Best Single-Board Computers Review and Roundup

Single-board computers offer an interesting way to get started with a project that needs more computing power than a microcontroller. Whether you’re looking to develop something which will have an embedded microprocessor running a Linux system, or you’re looking to build something lower volume and make use of an embedded processor module, or make the single board computer the basis of your project there’s something available for everyone.

Single-board computers really took off with the introduction of the Raspberry Pi in 2012. Small form factor computers have been around for a long time, but since the release of the Pi we have seen a massive uptake in the number of users of such systems. With the increasing number of users, there has been an expansion of the community surrounding them - providing better support and more options for getting advice and guidance on how to implement your project ideas. Prior to the Pi one of the most popular systems was the BeagleBoard. However, the Pi has had far more influence on the single board computer market, with many boards copying the Pi’s layout and connectivity.

Prior to the revolution in single board computers, you would have needed to use a development kit with a reference implementation that may have been very board specific. Often you would not have been able to get very much support for it from the manufacturer or the board had no community built up around it. I owned several development kits that supported Linux, Android, and other operating systems; however, it was often a real hassle to get to a project started, at least with a small team, using these kits. Single-board computers nowadays have more powerful hardware, modern up to date operating systems, and great communities built around them. A major advantage of these systems is the community that keeps the operating system up to date and continuously adds new drivers and hardware support.

I've compiled a single-board computer that review for some of the best options available today, and why you might want to use them to get your next project started.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

While not the latest Raspberry Pi model, the Pi 3 Model B is probably the most popular single-board computer on the market today. If you don’t need all the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi 4, version 3 offers a lower price and still has plenty of capabilities. The Model 3 B has gigabit Ethernet; however, it’s throughput is limited by its implementation to the maximum speed of the USB 2.0 bus, giving you a real-world performance of around 225Mbps, rather than the 950Mbps of the model 4.

On the board are all the peripherals you expect from a computer: four full-sized USB 2.0 Ports, wired and wireless networking, HDMI and LCD outputs, stereo audio output, and a camera interface over MIPI. Every board in the Raspberry Pi range has a 40 pin IO connector that breaks out some lower-level peripherals and IO for implementing your project. Pi extension boards (called hats) are easily found with almost any functionality you might desire. The board uses a microSD card socket for installing the operating system and internal storage, which allows a lot of flexibility in terms of storage capacity. In addition to the microSD, you can also mount USB connected drives, allowing you to utilize terabytes of storage, although only at USB 2.0 speeds.

As mentioned above, the wired Ethernet connector is limited by USB 2.0 speeds, which is likely not an issue for many Internet of Things type projects. You also get WiFi for disconnected operation. The CSI camera interface is suitable for machine vision. However, the processing of the Pi 3 is only just acceptable for basic applications. The DSI display interface allows the Pi to easily be used for a human/machine interface or kiosk type project.

For me, the major advantage of the Raspberry Pi is the community behind it. You can usually find an implementation of something similar to what you’re trying to achieve as an open source project, which can provide a great starting point. The community support is excellent, and there are so many resources available to learn how to do pretty much anything with the Pi.

Raspberry Pi 4

The Raspberry Pi 4 offers similar connectivity to the model 3, however with a new faster processor, Bluetooth 5, true gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 ports. For many computer users, the Pi 4 has sufficient power and capability that it can easily replace a desktop computer. It's more than capable of most office tasks. If your IoT application requires a lot of processing power for applications such as machine vision, a lot of connectivity, or a huge amount of storage, the Pi 4 is a great choice.

The Pi 4 can also make a great edge server for low-cost IoT data collection nodes. It provides a local database/web server for nodes to submit data to, prior to the data being transferred to cloud services - providing a highly reliable system that provides a highly reliable system that can withstand intermittent connectivity to the web.

With the increased processing capabilities and connectivity options comes an increased power draw. The Pi 4 switched to a USB type C connector for input power to allow the supply of 5V/3A over the 2.5A limit from the previous model. In addition to the additional power requirements, the Pi 4 needs significantly more cooling than the previous model. While a Pi 3 can generally be placed in a fully sealed enclosure without much, the Pi 4 will need some thought on the thermal aspects of a sealed implementation.

ODROID C2

ODROID makes several single-board computers that give more application-specific possibilities. Their products are more expensive than the Raspberry Pi. However, they do have some interesting possibilities with a similar layout to the Raspberry Pi, and a similar 40 pin connector. This makes an ODROID single-board computer easy to use with various accessories and expansion boards designed for the Pi.

The ODROID C2 is a solid competitor to the Raspberry Pi 3B. It is significantly faster and has a powerful GPU. In addition to faster processing, the C2 has true gigabit Ethernet and SD card access. The C2 also has some interesting additional features on board compared to the Pi, with an IR receiver and onboard ADC. The onboard ADC could be a significant bonus for a project integrating with analog sensors.

The ODROID community is fairly large, and there is a range of operating systems available for the C2. However, it is not as large as the Pi community (no other single-board computer community is).

ODROID XU4

As mentioned above, ODROID has several different form factors. The XU4 breaks away from the Raspberry Pi style; however, it is a similar size. This board has a very powerful octa-core processor with the same GPU as the C2 plus a 3D accelerator. With all this processing power, the board comes complete with a cooling fan and heatsink, as it needs to be actively cooled under moderate to high load. 

