Thank you for your outstanding video on RockPi 64. I appreciate your informative videos on the topic for causal enthusiasts of SBC that minimize the jargon and the detail, but contain significant and very good information on their capabilities. Please continue the excellent work you do on this channel and I am looking forward to next Sunday morning to see what topic you will cover.
It’s no wonder that you have over 400,000 subscribers! Your presentation and video skills just keep getting better! Always look forward to Sunday morning. Thanks, Chris.
I am very grateful for everything tech/PC related videos you make. It allows someone like me who is not up-to-date on the advancement of technology and I'm amazed of the new gadgets and devices that frequently come out unaware of their releases. The method of how you explain stuff is very soothing and having a pleasant voice to listen to. I wish I've found your channel sooner. But nonetheless, thank you for all your work.
Reminds me of the scene in the Naked Gun, where OJ keeps adding accessories to his hand gun until it's a carriage mounted anti-tank canon. th-cam.com/video/lRC1y1xhIkI/w-d-xo.html
Clicked on this video because i wanted to know what the difference between a Rock Pi 4 A and a Rock Pi 4 B was. 90 seconds in, and i now know it. Efficient. Nice work sir.
I've watched a good number of your videos over the last two or three days and have to let you know I just love what you do. You have a 90s educational feel to your videos and I mean that in the most positive way. You're informative, precise and simply a joy to watch and listen to. Keep up the excellent work sir! Oh,and hello to Stanley the knife! 😁
This video needs a huge side note as it's a bit misleading when it comes to software and the OS. Rock Pi boards have almost non existent software related support and a lot of the drivers only work partially or none at all. Debian that was briefly showed in the video functions very poorly on this board and has tons of problems. Including video playback from a browser which should have been shown as it's worse than Raspberry Pi by a mile. These cheap Chinese boards are made to impress and to sell quick, but will very unlikely ever have any community support or dev support to provide all the necessary drivers unlike other boards like RPI,Tinkerboard and Odroid. Having owned several of these (did you know there's over 150 SBCs out there now?) - I'd say don't choose these boards by bells and whistles especially if those bells and whistles don't work well. Choose it based on what you need. Do you need USB3.0? Odroid XU4 has one+support and drivers+great speed or wait for RPI 4 Do you need emmc? Odroid has one as well Do you need better networking? Tinkerboard Do you need something smaller? RPI 3A+ Do you need M.2? Really though? Ok then get this board I guess, but why? :D tl;dr don't buy cheap Chinese knock offs, go for quality of software and community support first. Even Tinkerboard has better support than Rock boards
M.2 on these things operates at PCI-E 2.1 (2x). It is a complete waste of money to put an NVME drive on this thing. That is equal to PCI-E 3.0 1x. So your NVME drive is capped at 985 MB/s. But this thing probably never even hits that reading rate anyway. And NVME drives are meant to be operating at much faster speeds. You are still much better off just reusing a SATA SSD (via USB 3.0 at 5Gb/s) if you care about your money.
@@bobbyboygaming2157 What you're saying is is that the nvme drive would be capped at 985 Megabytes per second or 7880 Megabits or around 7.5 Gigabits per second (rounding down to make it a more even number) . Then you go on to say that using a drive over sata through USB 3.0 capped at 5 Gigabits per second or 5000 megabits per second or 625 Megabytes per second would be better... Seems logical. 5 gigabytes a second > ~7.5 gigabytes per second. I'm going to go ahead and include the link to show what the original comment was just in case he changes it. photos.app.goo.gl/ge3xDwH17wtu3d1a9
@@neb_setabed Yes, I am saying that SATA 3 is fast enough for this device. And that it is not worth spending money on a bottlenecked device. You have to take into account that those are only theoretical values anyway. Here, I will break it down for you. So, yes 7.5 Gb/s is greater than 5 Gb/s, BUT first of all, you don't even know if the rock pi can even hit that (severely bottlenecked) reading speed of 7.5Gb/s (because it has such a weak processor). BUT if it did, then a difference of 2.5 Gb/s is probably not gonna "blow your socks off", since you won't be doing any crazy computing on your SBC. Assuming you already have an old SATA SSD drive you are much better off repurposing that one for your SBC and upgrading your main Desktop to an NVME so that it operates at full PCI-E 3 (or 4) 4x bandwidth. However, at the end of the day. You can do whatever you want with your money. There are videos on TH-cam of people putting SATA SSDs into Playstation 2s and saying that it's faster, when in fact it is not since the interface is bottlenecked.
A SBC power house! I’m happy to see your back again reviewing new and exciting products. I’m impressed with this new SBC’s power and storage features. That said it’s not the best looking system when it’s parts are all installed. The type of electronices that’s best suited to be enclosed in a black box with a few RGB flashing! Great video as always Chris. Until next time ...
Hey Christopher, Just spoke to the owner of AllNet and he said to anticipate another review on the RockPi 4. They have a new M.2 card that puts the full size heat sink in-between the RockPi and M.2 card. It looks great. Heard theyre going to have a selection of cases to boot. I ordered my RockPi on monday and should get monday. Im glad I waited to buy my M.2 car so I can buy the new one. Anyways, Im looking forward to the next review. This SBC is a great board so far as I can tell. They have great customer support and are really there for there customers. Great People!!
The next review posts here on Sunday (14 April), and indeed includes the new M.2 Extender -- which is really nice -- as well as NVMe performance tests, temperature tests with different cooling setups, a 4K test in Android, and various other things! I've had a good Rock Pi 4 week. :)
I'm really loving this kit, I got the full M.2 kit and everything, the little plastic latch that grabs onto the tiny PCIE cable is super fragile, already broke it. Otherwise I'm very happy that I got Android Pie running with full DRM and Google Play Movies working, very happy.
