I wish to find a home-server with the following characteristics:
- runs Linux on ARMv7 (32 bits), ARMv8 (64 bits), or x86-64;
- at least 2GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores;
- fan-less;
- gigabit ethernet (1Gb/s);
- fast storage, which means either SATA, eSATA, or USB3 (USB2 is too slow);
- low power consumption;
- an enclosure is a plus, although I don’t mind too much if the server has none.
And now, here is the most promising hardware that I found, with some notes. I thought other people might be interested too.
Hardware | Good | Bad | Power(*) | My conclusion |
---|---|---|---|---|
CubieBoard 3, aka. CubieTruck | — SATA2 | — only 2 CPU cores | 6 | Not enough CPU power. |
CubieBoard 5, aka. CubieTruck+ | — SATA through USB2 | 12 | Slow disk I/O. | |
WandBoard Quad | — eSATA — Vivante graphics | — ethernet limited to ½Gb/s — low-frequency CPU cores | 7 | Not enough CPU power. |
MinnowBoard MAX | — open-source hardware — Intel graphics — SATA2 — USB3 | — only 2 CPU cores | 50 | Good! But there is better. |
ODroid C2 | — cheap | — no fast storage | 16 | Slow disk I/O. |
ODroid XU4 | — USB3 | — small fan — expensive enclosure for fan-less functioning | 20 | There’s no better board at this price, but there’s a fan… |
CuBox-i4Pro | — cute, nice-looking — eSATA | — low-frequency CPU cores — ethernet limited to ½Gb/s | 10 | Good appliance in a living-room. Not enough CPU power for me. |
Banana Pi M3 | — SATA through USB2 | 12 | Slow disk I/O. | |
Pine64+ 2GB | — very cheap | — no fast storage — low-frequency CPU cores | 12 | Slow disk I/O. Not enough CPU power. |
UP | — powerful yet small | — no fast storage — no enclosure | 75 | Slow disk I/O. |
UDOO X86 | — open-source hardware — Intel graphics — SATA III — Arduino included — can power a 3.5″ SATA drive without the need for an external disk enclosure | — slightly higher power consumption | 100 | My choice :-) |
(*) This is an absolutely unscientific, completely subjective, relative power notation, based on miscellaneous benchmarks found on the Internet, with the 100-mark serving as a reference (this is the power delivered by the UDOO X86). |
Here are the main sources of information that helped me find what I wanted:
- http://iqjar.com/jar/an-overview-and-comparison-of-todays-single-board-micro-computers/
- https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TargetedHardware
- https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Hardware/Single_Board_Computers
- http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=135&t=18683
- https://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://www.jarzebski.pl/blog/2016/02/14/testujemy-cubieboard-5-aka-cubietruck-plus.html
- http://xmodulo.com/raspberrypi-raspberrypi2-cubox-performance-comparison.html
- http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=orange-pi-one&num=1
- http://www.board-db.org/