Alternative if you want to spend a lot more

[BarryK]

The Pandaboard is often mentioned as an alternative to the RP if you want more power, and are prepared to spend a lot more.

But, there is a new kid on the block, with 1.4GHz quad-core A9 CPU and Mali 400 GPU, 1GB RAM, at US$129, the ODROID-X. I have ordered one, see my blog announcement:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02901

I also ordered some extras:
WiFi module
USB-UART module
16GB eMMC module
5V/2A adaptor
Bluetooth module
HDMI cable

International shipping by EMS cost me US$40, so the all-up price was US$258, paid via PayPal (that is their only method of payment).

As I see it, the RP is targeting a different market, that is, education, hobby, cheap embedded device. The ODROID-X on the otherhand looks powerful enough to be a desktop PC replacement.

Regards,
Barry Kauler

[jbeale]

> 1.4GHz quad-core A9 CPU ... US$129

I'll grant you it's a new kid, but at that price, I'd suggest it's on a different block!

By contrast, at 23.96 EUR, the Olimex ARM926J-based board (454 MHz, ARMv5) https://www.olimex.com/dev/imx233-olinuxino-micro.html is less powerful than R-Pi, but it is still an interesting Linux system. It has one USB port, SD card socket, and lots of GPIO available. They claim to have both Farnell and RS Components as distributors, but this board is new and it seems not yet available in the distribution channel (sound familiar? :-)

[Joe Schmoe]

Barry, be sure to tell us all when you receive it. When do you expect that will be?

I have to admit that this sounds more like what I was expecting the Pi to be - and I don't mind paying the extra cash for it.

[BarryK]

Barry, be sure to tell us all when you receive it. When do you expect that will be?.

They say end of July, early August. Ha ha, remember what they said about the RasPi

But, you never know. They are an experienced company, they might have their act together.

I will report on it after it arrives, but on my blog, not here.

Regarding your expectation, yes the RasPi fills a very big niche area, but some people would be looking more toward something that has PC-like performance, and general desktop computing. For those people, spending more cash on the Pandaboard or ODROID-X might be the way to go. The ODROID-X has the Samsung 4412 quad-core A9 chip, and there will be another board with that chip becoming available soon also -- the ORIGEN 4412 board -- they haven't given a price yet:

http://www.origenboard.org/

Another thing to consider is that if you are putting your toe into the water for the first time with ARM boards, the RasPi might be a very good first choice because of the amount of hand-holding available -- good to get moving up the ARM learning curve.
And so many people are working on the RasPi, solving problems.

I am very much looking forward to getting my Puppy Linux running on the ODROID-X -- I would love to see just what difference 1.4GHZ quad-core Cortex-A9 CPUs makes!

[Joe Schmoe]

Since I won't be monitoring your "blog", you should report here as well (at least to give the link to your "blog")

[BarryK]

Since I won't be monitoring your "blog", you should report here as well (at least to give the link to your "blog")

OK, will do.

[jamesh]

Barry, be sure to tell us all when you receive it. When do you expect that will be?

I have to admit that this sounds more like what I was expecting the Pi to be - and I don't mind paying the extra cash for it.

Well, if the Foundation has produce something that cost that much money, it would be a sight better than this one! There is a reason the Pi is cheap.

[Joe Schmoe]

Barry, be sure to tell us all when you receive it. When do you expect that will be?

I have to admit that this sounds more like what I was expecting the Pi to be - and I don't mind paying the extra cash for it.

Well, if the Foundation has produce something that cost that much money, it would be a sight better than this one! There is a reason the Pi is cheap.

Interesting point. But I guess we'll never know.

Anyway, as always, the more the merrier.

[kjwenger]

i got my ODROID-X last wednesday and i love it. it is not quite a desktop replacement but from all he embedded devices i own (RP, BeagleBone, BeagleBoard, PandaBoard, Oval Elephant, MK802, ..) it is the most like one. i can even run the Eclipse IDE for development but for fluid development i use the lighter console applications. the available ubuntu works and runs stable itself although many of its bundled applications/tools tend to crash but at least they don't bring down the system. i have been running it at both HD resolutions 702p and 1080p but not all monitors of mine sync up to its 1080p mode. need to drill to the bottom of this yet. the libraries and tools are also still somewhat rough around the edges as for example svn runs into a known handshake issue so i work around it with svnkit/jsvn. libboost (1.46 and 1.48) have a locale issue i so far have not been able to work through. i hope for 1.50 to become available at some point w/ a fix. i like the separate power/reset/user switches but i really love to have a full blown USB hub with 6 connections.

i have also been running the provided Android HDMI and it works but i have to work out the sdcard issue. due to the sdcard issue preventing me from downloading any APKs and the lack of time i have not yet run a benchmark on it like PassMark. i expect it to beat all of the tablets i have. since i plan on using a low footprint linux distro like the already announced Puppy Linux on it, i'll only look into Android for kicks.

