This New Credit Card Sized X86 SBC Runs Windows Or Linux! Radaxa X4

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In this video, we take a closer look at the Radaxa X4, a credit card-sized mini PC that can run Windows or Linux. We do an unboxing, heatsink install, test some 4K video playback, PC gaming and emulation like PSP using PPSSPP, PS2 with PCSX2 and Gamecube using the dolphin emulator.
Learn More Here: radxa.com/prod...
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Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.
No Games Are Included Or Added
THIS VIDEO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!
#etaprime #minipc #sbc #x86

[@joeyjojojunior4886]

Prime gets “Super Excited” a lot.

[@cloudycolacorp]

if you're still super excited after 4 hours its recommended to see doctor

[@chrisbullock6477]

And be pronouncing all the words with super accuracy.

[@Balla828]

@@chrisbullock6477 He can’t pronounce vibration. Always pronounces it viBERation.

[@jeremyr9067]

Prime gets me to buy a bunch of computers lol

[@Woodwerker]

It's called kickbacks my friend...not excitement. 😂

[@rkornilo]

I actually love the fact that you ran Cyberpunk on it. 😀 It truly gives one a benchmark of where this thing sits performance-wise.

[@MajinRose17]

Bro catfishing with the thumbnail!! I thought bro got a new set of nails I was about a hype mans up! 💅🏾

[@TRENKROM]

Fr I was like "ooh ETA Prime nails on fleek"

[@Reecetafarian]

There are 12gb and 16gb versions available. There are several retailers that sell them and and only some places carry all versions.

[@gaweyn]

yepp, AliExpress also has the 16GB RAM version

[@BusAlexey]

It's insane that n95/n100 is this scalable, from small sbc to full laptops

[@relaxationmusiccertified3684]

for that price, I'd rather buy a Beelink n95 mini pc for $120. 8gb upgradable ram, 256gb full size nvme (upgradable), ssd slot, built in fan, and case.

[@Reed-Publications]

Either that or the GMKtec Mini PC. You get far more bang for your buck with either option.

[@Klaeyy]

It's not a fair 1:1 comparison - this device has GPIO pins. You can use it as a microcontroller like the raspberryPi. For example to control / build your own smarthome stuff, you can do anything with those pins as they are programmable. You can even configure them to act as an analog video output or input. It's also build to be very compatible with the raspberryPi platform and its accessories. Like small hdmi-touchscreens with brackets that are specifically designed for this exact form-factor etc. If you JUST go by specs and price (with everything included) you will find something better perhaps. But that isn't necessarily the reason why someone would buy this anyway.

[@ivancho5854]

The GMK N97 would be my choice, but this is great too. 👍

[@bm-cy7ek]

GMKTEK for sure, this is rubbish

[@ranjitmandal1612]

😶

[@tseckwr3783]

You always do a grand job on reviews. Thanks mucho.

[@MisterPikol]

you are absolutely on fire lately

[@lolandypanda]

I was impressed that MR ETA PRIME didn't mention that on a YT test, first, he went to YT settings and changed a video codec from AV1 to VP9 in order to be able to perform on this processor....

[@Viking8888]

I’d love to see a USB to Ethernet adapter attached and pfsense or opnsense run through its paces to see how well it would run as a firewall/router. And add in a Wi-Fi 6e or 7 access point (with 6 GHz) for wireless connectivity and have all bases covered.

[@dktol56]

The Radxa store on Aliexpress is showing the 16GB variant - no emmc (wifi??) - for about $123 + $9 shipping. The price premium for an extra 8GB seems a bit high, but the extra RAM would be useful in a number of use cases.

[@dmckrk]

@@dktol56 there is also 12GB version, was available for some time on arace.

[@nukezat]

You need to review these embedded system sbc's other features beyond how well they run the same emulators

[@iiisaac1312]

"MUH HECKIN VIDEO GAMES" is the only thing 99% of "tech enthusiasts" on youtube understand.

[@braindead2813]

Finally he is talking about a device I can actually afford.

[@Phathom0]

16GB model is $123.22. For those prices, just easier to get a N100 mini PC that includes DDR4 16GB RAM 512GB SSD WIFI5 BT4.2 for $112.

[@bryancampbell4604]

You can definitely see the power difference with all the bigger components. Need a nice little heatsink for that chip.

[@SHO1989]

If there had been a second 2.5gbe port on there I'd be all over it for an OPNsense router build. Damn it.

[@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.

[@baremetaltechtv]

the fact that sbc could even get in game on cyberpunk is amazing.

[@oasismike2]

This seems affordable and any old stock cooler could probably work. I very much enjoy this type of content over the tiny/mini/micro's with the latest AMD chip's (which are just too damn expensive, but, I'm not gaming and just want a cheap portable desktop, so maybe I'm niche).

[@red2]

They should have used the N97 CPU.

