, 2022)

gotnull said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am really curious about this fanless brix model, on one hand hardware looks okay and the price too but on the other hand the box itself makes me a bit skeptical, I mean how does the plastic box handles the heat exhaust ? Or may be it's a metal box but it does not look like it though.
> Are the little holes behind the box enough ? Of course the proc is only a celeron but still .
> What are the temp you get in a normal day (meaning when there is no crazy sun out there) ?


The CPU is slightly downclocked so that it never reaches an alarming temperature. But the performance is still very good. In idle/low load mode the box hardly gets over 45°C. It can stand compiling large codebases (such as the LLVM one) without reaching the tripping temperature. I never experienced the plastic box being too hot for being touched or handled. It's safe.

I had previously a GB-BXBT-2807 for the same use (constantly on) and it lasted ~8 years. Actually my own website ran on this nettop from 2013 to 2021. I can't vouch for the durability of the GB-BMCE-4500C but considering it's the same manufacturer and same range of product I'd expect a comparable lifespan.

As for dissipation, the plastic box looks cleverly aerated so that the airflow goes naturally up and out by convection. There's a bit of metal in it that serves as heat pipes to improve dissipation over a larger surface. But I believe you could run it without the casing and provided it's properly oriented (e.g. not top down) you should be able to stay with normal temperatures.

I don't often advertise for hardware but I think the Gigabyte passive nettops are well worth it.


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## Phishfry (Oct 20, 2022)

gotnull said:


> the box itself makes me a bit skeptical,


I have a Gigabyte Brix in a metal chassis. It is OEM box for digital signage. Rugged chassis used.


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## nunotex (Oct 27, 2022)

Pierre-Marie Baty said:


> Hello
> 
> I'd advise you the BeagleBoard AI-64: https://beagleboard.org/ai-64 (I haven't personally tested FreeBSD on it though)
> 
> ...


Hi,

Is wifi card supported?

Never understanded why is so hard to find wifi chipsets in most of vendors:

LAN
Gigabit LAN (Realtek 8111HS)
Wifi Card
Dual Band Wireless-802.11 AC


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## Alain De Vos (Oct 27, 2022)

If the internal continous keeps failing put in a cheap USB-wifi-dongle.


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## freezr (Oct 27, 2022)

hardworkingnewbie said:


> Otherwise if you really want to use ARM: Odroid or the Banana Pi.



Odroid boards are barely supported by OpenBSD and NetBSD, I have two and none of those can run FreeBSD.


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## Phishfry (Oct 27, 2022)

Yea Odroid C1 was never supported.

I would be wary of the BeagleBone AI. It has different CPU than Black/Green/Blue.

RockPro64 Wifi/Bluetooth SD-IO module does not work.


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## nunotex (Oct 27, 2022)

Alain De Vos said:


> If the internal continous keeps failing put in a cheap USB-wifi-dongle.


Well the problem is that vendors change chipsets from revision to revision and others just don't mention what chipset used.
Luck.


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## diizzy (Oct 27, 2022)

There's zero support for Amlogic, Allwinner (H6 and older) and Rockchip (mainly RK3399) have best support available when it comes to "cheap" SBC.
There's *preliminary* support for Pine64 Quartz64 in -CURRENT but it's far from complete. Given your requirements your best bet would be RockPi4 or Pine64's RockPro64 however due to hardware limitations 4Gbyte RAM is max. They're doable buildboxes but it will take time(tm) and you have to be careful with ports that consumes a lot of memory such as llvm (flang) or GCC. Allwinner works well however they're limited to 3Gbyte or less despite having 4Gbyte in some cases. There is only official support for mainline u-boot , if you need to use forks etc you're on your own unless/til you're willing to submit upstream. Scan the ports tree for u-boot ports and you'll pretty much see what's supported.

For Rockchip you also have https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/RockChip

If you want beefier ARM64 hardware Ten64 and/or Solid-Run have some offerings that are quite well supported.


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## Pierre-Marie Baty (Oct 31, 2022)

nunotex said:


> Hi,
> 
> Is wifi card supported?
> 
> ...


TBH I usually ignore the wifi chip in this situation. Most of the time they come with cheap Azurewave cards or equivalent, and as you said it too vendors change chipsets ad libitum and sometimes just don't mention what they put in exactly.
What I usually do in these cases is I simply swap the stock one with a good compatible one (usually a Broadcom) that I get off eBay or similar auction sites. They're mini-PCIe cards that can be easily exchanged one with another. It solves the problem radically.


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