Which energy efficient ARM platform to choose?

  • > Some thoughts? (link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-5tgbPSX6g)


    I guess it's about Kitchen-sink benchmarking... no time to spend 20 minutes on something like that.


    Based on 2 decades of experience with server stuff I rely on 7-zip benchmark scores in the meantime as a rough estimate how good or bad a specific system will perform with 'typical server workloads'. And since on these SBC often something doesn't work as expected extensive background monitoring when benchmarking is essential. That's why I rely on sbc-bench: https://github.com/ThomasKaiser/sbc-bench


    With NAS use cases in mind all this 'CPU horsepower thing' is mostly irrelevant. You need to look at networking and I/O capabilities. And if it's about a performance/price ratio I would always think about the total costs of the system. With OMV/NAS you add disks that can be quite expensive. This needs to be taken into account when doing such price comparisons.

  • raspi finally caused some trouble. used it with the latest omv (fresh download) it detects network, has IP address, but I cant access the web panel. After a few restart, managed to access it for awhile, but now I can't.


    so I'm thinking of replacing it (finally) since it's now strongly recommended (I laughed when I saw the message Raspberrypi is a slow NAS in the console)


    the choice is between Orange Pi Zero Plus with the NAS extension, or ROCK64. But shipping is gonna be a killer for ROCK64.


    Is there a single board with at least 2 USB hub (for keyboard and 1 external HDD) that's also recommended? Need to consider some option since single board computer is not so common in Indonesia.


  • If this is supposed to be a NAS, maybe Odroid HC2(1) + hub?
    Why do you need a keyboard in the NAS?


    I use the HC1 + hub (with the option for power supply) on which the RF remote and the sound card are hanging ... I do not experience problems with such a solution so far.
    Unless the single usb2.0 is too slow for you but most sbc has ports as hub so ...



    I also tested 2.5 hdd on usb but in the case of a hub here I would definitely recommend a hub with power supply.

  • Orange Pi is a no no, but Zero Plus is approved?

    'Orange Pi' is a brand and means exactly nothing. The SoC and PCB design in question define what the device is capable of and could be used for.


    Orange Pi 3 features a rather new SoC (which is always bad wrt software support -- mature software support in the ARM world always means old SoC), this SoC's PCIe implementation is quirky and the USB3 performance isn't that promising (might change once software improves).


    On the OPi 3 all USB3 receptacles are behind an internal USB3 hub so once more than one disk is attached we're talking about shared bandwidth and potential USB bus contention issues. Nothing I would call 'a great choice for a NAS' given what a sh*t show USB3-A alone can be (laughable tiny contacts inside the USB3-A receptacles are a guarantee for strange symptoms if cables are just slightly loose).


    Orange Pi Zero Plus is USB2 only which is good from a reliability point of view and bad from the performance POV. But combined with Xunlong's 'NAS Expansion board' IMO it's a nice and reliable storage solution if you're fine with transfer speeds being bottlenecked to 35-40 MB/s.


    And wrt 'approved'. Nothing is approved, it's just for some ARM boards OMV images exist and for the vast majority of boards not.


    Experienced users don't need OMV images since they can install on top of a Debian Stretch. Inexperienced users will then suffer from crappy performance (since settings matter) and most probably also security issues (since a lot of 'random Debian OS images' for ARM devices rely on horribly outdated kernels that received no security fixes since years).

  • Orange Pi Zero Plus is USB2 only which is good from a reliability point of view and bad from the performance POV. But combined with Xunlong's 'NAS Expansion board' IMO it's a nice and reliable storage solution if you're fine with transfer speeds being bottlenecked to 35-40 MB/s.

    In such a situation, it is not better to invest in odroid hc2?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    In such a situation, it is not better to invest in odroid hc2?

    It could be. And is for you and me. But some users assume that they can connect a keyboard and a display to the device. Perhaps also HDMI and game controls. And perhaps access GPIO pins. And it should cost less than $35. And they absolutely need to use six old 1TB HDDs in a strange and wonderful RAID configuration that is easy to setup but impossible to support.