[Joe Schmoe]

Sounds cool.

The only problem is that it actually costs *more* than a perfectly good desktop, running XP (which can easily be had for $<100).

[rvalles]

The most promising from my pov is, at $49, the cubieboard.

Cortex-A8 1-1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, SATA2, two USB2 ports (not a hub), Ethernet (not USB, but MAC @ SoC). It just blows the pi away. It makes me wonder if the broadcom chip rpi uses wasn't the right choice after all, seeing what this very cheap Allwinner A10 SoC can do.

http://cubieboard.org/

[kjwenger]

all the single-core boards will do well with many compiled (C++, ...) applications ... even XMBC runs well on them. but i have to provide a solution that runs on iOS/Android/Win32/MacOS/Linux and that leaves a very, very small selection of frameworks running in WebKit. the ODROID so far has performed well in that direction and it doesn't buckle under large DOMs.

had not seen the CubieBoard but i'll get me one as soon as available. the HackBerry at 65 bucks also plays in that league.

[nicknml]

The most promising from my pov is, at $49, the cubieboard.

Cortex-A8 1-1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, SATA2, two USB2 ports (not a hub), Ethernet (not USB, but MAC @ SoC). It just blows the pi away. It makes me wonder if the broadcom chip rpi uses wasn't the right choice after all, seeing what this very cheap Allwinner A10 SoC can do.

http://cubieboard.org/

Looks awesome! I might actually get one once they provide more documentation about it. Does that "MMC slot" support SD/SDHC cards?

[Joe Schmoe]

The most promising from my pov is, at $49, the cubieboard.

Cortex-A8 1-1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, SATA2, two USB2 ports (not a hub), Ethernet (not USB, but MAC @ SoC). It just blows the pi away. It makes me wonder if the broadcom chip rpi uses wasn't the right choice after all, seeing what this very cheap Allwinner A10 SoC can do.

http://cubieboard.org/

The Cubieboard looks about the same as the Hackberry, to me (modulo a feature here and there - in either direction). The price different ($16) can be accounted for by the lack of a PSU; as I've said so many times now, having a known good power supply supplied with the board is worth a lot - easily worth $16.

And as for availability, the Hackberry looks to be available "any day now"; the Cubie is still in "whenever" status.

[RaTTuS]

I've got an 1GB MK802 allwinner thingy - cost me £40 with ICS on it...
and I have to say - I prefer the RPi though I've not used the MK802 in anger yet

[johnbeetem]

The most promising from my pov is, at $49, the cubieboard.

Cortex-A8 1-1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, SATA2, two USB2 ports (not a hub), Ethernet (not USB, but MAC @ SoC). It just blows the pi away. It makes me wonder if the broadcom chip rpi uses wasn't the right choice after all, seeing what this very cheap Allwinner A10 SoC can do.

http://cubieboard.org/

The Cubieboard looks about the same as the Hackberry, to me (modulo a feature here and there - in either direction). The price different ($16) can be accounted for by the lack of a PSU; as I've said so many times now, having a known good power supply supplied with the board is worth a lot - easily worth $16.

And as for availability, the Hackberry looks to be available "any day now"; the Cubie is still in "whenever" status.

Cubieboard 512MB prototypes (US$45) are shipping - see comments at http://cubieboard.org/contact/. I don't think the 1GB version (US$49) is shipping yet.

[rvalles]

The most promising from my pov is, at $49, the cubieboard.

Cortex-A8 1-1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, SATA2, two USB2 ports (not a hub), Ethernet (not USB, but MAC @ SoC). It just blows the pi away. It makes me wonder if the broadcom chip rpi uses wasn't the right choice after all, seeing what this very cheap Allwinner A10 SoC can do.

http://cubieboard.org/

The Cubieboard looks about the same as the Hackberry, to me (modulo a feature here and there - in either direction). The price different ($16) can be accounted for by the lack of a PSU; as I've said so many times now, having a known good power supply supplied with the board is worth a lot - easily worth $16.

And as for availability, the Hackberry looks to be available "any day now"; the Cubie is still in "whenever" status.

Didn't know the hackberry, found it at:
https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry A10 Developer Board

It looks to me it's yet another A10 board without SATA. For some reason, even though the A10 has a SATA controller built in, most boards fail to include a port.

The cubieboard picked my interest because it was the first board I found which included the SATA port.