I know it has been said but I want to see it myself thank you for all you do for us and showed us all kinds of boards and things I really appreciate it personally
I love you you are not fake and not careless as 99.99% of youtubers and you own your own opinions and sold to companies, but the sad true story, this way will never increase the views nor the subscribers I salute you for huge amount of honesty and clear view of the item
nice bit of kit that one, just one thing to note with Kernel 5.0 out in the wild ( rolling release distro's ), now is a good time for anyone to get into SBC;s RockChip especially, see here, Linux archrock 5.0.2-1-ARCH #1 SMP Thu Mar 14 18:18:57 MDT 2019 aarch64 GNU/Linux Machine model: Pine64 Rock64 5.0 brought in alot of missing parts like, dw_hdmi 45056 2 dw_hdmi_i2s_audio,rockchipdrm drm_kms_helper 204800 4 dw_mipi_dsi,rockchipdrm,dw_hdmi,analogix_dp drm 507904 6 drm_kms_helper,dw_mipi_dsi,rockchipdrm,dw_hdmi,analogix_dp So I would imagine thats all your missing parts for HDMI audio and yes there is, snd_soc_hdmi_codec I would also think the RK3399 uses similar internals for hdmi/codecs etc etc as the Rock64 so kernel 5 would be a good choice to go with. The RockChip drm/dri kernel module is apparently almost ready to work with the Panfrost/Midgard Mesa module ( now mainlined ) for hardware accel for these mali gpu's.
It's an old Saxon word. You lot should have picked that one up when the Normans invaded in 1066. But you kept using Norman French. Which is why we still have, in the English Language. "pork" French, and "swine" saxon "veal" French, "calf" saxon "Mutton" French, "sheep" saxon. And many more....!
Great SBC. Few tweaks here and there like boot from NVMe, Linux of course, and here we have capable small computer. Future is in ARM CPUs technology as in the virtualization as well, on great scale. Great work Chris. Enjoyable on all scales. Thank you.
RavenPrecept Yes, it is more powerful. It uses different kind of instruction set and the way it uses it. More power = power consumption as such. It is cisc. On the other hand arm as a risc uses less power as result of different handling of reduced instructions set. Cisc can handle different OSes. The best of cisc one can have is using VMs. Arm development is getting momentum because of more powerful CPUs and pipe-lining. VMs are the best solution for people who uses multiple OSes/lots of programs and applications and do a lot on their machines. Or maybe they just like to experiment and to learn. What is interesting is to see future development of cisc/risc technology. After all, we need functional/powerful/versatile machines with less power consumption and as much mobility possible. We'll see.
Raspberry Pi has more support. i see they had Ubuntu Server and i'd like to run snap RAID and Merger FS and Plex, Emby and kodi. some of this is explained in the Linux Unplugged podcast episode 277 minute 20
Elvira Elora Milosic FYI, the Samsung 950 PRO NVMe option ROM also emulates an IDE interface during boot for old school BIOSes. Subsequent models lack this feature (wth?) so the 950 PRO commands a premium over them.
I must admit, emmc is a storage standard that's gotten by me. I've heard about it from the electronics youtubers but didn't realize what it is. Seeing it here, it seems like a good option, though it's slower than ssd. But looking at the board after it's installed, you might think it's soldered on to it (is that an advantage? ). The M.2 mounting solution is very cool. That alone makes me want this kit (like you said... Their attention to detail is very good ). Thanks for another great video Chris!
I have the 'old' Radxa rock, running Ubuntu and nodeJS, nice to see they have beefed up this SBC to this new model, this is great, thanks Chris for showing.
it is amazing as I have followed you for these past few years the evolution of these tiny devices as they become more powerful and useful , an enlightening program, thank you! , the future is NOW
Thanks for watching for so long -- the future is indeed arriving! The video I'm posting here on Feb 23rd is the first made entirely on an SBC (a Pi 4). :)
Raspberry Pi really must include M.2 slot asap, SD card has soo many limitations, and hacking it to boot off USB is really painfull and still won't enable full potential of SSDs.
Yet again another great video. A very neat SBC. Packed with cool features. Sadly the version of Android looked kind of out of date. But it is only a new SBC so give it time and I am sure it will come into line with the other Android OS.
I have recently purchased one of these amazing SBCs and am running it of the eMMC chip, Debian from the Radxa download site, and it positively *SCREAMS* - it is as fast as, or faster than my Lenovo Yoga 920. Unbelievable performance from this tiny little thing, and the video is smooth and no jumping. No assembly instructions came with it, so it was rather like trying to put a Leggo puzzle together. There *are* a few tricks and traps, btw. Your video was actually quite helpful. I got the PoE hat and the NVME SSD (they supplied an Acer, not a WD) and the RTC battery.
Tracert is *traceroute* and is not in the system when you download it - you have to download the application plus 3 dependencies, and manually install....surprise, surprise....
Very promising board. The indies making these boards need to form a board where they can collaborate on a specification (if they aren't already) and get an architecture set incorporating what we've witnessed across numerous product lines (PCIE, NVME; etc.) into a cohesive package so that next steps may occur. There's enough to constitute an entry level ARM PC MoBo considering my previous points and a market --they (all the sbc developers/manufacturers) really should think about picking up their heels. Linus Torvalds will agree. and anyone else looking to get into developing for the ARM architecture. Good video!
Nice board, Christopher! I just looked-up the specs for the rock chip rk3399 on Wikipedia: It has two ARM Cortex A72 cores and four ARM Cortex A53 cores. Unfortunately, the A72 allows for speculative (i.e., out-of-order) execution, so unlike the Raspberry Pi 3, it's not immune to Meltdown and Spectre. I shall get myself a RP3 for extra security for tasks such as online banking. Thank you very much for another splendid video!
It's a shame that this shop moved out of the city, I loved to just walk in and take some network cable out if I needed one or WLAN card. These are very polite guys at allnet.
When you were adding the various parts, it started to remind me of a Meccano project. I particularly look forward to the unboxing parts so I can hear "Come out, you swine!"
Great video again, I really like to see these new boards, i had noticed this board as it came out, impressive little computer, good value, I like how you can get an m.2 on it and the ddr4, it's a step up from the nanopi m4, but has the same software issues. Would be nice to have a board based on a current generation phone, a good Snapdragon chip or exynos chip a make a new xu4, something to rival a low end pc arm in a very small form factor, maybe like the Nvidia shield hardware but with just a little more whoomph.
Isn't old IDE cable would be good as GPIO extender? I also wonder if you can build the sandwich upside down so NVME board at the bottom and SMB on top but definitely with the standard heat sink not the massive one
This is really a nice SBC with all the great hardware specifications. This does have a lot of problems but this is what I would hope the Raspberry Pi 4 to fix.
