Intel N100 and RP2040 Powered Tiny SBC: Meet the Compact Powerhouse, Radxa X4

[@dktol56]

With 2.5GbE and USB 3.2 gen2, this SBC would make a decent budget NAS and/or backup server. You could even run SATA storage directly from the M.2 slot using an M.2 M key SATA adapter board. Someone needs to offer an enclosure that also holds multiple 3.5" hard drives and a PSU.

[@JazzTechie]

Only disadvantage with having a microcontroller instead of direct GPIO access is writing extra code to communicate with the main OS. About the same as serialwrite/serialread from an arduino to a PC.

[@edxian8880]

Exactly! However, the companion rp2040 ease the user to interface external 3.3 voltage I/O.

[@MaximinoReyes]

To connect directly to the GPIO from the x86 CPU it could be done since the Lattepanda have been doing it for years, I don't remember if Lattepanda Engineers they achieve it by connecting it to an active software managed USB Hub Chip or by connecting by a direct UART port on the x86 chipset, what Radxa did is the only solution to the space that was available on the RPi form factor I guess...

[@MaximinoReyes]

The other manufacturer that has managed to make an x86 SBC on a RPi form factor were UpBoard from AAEON, they managed to connect directly to the 40 pin GPIO by adding a CPLD chip (A simpler variant of an FPGA $$$) with a custom Proprietary firmware and custom driver for Linux and windows but those GPIO are FAST and industrial grade reliable,

[@AZfixtech-b5u]

This looks really awesome, and the price is about the same as a n100 mini pc once you get all the accessories.

[@BrianThomas]

I want 3. This looks very good IMO.

[@karstentopp]

Mine arrived the day before yesterday. Still waiting for the M.2 to arrive. Nifty piece of kit, my only gripe is, that it isn not adhering to the RPi form factor. The GPIO is a few millimetres out. RPi cases will NOT fit and Radxa isn't a big enough player to have secondary companies develop stuff just for them. Would have been nice, when a RPi 4 case would have fitted. But ....

[@pikaskew]

Respect for not reading the docs!

[@theophilusagyirigo5908]

Can you try pfsense on it .

[@tendosingh5682]

What is the point when you can get fully loaded N100 mini pcs for not much more and rpi2040 for dirt cheap?

[@phychmasher]

Yeah the value prop is a little hard to justify. I'm interested in picking up the 4GB 4GB version of this on aliexpress for around $62 right now and seeing what I can do with Batocera on it.

[@dc99yt]

I couldn’t find a N100 mini-PC with 2.5Gb Ethernet port, X4 looks like the only one.

[@srvuk]

Good breakdown. However, what else sets this apart are thoe 10Gbps USB ports, which makes them particularly useful for externa storage exansion and multi booting. So if you have an external 10Gbps storage device then it would be useful to test the actual speed of operation and to confirm that they can all be booted from.

[@kiodiekin]

NIce review keep in mind KZbin videos aren’t truly 4k. They r compressed so its more like 2k

[@jenovaizquierdo]

Why do you need the PoE+ HAT for X4? It's strange that you didn't encounter any issues when installing Windows. In the setup process, it was asking for networking and wasn't detecting the Wi-Fi or Ethernet. I had to find a way around that in order to proceed.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Just press Shift + F10, then type oobe\bypassbypassnro and press enter. It will reboot and won't ask for networking (if that's what you are asking). As for PoE+ Hat, I just wanted to show that you can power the whole board with a single ethernet cable. In the end of video you can see my powering it with a USB cable as well

[@jenovaizquierdo]

@@TechnicallyUnsure that is exactly what I did, Oo I see. Thank you for the info. I'm subscribing to see more videos from you 👍☺️

[@new_beginning2571]

can it work without heatsink? or any other small lightweight heatsink(likr rpi5 fan) will work? what is the weight of the board?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

You might try and find a smaller heatsink, but I don't think RPI5 fan would cut it, it's Intel N100, you'll need some good heatsink and fan. As for the weight, without heatsink, it's around 80 gram-ish.

