Best Single Board Computers (SBC) for A.I projects

Choosing the right Single Board Computer (SBC) for AI projects is key, with each option offering unique strengths. Let's dive into how these boards support AI enthusiasts and developers.
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Intro
1:26 - Understanding AI: Edge vs. Cloud
5:40 - Udoo Range (V3 and V8)
7:53 - LattePanda Series
10:10 - BeagleBone AI
12:03 - Nvidia Jetson Orin Series
14:44 - Up Squared Pro 7000 Series
17:10 - Raspberry Pi 5
19:05 - Arduino Portenta X8
22:00 - What would I pick?
22:50 - Conclusion
▬ Show references and links ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
UDOO Bolt V3
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
UDOO BOLT V8
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
LattePanda Sigma
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
LattePanda Delta
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
BeagleBone AI-64
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
UP Squared Pro 7000
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
PRO Portenta Max Carrier
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
PRO Portenta X8
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
Raspberry Pi 5 Board 8GB
www.electromaker.io/shop/prod...
▬ Support us! ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
We publish a new show every week. Subscribe here: / @electromakerio
We stock the latest products from Adafruit, Seeed Studio, Pimoroni, Sparkfun, and many more! Browse our shop:
www.electromaker.io/shop
Join us on Discord! / discord
Follow us on Twitter: / electromakerio
Like us on Facebook: / electromaker.io
Follow us on TikTok: / electromaker.io
Follow us on Instagram: / electromaker_io
Don't have time to watch the show? Listen to the Electromaker Show in podcast format on your favourite podcast platform! directory.libsyn.com/shows/vi...

[@Electromakerio]

If you enjoyed this video, then please support our channel by visiting our online store. We stock hundreds of single-board computers and ship worldwide: www.electromaker.io/shop/category/single-board-computers

[@JimPlant]

Love the summary between 4:30 and 5:00 . Exactly what we found building a lego robot with Raspberry Pi. It worked but was very 'laggy' and we ended up omitting image processing (in the cloud) largely due to privacy concerns.

[@Electromakerio]

Building a Lego robot with a Raspberry Pi sounds like a fun and educational project! It's a great example of how SBCs like the Raspberry Pi can open up possibilities for creative DIY projects, even with some limitations such as processing lag, especially when handling compute-intensive tasks like image processing.

[@andrelaurin540]

I like your presentation, but I don't understand why you did not consider some of the SBC's with built in NPUs? Like Orange PI 5, Nanopc-T6 etc...

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

Please sir, can you list some more? (On the cheaper, but software supported side)

[@Jp-ue8xz]

because this video isn't about AI oriented SBC but just about shitty overpriced boards which don't even have competitive hardware for the task (w/ like 2 exceptions that are still grossly overpriced)

[@Electromakerio]

Thanks for your feedback! You're right; SBCs with built-in NPUs like the Orange Pi 5 and NanoPC-T6 are excellent choices. We'll make sure to include more options with NPUs in future presentations. Appreciate your input!

[@Electromakerio]

@@Jp-ue8xz Our intention was to highlight a range of options available for different needs and budgets. We'll definitely take your comments into account for future content and strive to include more competitively priced and AI-focused SBCs. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!

[@jacksimba]

Incredible explanations and context! Thanks !

[@Electromakerio]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you found the explanations helpful. Your support means a lot!

[@jackflash6377]

You glossed over the biggest advantage of the Jetson. Cuda cores!! and an 8 core ARM CPU. Made for machine learning.

[@Electromakerio]

Great point! The Jetson's CUDA cores and 8-core ARM CPU are indeed its biggest advantages, making it a powerhouse for machine learning tasks. Thanks for highlighting this!

[@Octo8Brain]

Great review! I think it would be also worth considering other SBCs like the Khadas Edge2, Radxa Rock 5B or OrangePi 5 for example. They used the Rockchip RK3588 SoC with 8-core 64-bit ARM processors and a 6 TOPS NPU, and they appear to be more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 5, at least on paper. They can run real-time AI applications like Whisper for speech recognition or even small LLMs and could be great for building small personal AI assistants.

[@Electromakerio]

Thank you for the insightful addition! You're absolutely right; the Khadas Edge2, Radxa Rock 5B, and OrangePi 5 represent exciting alternatives to the Raspberry Pi, especially for users who require more processing power for AI-driven projects. The Rockchip RK3588 SoC they're equipped with is indeed a potent piece of hardware, combining 8-core 64-bit ARM processors with a 6 TOPS (trillion operations per second) NPU (Neural Processing Unit). This makes them especially suitable for demanding AI tasks.

[@Octo8Brain]

@@Electromakerio Indeed, and those SBCs are already more than 1 year old, new ones have been released since, for example: Radxa Rock 5C, Orange Pi 5 Pro (both with the same form factor as the Pi 5) or the Radxa ZERO 2 Pro (6-core 64-bit ARM, 5 TOPS).

[@Flare1107]

I see the Radxa rock5 is mentioned. It was what I was considering as a contender for my second suggestion, the Coral Dev board. Trying to build my own loona robot and I found the same specs listed from the loona and coral dev board. But I'm more interested in your comparison for a Compute modules line of boards by raspberry pi, orange pi, and radxa. (I'm sure there's another)

[@Electromakerio]

Thanks for sharing your insights! The Radxa Rock5 and Coral Dev Board are both solid choices. We'll definitely consider doing a detailed comparison of Compute Modules from Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Radxa, and other manufacturers in future videos. Your project sounds exciting-best of luck with your Loona robot build!