@@perrymcclusky4695 I am pretty sure they can already do that, but the main "problem" is their main purpose of being a cheap ~$35 SBC, emphasizing on the educational side of using it.
Hey! long time watcher, first time comment!, myself I'm in Canada, SBC enthusiast I have a Raspberry Pi 0/w Pi3 and 3b, also a Odroid XU4, and by your review I bought a RockPi4b 4gig,.... man.. what a little fast fantastic system, Just running Libreelec 9.0 on it, loaded up with Netflix addon Amazon Prime addon for Kodi... RUNS GREAT soooo much faster than a Pi!
@@emperorciarabevis2068 these other boards are okay, but really nothing works as well as a raspberry pi. A bit more powerful than a pi, an xu4, good development, not as much as the pi, but a good alternative, my theory is these rk3399 socks and boards wont come to much, I had a nanopi m4, it's based off a set top box, there are not millions millions of them, it doesn't have the background development of a good phone, like exynos chip in the xu4 the Samsung galaxy S5. So the raspberry pi or the xu4, avoid the rk3399 it's experimental. I did have issues with my xu4, the usbs powering on and off, but that could just be my xu4, I did have the very best power supply it didn't make any difference.
William Rutter - This RockPi like any other SBC in a nutshell are development boards. The more people buy them, write software and build HATs for it. The more you extend the RockPi functionality. One should stay from such “experimental” boards if you want to develop for it. The Raspberry Pi platform for sure is more mature since there’s already a huge community around it.
@@iMadrid11 I hope the board does well, I had fun fiddling with my nanopi m4, great to get some things to work, it did give me a buzz, it's early days though most people would struggle with these rk3399 boards, where as a raspberry pi is just a good little computer.
I bought one on the strength of this vid, three things to note/I wish you'd mentioned for noobies tho. 1) the ribbon cable IS handed/can only go one way up, logically, but I had a moment where I could have missed that, 2) and the eMMC has a tiny barely visible notch in one corner, not sure if it could go the other way round, and 3) I broke my board by plugging/unplugging the power cable at the board end, the USB-C connector broke away from my board. Be warned, use a switched power strip! Second Rock Pi on its way from AllNet, woo hooo!
Thanks for this feedback, and sorry that you have had problems. You are of course right on the ribbon cable. The eMMC can only insert one way around, as the two connectors on it are slightly different lengths. I've never broken a connector off an SBC, but constantly worry about it as I plug and unplug them a lot. I've been working on a new Rock Pi 4B video over the past few days, and have been unplugging very carefully now! :)
It is incredible to me just how fast integration is occuring on these SBC’s. Not so long ago they were, at best, only able to manage embedded applications. Now they truely are full blow computers.
Not so long ago we had 8086 computer, no internet, no mobile phones, so it's faster compared to other areas of development but its own pace is sort of constant mostly, if not getting slower as we get closer to limits!
@@ExplainingComputers I appreciate the hours you put in to making the videos, I just thought to mention in case something happened in post. as a headphones user it hurt my little eardrums a bit on the upper end. I replied on the go and looking back it was a bit blunt, heh COMPRESS.
Very well specced but it starts to creep up in price with all the add ons. I cant see too many ways to use it that makes it an essential purchase. Perhaps if it gets a massive boost from software devs it might catch on. Very informative video which will probably boost sales of the board
Hi Chris. Slowly but certainly I am getting my laptop back to where it was. Interesting little board and I'm only about 6 minutes in. One thing I would like to suggest is that when you point out something, especially on a super zoomed-in shot, you might want to point out the features with a smaller device than your finger, say a pencil, a straightened paperclip or a small screwdriver. As a passing thought, you might want to list a price "as-it-stands" with all of the options plugged as it sits. A nice little review of a nice little computer. Cheers.
Sir Chris, Humble appreciation once again for a fantastic video. I have been busy since Mid October. Moved 160KM from Atlanta GA/USA. Finally catching up on your videos.! Your SBC videos always have my full attention. Hopefully within a week I can sit down with the 2/ Raspberry Pi 3 B+ I purchased last year. I will run home soecurity off one and Smart home off the other. would you consider a video series, SBC security, also setting up Sensors for doors, windows, motion as well as connecting to garage door opener, then managing it from SBC? (There are a few videos that touch on that "some what". However, your style of presentation and setting things up are far better than any other person could imagine to attempt to match for sure. Purchasing the sensor cards and loading firmware you need is very affordable and much cheaper than buying a finished product for each window/door/etc. I have 3 routers now. 1 for family use with computers, Ipad, Smart phones, etc. 2 routers for smart devices and security devices/wifi. One router paired into other.. That should cover inside house and full yard outside. (1 acre lot ). The last to add is fence and smart gate. That should keep me busy for the summer time! Yes, I will be purchasing the Rock4Pi, probably early 2020. Hope all is well! Have a blessed weekend! Alton
Wow, they have been packing a whole lot in these Pi alternatives... pitty the OS/software support isn't quite there yet, but man, possibilities are opening for devboards.
I done a quick AUD pricing and the kit along with the accessories (shown in this program) amounts to roughly $133.38 + $13.33 (10% gst) = $147.71 AUD total (subject to changing variables in currency rates) (Goods sourced from Allnet China). Looking forward to building one to try out one of these days.
The "heat sink as the base" seems like a bad idea for heat dissipation. I think I'd prefer running it upside down (heat sink up in the air), maybe with a plate added over (or in my hypothetical case, under) the SSD extender and the screws for the extender swapped for some longer ones to get both attached at together.
you won't find such a thing, the best choice for the thinnest design is to desolder all of the connectors to get it as thin as possible, then run wires to the sides of the case for USB ports and hdmi and usb c and other things like that
Hello Sir, thank you very much for the explanation, I am encouraged to get one now. I really enjoy your videos, you explain everything in a clear way and very detailed as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I may have OCD with this one: First, the Nvme extension board is a bit long to match the motherboard length and make a nice sleek stack easy to fit everywhere. Secondly, the GPIO is kind of blocked by this Nvme hat (not a big issue: a ribbon will do the job done) and putting the hat underneath also poses some issues. Finally, the enhanced heatsink is anodized/coated on its contact surfaces... Not the best choice for heat spreading, Imho. But it's a really interesting one by the way. More interesting than some competitors on the same price range and more suitable for one of my projects. Decisions... Decisions... Thanks for the review!