[@everx7]

had the slowdown in Ratchet&Clank too, adjusted the EE Cyclerate to i think it was 130% but if wrong its 180%, it wont self implode ur PC or something, so no ones hurting by trying, it gets the worst slowdown out, still u can notice if u concentrate only on this. Still its better then going from 60 to 30 and between, also tried all renderers and its there with all of them

[@gshaw3000]

Imagining a Zen 5 version of this would be awesome!

[@subsy4132]

N100 mini PCs are perfect for Plex! It supports Intel QuickSync for hardware transcoding. Got one setup (from Beeline with 16GB RAM running Unraid) and can stream multiple 4K BluRay rips... kinda perfect for me running it at only 5W for the CPU.

[@malelonewolf80]

Would be fun to see Haiku OS running on this, just for giggles. If compatible, Haiku OS would probably run fine for decades on such a system, given its low system requirements.

[@MaximinoReyes]

There is a 3D model of a Raspberry Pi 4 case in the shape of a BeBox, it even has space for a HAT to control the Blinkenlights and the Fan speed.

[@PeterCooperUK]

It's neat to think that the N100 now is just slightly faster than the famous i7 2600K when it first launched (sure, that was in 2011, but machines were hardly dirt slow by that point).

[@lost26asian61]

Eta prime can you do a video on a x99 motherboard with Intel xeon CPU combo for 41 dollars on AliExpress? I would love to see how you would do a budget build with it. Great video btw I love your channel!

[@dividion8102]

I love seeing X86 come to that form factor, but with the extra cost for a heat sink, storage, case, power adapter and Windows license, you're probably better off getting a complete mini PC if your use case is just a little media center type PC. Or even a 4K Max Fire TV Stick that can run Xbox Cloud Gaming and emulators. The real draw to a board like this is if you can take advantage of the built-in GPIO and RP2040 (which makes that case design somewhat annoying). But hopefully these keep coming.

[@93vxhybridhatchback]

I'm sure a lot of people getting these aren't going to run windows...definitely runs better under Linux. Edit: looking further at this, it seems like a pi....as in they give you the base and you design the rest. No case/heatsink/fan included leans more that way. Like a factory would design the case/hsf for their work area ie: industrial design.

[@ccricers]

This definitely is made more for embedded and home made projects. I have a Lattepanda 3 Delta and this Radxa board makes me want to toss it aside because it's a newer gen chip and the Pi board footprint is even smaller than the Delta.

[@dktol56]

The combined heat sink/case is a must for the N100, but this SBC supports USB-C power delivery - the Radxa specs says it uses 12V at 2.5A, so just about PD adapter should work.

[@TC-iv7dn]

Just use the windows powershell to unlock your windows. Takes like 2 Minutes and the windows installer is free to download at the Microsoft homepage. I can tell you how to do it if you into "piracy". There are many videos on youtube.

[@ericjarvie]

What surprises me is that ETA did not report any thermal throttling, loss of performance, or high temperatures for the X4, unlike others. Additionally, there seem to be many misconceptions within the community regarding this board, particularly in relation to the N100 processor and power supply. However, the real issue-if you've noticed this with your device-has been successfully identified as thermal throttling, and quite possibly nothing else. In an experiment, a copper shim precisely dimensioned to fit the thermal boss of the Radxa heatsink and lay flush against the processor was installed. This completely eliminated thermal throttling and dramatically reduced temperatures to around 35 degrees. The experiment, conducted professionally by an academic, guaranteed an faultless performance from the X4. Undoubtedly, this is an excellent board of minimal size and high versatility, with plenty of head room for improvement. Let's hope the Radxa X4 is well received.

[@mistersmith489]

I've been waiting for something just like this. Can we see Linux Mint on it? I think it would be good to see because its popular and the entry price or this is so low; the true windows killer right here

[@RodrigoDeJaneiro]

Love it ! Want one

[@dragonbone94]

This would work great as a NAS

[@venomslair137]

Enough power to build your NAS server. Even if you can do the very proper with ARM sbcs, too.

[@Knuckles-gaming]

For that price for the hardware that's a really good price and it's a low end laptop CPU but compared to arm at least on windows Linux will good too on either arm or x86 but from my experience if you want the software and hardware support I would recommend the x86 over the arm chip for now. Also compare the price of the laptops that have this same chip in it and this chip is a steel compared to the arm equivalents. Also I would love to see this run an x86 version of Android and Linux especially since the driver support will be natively supported across any of those operating systems

[@kiodiekin]

nice little board. ive kept the temps down to 63 under a stress test and running ps3

[@corewarrior]

Love to see Linux. Debian or Ubuntu would be good for me. I was also wondering if there is a source to purchase the device without having to pay a lot for the shipping? Good video as always Prime!

[@PankajDoharey]

This is a good design you can put custom cooling kit on this.

