The Banana Pi BPI-M7 single board computer is equipped with up to 32GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash, and features an M.2 2280 socket for one NVMe SSD, three display interfaces (HDMI, USB-C, MIPI DSI), two camera connectors, dual 2.5GbE, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, a few USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion.
Is it $60 or less? Everytime one of these alternative boards with an assload of more features pops up, nobody bothers to mention the price. Obviously we could spend more money to get more features, that’s what spending more money does. You can’t replace something without actually offering an alternative. The pi’s biggest selling point was that it was cheaper than a steak dinner. If you dont match or beat that, you aren’t actually competing with the pi.
Thanks for saying this. It’s features at price point.
“It’s better than the Pi at only 3x the price.”
And what’s with the “Avoid the Raspberry PI” sentiment? They are hard to get (?). I’ve been using the Pi for forever, and have zero ‘product’ complaints that would make me want to "Avoid the Pi’. If anything, I have plans for more. Again, the price - A Zero2W is $15 MSRP. For $15, You can put that in everything. A Pi4 is $35. Its just a great deal.
This and support. My dad could set up a pi, and he doesn’t know what a kernel is or how to compile.
Current prices for the 8gb pi5 are around £80 which is about $100, and it won’t ship until some-when next year.
It looks like it’s ~$100. But when I’ve used similar SBCs in the past the issue ends up being drivers. Even if something is faster and better specced than a RasPi, you end up outside that ecosystem with very little in the way of support for whatever oddball hardware your board has.
There’s an AliExpress link in the article that clearly prices it at $260…
Cool? I’m seeing $165, but my original comment was based on the article as it existed five months ago. I’m not sure the board was even shipping at that time
Is it $60 or less? Everytime one of these alternative boards with an assload of more features pops up, nobody bothers to mention the price
Have you considered that if you buy a RPi5 today it wont be 60$? Either if that’s your price point, depending in your use case, there might be better options. For a NAS for 100€ you can find an HP Mini with an i5 8th gen + 16GB of ram + 256GB NVME. For electronics Radxa Zero 3W / Zero 3E.
Those zero 3W sticks have been unavailable ever since I saw it here.
Looks like they are available now. I have never used a Zero 3W, but that price is real nice.NM, I misread the site. They are not in stock.
AliExpress? I swear I saw em there the other day
“More reasons to Avoid the Raspberry Pi”
I didn’t know we even had reasons to avoid it
What if you really hate support and ease of finding images online?
There’s definitely an argument for not supporting the Pi Foundation with their anti-consumer practices over the last few years. They’ve sold out to corporate interests and don’t give a shit about the educational/hobbyist mission of the original Raspberry Pi.
What if you really hate the fact that The RPi foundation is being hostile against people nowadays with proprietary PCIe connectors, telemetry, requiring a custom flash tool to get SSH and whatnot?
You can dd the iso without any problems.
Yes you can, but then without a display and keyboard you won’t be able to SSH into the thing right away. They’re using small tricks like that to push people into their tool and you’ll be seeing more of that crap in the future.
Don’t you just touch SSH in the /boot dir after you flash, then you can SSH in as pi and password raspberry?
The workarounds are either using their tool or doing what you suggested. Other SBCs do the reasonable thing and have it enabled by default like the Pi did in the past. This change simply pushes less-proficient users into using their tool.
Having it enabled by default is a pretty massive security hole. I preordered the raspberry pi 1 when it launched and I don’t remember SSH ever being enabled be default in their images. Where did you hear it was enabled by default?
This is not true
https://roboticsbackend.com/enable-ssh-on-raspberry-pi-raspbian/
On Raspberry Pi OS, ssh is disabled by default, so you’ll have to find a way to enable ssh + find the IP address + connect to it.
The workarounds are either using their tool and/or fiddling on the SD card. Other SBCs do the reasonable thing and have it enabled by default. This simply pushes people into using their tool.
The extra menu in the flasher does the magic on the sd-card. I’ve been setting up headless pi’s since before 3b came out, and the same options are available today.
The idea that ssh being enabled by default is reasonable is just like your opinion. Did you know you have to enable it during installation on both Debian and canonicals derivative? Maybe it’s still on by default on fedora (with root login enabled to help you!)
If editing your config is fiddling then I struggle to see your use of an sbc.
I think the reasons are they are pushing a competing product.
There aren’t really any reasons to avoid it. There are certainly reasons to choose an alternative product, namely the complete unavailability of 4B and 5 boards. My biggest issue so far is that the alternatives offer features that I don’t want, or have a price that’s way too high for a SBC
Straight up some of those single board computers cost so much that I’ve just considered getting an old mini office PC
They’re really capable and can be had for like $100
Yeah, unless you need the GPIO or the lower power consumption of a Pi, mini PCs are better for 90% of the projects people use single board computers for. Plus you usually get upgradable ram, and more-resilient storage.
Last time I needed IO pins for a project I ended going with a circuit python compatible board
I think I went with a Qt Py with an esp32, it was like $15, has native type C, and was really easy to work with
namely the complete unavailability of 4B and 5 boards
Is unavailability still an issue? My local computer store always has a lot in stock of them in stock these days.