Question: can you install the OS on a NVME and boot from it? (It must certainly be possible to put the bootloader on the Micro-SD card (or eMMC) and run the rest of the OS (bin, etc, home, usr, var, ...) from the M2.)
eMMC is 5.1, The emmc die comes from Micron and Samsung. The eMMC is from Forsee. Here a link to a speed comparison: gist.github.com/hipboi/4751181c26670af1a53096795a13f93d . ROCK PI 4 can play 10bit h.265 video on Android.
Great, it's a long video. I'm enjoying this. :) I've already shared your video on the Rock Pi forum. I can't wait to see the end to know what you think about it. But I want to see the rest too of course. I made a video yesterday about retro pc games on the raspbery with an image from a friend with all opengl, mali and wine drivers. Incredible what great games the Raspberry can play. Greetings, NicoD.
Great video Christopher. Good conclusion. A beginner can do a lot with it. But it could be fustrating too if you don't know what you're doing. I'm helping to make the software better. It isn't on the level of the NanoPi M4 now, but it's close and it should be there very soon be. The community also grows quickly, so it will become a better board fo begnners too when software is better. But for the short tme it's out, I'm quite impressed by heir work. I now also have the big heatsink and M.2 hat. I ordered it last week Sunday after talking to you. I'm happy with it, except the fact I can't reach the eMMC without removing the heatsink. But you can also install new software on a eMMC with an sd-card. I can't wait to see ythe next video. I bet it wil sell a lot more now. Greetings, have a nice day.
Is this a arm Cpu? Unfortunately you didn't do any Speedtest on the mvme and some temp comparison would also have been nice. But there are a lot of nice stuff in this video too. How much does the final setup cost?
Thank you for your outstanding video on RockPi 64. I appreciate your informative videos on the topic for causal enthusiasts of SBC that minimize the jargon and the detail, but contain significant and very good information on their capabilities. Please continue the excellent work you do on this channel and I am looking forward to next Sunday morning to see what topic you will cover.
It’s no wonder that you have over 400,000 subscribers! Your presentation and video skills just keep getting better! Always look forward to Sunday morning. Thanks, Chris.
Man.. I could watch SBC videos for hours! The unique variances of each model are really intriguing.
I am very grateful for everything tech/PC related videos you make.
It allows someone like me who is not up-to-date on the advancement of technology
and I'm amazed of the new gadgets and devices that frequently come out unaware of their releases.
The method of how you explain stuff is very soothing and having a pleasant voice to listen to.
I wish I've found your channel sooner. But nonetheless, thank you for all your work.
Starts out as a single board computer, expanded out to an IBM 360 (waiting for the switchbank front, light register status and the liquid cooling)
Thank you provide information.
Was thinking same. Plus how many would fit in a PC case in some sort of raid setup or just as a storage heater. Where's my patent application form?
@@DavoidJohnson If I remember correctly, Christopher's PC case is so big that it can fit quite large cluster of these devices inside :)
Reminds me of the scene in the Naked Gun, where OJ keeps adding accessories to his hand gun until it's a carriage mounted anti-tank canon. th-cam.com/video/lRC1y1xhIkI/w-d-xo.html
taznz1 I’ve never seen that movie. That clip made me laugh.
Clicked on this video because i wanted to know what the difference between a Rock Pi 4 A and a Rock Pi 4 B was. 90 seconds in, and i now know it. Efficient. Nice work sir.
I've watched a good number of your videos over the last two or three days and have to let you know I just love what you do. You have a 90s educational feel to your videos and I mean that in the most positive way. You're informative, precise and simply a joy to watch and listen to. Keep up the excellent work sir! Oh,and hello to Stanley the knife! 😁
Thanks for watching. :) Stanley says "Hi".
This video needs a huge side note as it's a bit misleading when it comes to software and the OS. Rock Pi boards have almost non existent software related support and a lot of the drivers only work partially or none at all. Debian that was briefly showed in the video functions very poorly on this board and has tons of problems. Including video playback from a browser which should have been shown as it's worse than Raspberry Pi by a mile.
These cheap Chinese boards are made to impress and to sell quick, but will very unlikely ever have any community support or dev support to provide all the necessary drivers unlike other boards like RPI,Tinkerboard and Odroid.
Having owned several of these (did you know there's over 150 SBCs out there now?) - I'd say don't choose these boards by bells and whistles especially if those bells and whistles don't work well.
Choose it based on what you need. Do you need USB3.0? Odroid XU4 has one+support and drivers+great speed or wait for RPI 4
Do you need emmc? Odroid has one as well
Do you need better networking? Tinkerboard
Do you need something smaller? RPI 3A+
Do you need M.2? Really though? Ok then get this board I guess, but why? :D
tl;dr don't buy cheap Chinese knock offs, go for quality of software and community support first. Even Tinkerboard has better support than Rock boards
I make a statement re software support at the end. And it is improving.
M.2 on these things operates at PCI-E 2.1 (2x). It is a complete waste of money to put an NVME drive on this thing. That is equal to PCI-E 3.0 1x. So your NVME drive is capped at 985 MB/s. But this thing probably never even hits that reading rate anyway. And NVME drives are meant to be operating at much faster speeds. You are still much better off just reusing a SATA SSD (via USB 3.0 at 5Gb/s) if you care about your money.
@@bobbyboygaming2157 What you're saying is is that the nvme drive would be capped at 985 Megabytes per second or 7880 Megabits or around 7.5 Gigabits per second (rounding down to make it a more even number) . Then you go on to say that using a drive over sata through USB 3.0 capped at 5 Gigabits per second or 5000 megabits per second or 625 Megabytes per second would be better... Seems logical.
5 gigabytes a second > ~7.5 gigabytes per second.
I'm going to go ahead and include the link to show what the original comment was just in case he changes it.
photos.app.goo.gl/ge3xDwH17wtu3d1a9
@@neb_setabed Yes, I am saying that SATA 3 is fast enough for this device. And that it is not worth spending money on a bottlenecked device. You have to take into account that those are only theoretical values anyway.
