The Rock 5B Just Killed the Raspberry Pi 4 (Almost)

The Rock 5B is a single board computer (SBC) that rivals the Raspberry Pi 4 and often beats it. The Rock 5B has an octa-core processor, up to 16GB of RAM, 2.5GbE, and an M.2 slot for NVMe storage. What more could you possibly want!
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[@Destide]

The community and support from the foundation is what makes the pi so good. Doesn't matter how fast your processor is if you leave it's libaries and repo's to collect dust.

[@AlbertDongler]

Absolutely spot on! Which renders this a bit of a hi-tech paper weight.

[@willthecat3861]

IMO... screw RPF, and their unavailable hardware, about nothing misleading marketing, and overheated cult leaning followers. Yup after almost 2 decades of their bs, that's how I feel.

[@GaryExplains]

Almost 2 decades?

[@AmusicsiteCoUk]

Indeed I'm betting in 40 years time you will still be able to buy a replacement pi 4 equivalent board whereas the Rock 5 will be long forgotten

[@LivingLinux]

@@AmusicsiteCoUk The Rockchip RK3588 is getting mainline Linux kernel support. And it seems it will also get Mesa support. The Rockchip RK3588 is here to stay for several years, just like the RK3399.

[@abucketofelves]

Just being available to buy makes it a Pi killer

[@MrToubrouk]

This is how you kill a platform: Vast libraries, tons of accessories, vibrant community, absolutely no computers. I wanted to learn Linux on a Pi. Now I think I'll locate a busted laptop instead. It's easier and cheaper.

[@andreamitchell4758]

It's a piece of crap and won't even boot Nobody even knows what power supply you need to get it to work either The wiki for it doesn't even mention Android at all So there is no way to tell what power supply is compatible for Android Most power supplies don't work with this board because of the way it handles PD power negotiation, it is not compatible with most type C power suo

[@ajosepi1976]

Like what others keep saying code support is what it will take to kill the Pi, but at the moment "IN STOCK" may just do it. Good video. Thanks.

[@BobDoe_69]

at that price point, its a wallet killer too

[@richardconway6425]

that's dry.

[@auto117666]

Yes, a small x86 computer is cheaper and more powerful, but you are paying for increased performance with a low power sbc.

[@BobDoe_69]

@@auto117666 no, i am paying for lack of supply and scalpers

[@Not_So_Weird_in_Austin]

Thanks for the review.. The underlying question is how long will your Distro take to get drivers, apps, packages etc to catch up with the Pi distro?

[@samaitcheson7057]

Useful review Gary. Thanks. Two queries I have - How does the Model A version compare to the Orange Pi 5 in terms of performance and software support? Also, how to use that HDMI input?

[@richcurtin9540]

Great video, it’s so good to see platforms like Rock and even better to see the community embracing them and getting excited at the next generation of single board computers.

[@Tim_Small]

Great that it boots from nvme, but so does the ~5 year old FriendlyARM NanoPC T4, based on an earlier RockChip SoC. Thanks for the comprehensive review...

[@PeetHobby]

Rapberry pi killer, we have heard that many times before, but the RPI succes is not about the hardware alone, so we will see how this will end.

[@AmusicsiteCoUk]

Also it's bang for you buck... I would expect something twice the price to be faster. To be a killer it would have to out perform it at the same price point.

[@nir8924]

TBH i usually unsubscribe automatically when i see these "X is a Y killer" titles. This meme is getting boring.

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

Raspberry Pi certainly isn’t about hardware: you can’t buy it!

[@richardconway6425]

The addition of an M.2/NVMe interface is a great feature, especially at gen 3/4 lane speeds. That should be enough for most people. NVMe ssds offer the best of all worlds; capacity, speed and reliability. It's a killer feature, for sure. Gary, do you think that an M.2/NVMe interface will make its way onto the raspberry pi in its next iteration (as a boot device)? Or is it not a priority for the rp foundation? Is there a significant cost involved in integrating this into a pi? The other thing that I don't understand is this issue of drivers for the gpu integrated into the arm processor. It is not unreasonable to expect to get a usable driver for hardware that one has paid for - so why is this a recurring issue for sbcs? At the very least, arm themselves should provide a generic gpu driver that works with the main Linux arm distros. What is the issue here? Is it a firmware/bios issue? Or is it a Linux issue? I don't understand this at all. Also, does this thing actually have a bios ROM chip on the board? I understand that the raspberry pi doesn't, and I wonder how much of a disadvantage that is (?) ....

