Framework have today announced that DeepComputing (you may have heard of them due to their DC Roma laptops hitting the headlines recently) have developed a fully compatible Framework RISC-V… Read More
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Bret's Tech Blog Blog
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Interesting and informational content on Single Board Computers such as the Raspberry Pi and their accessories so you can make informed decisions on what alternatives to purchase when building your home lab.
Hot on the tails of its Ubuntu partnership, RISC-V-focused outfit Milk-V have announced its latest offering, the Milk-V Jupiter in an ITX form factor, intending to be your next low-power des… Read More
Introduction
Software support is often the crux of Single Board Computer enthusiasts, with a large chunk of the documentation pointing you to a Google Drive, or Baidu Cloud link to (poten… Read More
I know I said that I was going to cool it (hehe) on the Pi 5 cooler front but after seeing the ICE Tower Plus pop up in stores, I had questions. First of all, why? Second, why is it now in m… Read More
It feels like M.2 HATs may become the new Pi 5 case for me in terms of releasing multiple reviews in succession but it is what it is, and the delivery Gods dictate when packages arrive, not… Read More
After being teased by Raspberry Pi in their Raspberry Pi 5 release post, 8 months and multiple revisions later we finally have the Official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ available for purchase. With… Read More
I’ve been sitting on the Libre Computer Solitude ever since receiving it in September of last year, so apologies to anyone who was expecting to see it soon after I teased it at Embedde… Read More
As I wake up in my hotel room and April draws to an end, an interesting development has come out of Poland-based hardware/engineering company, Pineberry Pi, as they announce a rebranding to… Read More
Alongside my Radxa ROCK 5 ITX I received one of their new, budget-user-focused boards, the Radxa 5C Lite and the cool thing about this board is that it has a 16-pin FFC PCIe connector. Can y… Read More
Introduction
The Geniatech XPI-3566-ZERO is another Raspberry Pi Zero form-factor SBC to add to the pile, though much like other Raspberry Pi alternatives, it packs in additional features… Read More
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the ROCK 5 ITX coming soon and since then, samples of the Rockchip RK3588-based Radxa ROCK 5 ITX have been landing on doorsteps (or service points, screw… Read More
As I sit on a rather cramped train on my way back from Embedded World 2024, I thought I’d put together some quick pieces on things that caught my eye whilst walking around the massive… Read More
With nothing else quite yet ready for the “big time”, the Rockchip RK3588 at the heart of the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX continues to be the top dog in the ARM SBC market, and with extensi… Read More
I promise that the Raspberry Pi 5 case content will slow down at some point but I went on a bit of a purchasing spree over the last couple of weeks so you’re stuck for now. The Argon N… Read More
Scaleway is a French cloud/server provider with a long history of providing new, and fun options in their Scaleway Labs section. They’ve long had ARM-based instances available, but wha… Read More
Updating your Raspberry Pi bootloader is often essential for keeping the device running smoothly and whilst on a Raspberry Pi it’s not often critical, firmware updates can enhance syst… Read More
Want to make the most of the PCIe port available on your Raspberry Pi 5 and boot from an M.2 NVMe SSD? You’re in luck! A whole host of Raspberry Pi 5 NVMe hats are available these days… Read More
It’s no secret that I loved the 52pi ICE Tower cooler when I reviewed it a little while ago, and if you can fit it into your case or overall aesthetic then it offers some of the best c… Read More
The wave of Raspberry Pi 5 accessories is upon us and when I reviewed the Pi 4 ICE Tower cooler from 52Pi previously, it did a rather good job. When I saw that there was a Raspberry Pi 5 ICE… Read More
Flirc have a long history of creating cases that double as heatsinks/passive coolers for the Raspberry Pi and with the introduction of the Flirc Raspberry Pi 5 Case, this continues.
Intro… Read More
I wasn’t sure about writing something like this as it feels a bit self-indulgent but there have been a lot of changes this year so I wanted to highlight those, share some details on th… Read More
Last but certainly not least with the bret.dk Single Board Christmas season, it’s the Libre Computer Giveaway!