Here, I will break it down for you. So, yes 7.5 Gb/s is greater than 5 Gb/s, BUT first of all, you don't even know if the rock pi can even hit that (severely bottlenecked) reading speed of 7.5Gb/s (because it has such a weak processor). BUT if it did, then a difference of 2.5 Gb/s is probably not gonna "blow your socks off", since you won't be doing any crazy computing on your SBC. Assuming you already have an old SATA SSD drive you are much better off repurposing that one for your SBC and upgrading your main Desktop to an NVME so that it operates at full PCI-E 3 (or 4) 4x bandwidth.
However, at the end of the day. You can do whatever you want with your money. There are videos on TH-cam of people putting SATA SSDs into Playstation 2s and saying that it's faster, when in fact it is not since the interface is bottlenecked.
Hello wonderful person.
If not for this channel I wouldn't be able to keep up with wth is going on in tech. Thanks!
he is GOOD :)
Surprised how this channel doesn't have more subscribers. Great video once again
This seems like it would make a nice weekend project, thank you for bringing it to our attention.
A SBC power house! I’m happy to see your back again reviewing new and exciting products. I’m impressed with this new SBC’s power and storage features. That said it’s not the best looking system when it’s parts are all installed. The type of electronices that’s best suited to be enclosed in a black box with a few RGB flashing!
Great video as always Chris. Until next time ...
Love everything about this channel... need my self one of these mini board computers talked in here.
Hey Christopher,
Just spoke to the owner of AllNet and he said to anticipate another review on the RockPi 4. They have a new M.2 card that puts the full size heat sink in-between the RockPi and M.2 card. It looks great. Heard theyre going to have a selection of cases to boot. I ordered my RockPi on monday and should get monday. Im glad I waited to buy my M.2 car so I can buy the new one.
Anyways, Im looking forward to the next review. This SBC is a great board so far as I can tell. They have great customer support and are really there for there customers. Great People!!
The next review posts here on Sunday (14 April), and indeed includes the new M.2 Extender -- which is really nice -- as well as NVMe performance tests, temperature tests with different cooling setups, a 4K test in Android, and various other things! I've had a good Rock Pi 4 week. :)
I'm really loving this kit, I got the full M.2 kit and everything, the little plastic latch that grabs onto the tiny PCIE cable is super fragile, already broke it. Otherwise I'm very happy that I got Android Pie running with full DRM and Google Play Movies working, very happy.
I know it has been said but I want to see it myself thank you for all you do for us and showed us all kinds of boards and things I really appreciate it personally
I love you you are not fake and not careless as 99.99% of youtubers and you own your own opinions and sold to companies, but the sad true story, this way will never increase the views nor the subscribers
I salute you for huge amount of honesty and clear view of the item
Thanks.
@@ExplainingComputers your welcome and I meant your opinions are not sold to the companies
Finally a board that represents 2019 nicely!
we gonna need a Rock pi 4 vs Raspberry Pi 4 :D !!!!
Balsey Dean De Witt, Jr. Yeah, I see what you mean
@@miscellaneousstuff6346 - yeah, what's the point exactly?
nice bit of kit that one, just one thing to note with Kernel 5.0 out in the wild ( rolling release distro's ), now is a good time for anyone to get into SBC;s RockChip especially,
see here,
Linux archrock 5.0.2-1-ARCH #1 SMP Thu Mar 14 18:18:57 MDT 2019 aarch64 GNU/Linux
Machine model: Pine64 Rock64
5.0 brought in alot of missing parts like,
dw_hdmi 45056 2 dw_hdmi_i2s_audio,rockchipdrm
drm_kms_helper 204800 4 dw_mipi_dsi,rockchipdrm,dw_hdmi,analogix_dp
drm 507904 6 drm_kms_helper,dw_mipi_dsi,rockchipdrm,dw_hdmi,analogix_dp
So I would imagine thats all your missing parts for HDMI audio and yes there is,
snd_soc_hdmi_codec
I would also think the RK3399 uses similar internals for hdmi/codecs etc etc as the Rock64 so kernel 5 would be a good choice to go with.
The RockChip drm/dri kernel module is apparently almost ready to work with the Panfrost/Midgard Mesa module ( now mainlined ) for hardware accel for these mali gpu's.
i'm a french viewer and thanks to you my good sir, I learnt a great new insult today, swine, excellent.
It's an old Saxon word. You lot should have picked that one up when the Normans invaded in 1066. But you kept using Norman French. Which is why we still have, in the English Language.
"pork" French, and "swine" saxon
"veal" French, "calf" saxon
"Mutton" French, "sheep" saxon.
And many more....!
Great SBC.
Few tweaks here and there like boot from NVMe, Linux of course, and here we have capable small computer.
Future is in ARM CPUs technology as in the virtualization as well, on great scale.
Great work Chris.
Enjoyable on all scales. Thank you.
RavenPrecept
Yes, it is more powerful.
It uses different kind of instruction set and the way it uses it. More power = power consumption as such. It is cisc.
On the other hand arm as a risc uses less power as result of different handling of reduced instructions set.
Cisc can handle different OSes. The best of cisc one can have is using VMs.
Arm development is getting momentum because of more powerful CPUs and pipe-lining.
VMs are the best solution for people who uses multiple OSes/lots of programs and applications and do a lot on their machines.
Or maybe they just like to experiment and to learn.
What is interesting is to see future development of cisc/risc technology.
After all, we need functional/powerful/versatile machines with less power consumption and as much mobility possible.
We'll see.
Raspberry Pi has more support. i see they had Ubuntu Server and i'd like to run snap RAID and Merger FS and Plex, Emby and kodi. some of this is explained in the Linux Unplugged podcast episode 277 minute 20
Elvira Elora Milosic FYI, the Samsung 950 PRO NVMe option ROM also emulates an IDE interface during boot for old school BIOSes. Subsequent models lack this feature (wth?) so the 950 PRO commands a premium over them.
Another video, another beer. Nearing 500k subs, amazing job!
I must admit, emmc is a storage standard that's gotten by me. I've heard about it from the electronics youtubers but didn't realize what it is. Seeing it here, it seems like a good option, though it's slower than ssd. But looking at the board after it's installed, you might think it's soldered on to it (is that an advantage? ). The M.2 mounting solution is very cool. That alone makes me want this kit (like you said... Their attention to detail is very good ). Thanks for another great video Chris!