[@JazzTechie]

CM4-IO-Base A gives you M.2 on a pi 4. The pi compute modules actually work with a ton of different carrier boards with different components on them. Can also use USB to m.2 on the pi SBCs.

[@JazzTechie]

Oh - and latest pi firmware boots from NVMe.

[@minigpracing3068]

Give Armbian a try, the latest version is working really well on my Devterm A06 which is the rk3399 6 core processor. They say that the 5b is supported.

[@denvera1g1]

7:20 with 4k random being faster than sequential write i suspect the drive might be QLC nand which can slow to as little as 60MB/s once the cache runs out

[@the_bogeyman.]

I was lucky to buy the last R.pi 4B 8gb and 400 available on the shelf, directly at a local store. How does the Rock 5B perform as an arcade machine, compared to a R.Pi (Retropi/Batocera)? I would be interested only if it can emulate SEGA model 2 arcades (Top skater, Daytona USA, Sega Ski Super G, Sega rally, etc).

[@adrianoakley3231]

can you suggest a power supply that it will actually work without rebooting?

[@nigelgunn322]

Looks to be a great board but not yet market ready. Perhaps this time next year but who knows what else will be available then. For me, NVMe is not a decider as Pi4 will boot from a USB SSD but the lack of wi-fi is. I don't have wired ethernet available.

[@bertblankenstein3738]

I got one of these boards. I got Ubuntu going, performance is pretty good.. Ubuntu wanted to do a major update which I did allow. Unfortunately Firefox would no longer start, bpf problems. Ubuntu also uses snaps, ugh, not crazy about that. I still have to experiment with Debian next, and the firmware update to boot from nvme. Software support seems reasonable, but I didn't really do a lot with this board yet. The rock 5b does not come with a screw to hold down the nvme drive. The heatsink case is ok, but I had to supply my own thermal compound. I used some leftover squares from my pi stuff, a bit of an awkward thickness (1.5 times the thickness of the material). It is workable. I'll try the firmware update, and putting Debian on the nvne and booting that. The performance of the hardware is pretty good.

[@PiMania]

Nice Video. Btw: I had No problems with RebornOS @1080p here and i'm using a Pi4 Power Supply with 1TB NVME + USB WIFI dongle no problems.

[@krishnamurthyganeshb]

Where will I get a 10"/13" tablet screen for this? What is the worth if I compare to market rates for tablet

[@valutcizen1]

How about to make comparison of SBC's for usual usage: you can take USB-C docking station with power, display, network and keyboard/mouse connected to make only one cable plugged and then test such things like browsing, youtube, geforce now.

[@jdpt-]

Thanks for the review, would you be able to find out what the power efficiency is like? What's the power draw at idle and under load compared to the RPi4?

[@JeffGeerling]

Idle around 3-4W, load at 8-14W, in my testing, and it could be a little higher depending on power consumption of an NVMe drive.

[@jdpt-]

Thanks Jeff!

[@knoxvalleskey1636]

Its not gonna kill anything. Radxa has soo many half cooked boards its kind of ridiculous. If they actually stuck with fewer boards and properly supported them they would have a chance, but the msrp is too high and knowing pi supplies will get back to normal this year it's kinda moot. Doesn't matter how fast it is if the support and community isnt there.

[@muddyexport5639]

Excellent vid. Thanks! I like the features of the Rock 5B. However, I'm not into in innovator's cycle. I'll let the pioneers get the arrows and wait until it is populated with software libraries and resolved the majority of any issues. RPi4 works well enough for my needs at this point and I boot from an NDMe attached externally and works well enough.

[@JazzTechie]

Sounds like it would be nice as a node in a cluster where you just want the CPU cores, ram, disk, and network, but don’t necessarily care about the host OS at all.

