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sthlmb

269 karma · joined December 6, 2022

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sthlmb··on Raspberry Pi Zero 3W and Pi 4 Model A spotted in device trees
Your best option is to look into Armbian (https://armbian.com/) for these, they do the Lord's work when it comes to making sure these alternatives aren't destined to be ewaste when vendors abandon them. I'd say Radxa are probably in 2nd place after Raspberry Pi when it comes to support, but Armbian still makes that a lot better.
sthlmb··on Raspberry Pi Zero 3W and Pi 4 Model A spotted in device trees
Later I noticed other sources posted earlier, though Phoronix is the first link I saw on the subject. Regardless, it wasn’t a straight copy paste, there was an attempt to add detail beyond “it was seen, not much info yet”
sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
If I stripped my old laptop down to a single PCB, it certainly wouldn't boot, it would be missing RAM, and storage. My PCs would have no RAM, no CPU, no storage, potentially no GPU, and most of the servers would be the same. The IPMI/iDRAC etc would boot up I guess if we count that, and we'd potentially get into the BIOS if a device has soldered RAM, but M.2/SATA attached storage or something?

We could debate about strict definitions all day, but I think the vast majority of people differentiate between a Raspberry Pi 5 (not a great example given it needs storage, pick anything with eMMC if you truly want everything on a single board) running a full Debian-based OS, and a Pico running MicroPython (or whatever your poison of choice is) and one task at a time, at least I do when it comes to this kind of thing!

sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
Hmm, I'm not sure if I'm missing something but that 1st comment is what I'm doing. I have 3 different sized Deepseek R1 models (1.5, 8, 16) and they run on each board that can handle them and then the data is reported.

For the 2nd, the file I grabbed initially was https://github.com/geerlingguy/ai-benchmarks/blob/main/obenc... - which I now notice wasn't modified in his repository, so I can check that out, but either way, the same version has been tested across everything thus far.

sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
The balancing of wanting to draw attention to sbc.compare and allow the post to stand on its own feet has failed it seems :D No worries, the feedback is good and I'll see if I get time to go back and add a summary for this, otherwise, I'll definitely take it on board for the next one(s).
sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
Yup, seconded! Libre Computer do a great job on this front
sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
Thanks! See my reply below to the other user on this, I think the links to sbc.compare in the article have a lot of the data that you're looking for. I didn't really want to duplicate all of the data I have on the other site, I was more giving a quick recap, with links to the mass of data if people wanted to go that far. Some you mentioned like the dimensions are in the database, but I've not yet exposed them to the frontend.. Ever growing to-do list of life!
sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
For that I'd really point you towards the links in the article, as that was really what it was supposed to do :D As I mentioned to another person in the comments, this was literally supposed to be a recap of the boards I tested, with links to in-depth benchmark results for each of the boards, with the ability to then filter and compare against around 100 other SBCs that I own and have tested in a controlled manner. Software support is a very tricky one though, sadly. I have a few ideas for little things like being able to search for Armbian support, but others would need a long hard think!
sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
What kind of summary are you realistically looking for/expecting in an article like this? (Genuine question, no sass!)
sthlmb··on Every single board computer I tested in 2025
Hey! Author of the post someone linked here. Fair comment, though this wasn't really meant to be a review, or "go buy this!" type of post, it was more to highlight what I tested from the boards released in 2025 and share the results to those benchmarks via sbc.compare

Armbian do a great job of handling support for a whole host of boards (including most I included in this list), so you'll usually have Debian/Ubuntu-based flavours. Vendor kernels and vendor supplied images will be hit and miss. Mainline Linux support is a flag you filter by on the benchmark comparison site linked in the article, but it's a difficult one to keep up to date and define exactly. It could have some kind of support, but miss out on display functionality, or WiFi yada yada. What would we then class as having mainline support? All hardware etc functioning? If so, very, very few will meet that definition.

I get the desire for the information, and perhaps I should have envisioned these types of questions, but all I initially meant for the post to be was a recap for people following me to see which boards I'd tested that were released last year :D

sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Under the Test Environment collapsible I have the OS version and kernels tested at least, but I could definitely look at adding something extra to help make things more obvious on that front
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
About 65 boards in I realised there was a slight error with how the idle power consumption was being recorded, so I had to scrap all of that data :( The last 15 or so do have this, but I made the decision to backfill that data as and when I need to check something on those boards, or just on the next round (I plan to update every X months or so, assuming there are worthwhile updates)
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Realistically, I don't think any of the tests I have would run on something like that, I'd need to look at different types of tests, and then they wouldn't really be comparable with the rest. Though, I don't think most people would really be thinking "Hmm should I get a Luckfox Pico Mini A, or a Raspberry Pi" but the feedback surrounding these smaller boards has been interesting, so never say never, but I don't think it's within the scope I had in mind just yet.
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I'm discussing some other bits with Banana Pi so maybe I can ask about that, I'd need to look into the device to see how viable it is, let's see! I can definitely add the "How did you get this board" disclaimer there somewhere

I don't know if I'd release everything as is, there's a lot of hard coded nonsense that I'd need to filter out and after testing 80 boards, I have a bunch of improvements I want to make. Opening up the test scripts to others isn't/wasn't a high priority item, as I didn't even plan on making this site initially :D

Room temperature data is also nice, but I'll need to draw a line somewhere, on average these tests take around 3-4 hours to run, and with 80 boards right now, best case scenario is 10 straight days of testing (in reality, more with setup and.. life). I could use data on the most popular boards and only do a handful, but I probably have to limit the scope at this point and clearly state the testing conditions and how it may differ in your real world setup.