Not only informative, but extremely entertaining. Thank you, sir.
I have the 'old' Radxa rock, running Ubuntu and nodeJS, nice to see they have beefed up this SBC to this new model, this is great, thanks Chris for showing.
I love the attention to detail and informative fun style. Keep up the great work.
it is amazing as I have followed you for these past few years the evolution of these tiny devices as they become more powerful and useful , an enlightening program, thank you! , the future is NOW
Thanks for watching for so long -- the future is indeed arriving! The video I'm posting here on Feb 23rd is the first made entirely on an SBC (a Pi 4). :)
Raspberry Pi really must include M.2 slot asap, SD card has soo many limitations, and hacking it to boot off USB is really painfull and still won't enable full potential of SSDs.
SWF, ISO compatible male w/ARM64 SBC, 32GB RAM, 10GB LAN, PCIE4NVME willing to connect without face masks...
Yet again another great video. A very neat SBC. Packed with cool features. Sadly the version of Android looked kind of out of date. But it is only a new SBC so give it time and I am sure it will come into line with the other Android OS.
The latest version of Android TV with the newest Google TV launcher is available here: wiki.radxa.com/Rockpi4/downloads
Explaining Computers is the Evolution of Computer Chronicles !
His Masters Voice nice!
I got this one too. The best part of this board is it uses USB-C Power Delivery adapter, you can use your smartphone/tablet charger to power it up.
I love it when you say. "By the magic of film making"
you remind me of the narrators from old documentaries we watched at school in the 90's. I almost put my hand up to ask a question
"Let's go and take... a closer look..."
🖥😊👍
Christopher Barnatt is the David Attenborough of computers!
@Some Random Aussie yes, and very annoying on a Monday morning after working all weekend.
And here is a RaspberryPi, in a corporate broom closet, collecting user names and passwords via Kali, the native habitat of the Pi
Christopher Tomkinson
Agreed!
💯🖕😹🖕💯💯🖕😂🖕💯
You make an old boy smile - and give me lots of great information for which I say Thank You!
The king of the Raspberry Pi, well done Chris. 👍
I have recently purchased one of these amazing SBCs and am running it of the eMMC chip, Debian from the Radxa download site, and it positively *SCREAMS* - it is as fast as, or faster than my Lenovo Yoga 920. Unbelievable performance from this tiny little thing, and the video is smooth and no jumping. No assembly instructions came with it, so it was rather like trying to put a Leggo puzzle together. There *are* a few tricks and traps, btw. Your video was actually quite helpful. I got the PoE hat and the NVME SSD (they supplied an Acer, not a WD) and the RTC battery.
Tracert is *traceroute* and is not in the system when you download it - you have to download the application plus 3 dependencies, and manually install....surprise, surprise....
Amazing that tiny thing is more powerful than anything from the 90's.
I seem to recall getting 60 frames back in the 90s.
@@dwightehowell8179 yea, at what resolution?
@@tt7hvn This SBC is good at videoplayback, not a 3D rendering, big difference. You easily had 1080p and higher for 3D in common gaming rigs on PCs.
Very promising board.
The indies making these boards need to form a board where they can collaborate on a specification (if they aren't already) and get an architecture set incorporating what we've witnessed across numerous product lines (PCIE, NVME; etc.) into a cohesive package so that next steps may occur. There's enough to constitute an entry level ARM PC MoBo considering my previous points and a market --they (all the sbc developers/manufacturers) really should think about picking up their heels. Linus Torvalds will agree. and anyone else looking to get into developing for the ARM architecture.
Good video!
Nice board, Christopher! I just looked-up the specs for the rock chip rk3399 on Wikipedia: It has two ARM Cortex A72 cores and four ARM Cortex A53 cores. Unfortunately, the A72 allows for speculative (i.e., out-of-order) execution, so unlike the Raspberry Pi 3, it's not immune to Meltdown and Spectre. I shall get myself a RP3 for extra security for tasks such as online banking. Thank you very much for another splendid video!
How great it would be to have Raspberry PI 4 having such a great specs! Two Usb3, RAM up to 4 gb, M.2 NVMe, eMMC module!
A very impressive SBC indeed. Thank you for your detailed review!
It's a shame that this shop moved out of the city, I loved to just walk in and take some network cable out if I needed one or WLAN card. These are very polite guys at allnet.
Really enjoying your content! You convey the beauty of technology perfectly :)
When you were adding the various parts, it started to remind me of a Meccano project. I particularly look forward to the unboxing parts so I can hear "Come out, you swine!"
I always love your video presentation! Always get excited when I see a new video of your in my suggested :D
Weeeellcommmme to another viiideo !!
“...come on, peel off you swine!” Got a chuckle out of this line. :-)
days later still on the floor rolling around with laughter
Let's never allow our deeply felt emotions run amock with our tongue, shall we?
Great video again, I really like to see these new boards, i had noticed this board as it came out, impressive little computer, good value, I like how you can get an m.2 on it and the ddr4, it's a step up from the nanopi m4, but has the same software issues.
Would be nice to have a board based on a current generation phone, a good Snapdragon chip or exynos chip a make a new xu4, something to rival a low end pc arm in a very small form factor, maybe like the Nvidia shield hardware but with just a little more whoomph.
I can't express how amazing your videos are. Now I need to decide whether to buy Raspberry pi or the Rock pi.
Rock PI 4 can now boot from NVMe SSD! that should actually make your decision a little bit easier! ;-)
@@NB-sw1op great point! And I just watched the follow up video with the heat test and I'll be buying it now. Amazing little kit it is.
It would be good if the NVMe extender board had a cut out to allow access to the GPIO pins. Either that or a right angle connector.
Would be easy just to build one with a bit of perf board ;)
Isn't old IDE cable would be good as GPIO extender? I also wonder if you can build the sandwich upside down so NVME board at the bottom and SMB on top but definitely with the standard heat sink not the massive one
WOW I hope the Rock Pi board keeps getting more support. That is one amazing board.
Please Please run some tests on this :)
I'll be posting another Rock Pi 4B video next Sunday (14 April) with lots of tests. :)
This is really a nice SBC with all the great hardware specifications.
This does have a lot of problems but this is what I would hope the Raspberry Pi 4 to fix.