Considering the 5 isn’t even being sold yet, I question the validity of your anecdote. The 3B and 4/4B are still hit or miss as far as stock goes. I just bought a 3B from Digikey and it’s the first I’ve seen them in stock since before COVID though it’s not as if I’ve been checking rpilocator daily for updates.
Considering the 5 isn’t even being sold yet
Yes it is. My local store had stock three weeks ago: https://x.com/centralcomputer/status/1719814131652440132. I didn’t buy one since I have enough computers, but I physically saw them at the store.
Every time I’ve been there this year, they’ve had the Pi 4B in stock.
No need, RaspberryPi has been avoiding us. Finding to purchase one has become a tiresome errand.
You may want to have a read at this: https://lemmy.world/comment/5357961. The Pi is becoming the least consumer friendly SBC and a money grab like no other.
[Citations Needed]
My experience with Banana PIs is that they require some obscure kernel to run because the developers cannot be bothered to bring their hardware support and drivers upstream. Same was true for uboot. Has any of that changed in the meantime? If not, that this is a no go for me.
Yeah, this is an absolute blocker for me. If its not supported upstream then it’s a no-go. I don’t want to be running whatever hacked up Ubuntu image the manufacturer put together then stopped updating in 3 months when the next iteration gets churned out
It’s the same, I picked up an Orange Pi 5 plus on sale and didn’t even think about the kernel and module driver situation. It’s rough. Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip and the other contributors do great work to un-fuck the situation and get a non-screwy ubuntu install cobbled together, but in the comments for issues even he gives off a “well, the situation is shit” sort of vibe.
I won’t buy another rockchip sbc.
Yeah, I figured. I’ll stick to the Raspberries then, mainly because the “just work”™
That’s too bad because the specs OP listed are pretty great plus I’d love to see the Raspberry Pi Foundation (or whichever corporate entity controls production and sales) knocked down a few pegs due to their anti-consumer behavior over the last several years.
Definitely, the specs are nice and I also cannot say I’m a huge fan of the RPi foundation. More competition in this space would be great, but not having mainline support is just too much of a hassle.
Yeah they are a massive fuck around unless you already know how
I had the same impression until I dusted off my banana pi one last month and there was an up-to-date armbian image for it. Totally pleasant surprise.
Fair, but I’m not running armbian, so my requirements boils down to: Must run any up to date Linux distro without having to side-load custom kernels or anything. Should work out of the box.
Does it’s run upstream Debian or SUSE? No? A custom distribution with proprietary binary blobs and no updates after one year you say? Sounds shit.
This is the only question that really matters. If it’s overpriced? meh, it’s a cheap alternative to a NUC. But if it’s going to be stuck on obsolete software forever, run.
That’s the reason why Armbian exists. So those devices will keep having newer kernels and software. Read into the things.
??? Armbian is open-source. Some boards eventually get stuff from Armbian merged back into upstream Debian however you’re still better running Armbian as it comes with optimizations to avoid burning SD cards etc.
Good specs, but the rpi still has the absolute big advantage of it’s vast field of available turnkey software.
There is a big difference between “it works out of the box” and “it works so-so after a lot of fiddling, and I still don’t know why”.
Also GPU drivers.
If you’re mad at NVidia for their closed-source drivers, then remember that ARM seldom makes their Linux drivers available for free, so you have to either have to deal with absolutely no GPU driver while the CPU does the graphics rendering (might not be a big deal on a NAS though), or with open source drivers that are less capable than the Nouveau drivers and even fiddlier to install. The ARM Mali driver issue is so bad I was legit thinking on a solution to run the Android binary blobs (which at least are available by ripping them off from the Android kernel) on regular Linux, a lot of function call redirects would likely take care of that issue.
I’ve got one of those cheap Rockchip rk322x TV boxes and it took me fucking literal hours to get the Mali driver working and the performance, while noticeably better, was still way worse than if I ran it’s stock Android image on it.
Depends on your use-case. If you want to use GPIO and other low level features, yes the Pi is faster to get going, if you’re just using ir for a NAS/storage then a board like that will work out of the box.
At which point you’re better off with a mini pc.
I totally agree with you there. https://lemmy.world/comment/5500098:
For eg. for 100€ you can find an HP Mini with an i5 8th gen + 16GB of ram + 256GB NVME that obviously has a case, a LOT of I/O, PCIe (m2) comes with a power adapter and outperforms a RPi5 in all possible ways. Note that the RPi5 8GB of ram will cost you 80€ + case + power adapter + cable + bullshit adapter + SD card + whatever else money grab - the Pi isn’t just a good option.
I even went further on GPIOs and low level electronics here https://lemmy.world/comment/5500638:
RPi 2B+ for around 10$ nowadays (…) other brand new cheap SBCs such as the Radxa Zero 3W or the Zero 3E or even the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The point is that it doesn’t make sense to buy a standard and expensive RPi for things that don’t require much CPU. If you don’t really need an OS and you code C or MicroPython a 3.5$ ESP32 board as well.
This is the problem I see with these “high end pi” systems. The benefit of the RPI is low-cost and small form factor along with the GPIO.