[@user-dz9yl7hi8j]

Radxa X2l would have made it to my list definitely however I do get that not too many others are so lucky to actually possess one of these beautiful pieces of tech.. 🎉

[@Electromakerio]

Thanks for the suggestion! The Radxa X2l is indeed a fantastic piece of tech. We'll definitely consider including it in future videos. Appreciate your input!

[@MrKelaher]

Kendryte K210 based boards for machine vision applications. M5 have one for example - M5StickV K210 AI Camera

[@Electromakerio]

Thanks for the suggestion! The Kendryte K210-based boards, like the M5StickV K210 AI Camera, are great for machine vision applications. We'll look into covering these in future videos. Appreciate your input!

[@chetana9802]

any of your videos considered ollama or llamafile on these wide range of devices?

[@Electromakerio]

Thanks for the suggestion! We haven't covered Ollama or Llamafile yet, but we'll definitely consider exploring them in future videos. Appreciate your input!

[@Iswimandrun]

Pi 5 with a Coral TPU over the pcie and booting from USB 3.0 with a 2.5" SATA SSD to USB converter. I did it just had to build some debian packages from source, mess with the device tree, enable the pcie port via some config file edits, install some dependencies, install pyenv and us it to make the right python version from source configure your system to use that version then install the python packages. There might of been some udev changes or I might be mis remembering from a different project anyway look it up it's possible. I used a pineberrypi pcie board to interface with the Coral TPU.

[@Electromakerio]

That's an impressive setup you've managed with the Pi 5, especially with the integration of the Coral TPU via PCIe. Building Debian packages from source and tweaking the device tree definitely requires a good understanding of the system's inner workings! The use of a pineberrypi PCIe board for interfacing with the Coral TPU sounds like an interesting solution for enhancing AI capabilities, thanks for sharing your experience and the steps involved. We would love to see a project write-up submitted to our project hub 😃

[@Iswimandrun]

@@Electromakerio sure where is this hub. I did it for work originally but. I just got a duplicate set of the bill of materials to do it for myself so I can have two units one in the office and one at home to work into a testing automation project I am spearheading.

[@Iswimandrun]

So I got the kit to do it again and I will ensure my write-up is as complete as I can.

[@Iswimandrun]

Your site's contact me function is hard to use with my DNS filtering maybe, idk didn't check what was getting blocked but the behavior was the thing that tries to determine if I am not a bot keeps not connecting to ask me the question oh well I will try tomorrow.

[@Electromakerio]

Here: www.electromaker.io/projects

[@midnightmoves7976]

nice work thanks, and you said "further more" and not more over. happy days.

[@Electromakerio]

Thanks for the kind words! And good catch-I'll keep that in mind for next time. Happy days!

[@spacetechtips]

What about a mini PC with a 4060?

[@Electromakerio]

Using a mini PC equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (assuming you're projecting into the future as the 4060 model specifics might not align with current offerings as of my last update in April 2023) can be an excellent choice for a wide range of applications, particularly those requiring substantial graphical processing power and AI capabilities.

[@user-sg4ne7jb5f]

Why you dont talk about orange pi 5 plus

[@Electromakerio]

Great point! The Orange Pi 5 Plus is a solid board with impressive specs. We’ll look into including it in future videos. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@osbert]

13:25

[@user-gg3wn2ic1e]

❤

[@user-cx6rg6mr7d]

why use SBC?why not use NV GPU?

[@Electromakerio]

SBCs are great for portable, cost-effective, and energy-efficient applications with moderate computing needs. On the other hand, NVidia GPUs are better suited for high-performance computing tasks, especially those related to AI, machine learning, and advanced graphics processing. In some cases, a combination of both might be the best approach, utilizing SBCs for control and low-power tasks while leveraging NVidia GPUs for heavy lifting.

[@user-cx6rg6mr7d]

@@Electromakerio wow! thank you for detailed explainaton!!

[@Jp-ue8xz]

because there's an awful thing called an electricity bill

[@user-cx6rg6mr7d]

@@Jp-ue8xz thank you!

[@Electromakerio]

@@Jp-ue8xz stop being such a negative nancy 😅

[@MyPhone-qg2eh]

Just buy 10 pi5s

[@Electromakerio]

Buying 10 Raspberry Pi 5 units is quite the commitment! The Pi 5, with its enhanced performance and capabilities, offers a lot of potential. I'm curious about what you're aiming to achieve with such a setup.

[@robinmitchell6803]

First

[@richelliot99]

Forth!

[@Jp-ue8xz]

Awful vid, it's just about shitty overpriced boards which don't even have competitive hardware for the task (w/ like 2 exceptions like nvidia jetson that are still grossly overpriced). You can find better arm boards with 16gb and even 32gb ddr4 ram, WITH an npu/tpu/mma/accelerator whatever, for anywhere between half and 80% the price of the stuff presented here

[@Electromakerio]

The goal of this video was to provide a broad overview of some of the popular and versatile options available today, taking into account not just hardware specs but also factors like ease of use, community support, and overall value for AI projects. While it's true that some boards might be more expensive, they often offer additional features and support that can be valuable depending on the specific use case. We always welcome suggestions for better alternatives, and if you have specific boards in mind that you believe offer superior performance at a better price, please feel free to share them!