mentalinc:

 

Reports from Hackaday today indicate 8GB model may exist

 

Now we're really talking!

MurrayM:

 

mentalinc:

 

Reports from Hackaday today indicate 8GB model may exist

 

 

Now we're really talking!

 

For reference: https://hackaday.com/2019/06/25/is-4gb-the-limit-for-the-raspberry-pi-4/

I am guessing they prototyped and tested some 8GB models but when it came time to market and build the 8GB was just a bit too expensive. The base 1GB model is about $55NZ, the 4GB is $95NZ so you would probably be looking at $130NZ or so for the 8GB. There probably isn't much performance gain for most users going from 4gb to 8gb with common workflows. Also currently Raspbian kernel is only 32bit. I think they are starting to move to Aarch64 but there may be a lack of packages for it at the moment. Maybe when RAM prices drop and the Raspbian build matures a bit they will release something.

Once the software has caught up, including Kodi distributions, I'll likely be buying one to replace the one that drives our home entertainment system. HVEC decoding will be nice, and having a spare Pi will be handy. My old Pi 1b is running pi-hole for DNS with no problems at all, but it would be nice to have a spare in case it goes down - though of course I could use ISP DNS.

Anyone got the Pi TV Hat? I've just ordered one to play with since the Pi4 is out of stock. 

On the back of the RPi4 release FriendlyELEC have just dropped the price of their NanoPi M4 down to $50 USD, if your use-case needs better I/O (SATA, NMVe etc) this is a pretty sound alternative. 

PANiCnz:

 

On the back of the RPi4 release FriendlyELEC have just dropped the price of their NanoPi M4 down to $50 USD, if your use-case needs better I/O (SATA, NMVe etc) this is a pretty sound alternative. 

 

Can you tell us more about this? How is the hardware? How's the community support? Does it run Kodi? HVEC support? Their website links to "reviews" but most just look like copies of the release announcement.

timmmay:

 

PANiCnz:

 

On the back of the RPi4 release FriendlyELEC have just dropped the price of their NanoPi M4 down to $50 USD, if your use-case needs better I/O (SATA, NMVe etc) this is a pretty sound alternative. 

 

 

Can you tell us more about this? How is the hardware? How's the community support? Does it run Kodi? HVEC support? Their website links to "reviews" but most just look like copies of the release announcement.

 

If Kodi is your objective I think in time the RPi4 will be hard to beat. However, if you wanted something like a DIY NAS the M4 with its SATA HAT is hard to beat. There's an OMV image for it too. As far as I'm aware software support through Armbian etc is very good. 

If you poke around the LibreELEC website there are beta builds for other RK3399 SBC's. Ultimately there's a lot of work being down in the Linux space to enable HEVC, HDR, 4k etc so its difficult to really predict what will happen long term. From what I understand Kodi is moving towards the GBM/V4L2 framework and away from SOC specific API's like MMAL that have historically been used for the Raspberry Pi's. Its this shift to GBM/V4L2 and wider changes being facilitated by Intel that are ultimately why the RPi4 isn't doing 4k/HEVC etc out of the box on day 1. The alpha builds of LibreELEC that are current available for the RPi4 are using MMAL to do 4k etc, so aren't reflective of the long term solution and more a short term hack. This is why OSMC isn't providing 4k support for the RPi4 on day 1 as they're waiting for Kodi 19 and support for GBM/V4L2.

Initial benchmarks also suggest the RK3399 is still faster than the new BCM2711.

I haven't got an M4 myself (it is tempting though) but I do have a NanoPi NEO2 which I run a few headless services on and its bullet proof. 

mentalinc:

 

Reports from Hackaday today indicate 8GB model may exist

 

Alas, it was just a typo:

"The mention of the 8GB part in the leaflet is a typo – I’m afraid it doesn’t exist! The BCM2711 processor is in theory capable of addressing 16GB of SDRAM, but at present there is no available memory package larger than 4GB that works correctly with its SDRAM controller and PHY." (Source)

First complaints after the hype: (some might dissapear in the future)

- runs too hot, fan is mandatory

- not compatible to Raspbian Stretch applications

- no real 4k and no fluent HD resolution at the moment in operation

- no maker knows what are the 2 HDMIs useful for

- no replacement for an average desktop, still too weak

Mine just shipped from OZ yesterday, should be here next week :)

The Pbtech website lists them has having stock at their head office, if it's accurate they're probably the quickest option for sourcing one.