    Also there is some server software that is only available for 64 bit ARM and/or for 64 bit x86. I'm on the lookout for some good and energy-efficient 64 bit ARM or X86 SBC. ODROID H2 is the best so far, I think. And it is not very energy-efficient and a bit expensive. And not available atm.

  • I'm on the lookout for some good and energy-efficient 64 bit ARM or X86 SBC. ODROID H2 is the best so far, I think

    Calling their H2 an SBC is IMO a bit strange. It's a really expensive but enclosure less Mini PC where everything adds extra costs due to proprietary connectors used -- see fan and SATA power cables or even such basic stuff like the screw to secure an M.2 SSD you need to source on your own). And then there are issues as always with Hardkernel and the NAS use case (HC1/HC2 being the only exception so far): https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=173&t=33319


    The only plus I see wrt H2 is the relatively low idle consumption due to not having to use an ATX or PicoPSU with this setup. But then... issues: https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=173&t=33319


    In such a situation, it is not better to invest in odroid hc2?

    Who knows? Users seem to be fascinated by low costs and high count of USB3 ports. For me personally this combination sounds like asking for trouble but what do I know?

  • It could be. And is for you and me. But some users assume that they can connect a keyboard and a display to the device. Perhaps also HDMI and game controls. And perhaps access GPIO pins. And it should cost less than $35. And they absolutely need to use six old 1TB HDDs in a strange and wonderful RAID configuration that is easy to setup but impossible to support.
    Also there is some server software that is only available for 64 bit ARM and/or for 64 bit x86. I'm on the lookout for some good and energy-efficient 64 bit ARM or X86 SBC. ODROID H2 is the best so far, I think. And it is not very energy-efficient and a bit expensive. And not available atm.


    It sounds like a leaflet encouraging to buy raspberry pi or something very similar :)
    This needs to be clearly defined what the NAS is in 2019 in the context of SBC and OMV.
    We're talking about a modest classic NAS with OMV, or a multi-task machine for everything that can do you coffee.


    The user must decide for himself what he really needs. A classic NAS or a machine for absolutely everything.
    I personally use HC with a usb hub as a classic NAS set and something extra ....


    If I had to choose x86 then I would choose more classic PC guts than H2. ARM will always have limitations. Full freedom provides only x86-64 in the context of software ...


    An example of 64bit for the arm of this software, which has no v7?

  • Who knows? Users seem to be fascinated by low costs and high count of USB3 ports. For me personally this combination sounds like asking for trouble but what do I know?

    Users probably lost the original assumption of SBC based on ARM and slowly evolute it in a rather strange direction.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    If I had to choose x86 then I would choose more classic PC guts than H2. ARM will always have limitations. Full freedom provides only x86-64 in the context of software ...


    An example of 64bit for the arm of this software, which has no v7?

    Ah, well. It seems I'll keep looking. Perhaps a nice NUC would do... I'll keep my HC2s for networked data/backup storage, that's for sure.


    What I'm after probably is more an app server than a NAS...


    Some software I don't think is available to ARM and/or 32 bit ARM:
    NextCloud with Collabra web-office apps.
    XWiki or possibly some other WYSIWYG wiki.

  • that's so MacGyver looking lol, thanks for the picture. the pipes are there for air flow I suppose?

    From what he wrote this is the assumption.


    On the other hand, he also wrote about speed problems. So before you spend your money on anything, think carefully whether it is worth following cheapness. Think carefully about choosing a particular sbc. Because then people cry that they have slow sbc and what to do (raspberry pi).



    If you do not want odroid hc




    then maybe look at Popcorn Hour Transformer

Jetzt mitmachen!

Sie haben noch kein Benutzerkonto auf unserer Seite? Registrieren Sie sich kostenlos und nehmen Sie an unserer Community teil!