Abhay Adil yes this has features that I hope the next Raspberry Pi will have.
@@perrymcclusky4695 Can't wait for it
@@perrymcclusky4695 I am pretty sure they can already do that, but the main "problem" is their main purpose of being a cheap ~$35 SBC, emphasizing on the educational side of using it.
Nikiforos Sarantoglou Yes the $35 ceiling is limiting, but we can always dream.
Hey! long time watcher, first time comment!, myself I'm in Canada, SBC enthusiast I have a Raspberry Pi 0/w Pi3 and 3b, also a Odroid XU4, and by your review I bought a RockPi4b 4gig,.... man.. what a little fast fantastic system, Just running Libreelec 9.0 on it, loaded up with Netflix addon Amazon Prime addon for Kodi... RUNS GREAT soooo much faster than a Pi!
Great to hear of your success with the Rock Pi 4. :)
It's good that it's done, keeps the technology moving, Im looking forward to the real pi4 b.
I want buy.... no money. huhu
@@emperorciarabevis2068 these other boards are okay, but really nothing works as well as a raspberry pi.
A bit more powerful than a pi, an xu4, good development, not as much as the pi, but a good alternative, my theory is these rk3399 socks and boards wont come to much, I had a nanopi m4, it's based off a set top box, there are not millions millions of them, it doesn't have the background development of a good phone, like exynos chip in the xu4 the Samsung galaxy S5.
So the raspberry pi or the xu4, avoid the rk3399 it's experimental.
I did have issues with my xu4, the usbs powering on and off, but that could just be my xu4, I did have the very best power supply it didn't make any difference.
William Rutter - This RockPi like any other SBC in a nutshell are development boards. The more people buy them, write software and build HATs for it. The more you extend the RockPi functionality. One should stay from such “experimental” boards if you want to develop for it. The Raspberry Pi platform for sure is more mature since there’s already a huge community around it.
@@iMadrid11 I hope the board does well, I had fun fiddling with my nanopi m4, great to get some things to work, it did give me a buzz, it's early days though most people would struggle with these rk3399 boards, where as a raspberry pi is just a good little computer.
Just released 🤩
Love the channel and the informative content, Chris. Keep up the outstanding work!
Another excellent video by my favorite tech expert!
I bought one on the strength of this vid, three things to note/I wish you'd mentioned for noobies tho.
1) the ribbon cable IS handed/can only go one way up, logically, but I had a moment where I could have missed that,
2) and the eMMC has a tiny barely visible notch in one corner, not sure if it could go the other way round, and
3) I broke my board by plugging/unplugging the power cable at the board end, the USB-C connector broke away from my board. Be warned, use a switched power strip! Second Rock Pi on its way from AllNet, woo hooo!
Thanks for this feedback, and sorry that you have had problems. You are of course right on the ribbon cable. The eMMC can only insert one way around, as the two connectors on it are slightly different lengths. I've never broken a connector off an SBC, but constantly worry about it as I plug and unplug them a lot. I've been working on a new Rock Pi 4B video over the past few days, and have been unplugging very carefully now! :)
It is incredible to me just how fast integration is occuring on these SBC’s. Not so long ago they were, at best, only able to manage embedded applications. Now they truely are full blow computers.
Not so long ago we had 8086 computer, no internet, no mobile phones, so it's faster compared to other areas of development but its own pace is sort of constant mostly, if not getting slower as we get closer to limits!
Sibilance is piercing on this video audio, compress. Great video as always thanks.
Audio was compressed, and a lot of cleanup done as always. I can never mix to everybody's taste.
@@ExplainingComputers I appreciate the hours you put in to making the videos, I just thought to mention in case something happened in post. as a headphones user it hurt my little eardrums a bit on the upper end. I replied on the go and looking back it was a bit blunt, heh COMPRESS.
Feedback like this is always appreciated. :) The post here was more rushed than usual for various reasons . ..
Can you make a video of this running retropie or some other frontend and playing N64 games? PCSX2 via Wine? Openelec with HEVC 10bit?
A very impressive video. A+++++++++++. This SBC could be a candidate for a Rock Pi 4B-week.
Great suggestion!
Very well specced but it starts to creep up in price with all the add ons. I cant see too many ways to use it that makes it an essential purchase. Perhaps if it gets a massive boost from software devs it might catch on. Very informative video which will probably boost sales of the board
I will nix the mass heatsink base for an add on "case fan" to make my rock PI fit neatly in a wooden cigar box.
Yet another excellent review of a single board computer. Thank you very much.
now all it needs is a Quadro RTX GPU
Hi Chris. Slowly but certainly I am getting my laptop back to where it was. Interesting little board and I'm only about 6 minutes in. One thing I would like to suggest is that when you point out something, especially on a super zoomed-in shot, you might want to point out the features with a smaller device than your finger, say a pencil, a straightened paperclip or a small screwdriver. As a passing thought, you might want to list a price "as-it-stands" with all of the options plugged as it sits. A nice little review of a nice little computer. Cheers.
This device is amazing teacher!
Thank you for another quality video. Love your reviews/box openings
Well done and informative. Thank you Chris!
Sir Chris, Humble appreciation once again for a fantastic video. I have been busy since Mid October. Moved 160KM from Atlanta GA/USA. Finally catching up on your videos.! Your SBC videos always have my full attention.
Hopefully within a week I can sit down with the 2/ Raspberry Pi 3 B+ I purchased last year. I will run home soecurity off one and Smart home off the other.
would you consider a video series, SBC security, also setting up Sensors for doors, windows, motion as well as connecting to garage door opener, then managing it from SBC? (There are a few videos that touch on that "some what".
However, your style of presentation and setting things up are far better than any other person could imagine to attempt to match for sure.
Purchasing the sensor cards and loading firmware you need is very affordable and much cheaper than buying a finished product for each window/door/etc.
I have 3 routers now. 1 for family use with computers, Ipad, Smart phones, etc.
2 routers for smart devices and security devices/wifi. One router paired into other..
That should cover inside house and full yard outside. (1 acre lot ). The last to add is fence and smart gate.
That should keep me busy for the summer time!
Yes, I will be purchasing the Rock4Pi, probably early 2020.
Hope all is well!
Have a blessed weekend!