[@lostbranchranch8646]

I just ordered what I think will be the perfect case for my Rock5b - "KKSB Rock 5B Case with Heatsink" allows fan installation, unlike the case created by RADXA. If you dig out your Rock5b to play around with could you include doing a "Gary Explains" video on getting the Rock5b to boot from the NVME card, step by step for people like me...?

[@benarcher372]

What about wireless connectivity?

[@lostbranchranch8646]

Are there any development updates on the Rock5b since you made this video in Feb? I have one sitting on my desk, collecting dust waiting for some community input... it seems to have so much potential, what happened? I can't even get the wifi/bt module from the distributor Ameridroid...

[@GaryExplains]

I need to dig my one out as well and have another play around. Sadly many of these Chinese SBCs have little in terms of ecosystem and community. The Raspberry Pi is king of the ecosystem and community.

[@NexuJin]

@1:40 HDMI IN!!!! That's awesome The hardware capability looks great. But the software makes it practically limited use. Was almost thinking it would been nice to use it as a capture/streaming box. But the graphics driver and support looks even worst than fglrx on Linux back in 2003.

[@TT-it9gg]

Thanks for the excellent video. Appreciate! 1. For GPU, seems that there are OpenGL and WebGL support now. 2. For FFMPEG and OpenCV, same with Jetson Nano and Pi4B, need to re-compile for GPU support. 3. J4125 is too old, can get a N6000 or N6005 for around $200. Is that possible to compare the RK3588 with N6000? 2 cents~

[@GaryExplains]

When you say GPU support is there now, what do you mean? In the last 24 hours they added GPU support? I published this video yesterday.

[@milankostic5401]

@@GaryExplains AFAIU, there is a hacked up driver, so called panfork driver. Google for panfork, but yes it is not a proper driver... it seems to run a GPU at a low clocks, is like 2.5 to 3x slower than Mali blob driver. Better than nothing i guess, but is not really representative in such shape. Basically there are currently two drivers for RK3588 for Linux, official ARM Mali blobs that supports only Wayland and not Xorg, as usual blobs do not support OpenGL proper, just ES, etc... And another one is this crafted, hacked up panfork. Blob support exist, but that seems isnt so usable for linux users, as it depends on hacked up hybrid kernel too instead of more normie and more closer to mainline kernels, but no, no expected panfrost driver support still, that is right. Choose from 2 bad ones, stories about them all sounds like nothing but politics It really sounds like deja vu, just like with RK3399 support, chip released in Q1 2016. only started to be usable in a expected linux way somewhere in about year 2019. RK3588 released in Q4 2021, it would probably be ready for an average Joe, in year 2024.

[@peterfrisch8373]

Gary old boy, what can the Rock Pi 5 do while powered by PoE?? PoE is my preferred way to power an SBC

[@ivosarak959]

Are there any OSS GPU drivers for these other ARM boards besides Broadcom?

[@rippanda12]

panfork (what RebornOS uses)

[@tonysheerness2427]

Nothing more infuriating when something does not work, that should. Pi 4 is old in the tooth but is well polished and if you do not need blistering speeds and of course if you have one, it is the better choice. Pi 4 shortages are due to its excellent support and is used in commercial applications. You can not get better endorsements than that. As Rock B software is work in progress it could end up as a paper weight for ever waiting for things to be fixed.

[@KameraShy]

The shortage is the result of the Pi Foundation serving corporate interests instead of the user community that established and built its support base. Then the Foundation abandoned us - for greed. This situation shows the folly of relying on what amounts to a proprietary sbc. What is needed is a generic, open hardware (RISC?) board. The support will follow. Fastly.

[@marineview4815]

just get in touch with OKdo team and get the support you need.

[@jeanyluisa8483]

You can only connect if via USB, but you can boot a Raspberry Pi 3b+ and a Pi 4 from SSD instead of SD card too.

[@richarddukard8989]

The reason that it's ALMOST a Raspberry Pi killer, is because the Raspberry Pi 4 has been dead for years now.