Libre Computer have kindly offered me 6 SBCs to give away in the form… Read More
Pineberry Pi is a Polish company founded in September 2023 with the goal of creating incredibly useful hardware to support the Raspberry Pi Single Board Computers.
They have several bo… Read More
What a difference a week makes! We have 7 new Banana Pi owners and I’m over my cold which is nice as it’s time to announce my 2nd Christmas event, the Radxa ROCK Giveaway!
Tha… Read More
Whilst I’m not feeling particularly joyous laid up in bed with my 3rd cold in 2 months, I’m still going to spread some festive joy now we’ve reached December as that’… Read More
It’s been more than 4 years since we received the Pi 4 and it’s had a good run (if you could get one when you wanted it) but it’s now time to pass on the baton. My Raspberr… Read More
After a few years of hearing nothing, and then “There will be no Raspberry Pi 5 in 2023” we have a Raspberry Pi 5. Surprise! This means that it’s time for me to test and le… Read More
The new member of the Raspberry Pi family is now available and shipping into eager maker’s hands! With faster, more capable USB ports, USB boot on the Raspberry Pi 5 is a great option… Read More
5 years seemed like an awfully long time for a new Single Board Computer to be in the works, especially given the rate at which new boards have been pumped out recently but perhaps with Libr… Read More
My first foray into RISC-V was the MangoPi MQ Pro last year and ever since, I’ve been keeping an eye on the new Single Board Computers coming out in the space. The StarFive board at th… Read More
After a bit of a debacle with my latest purchase though, I now get to launch a Sipeed LicheePi 4A Giveaway. It’s my first RISC-V offering and I’m excited!
Back in 2022, I star… Read More
The Intel N100 (and N200) seem to be Intel’s attempt at trying to muscle into the market that high-end ARM SoCs look to have cornered. With the Rockchip RK3588 exploding in popularity… Read More
The hype around the Raspberry Pi 5 is ramping up as we get closer to the pre-order shipment dates and to celebrate this, I wanted to run a Raspberry Pi 5 Giveaway to get one out in the hands… Read More
The Raspberry Pi 5 has been hotly anticipated as its predecessor, the Raspberry Pi 4 was released in June 2019, a whole 4 years ago. Do the Raspberry Pi Foundation not know that the new cool… Read More
Hot on the heels of my Radxa ROCK 5B review, we have another Rockchip RK3588 board to take a look at, the Orange Pi 5 Plus.
It feels like it’s been a crazy year for Orange Pi, as we… Read More
The Radxa ROCK 5B has been available for nearly a year now and thanks to OKdo I’ve been able to take a look at the 8GB RAM model and see how it fares. After giving it a year to mature… Read More
Creators of the wonderfully named Le Potato and La Frite, Libre Computer have announced that there are (at least) 3 new SBCs (Single Board Computers) on the way later this year and whilst we… Read More
If you’re a Raspberry Pi user, you know that keeping your newer Pi cool is crucial to prevent it from throttling thermally and allowing it to maintain peak performance. But with so man… Read More
The Orange Pi 5 (and 5B) have been out for a few months and the Rockchip RK3588s SoC at its heart is a little more power-hungry than what you may be used to with a Raspberry Pi. This transla… Read More
Milk-V is still a relatively new name in the Single Board Computer / RISC-V computing scene but the Chinese brand have been busy, launching their 64-core Milk-V Pioneer and Raspberry Pi Pico… Read More
If you’re searching for a reliable single-board computer to elevate your next project and you’re unable to find a Raspberry Pi to fit your need, let’s see if I can help. In… Read More
Having followed and forgotten about the UnixBench GitHub issue someone else raised a while ago on support for compiling on the RISC-V architecture I was pleasantly surprised to receive an em… Read More
Whilst the Raspberry Pi 4 doesn’t consume a lot of power, if you’re running more than Pi-Hole then you’re likely going to need some form of cooling. Is the Dickson Industri… Read More
This RISC-V-based StarFive board has been out for a couple of months now after its Kickstarter campaign and if you were wondering how its microSD card slot performs, I bring you good news. L… Read More
The 52Pi ICE Tower cooler for the Raspberry Pi 4 (and 3!) has been available for some years now, though I’ve only just got my hands on one to do some testing thanks to the guys at OKdo… Read More
Expanding on my Best microSD Card for Raspberry Pis piece, we have my run-down on the best microSD card for Rock 5B Single Board Computers.