When you start to get too expensive you compete with more capable systems in the same price range.
Well, it always depends on the use case. And if you think over the use case, maybe other solutions might even be better.
What an unpleasant and unnecessary turn of phrase .
It’s the software, stupid!
I dunno, this is going to be expensive, unless you need the GPIO or the smallest size possible I’m not sure what the advantage is over spending $150 or so on one of those mini Intel N100 boxes with dual 2.5GbE, they are x86 so can easily run normal software like Opnsense or similar without worrying about support going away down the road.
Or without 2.5GbE just one of those $60-80 8th gen Dell/Lenovo/HP USFF PCs off ebay.
SBCs just don’t seem very competitive currently because they’re quite expensive for what you get, and require specialized software releases, plus stuff like hardware transcoding never seems very well supported even though the chip can technically do it.
So you share my opinion: https://lemmy.world/comment/5500098:
For eg. for 100€ you can find an HP Mini with an i5 8th gen + 16GB of ram + 256GB NVME that obviously has a case, a LOT of I/O, PCIe (m2) comes with a power adapter and outperforms a RPi5 in all possible ways. Note that the RPi5 8GB of ram will cost you 80€ + case + power adapter + cable + bullshit adapter + SD card + whatever else money grab - the Pi isn’t just a good option.
I even went further on GPIOs and low level electronics here https://lemmy.world/comment/5500638:
RPi 2B+ for around 10$ nowadays (…) other brand new cheap SBCs such as the Radxa Zero 3W or the Zero 3E or even the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The point is that it doesn’t make sense to buy a standard and expensive RPi for things that don’t require much CPU. If you don’t really need an OS and you code C or MicroPython a 3.5$ ESP32 board as well.
I agree with you, i wanted raspberry pi for my EE practice in uni but it was way too expensive for what it gives and i bought raspberry pi pico 16mb type c for 2$ on sale, for those who want compact pc to tinker with it’s better to buy used mini pc because it’ll be much better bang for the buck
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters IP Internet Protocol LTS Long Term Support software version NAS Network-Attached Storage NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express PSU Power Supply Unit RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC SBC Single-Board Computer SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
9 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 4 acronyms.
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Unless it can natively run all the existing ready-to-go Pi images and software packages and will also receive community support when I ask for help in a Pi-adjacent forum it’s not really going to be a competitor to the Pi. The hardware is pretty much irrelevant.
Well, I do kinda want a new router (but would also need to switch from opnsense to openwrt).
I’ve better suggestions for you than that board… way better.
- https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-R3
- https://openwrt.org/toh/sinovoip/bananapi_bpi_r3_v1.0_v1.1?s[]=bananapi&s[]=bpi&s[]=r3
- https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=23.05.2&target=mediatek%2Ffilogic&id=bananapi_bpi-r3
There’s an upcoming board the BPI-R4 with optional Wifi and 10G SPF cage: https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-R4
Oh, waw, this is amazing. And exactly why I don’t follow this kind of things :). I don’t need a new router. But then again, need is such a weird word …
Damn, I got a Pi 4 8GB ram. Still planning on putting recalbox on it though.
Do you research very well before buying other boards than a Pi. It may be for you or now, depends a lot on your use-case.
I recently bought a Quartz64
The full PCIe slot on those boards is just gold. I have a NanoPi M4v2 that also has PCIe in a M2 slot, used a cheap board to get 6 sata ports out of it.
I actually got the B version but there is an adapter if I change my mind down the road. I wanted the wireless and ir sensor
Pretty cool. I’d compare this one to the Odroid H3±
That “SBC” has a strange price point because it is Intel and costs 250$. For 100€ you can find an HP Mini with an i5 8th gen + 16GB of ram + 256GB NVME that obviously has a case, a LOT of I/O, PCIe (m2) comes with a power adapter and outperforms a RPi5 in all possible ways.
I found it for $165. Definitely wouldn’t pay $250.
Still have to buy power supply, case, cooling, etc… And it has an older Intel CPU too.
There are newer Intel N100 boxes with a case, PSU, cooling, and so on for the same price or less sometimes.
Do you know of any newer Intel SBCs with the same IO? I would like to take a look
What kind of IO are you looking for? Here’s a couple mini PCs, I’m not sure about SBC options.
1GbE: https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Intel-N100-Computer-Desktop-Display/dp/B0BVFS94J5
Dual 2.5GbE: https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Lake-N100-Mini-Computer-Supports-Home-Server/dp/B0C339KVH9
I’m looking for something to run Open Media Vault. Fast Ethernet and multiple drive options. I also like to tinker, the prebuilt mini PCs haven’t interested me much
You can pick up an i3-8100 with motherboard and RAM for about $80 on eBay if you look around, that would let you do your own build
Well https://www.kubii.com/en/nano-computers-boards/3824-odroid-h3h3-card-3272496313545.html on their website yes, it costs $165 https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h3-plus/ assuming you won’t pay extra taxes.
deleted by creator
I assume this bot is for mastodon users or something?
Yes, see here: https://github.com/db0/lemmy-tagginator
Would it help to add a “what is this” type link. Or maybe “about bot”
ye I’ll add something soon
