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Rasberry Pi alternate Banana pi
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Rasberry Pi alternate Banana pi

Hi people
I am looking to create a personal storage server using this

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/NEW-orange-pi-plus-Allwinner-A31s-Dual-Core-1GB-RAM-Open-source-development-board/1553371_32248189300.html

I would be for starters using my 16gb class 10 card for setting it up.
Sata port is must!

My question is ...

1.Are there better options in the market?
2.For connectivity will I be able to use huawei and zte modems directly into its usb ports

FYI
Never used this...It will be mostly used remotely

Thnax in advance

«13

Comments

  • You will not get very good performance out of the SATA as it is attached to USB chip so speed is limited. Also, if you plan to use more than a single drive you will need to be able to recompile the kernel to include port multiplier support, I am not sure if this is available on the H3 SoC either yet. if you want to do something for a personal storage server you will likely want a BananPI A20, Cubieboard 2, Cubietruck or the next iteration, CubieBoard5 which is in the making with the H8.

    The Banana Pi has a lot of documentation out there available for recompiling the kernel to include port multiplier support if you wish to have more than one drive attached: How to recompile kernel in Bananian for port multiplier support

    Cheers!

  • +1 for bananaPi :D

    Cheapest SBC with native sata support

  • @thelinuxbag

    need one sata port...and what is the max speed /preformance I could expect from it?

  • rm_rm_ IPv6 Advocate, Veteran
    edited November 2015

    Keep in mind that Banana Pi (in the thread title and @hawkjohn7 reply) and Orange Pi (in the OP Aliexpress link) are different boards.

    SATA is not available on the H3 or A31s chips, so even if such board has SATA, it will be connected via USB 2.0 (about 30 MB/sec at most). So you could just get a much cheaper Orange Pi PC $15 board http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/61849/orange-pi-quad-core-arm-board-now-from-15-shipping/p1 and add any cheap USB to SATA enclosure or adapter yourself.

    Thanked by 2netomx Nihim
  • @rm_

    But if has 100M ethernet giving me max 12 Mb/s on Lan and I am sure pretty much less on the wifi module :-(

  • teknolaizteknolaiz Member
    edited November 2015

    @noaman said:
    But if has 100M ethernet giving me max 12 Mb/s on Lan and I am sure pretty much less on the wifi module :-(

    You know that 100 Megabit/s are really max 12.5 Megabyte/s?

    100 Megabit/8 = 12.5 Megabyte

    That said. The old Ethernet NICs cannot push that much. They push values around 11.3 MB/s. If you want more you need GigEthernet.

  • noamannoaman Member
    edited November 2015

    @hidden_refuge
    Bro 12-12.5....doesn't really max differnce for me...
    But technically correct

    Also there is also one more problem

    http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/08/orange-pi-plus-development-board-gets-upgraded-to-allwinner-h3-processor/

    http://www.allwinnertech.com/en/clq/H_series/AllwinnerH3.html

    Does it really have a GigEthernet ?

  • @noaman said:
    Bro 12-12.5....doesn't really max differnce for me...

    So why do you complain? You max out the 100BASE Ethernet with 12 MB/s... You obviously get less over WiFi in general.

    The link you sent is most likely a real GigEthernet. It has a dedicated Ethernet chip while the Rasberry Pi for example shares Ethernet with the USB bandwidth.

  • there are two links btw!!!

  • This is relevant to my interests so.

    You say the orange pi plus doesn't have real sata but works through usb. Now I don't have any tech knowledge I just see in the pictures there is a sata interface port, a usb port for powering said sata 2 disk and the board has a sata chip.

    Still with all that stuff it's really through usb & limited to 30MB/s ??

    @rm_ if you don't mind explaining more in depth about the H3 and what I asked above. Not just from a buying perspective, I am interested to learn. Ofcourse even throwing me a link that explains that stuff works too ;)

  • just get a nice cheap J1900

  • TheLinuxBugTheLinuxBug Member
    edited November 2015

    @nihim The chip is tied directly to the USB chipset, therefore limited in speed to 30M/sec by the max speed of USB 2.0, as I said in my first post.

    Also as I said above, the H3 SoC does not have the same amount of support as the A20, A10, etc which means it still isn't compatible with the mainline kernel either, and probably won't be for a while. So with H3 you are stuck using the 3.x dists made by the boards author.

    Cheers!

  • @TarZZ92
    No thanx

    @TheLinuxBug

    I am not going to do advance usage....like going into kernel and that stuff etc...