[@Ruhgtfo]

Does Raxda X4 support SSD slot

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, as you see in the video, I inserted 2230 NVME SSD and installed Ubuntu and Windows on it.

[@r0galik]

Nice review, I have 1 comment though. Without C states enabled, the CPU is limited to 2.9 GHz only and won't turbo to 3.4, also it will use more power when idling (can't clock lower that 800 MHz too). While I understand that you wanted to test it as is, C states should be enabled for the CPU to work properly and for the power consumption tests to be more meaningful.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thanks for the info, you are right, will definitely keep that in mind for future videos

[@craigprocter1232]

should have looked at documentation.. would have saved so much time jerking around.

[@NNasab-pm4le]

The price is excellent but can’t find it in stock..

[@rayproductionsbackupchanne3862]

seriously guys. i just bought a n5105 SBC for the same price since i couldnt find any other options..

[@parshantsingh4061]

What keyboard you use like the name of it?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Logitech G715

[@gearsgamer7115]

It isnt as good as the rainy 75

[@local-admin]

80?! For that lil heater? HMU in the winter

[@BrianThomas]

I wonder if the ice tower cooler would work on the board. If not, they should make one. The current cooler is pretty ugly.

[@byailen]

80 usd on where?

[@andyjohnson5571]

allnet has the 4gb for 69 and 8gb for 90 w/ 64gb

[@hornetbad]

In my opinion, if you do not need a GPIO, any MiniPC on the market is much better than this

[@paleopteryx]

".....of 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM capacity, Wi-Fi 6, and 2.5G Ethernet, this tiny titan is perfec...:" It only has 8GB or RAM, not 16!

[@Sasoon2006]

There are 12GB and 16GB versions

[@maksiodzidek1]

👍

[@Mbro-dq2do]

Great video but why would anyone do this just to run shitty windows 11?

[@SHO1989]

Agreed. If this thing had a second 2.5gbe port it would be an interesting router or home lab. Windows seems like a wasted opportunity for this thing.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

@@SHO1989 Yeah and Im not hating. Use whatever works for you. Im a mac and linux guy and Linux ON Mac guy. I cant stand using my Dell which is good. Linux on these small machines is amazing. Linux on my old tiny OLD ass 4GB RAM macs runs incredible well. So this machine in the video Looks good. Just never understood why someone would go out of their way to run ARM windows 11 on a RPi5. Just run it in a VM on a real machine. So much bloat

[@gearsgamer7115]

Gaming maybe, as an ultrabuget pc? (its cheaper for a 12gb 128gboption than a minipc and smaller). Yeah I agree windows is garbage but it has a lot of software you can't run on other oses. Oh also beacuse you can use egpus(m.2 slot to 16x adapter) even via linux beacuse the linux arm drivers are so terrible and far between it took somone 2 years to get a extremly buggy and unstable driver for an egpu on the pi5.

[@LivingLinux]

Can we stop spreading the Intel marketing BS? 6W TDP is probably only for the base clock. "Normal" use is probably double, if not more. And that is why you need some serious cooling.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

I hear you, at the end of video I also show overall power consumption of the board (powered via USB C cable)

[@srvuk]

Yes TDP is largely irrelevant but even at twice that, it is still impressive for what it can do and should not require serious cooling as many of the mini PC's already show with some basic fans.

[@BrianThomas]

​@@srvukgreat point. I have a few of miniPCs with this processor, and the cooler is a lot smaller than the one on the Radxa X4.

[@r0galik]

TDP is defined by Intel as a base clock power. There is no "manufacturer BS" as Intel themselves define it.

[@LivingLinux]

@@r0galik It's still marketing BS, as hardly anyone will limit it to 6W. And in my opinion reviewers should mention the caveat of that 6W listing. As an analogy, car manufacturers are no longer allowed to publish their own fuel efficiency metrics. They have to follow certain test scenarios and publish those results. It would be better if Intel would publish power consumption per clock speed, as they publish base and turbo clock speed.

[@Eddie-u9f]

Radxa was born a clone and will die a clone