[@mortyforty8404]

This is perfect for a handheld DIY cyberdeck.

[@Reed-Publications]

These are really cool little boards, but I just wish they would make better cases for them.

[@Helder_Paulo]

finaly, a good option to make a portable vcds without laptop

[@markkocsicska2590]

For the price this is really not that bad for a dedicated emulator machine that's compatible with modern controllers. I'd also love to see a linux video. Preferably with proton and emulation performance under a popular distro.

[@MINKIN2]

An x86 SBC in a Pi form factor. That's actually pretty nice.

[@ProxiedAi]

but that n100 atom chip is a waste of money

[@Zerzayar]

It's not the first one, though.

[@gearsgamer7115]

@@ProxiedAi Not really, its pretty performant.

[@angryox3102]

I’m constantly surprised at what these small low end units can do.

[@Gavinconaghty]

Super vid! Yes please to linux. My vote is Manjaro..

[@gummie3rd547]

I'd love to get something like this but have it powerful and still same size to travel around with it

[@TC-iv7dn]

yeah with a ryzen 5 or something.

[@MnemonicCarrier]

Would love to see Arch Linux (with KDE Plasma) running on this little beast! Thanks!

[@hymiecamp]

That screen shot really confused me. I was like damn cut your nails.

[@AndrewAHayes]

I get that all the time as the nails on my right hand are very long, I play acoustic and classical guitar and so need my nails long, they are very clean though!

[@jmwintenn]

@@AndrewAHayes i don't think you understand, it's a girl holding it in the thumbnail.

[@bryancampbell4604]

@@jmwintenn Woman*

[@Dozz-v4d]

I have the 8gb with emmc version and the first thing I did was try to hook up an RTX 4060 to it and play AAA games using oculink. As expected, the 8gb ram is not enough 😂 Radxa have a 12gb and a 16gb version listed on the data sheet I saw which would be interesting!

[@srvuk]

This over the :PI5 all day long. The OS versatility alone for X86 is always better than ARM. The Pi5 also needs cooling, so a tad suspicious why this point was not balanced. The key advantage for the Pi5 is lower power consumption and those added I/O for cameras etc. We don't get confirmation about the speed of the USB 3 ports. I have read elsewhere that they are 10Gbps but the official site still uses the old 3.0 moniker. This fact alone would be crucial to my purchase decision as it would add appeal and value.

[@PiManiac]

I really wish they'd used an N97 with it's 1200MHz GPU.

[@allensword1855]

I'd like to see a video of this running Linux mint and how well it games using proton through steam

[@N3tigen]

When we a SBC with 16 cores 😅

[@schovan]

Hello @ETAPRIME, nice review! I own this device and tried to stress test it in CPU-Z and only got 12W max. How did you get 21W? Did you changed anything in bios?

[@flemtone]

Would have really liked to see Linux Mint 22 running for a performance check.

[@alirax4058]

Thank you so much

[@itsTheCurry]

I wonder if this will be my next contender for in my pinball machine, also can you test an egpu with m.2 slot?

[@blackheart287]

How about for passive cooling setup. Can it be done?

[@Diegoares84]

It would be powerful enough to work in 2D animation with programs like Moho or photoshop? great video.

[@gearsgamer7115]

Question: What is the deal with the radaxa x4 12gb?

[@pfitz4881]

I'd like to see some testing with Linux Mint

[@ChampPedersen]

Can the board output video via the usb-c, for a single cable use?

[@davilescano]

I wound love to see Pop!_OS running on this SBC

[@JoshuaG]

3:41 "Doesn't support se---" ☠🤣 LMAO, getting frisky are we ETA Prime? 😅

[@pawelk.8325]

A ready-made computer with N100 GMKtec G3 cost me less than 100 USD in August, including the case, 8GB RAM and 256GB NVMe

[@BusAlexey]

Ok, let's travel back in time to August 🤦‍♂️

[@gearsgamer7115]

Yeah, those are 150$ now

[@zer0coolninja887]

Yey Eta Prime

[@enigmarocker]

Win11 with only 4gb or 8gb ram, I dont know... I know its asking for a lot to get so much in a tiny PC, but I would need this thing to at least a display port or better USB-C 10gbps, and 16gb ram so I can do more with it in Windows...then I would instantly buy it. I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next gen of this device.

[@smiththers2]

id love to try this as a "car-puter" and im also wondering if theres a way to boot windows without m.2 or emmc? imagine running a tiny little gpu with this thing through the nvme slot with an adapter. take the vram load off the built in ram and see how it goes. 32gb emmc simply isnt large enough for windows and games though.