The Rock 5 Model B is the latest board from Rad… Read More
I think I may have found one of my new favourite Single Board Computer manufacturers and they come in names that snack lovers will love. Goodbye healthy fruits like bananas, hello Le Potato… Read More
The Operating System and your files are the most important things on your Single Board Computer so you need to make sure you’re using the fastest and best quality SD card you can. Let… Read More
A couple of months ago I noticed a post on social media about Libre Computer’s Raspbian Portability Script and I was intrigued. A Single Board Computer manufacturer that is putting mon… Read More
The VIM1S is Khadas’ refresh/update of the original VIM1 and includes a host of upgrades. It’s still their low-end offering, but with performance boosts and a slim profile thanks… Read More
The Banana Pi M5 benchmark has turned out to be one of the most popular pieces on my site and it seems what people reaaaally want to see as a straight-up comparison between that and its Rasp… Read More
My MQ Quad comparison piece last week gave us a good overall view of its capabilities against similar Single Board Computers but how does it stand on its own? What (if anything) makes it spe… Read More
A bit later than I hoped, the MangoPi MQ Quad has arrived and I’ve put it through my usual set of tests so we can see how it compares to its nearest and dearest.
The MangoPi MQ Quad… Read More
Are you running workloads so heavy that you need a lump of metal and 2 fans on a Raspberry Pi Zero heatsink? If you are, you probably shouldn’t be but hey, I’m not here to judge… Read More
Do you want to add 3 full-size USB ports and Gigabit Ethernet to your Raspberry Pi Zero? The MCUZone Raspberry Pi Zero USB/Ethernet Carrier Board will let you do just that.
It may only be… Read More
Table of ContentsMangoPi MQ Quad SpecificationsWhat's in the box?Is The Heatsink Worth Getting?How do Similar Boards Compare?Software SupportIt's rant time..Compute BenchmarksUnixBenchGeekBe… Read More
Back in March, I set out to test over 20 microSD cards in a large range of Single Board Computers and now I’m back 1 year later to revisit the overall winner of those tests to find out… Read More
For about a year now I’ve powered my Raspberry Pi 4 with a 100Mbit PoE (Power over Ethernet) splitter. It only held my UniFi controller and AdGuard Home DNS server so the speed didn&rs… Read More
Starting the Raspberry Pi PoE hype train, we have a solid option for powering your Raspberry Pi 4 (or 3!) with PoE and this time it’s the Raspberry Pi PoE Hat. I’ve also covered… Read More
My initial BananaPi M2 Zero review highlighted issues with the onboard WiFi performance and it got me thinking, is an external WiFi antenna worth it? The board itself has a U.FL antenna conn… Read More
If for some reason you have a Raspberry Pi Zero (or Banana Pi M2 ZERO!) laying around and you’ve always thought “Wow, I wish I could turn this into a Raspberry Pi 3” then I… Read More
Hot on the heels of August’s Orange and Raspberry Pi Heatsink bonanza we have what I’m calling Strong Signal September.
Though it may turn out to be Suspect Signal September i… Read More
Table of ContentsHave they changed in the last year?Testing ProcessDecember '21 (UK) Amazon Basics microSD CardSeptember '22 (DE) Amazon Basics microSD CardIs the Amazon Basics microSD Card… Read More
A monthly AliExpress Tech Haul is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and with summer being over, what’s the next thing to look forward to? Halloween? Christmas? Nope!… Read More
Way back in April I spoke about the MangoPi MQ Quad announcement and we now have the first production run available for sale!
Table of ContentsHave they changed in the last year?Testing Pr… Read More
What is the best Pi Zero? Is it the Raspberry Pi? Radxa? BananaPi? OrangePi? Or is it their RISC-V cousin, the MangoPi? Building on the Raspberry Pi Zero vs Mango Pi MQ Pro comparison, that… Read More