While this is a very powerful and capable single-board computer, it has a couple of drawbacks. Namely, it’s IO pins are 1.8V. You will need to use a level converter to use most accessories and sensors you would use with other single board computers. That being said, if you’re looking for processing power and graphics acceleration, it’s an excellent option.

Similar to the C2, the XU4 also has an IR receiver and ADC onboard. Where the Raspberry Pi Model 4 needs a 3A power supply, the XU4 recommends a 4A due to its massive processing power.

Asus Tinker

Asus is a giant of desktop and laptop computers, and their entry into the single-board computer space is very interesting. The board follows the Raspberry Pi style. However, it has some great additions, such as a colour-coded 40 pin header. Meanwhile, it lacks USB 3.0, which is now a basic interface one would expect to find on a single-board computer, but it does provide a number of standard interfaces through the 40-pin header.

Asus’s manufacturing and engineering prowess are extremely evident with the copious amount of components on the board, and their density. With this comes a significant bump in low-level communication protocols on the 40 pin header compared to the Raspberry Pi, which tends to require software implementation of many protocols. The Tinker supports all the common protocols with multiple ports, making connectivity to digital sensors and peripherals a breeze. The Tinker has its own Linux-flavoured OS and supports a large range of other Linux operating systems.

Banana Pi M64

Banana Pi makes a large range of Pi-compatible boards, but in this article, we’ll only look at the M64. The Banana Pis all have excellent engineering and a good community. The Banana Pi also has one of the largest distributor networks behind the Raspberry Pi, which makes it very easy to pick one up to try out.

The Banana Pi only has two USB 2.0 ports. However, it does have WiFi and Bluetooth. Depending on your project, you might find the onboard microphone interesting. The Banana Pi supports BSD, Linux, and Android operating systems.

Nanopi Neo4

Where other boards try to copy the Raspberry Pi layout, the Nanopi lives up to its name and is extremely compact relative to similar performance boards. Its smaller form factor and respectable processing power plus GPUs make integration into your product a more viable route than using the full-sized Raspberry Pi. The Nanopi is popular with Smart Home/Automation communities because of this.

Despite the small size, the board still supports USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet and MIPI CSI camera interfaces, Bluetooth, and WiFi. The IO interfaces are significantly more limited than other boards in this list, making it a less ideal choice for interfacing with sensors and non-USB peripherals.

One of the interesting features of this board is the real-time clock. Having a real-time clock on board allows you to put the system into different sleep modes/low-power modes compared to other boards in this list.

BeagleBone AI

As mentioned at the start of the article, BeagleBoard was one of the first popular single-board computers. The legacy has continued. However, the popularity of the BeagleBone is far below that of the Raspberry Pi and popular Pi compatibles.

The BeagleBone is relatively expensive for the limited processing power and capabilities it features; however, the Programming Realtime Units and M4 subprocessors could make that cost well worth it depending on the project. In my opinion, the PRU is where the BeagleBone really shines. Most single board computers lack anything in the way of real-time capabilities, and with the programmable real-time units, you can do tasks such as high-speed IO. With the quadrature encoder interface, this can be used for driving servos at incredible step rates, beyond what a microcontroller is capable of. The two ARM Cortex M4 cores can allow offloading of real-time tasks and lower power usage for specific tasks.

LattePanda 4/64

We talked about the Raspberry Pi 4 being able to stand in as a complete PC replacement for a typical office or home PC; however, with Linux as the only operating system, it could be hard to get people to try something new if they are used to Windows. The LattePanda 4 runs an Intel Quad Core CPU, which allows it to run full Windows 10.

This makes it the only board in this list that can run Windows. It’s also the most expensive board on this list, yet still far cheaper than a computer. That being said, this is also the most expensive LattePanda model. With a full Intel CPU, 4GB of RAM, a decent amount of onboard flash storage, and an Intel GPU, this is an interesting option. The cheapest model in the lineup has 2GB of ram and 32GB of flash storage on board.

It also features an ATMega32U4, the same 8-bit processor used by basic Arduino boards, which offers basic real-time processing capabilities. There are 20 GPIOs from the ATMega, and 6 from the Intel CPU exposed. In addition to this, there are 6 “Gravity” connectors. With HDMI and MIPI-DSI outputs, connecting to a display to run as a kiosk or similar is trivial, especially with the onboard touch panel connector. 

Conclusion

We’ve looked at just a small selection of options in this single-board computer review, and there are many more out there. I feel this list should give you a good review of some of the capabilities and options you'll find on the market. With a range of processing capabilities, connectivity options, interfaces, and layouts, you’re likely to find a single-board computer that can meet your desires.

If you’re just looking for a board to experiment with, it is very hard to pass up the Raspberry Pi series. With an excellent price, huge community, and more tutorials than you can poke a stick at, the Pi has a lot to offer. If your next project needs more connectivity, processing, or graphics power, then one of the other options here could be perfect for you. These boards make for excellent experimentation platforms. It’s easy to access the IO and peripherals to work with on a breadboard or build a custom expansion board that can drop right onto the single board computer. 

Would you like to find out more about how Altium can help you with your next PCB design? Talk to an expert at Altium.