[@MisterkeTube]

What use is a fast CPU if you don't get hardware acceleration on real power-hungry tasks? Also, I want to get this on a rock-solid software basis. There are only two things I really dislike about the RPIs that I have, both of them are complaints on software implementation and I doubt any other pi-wannabe solves these either: 1) USB and the over-sensitive power input due to it, complaining about any slight drop in the 5v rail, even though the SoC runs on much lower voltage and hence has a voltage regulator that can keep going way below that 5v mark. The reason is clearly the power to the USB slots and possibly internal switch, which also becomes visible when running the PI for extended time. Every time a PI crashed on me (or otherwise became unreachable over the network), USB had its hand in it. And sure, you can keep blaming this on flaky power-supplies, but even the best PSU seems to then glitch over long periods and handling that more robustly in the software - resetting the entire USB system if needed, would be much better than the current behavior. 2) Ubuntu or Debian LTS versions not being what *I* call LTS. I tend to update packages regularly, BUT I dread upgrading from one version of an OS to the next after having had too many headaches. I just want an OS which you install, configure and the never have to run the risk of having to start over just because someone decided to make such major changes that your config is no longer correct. Especially on systems that are only accessible over the network, having to upgrade the OS is always a big risk. Seldom have I had problems just upgrading packages, but even more rare have been the occasions when a system upgrade finished without having to get the device hooked up to a monitor and keyboard to see why the remote access (and often much more) was broken by that upgrade. So, if it were up to me, Ubuntu would now stop any new release and just focus on getting things up to date in the current and hence final version. I'm sure there's some reason why this is impossible but for me Long Term should be something like 20 years, not the 4 or 5 years an OS is now getting updates. And every time I have moved to a newer Ubuntu version I have felt as if I lost something (some old tools) than that I considered it a real step forward (for my needs).

[@beefyjoe]

I am a believer that the software will catch up, the hardware is great for what it is on paper, just need to get transcoding working!

[@HiltonT69]

If you look at Radxa's history of software support of their hardware you'd change your position. :(

[@LisnicVitalie]

Rock 5B is fantastic. But mine GPU accelerator stuck every 2 seconds

[@whothefoxcares]

What more could you possibly want? *a case that's designed in Cupertino California, with a power supply @inside.*

[@Kw1161]

It is the proverbial story of the Tortoise and Hare, The Hare speeds away saying bye bye only to find the Tortoise waiting at the finish line. Manufacture and Community support are both needed. That's where the Raspberry Pi shines. So as for the Rock 5B being the PI killer, as the old James Bond American Spoof show GET SMART Maxwell Smart used to say "Missed it by that much" whenever he tried to kill the bad agent....:). I have a Raspberry Pi 4 and a Mekotronics 58X both are nice, but I can usually find software for the Pi.

[@optimalchoice270]

Perhaps starting with the price differential would be a service to your community.

[@Etienne85]

Not listed in your review but one of the biggest asset to me: the Mali-G610 which should completely outperform any other SBC ARM GPUs. Of course it is only a "should" for now as driver support is mostly a WIP. Also the lack of mainline kernel support is really frustrating when you know the hardware capabilities of this board.

[@GaryExplains]

I do mention the Mali GPU and I also mention that there are no hardware accelerated drivers, at least for Debian. I hear that Reborn OS might have better drivers. I also got confirmation that there will be software updated soon.

[@Etienne85]

@@GaryExplains Yes several distributions are currently having some basic gpu acceleration: Armbian, Reborn and Archlinux which I'm currently using. Would be interesting to get some graphics benchmarks on something like Reborn

[@HiltonT69]

Radxa has a wholly underwhelming history of software support of their hardware. That's the biggest issue with anything they make.

[@petelynch9468]

Anything you can actually buy could be a Pi killer. The suppliers have had 2 years of Pi-free time to get their software and support up to scratch. Yet none have. The price of this OK but what I saw says it isn't available yet. Only on pre-order. If it's software isn't compatible with Pi's then it has given itself a huge disadvantage.

[@jtd_443]

Please do a video about orange pi 5 🙂

[@AzeUnkn0wn]

those cons stopped me from getting this. I hope they address all of it soon

[@Henfredemars]

I wonder what the thermals look like on this thing. That additional performance comes with a few caveats not the least of which is you might need additional cooling. Is it actually more efficient?

[@GaryExplains]

You will certainly need a heatsink, or better still, a fan, if you are running sustained high loads. There is a fan connector on the board, and you can get an official fan from Radxa.