I can definitely do more to expand on the testing process though, and I can look at sharing the exact commands that are run with my automation so that users can at least mimic the benchmark runs if not the full automation. I really appreciate the responses and feedback, though, so thank you!

sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
It's a little bigger than what I imagine you're looking for, but the Radxa 5 ITX (not the ITX+) has 4 SATA ports, PoE+ (via a separate module), 2x2.5GbE, and the RK3588 SoC - I've been testing OpenMediaVault on it for the last couple of weeks and it's been pretty solid. If you're fine with M.2, the Radxa ROCK 5B+ has 2 M.2 M-Key connectors, the same RK3588 SoC, and PoE via a HAT bought separately.

Otherwise, there are dual NVMe HATs for the Raspberry Pi 5 but you'll be splitting a single PCIe Gen 2 lane across both drives (unless you go for the much more expensive HATs that have a Gen 3 PCIe switch on them to then share a single Gen 3 lane across them!)

sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
No no, it's OK, I think I was a bit frazzled last night so I was likely a bit short heh, sorry!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
If you could share a little more on what you actually mean, that would help a ton. I’m not a developer, I put this together as I went, learning along the way. It’s not perfect, and I’m aware of some issues, but if you’d be so kind to expand on “pretty terrible” then maybe I can see if it’s already known, or something I should add to the list.
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Hmm, the search by SoC should work already, but there have been a few regressions with the search functionality that I need to fix it seems. Notes on the other bits too, it’ll take a couple of weeks I imagine but we’ll get there!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Good point! Added to my to-do list :)
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Raspberry Pi products can be found in a lot of industrial/professional setups, especially things like their compute module range(s) that can be dropped into off-the-shelf, or custom carrier boards. Others can be a bit more hit and miss, though Libre Computer are up there with great software support, and will have their own compute modules available soon.
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I hear you! Like I mention to others in the thread, this functionality is already there, I just need to finish populating all of the data. To get over a mental block I had to decide whether I'd continue trying to add each feature before an initial launch (and be there forever) or give myself a shot of motivation by getting an initial performance comparison feature set out there and iterate as I go along.

As soon as I have all of that data in there (I think I'm at around 30-40% so far, the initial batch of testing has been a slog, data entry for this took a back seat) I'll be enabling that option and it will all be there to view on comparison pages, and search for to help find/compare on a deeper level.

sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I do have a ko-fi available in the footer of the website, and if someone wants their donation to go towards a specific piece of hardware then I'll most certainly do what I can to honour that, or return it if I can't.

On the samples from vendors front, yeah, that's definitely a concern, though in the years I've been working with manufacturers and had samples from them, I'm fairly confident that no "golden sample" binning is going on as I've had quite a few shockers, hah! Not to say that it couldn't/wouldn't happen, I wouldn't want to introduce that doubt. Perhaps, like my review website, I should add a quick note/indicator of whether a board was obtained directly from a vendor, or if it was purchased.

sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
And until you decide to execute on that plan, I'll enjoy this little bit of attention :D Thanks again for the support!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I do accept them from vendors directly (and it has no bearing on how I run the tests) but I've not taken any from individuals before. I'm not quite sure how I'd do that logistically, but if there's something interesting then I'm open to discussing it!

I'm currently in talks with a few of the vendors to start filling the database with missing boards from their ranges so we should have more data available in the coming weeks. There should be 2 BeagleBoard (Eco Green and PocketBeagle 2) arriving tomorrow/Tuesday to expand their range on the site!

sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I have full specification capability hiding in the background and once I've filled out all of the data, you'll be able to do just this!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I've noticed a couple of issues with the search and filtering this evening, I'll have to look at it tomorrow. In the meantime, https://sbc.compare/arm (there's also /risc-v and /x86) may help a little here!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
I guess I'll reply here and cover both of the comments :D There are currently 80 SBCs in the database, and they're all boards that I've obtained over the last few years. It's a side project/hobby and buying many more boards would be a very expensive affair :( New boards will be a mixture of those that interest me, and those that vendors (very kindly) send to be included on the website. Sadly, as much as I'd love to, I can't do a Pokémon and catch them all, so there will be some missing!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Check out Libre Computer if you haven't already!
sthlmb··on Compare Single Board Computers
Hey! So I was quite surprised to see my site posted on here so soon after hitting the "go live" button, and thanks for your comment.

I wrote a blog post about why I made the site at https://bret.dk/introducing-sbc-compare/ if anyone's interested, but to TL;DR it, I didn't set out to create a site like this, it was a side quest after creating the automation and database to support my reviews, which do indeed focus on the hobbyist trying to explore Raspberry Pi SBCs and their many alternatives.

I have full specifications and hardware capabilities hidden behind a feature flag at the moment as I'm working my way through adding all of that data (currently at 80 SBCs in the database, and I'm only adding those I own and have run tests on) so there should be something similar to what you're asking for soon. Thanks again!

sthlmb··on Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again
It's missing the connector and power components on the PCB so you may be able to solder them all on yourself if you have the parts but it's going to be a pain in the ass :D
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