Alton
Greetings Sir! Sound like you have been busy. You may like my series on Raspberry Pi Automation starting next week . . .
Wow, they have been packing a whole lot in these Pi alternatives... pitty the OS/software support isn't quite there yet, but man, possibilities are opening for devboards.
I done a quick AUD pricing and the kit along with the accessories (shown in this program) amounts to roughly $133.38 + $13.33 (10% gst) = $147.71 AUD total (subject to changing variables in currency rates) (Goods sourced from Allnet China). Looking forward to building one to try out one of these days.
Bird bees, pistons moving up and down. There was some magical moments there
if you've seen his "comparison" vid on systems trying to run this video smoothly, you know this was actually a nice WIN for the Rock PI 4b
Pardon me, @@teebee5323 I believe I called it MAGIC.
waiting for more videos to see the real performance of this board!
The "heat sink as the base" seems like a bad idea for heat dissipation.
I think I'd prefer running it upside down (heat sink up in the air), maybe with a plate added over (or in my hypothetical case, under) the SSD extender and the screws for the extender swapped for some longer ones to get both attached at together.
As I see it, this is something I MUST buy. That's a very cool product, with everything I need for my next project.
Would love a slim form factor version of this so I could squeeze it into an old netbook.
you won't find such a thing, the best choice for the thinnest design is to desolder all of the connectors to get it as thin as possible, then run wires to the sides of the case for USB ports and hdmi and usb c and other things like that
Purchased one before the video ended, you sold it, cheers
Enjoy your new SBC!
@@ExplainingComputers
It arrived today enjoying it so far, it's fast, but buggy
that's my Sunday afternoon sorted, just as it started hailing in London
Mine too. Its nice and sunny down in the southeast
4K@60fps is a bold statement. It would have been nice if you could quick test it with a clip with that spec also. Good vid as always, thumbs up.
Guess what time it is? That's right it's accessory time... love it. Keep up the good work :-)
Yay. A new SBC. Thanks Chris
I thought $40 for the 1GB version was great, until I remembered that everyone goes by the US currency and this would be over $60 Canadian.
got to love our current 40% exchange rate! Feels like getting reamed everytime I look at an American price!
Still good price for this minicomputer.
It was very informative and I rather like the way of your presentation. Subbed and keep up the good work 👍
Thanks for the sub -- welcome aboard!
Could we see some tests in the future containing steam games on these boards please, thanks for your informative videos
I will indeed be doing a video with more tests!
Fantastic
some arcade emulators would be nice to test please Chris
Hello Sir, thank you very much for the explanation, I am encouraged to get one now. I really enjoy your videos, you explain everything in a clear way and very detailed as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I may have OCD with this one: First, the Nvme extension board is a bit long to match the motherboard length and make a nice sleek stack easy to fit everywhere. Secondly, the GPIO is kind of blocked by this Nvme hat (not a big issue: a ribbon will do the job done) and putting the hat underneath also poses some issues. Finally, the enhanced heatsink is anodized/coated on its contact surfaces... Not the best choice for heat spreading, Imho.
But it's a really interesting one by the way. More interesting than some competitors on the same price range and more suitable for one of my projects. Decisions... Decisions... Thanks for the review!
very good input indeed! we will put this into the planning for future releases of the M.2! THANKS
very good input indeed! we will put this into the planning for future releases of the M.2! THANKS
We wait RPi4 - Rock Pi4 comparison and benchmark videos. Many thanks.
Noted.
Question: can you install the OS on a NVME and boot from it?
(It must certainly be possible to put the bootloader on the Micro-SD card (or eMMC) and run the rest of the OS (bin, etc, home, usr, var, ...) from the M2.)
LOL. Just found out there is a follow up video with cooling etc. Question answered. (y)
There instructions on how to do it on the website, but for everyone else, there is no straight full boot from a NVME, must have a Micro-SD or eMMC.
We have good news, it is now possible to boot directly from the NVMe SSD when the SPI flash is mounted on the board.
M2 is PCI, bit with different form factor.
So we can also connect graphics card to RockPi, if it supports M2
Can the M.2 adapter be mounted UNDER the board? Even with the heatsink there... using some sutable standofs?
It can indeed go underneath.
I always enjoy your videos Christopher. Many thanks.
What's the version on onboard emmc ? Can you include speeds?
Can it play 10bit h.265 videos ?
I plan some future tests. I think it is eMMC 5.0.
eMMC is 5.1, The emmc die comes from Micron and Samsung. The eMMC is from Forsee. Here a link to a speed comparison: gist.github.com/hipboi/4751181c26670af1a53096795a13f93d . ROCK PI 4 can play 10bit h.265 video on Android.
Great, it's a long video. I'm enjoying this. :) I've already shared your video on the Rock Pi forum. I can't wait to see the end to know what you think about it. But I want to see the rest too of course.
I made a video yesterday about retro pc games on the raspbery with an image from a friend with all opengl, mali and wine drivers. Incredible what great games the Raspberry can play.
Greetings, NicoD.
Great video Christopher. Good conclusion. A beginner can do a lot with it. But it could be fustrating too if you don't know what you're doing. I'm helping to make the software better. It isn't on the level of the NanoPi M4 now, but it's close and it should be there very soon be.
The community also grows quickly, so it will become a better board fo begnners too when software is better. But for the short tme it's out, I'm quite impressed by heir work.
I now also have the big heatsink and M.2 hat. I ordered it last week Sunday after talking to you. I'm happy with it, except the fact I can't reach the eMMC without removing the heatsink. But you can also install new software on a eMMC with an sd-card.
I can't wait to see ythe next video. I bet it wil sell a lot more now.
Greetings, have a nice day.
Hi Nico. :) I got an WD Black drive to work!
Is this a arm Cpu?
Unfortunately you didn't do any Speedtest on the mvme and some temp comparison would also have been nice. But there are a lot of nice stuff in this video too. How much does the final setup cost?
See the follow-up video! :)
Nice informative video. Love that the Rock Pi is so expandable.
I feel like that PCIe port was designed with tiny NVMe drives like the Toshiba RC100 in mind.
"stanley the knife" - it's sad, but this always makes me chuckle
:)
Interesting, a dual board heatsink, are they losing sight of the format here?
This video was awesome! Thank you for sharing it with us.