[@esra_erimez]

Rock 5B beats the Raspberry Pi hands down because you can actually *get* one.

[@BlastarX]

People forget that they can also get an ITX motherboard with an embled CPU or even better a "nuc like" PC at this price. Arm based DIY boards are overrated and way over priced.

[@GaryExplains]

That is an interesting point. Could you recommend some and I will see if I can get one for review.

[@SKotekar]

Does it have wifi and Bluetooth?

[@TheEulerID]

No. You have to add that.

[@MickeyMishra]

So by any used computer and then add GPIO Pin headers. I'm so kind of surprised people are using Chromebooks for this purpose more often

[@GaryExplains]

How do you add GPIO?

[@tabaghdissar]

Great video as usual, can you please do a s22 ultra exynos vs s23 ultra speed test. Your speed test was the best and most reliable.

[@NeptuneSega]

The S23 line only has Snapdragon. There are no Exynos versions

[@An.Individual]

But isn't the cost 2 or 3 or 4 times the cost of a Rasb Pi?

[@GaryExplains]

I thought I covered the price in the video?

[@rustyhaddock7954]

One point you totally skipped over is that the Rock 5B has no onboard WiFi! That's a bit of a killer for me.

[@johanngambolputty5351]

Why not just run the dd command on your computer to begin with? Write the image straight to the nvme, rather than going by the sd and using a probably slower cpu in the meantime...

[@GaryExplains]

Because you need a USB to M2 adapter, which I don't have and I guess many people don't have.

[@johanngambolputty5351]

@@GaryExplains Oh fair enough

[@oneofthemany]

Where are you purchasing your boards from as I paid £128 or $158 for the 16GB version? Also there was no mention of PoE (out in April) or the M2 e slot which you can either use for WiFi or a TPU. You mention power supply issues... There are lots of people who think you can just use a phone charger as that's what most SB's support, but perhaps people should RTFM haha People should also consider that this is a development board and all current software is WIP and on an early kernel version, but give it time and I'm sure V6 kernel will become available on due course

[@GaryExplains]

I didn't use a phone charger, i used a verified PD changer ha ha ha.

[@oneofthemany]

@@GaryExplains power delivery is one thing, but the amount of power and the specification is another! Documentation clearly says USB PD2.0 power adapter which support 12V/15V/20V with 2A current or higher output

[@GaryExplains]

Yeah, I know and that is what I used and it didn't work. This isn't my first rodeo 🤦‍♂️

[@oneofthemany]

@@GaryExplains that's worrying which points to either a faulty board or power supply - have you tested with a volt meter?

[@GaryExplains]

No it isn't a faulty board, the ROCK 5B has some bugs in its PD implementation, simple as that. I am not the only person experiencing this.

[@JustAThought01]

What about WiFi? Did I miss the discussion on this capability?

[@unicaller1]

WiFi sold separately.

[@LivingLinux]

You can add that in the other m.2 slot, or with USB.

[@joelee24]

First I was confused, there are so many "Fruit Pi'' on the market, unlike say Odroid which is one of the original Pi competitors has its own name. Then there are "Rock", but not like the RockPro64 from a different company, I don't know who got the patent first or has a patent, the most important to me is the long term support like others have already mentioned, many chinese products simply vanished a short while after release.

[@richards7909]

No WiFi and Bluetooth. Do these boards leave them off in order to save time and cost on getting them certified to show they comply with local laws? In fact, has this

[@littlejohn2708]

The PI is over 2 years old and the RockPI is less than a year old. From a hardware standpoint of course it's better. But, from the software, support, variety of uses and worldwide spread the PI beats it hands down.

[@learnlinuxfirstthenspeaktother]

Some facts about RebornOS were misleading, I think you should take the time evaluating an ARM SBC device and the OS's before getting into conclusions.

[@GaryExplains]

What facts were misleading?

[@KrK-EST]

If the base Pi 35eur keeps the same, the Pi5 should have base 4gb ram(up to 16), AMD mobile gpu chip and a PCIe x4 (boodable). Any other is a bonus but overall IO is ok (the 2x usb 3 to usb4 would be fantastic but not not a must be).