[@petrklic7064]

Energy efficiency ?? (compared to another powerfull ARM sbc) And how is that possible having up to 21W TDP ? When in Intel specs it has only 6W ?? (important in battery life)

[@93vxhybridhatchback]

Bring back chapter markers please. They should be mandatory, imo, on ALL youtube videos. Very helpfyl

[@theyehsohz]

Linux please, it's always about compatibility with these SBCs

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

14:58 wait I see a raspberry pi chip on that computer

[@PJ818]

@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440 That's the RP 2040 microcontroller that he mentioned. It's in charge of the 40 pin header.

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

@@PJ818 that makes sense why it was from raspberry pi foundation

[@xBruceLee88x]

@5:58 7500mhz! That'd be nuts lol

[@chriscmb]

For a small form factor it's great. I would rather ha e this than a pi because of using windows and being able to use launchbox/bigbox. Great for a control panel type arcade setup.

[@MultiGameSystem]

I wonder if Batocera would work as well as it does on the Pi5.

[@velvetvideo]

you sound remarkably like the Distrotube guy.

[@oza_chan4450]

imagine if sbc next uses Lunar Lake CPU

[@guden3]

GTA5 is more popular than Cyberpunk2077(people still watches GTA5 live streams). Witcher 3, Fifa 22, PES 2021, PES 2013, MK X, Tekken 7 are more popular than Dirt. So, if a video includes more popular games then that video can have more views/likes. BTW i'm curious about this device's 1-2 hours gaming performance, for example at gameplays of AsphaltLegendsUnite(high graphics), Tekken7(high or medium graphics, 720p), PES2021(medium or low graphics), efootball2024(medium or low graphics, 720p), Watch Dogs 2(medium/low graphics)

[@ozkantuzemen]

What's the parameters of the power supply you are using? A standard adapter for Macbook Air will be sufficient?

[@claudedossantos290]

LOW LOW LOW 😂😂😂 grate video all way love your channel

[@frostbyte11]

Batocera on here would be interesting?

[@korysovec]

Can the M.2 on it handle external GPU? Would be a fun thing to test (though one would need to run the linux/windows from USB or split the pci-e lanes even more).

[@KartikoNugroho]

What do you think about chuwi minibook x? It is suitable for retro gaming?

[@darbisonsrus8072]

N100 processor - probably ok for what it is but I’m gonna pass.

[@93vxhybridhatchback]

I preordered this for one reason, and one reason only, its smaller than most of the n100 mini PC. I have a n100 beelink and it does great for my use case. But the x4 being pretty much the same but a smaller form factor , fits even better.

[@gearsgamer7115]

Its actually ~5th gen core i5 specs.

[@jasonmeister6988]

3:41 It does not support sex :(

[@stakesishigh8443]

I want to make an arcade cabinet to play modern Beatemups (Shredders Revenge, SOR 4, River City Girls 2). Would this be a good option to run those games through Steam?

[@metasoft0221]

Please test with Linux Mint.

[@subomni]

Would be cool to see Macos on this.

[@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?

[@SCIENindustries]

How does those 40gpio pins work in windows, are they like connected Arduino or what?

[@ivancho5854]

It should run Linux just fine as long as the graphics drivers are available. I'd certainly watch the video if you make it. Showing Mint and Batocera maybe.

[@pfitz4881]

I'd like to see some testing with Linux too.

[@LivingLinux]

GPU drivers are available. I have tested a mini PC with this chip with Ubuntu. Apart from power consumption, this is better than a Pi 5 for retro gaming and media. The N100 has hardware decoders for all current codecs, up to and including AV1.

[@WolfTheDog]

I mean....you can get a windows 10 key for free so your sponsor is useless

[@phillipwilliams9759]

Excuse my ignorance in the subject, but when the board is running on windows, how do you access the I/O's via software? (monitoring and programming)

[@farishanafiah8461]

The reason I buy an RPi SBC is because I want to have the full desktop Linux ARM experience. If I'm going to have an x86 CPU, I can easily buy any secondhand Windows laptop and made a Linux clean install in it. Heck, you can also buy any budget Windows mini PC with similar or faster CPU for less than $300. Sorry, but I really don't see the point of this SBC.

[@AA-sm7bb]

Wanna see elive os on it!

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

why the heck does it even have the same ports as the pi 4?!

[@martontichi8611]

I want to see 2x2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports. Is that too much to ask?

[@raminpro9765]

WE WANT VIDEO REVIEW = NEW TUF A16 - PROART P16

[@tellsackett4572]

If I may ask: what is CEC and why is it important in the context of this board?

[@johngangemi1361]

Consumer Electronics Control. It is a feature of some HDMI ports to share control signals between HDMI devices. Examples: Shared volume control and standby with a single remote. Does it work it practice? It depends how each device implements it.

[@esoel]

Can you put a videocard on the M2 slot?

[@Kopi83r]

Do You guys have some tutorials, tips on setting up ps2, ps3 emulation on Windows/Linux? My PS3 emulation keeps crashing on Windows.

[@greendro6410]

Nice 😁