  • so basically with the plus it's just easier for me to use sata disks on it and not have to get the normal edition and have to solder some extra stuff to make it work?

    As far as the H3 ignoring the multiport what else is affected by not having it in the mainline?

  • TheLinuxBugTheLinuxBug Member
    edited November 2015

    The SATA port found on any H3 board is actually a SATA to USB adapter, it is not a direct SATA port. This is demonstrated by the throughput, where the A20 can do 45M/sec write and 100M/sec reads and all the H3 boards using the USB adapter will be limited to 30M/sec read/write as this is the max speed of USB 2.0.

    So, as _rm said, you would do just as well to buy the 15$ version and use an external USB drive that has a SATA to USB adapter built in as it will be just as fast and save you a few $ on the board or if you want real throughput buy a board with an A20 SoC.

    Mainline kernel support will be important if you want to do much more than use the board as a simple media server. Also, as my experience with H3 is a bit limited, I can only go based on what I have been told by others researching these board in #linux-sunxi and #cubieboard on Freenode IRC, which is to say there is support for different things that is lacking in the 3.x kernels produced by the group producing Orange Pi. As such I have run into many people hoping to install mainline on it to get better driver support.

    Hope this helps answer your questions.

    Cheers!

    Thanked by 2rm_ Nihim
  • @TheLinuxBug

    Will look into that

  • raspberry pi is fantastic, i've personally bought a couple as gifts for some of my programmer friends to play around with. I've managed to get some pretty cool stuff working on it, i'll definitely give this other a try too, can't be that bad

  • NihimNihim Member
    edited November 2015

    @TheLinuxBug said:

    Mm yea in that regard if the rest specs are the same (will check) no point in not getting the $15 one.

    Only downside is that I have to use an external 2.5" case (I have a spare I think), cause a quick googling showed that sata to usb cables are min $8 not included potential shipping.

    I was thinking in throwing debian cli (or gui if I can do local rdp) in it and playing a bit, using it to seed some idle torrents. I think for start that is good and inexpensive choice. If there is a reason / time / interest I can later get one of the high ends ones like the bpi-m3 which should be like ~$70-80.

    tldr: thx for the info and I think the best low end choice is the orange pi correct?

  • yap....looks like it....but I heard raspberry pi was releasing an update soon....you could wait @nihim...I think in November

  • iffiiffi Member
    edited November 2015

    @noaman said:
    Hi people
    I am looking to create a personal storage server using this

    http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/NEW-orange-pi-plus-Allwinner-A31s-Dual-Core-1GB-RAM-Open-source-development-board/1553371_32248189300.html

    I would be for starters using my 16gb class 10 card for setting it up.
    Sata port is must!

    My question is ...

    1.Are there better options in the market?
    2.For connectivity will I be able to use huawei and zte modems directly into its usb ports

    FYI
    Never used this...It will be mostly used remotely

    Thnax in advance

    Hi noaman,

    if you search for an good alternative to the raspberry pi (2), don't waste your time with banana/orange pi !

    Take a look at the Odroid C1+ :

    The only negative aspect would be that it only supports USB2.0 but comes with 4 Ports for it. Using RAID5 or ZFS (possible because of the Cpu) that shouldn't be a big issue.

    But if you need USB 3.0 you can take a look at the Odroid XU4:
    Same as C1+, but

    • Samsung Exynos 8-Core (ARM BigLittle)
    • 2 GB Ram
    • 2x USB3.0 Ports
    • 74$

    It is also supported by Openmediavalut to set up an easy Storage NAS

  • @iffi
    I was going to consider it....

  • @iffi

    Goods total$43.40
    Shipping $16.00
    Grand total$59.4

    with case and adapter...not good....
    from hardkernel

  • @noaman said:

    Wait banana pi m3. 2 days again

  • @noaman said:
    hawkjohn7
    you mean this
    http://www.banana-pi.org/m3.html

    Yap, they said will be released on 15-11-2015

  • @hawkjohn7

    source and expected price please?

  • @iffi said:

    The problem with odroid when using it with an OS is that it doesn't have onboard eMMC and you can only buy their own stuff not use any eMMC :/

  • hawkjohn7hawkjohn7 Member
    edited November 2015

    @noaman said:
    hawkjohn7

    source and expected price please?

    Just got on their fb https://m.facebook.com/sinovoipbpi/

    On alibaba 50-70usd

  • @hawkjohn7

    I guess gonno wait till then

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