[@KrK-EST]

AMD gpu chip so the drivers woyld be more mature and also makes PI future ready. Also could play huge part of Steam librart games (they have beta arm emulation for cpu).

[@esra_erimez]

No more SD cards!

[@CristiIstrate]

Paper weight (software support)

[@rippanda12]

Been using it as a daily driver with RebornOS

[@qzorn4440]

wow very impressive Rock 5B; at ameriDroid $220?? ROCK 5 Model B 16GB RK3588 LPDDR4x RAM 🧐 Gary do you have a comparison benchmark between these two PCB-SBCs? aliexpress $120?? Orange Pi 5 Single Board Computer 16GB RAM RK3588S,PCIE Module External WiFi+BT,SSD 8K Orange Pi5 Development Board Run Android 😎 Thank you, nice video.

[@kamilolszewitz2935]

plz compare same price segment items. who cares about Rock 5B if its price is 2? 3? times more than RPI?

[@GaryExplains]

I do because you get more features, important features, for the extra money.

[@graealex]

Me thinks an M2 would make a good addition to the benchmarks.

[@marineview4815]

100%!

[@tretty]

Raspberry Pi 4 WHEN can we expect one???????????

[@dim3nt0]

For all that go rpi is king, it used to be the no1 choice, the unavailability and absurd prices makes it well nothing atm. You cant buy it and when you can its 200$. Maybe next pi...

[@MrConcord75]

It beats a J4125! wow!

[@6pfk]

why does everyone want to kill the raspberry pi. all the pi killers I've seen have poor support and IO and use WAY to much power for embedded projects. should be called power killers.

[@willofirony]

Wi oh Wi no WiFi?

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

It can be from a hardware side point. However, if we look in the software, Orange Pi is behind. But, something is better than nothing. So, Orange Pi killed Raspberry Pi for me for 3 more years. Perhaps, we will see new Raspberry Pi 5 in 2028, then situation may change.

[@jeanyluisa8483]

Its a bit funny that people always think its characteristics like high CPU and disk performance, a lot of RAM and diskspace, a fast network connection etc. what makes SBC (SingleBoardComputers) successfull. If I really need that, I use my desktop or notebook and not my Raspberry.

[@AzeUnkn0wn]

desktop or notebook uses more power than SBC. we prefer low powered, high performance computers to run 24/7.

[@GaryExplains]

It is a bit funny that you assume you know what people need/want from an SBC.

[@jeanyluisa8483]

@@GaryExplains Ok, I expressed myself wrong. Replace "people always think" with "so many people think". Whenever there are new SBCs they usually get announced and advertized with having a better performance than the latest or corresponding Raspberry PI model. Most articles, videos, advertisments etc. about SBCs start with highlighting that the new "xyz" -SBC has more GHz, cores, RAM etc. than the Raspberry Pi. Many videos about SBC on KZbin talk about performance and show benchmarks comparisons with Raspberry only. In despite to your video, many others do not talk about the price, OS and software support, the community that offers support, patches, fixes, etc. But I think its exactly those values and not the performance what made the Raspberry successful.

[@GaryExplains]

@@jeanyluisa8483 Well since I did cover all those things in my video the moral of the story is be careful which KZbin channels you subscribe to.

[@GustavoMsTrashCan]

Eh, being up to 4 times faster than the rpi 4 is enough "pi killer" for me, thank you very much.

[@tonysheerness2427]

Yes like driving a high speed race car and find out it doesn't stop due to a software bug.

[@GustavoMsTrashCan]

@@tonysheerness2427 ...which never happens and never will happen. Unless you want to use decade-old hardware for whatever reason.

[@tabaghdissar]

Even though it have A76, it's not as fast as it should. I'm curious if it usefull for running homeassistant, docker, pihole ...

[@tonysheerness2427]

@@GustavoMsTrashCan The company and the marketing department released the product before it was finished, promising Jam tomorrow. They may deliver and you end up with a good solution or a product that always has bugs if they don't. It will depend on the take up, if it is popular the bugs will be sorted if no one buys it you will be left with a lemon.

[@tonysheerness2427]

@@tabaghdissar It is faster but not reliable.

[@tabaghdissar]

It's time for raspberry pie to release a more powerful board with better I/O. Raspberry pie has the best support and best community, The new raspberry pie should have 2.5Gbps ethernet, maybe even 2 ethernet, pcie nvme m.2 support, usb3, type C pd power

[@BobDoe_69]

hate to break it to you, they dont care about hobbyists they said so themselves. Prioritizing industrial buyers needs and orders so mainly B2B. Everyone else like me and you is secondary

[@nathanbanks2354]

I suppose the Rock 5B is also physically larger, and doesn't come as a compute module. I've been trying to decide between the Rock 5B and Orange Pi 5. The Orange Pi is smaller, though larger than a Pi 4, the NVMe drive is 1/4 as fast and only supports smaller drives, but it's supposed to have a version with 32GB of RAM...not that I can buy the 32GB version anywhere, it only mentions it on the product page. I'm looking forward to the Raspberry Pi 5 whenever they do another update. Hopefully they'll add an NVMe drive.

[@IndependentNewsMedia]

Nice video 👍

[@GaryExplains]

Thanks 👍

[@aka_vitfil]

Too expensive. Orange Pi 5 looks better than it one.

[@ergindemir7366]

It's 3 times more expensive than equivalent (and obsolete) RPi4, not worth it.

[@LivingLinux]

You can also sign up for the Radxa Rock 5A.

[@silenthill4]

Lol good luck getting a raspberry pi 4, even at inflated prices

[@ArniesTech]

Very difficult to imagine. So many Raspi-Killers came and went. Nobody can match the community and software support of the RPi 🙏

[@101xraydelta]

it hasnt broken the pi its to expensive

[@shenmue5765]

Never will beat RPi. Software support sucks. It baffles me these Chinese companies put out nice and powerful SBCs but then don't focus on the software side. Sad!

[@rippanda12]

RebornOS has full gpu support.... it also has c++ and other libraries just cause you havent installed them doesnt mean it doesnt have it

[@GaryExplains]

I don't remember saying that Reborn OS didn't. I said Debian didn't and that Reborn OS has potential but I didn't explore it much. Didn't I?

[@peterdegelaen]

I programmed quite an extensive system (about 3000 lines of bash script code) for controlling the opening and closing of the window roller shutters for my house (to make thieves believe there is someone at home) on a Raspberry PI (3+). I used the same method to access the GPIO pins as what your small script uses. I just didn't want to get involved in the Python crap.

[@relaxationforbeginners2089]

Your “facts” are highly inaccurate on RebornOS and need checking.

[@GaryExplains]

What facts did I get wrong about Reborn OS?

[@la6mp]

A «job in progress» SOC has no interest to me. I seek challenges in how to use these systems, not fixing them such that they might one day become useful. Here Raspberry is shining, strange that hardware developers seem to ignore the importance of decent documentation.

[@michaelkaercher]

Nonsense. That thing is 4 times more expensive as the pi

[@GaryExplains]

Really? How do you calculate that compared to a Pi 4 with the same amount of RAM?

[@milankostic5401]

@@GaryExplains RK3588 chip is like 4x amount bigger than BCM2711, so die size matters for the performance and of course particulary matters for price. Other that arm and similar board size, they have nothing in common. 28 nm vs 8 nm. RAM capacity is one thing, while speed and bandwidth of it is another. RPi4 have LPDDR4 single channel RAM, while this board have dual channel LPDDR4x. Notice X, that is different RAM, step between LPDDR4 and LPDDR5. Now, RK3588 by itself seems to support LPDDR5 too, but so far i didnt spot a board with 5, at a moment would likely make it even more expensive. Even boards are of similar size, chips that runs them arent same class nor design at all. RK3588 is more like desktop-like ultramobile class, it is declared as 12W TDP, but could easely go above 20W if you stress it up properly on both CPU and a GPU at the same time and not to talk about something else if connected on the same power source... It is kind of funny to see full RK3588 chip in a similar to RPi board size, as that simple isnt its expected enviroment, not to mention how such size and probably not so always for particular need, always shaves up something that chip actually supports. And then people complain how this or that board misses something, of course it will always miss something on such size

[@michaelkaercher]

@@GaryExplains Your headline is as senseful as to write Mercedes E-Class just killed VW Golf. The Rock 5B is a higher spec'ed, faster and much more expensive board. But I do not care about it because for me it is the use case which determines my needs. And if a RaspPi with 1GB RAM is fine, ist is a good solution. The two boards do for me not compete. If I have a use case for the Rock, I may use it. But frankly - for most of my projects - I use esp32, because not even the raspPi is required.

[@GaryExplains]

@@michaelkaercher Thanks for your long and detailed reply, however none of what you wrote addresses your original comment or my reply. How is the ROCK 5B four times more expensive?

[@michaelkaercher]

@@GaryExplains I paid for the Raspberry Pi 4b 55 Euro and Rock5b is 220 Euro at Aliexpress. You do the math.

[@hithere2561]

Nice clickbite. Nice to know that you do anything for clicks. Price isnt even similar. What is next video - cluster os Xeon servers is Rasperry Pi 4 killer

[@GaryExplains]

You mean clickbait not clickbite. But here is the question, why does the price need to be similar for it to be a killer? If you want a cheap SBC get a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. I am guessing you didn't even watch the video. I guess you were the kind of kid who did book essays at school without reading the book first, LOL.

[@hithere2561]

@@GaryExplains I just grabbed couple of P4 8GB for 75€ each. This thing cost twice as much. Naming something to somethings killer it must be better AND cheaper otherwise is just another player on the field

[@GaryExplains]

You didn't answer my question. Why is $75 reasonable to you? That is 7x more than a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. Why didn't you buy a Raspberry Pi Zero 2? As I said I don't think you watched the video because in it I explaining carefully what you get for your extra $75. For me the better features are worth the money. You actually think the same because you think the extra features of the Pi 4 are worth the extra $65 compared to the Pi Zero 2. It is all relative. I suggest you watch the video.

[@hithere2561]

@@GaryExplains If I need more power Ill use "real" computer. Pi 4 have enough power for most things that need something small form factor. For the Rock 5B price you can get something with Intel J3455, or whatever is the current generation. Or, as it is for DIY people, you can get older laptop and tear it apart. This Rock B5 is great thing to have but its nothing like Raspberry Pi 4. You video tile is something like "Lamborghini just killed Daewoo Tico ...almost"

[@GaryExplains]

Well that is YOUR requirements, not mine. I want the extra performance, I want the NVMe slot, I want the high speed Ethernet. For everything else I can use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. The only advantage the Pi 4 has over the Pi Zero 2 is performance, LOL, yet you say you need that performance, but not the performance of the ROCK 5B. 🤔What are YOU doing on your Pi 4 that you can't do on a Pi Zero 2?

[@giornikitop5373]

with 2x the price and software and features that "might work in the future", this thing although spec-wise seems impresive, cannot even kill a corpse, let alone a rpi4. why do you have to lie in the title when you know the truth? are you so desperate for views? just make an honest review of the product without bold claims and ppl will watch it. and don;t even mention the "almost". this thing is almost a rpi killer, by a mile.

[@GaryExplains]

I think I did make an honest review. The title is the title, it needs to be attention grabbing, that is the reality of KZbin. But it certainly isn't a lie. Do you know something about this board that I don't? Ignoring the title, do you have a problem with the video itself?

[@giornikitop5373]

@@GaryExplains no, i don;t have any problem with the video which is my point. you have a nice channel and ppl will watch the content. "the title is what it is" is not an answer because last time i checked almost means dangerly close to something, and the rock 5 is NOT by far, as also stated by your video. how is that not a lie? are we changing the meaning of words now? yes, i have tested this board and know as much as you do which is that it might get better, but right now is mediocre at best and in no way remotely close (software-wise) to the pi. so long story short, the title might get you more attention, but will likely frustrate ppl and end up loosing interest, win on the short-run, but loose on the long.

[@GaryExplains]

Well I am sorry you don't like the title, but one thing I have learned from making KZbin videos is that i can't please everyone. 🤷‍♂️

[@giornikitop5373]

@@GaryExplains sure, but how can a misleading title please someone? oh well, no point going any further.

[@GaryExplains]

Well I don't think the title is misleading. You have a different opinion. I find it odd that you are so obsessed with the title. 🤷‍♂️