First Looks: Rock 5a (and a rant)

This little SBC has a lot of promise - what appears to be very capable specs. Maybe a "before its time" type deal? To me, this won't be a Raspberry Pi killer, take a ride along with me as I build this out and figure out all the ins and outs of this Single Board Computer

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[AndyAAzeroAM]

I think I owe you some spotted cows after this experience

[rgalik]

It was enough to read what's written on the "eMMC" chip. The preinstalled chip is not in fact emmc, but SPI with an eMMC-like connector. Also, the connector is in fact strong enough to keep it in place, it just needs to be plugged in properly. Never happened to me.

[johnathanasiou]

Wished these RPi manufacturers would recognise that people are placing these RPis in 12VDC portable applications & provide a separate 12v DC clamped power input so we don't have to go hunting for 12v - 5v USB DC/DC converters.
I'm sure even if it was a separate MOSFET off the board t handle the power dissipation, it's doable.
Let's hope RPi manufacturers are also hams & check out TO & others as if I had one wish, it's 12VDC input

[nvrmor]

For about $14 more you can get a ZimaBoard 832 Development Kit, which is 2 single board pc's plus a buttload of extras. And its assembled.

[johnathanasiou]

Thanks so much for the review Steve.
Interesting about the eMMC module coming loose, but I'm sure it's just a prod teething issue like a lot of these RasPi alternatives even though its performance looks impressive.
Have used that flimsy, clear acrylic case on my Pi3 & it cracked in the exact same spot on the side panel mount, so I swapped it for a different blue/clear C4Labs case (much more sturdier & highly recommended) to mount my PiStar hotspot & never looked back.
For my Pi4, I skipped the acrylic clear case & went straight to a Argon M2 case with inbuilt fan & M.2 SSD similar to KM4ACK build a Pi setup & very happy with it.
Probably best to wait a while to see the product mature first & let them iron out the bugs.
In all fairness, RPi4 availability has picked up over the past 2 months & the RPi4 at least is compatible with KM4ACK Build-a-Pi script but unsure if these RPi alternatives will even work.

I'm sure Andy will work it all out.
At $399 wow that's nearly a 50MHz 2 channel base level Rigol scope or 200MHz handheld Owon scope so might give this one a miss.
Orange Pi 5 looks like a better way to go

[phildurall]

What a trooper Steve for enduring all of the hurdles. Thanks for the thorough review!
73 - KF6IF

[Rushil]

These are starting at just $60 on Arace (one of Radxa's listed retailers) - definitely more of a hassle than Raspberry Pi, which inarguably has much better support & documentation, but at *less* than the cost of a 4GB Pi 5, this is kind of hard to turn down.

[Siskiyous]

Hmmm, thanks for the insight. The link to Amazon above shows a $399.00 computer. How is that a Pi competitor?

[rafaelgcpp]

Now we have a sharp knife! Thank you sir!

BTW, I was planning to buy one, but now I'm skeptical with all your bad experience.

[LivingLinux]

Do you think it's a good idea to put a heatsink on the wireless card?

[tooktheth]

With Pi availability improving (just picked up a pi 4B 8G at standard MAP pricing $75), why mess with this? Your link shows it costing $399.99 from Amazon.

[Ken-WKAL]

I think you are the first review of the Rock 5A… everybody else has been reviewing the Rock 5B…. I think I know why now…

[TerenceKearns]

I really dislike those micro HDMI ports. They WILL wear out quicker than the rest of the board with regular wear'n'tear. I just picked up the Rock 5B even though it's older and bigger. I do expect that it won't be a free ride. Nobody can compete with the Raspberry Pi when it comes to pedigree and refinement but it is a lot slower and I prefer to overengineer things when it comes to CPU/GPU. I can't stand lagginess or any kind of stuttering if I can avoid it. These things have actually gone up in price on aliexpress but that shop with the pink logo linked directly from Radxa's website still has good prices. Mine was on 34% discount. I am excited to get my hands on the thing. I think it will be the perfect board for digital signage.

[DonzLockz]

So the uncut video is 4hrs? Haha
You are very patient T.O. I think this may be an Alpha version.😟

[WHJBill]

The Power Over Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet is a very nice plus over a Raspberry Pi.

[MrWaalkman]

Reminds me of the FriendlyArm that I bought about a decade ago. Nice hardware, but woefully lacking in support. I'll pass, I've already learned that lesson. BTW, the Amazon link takes us to a $399 board. Sketchy as heck...

Thanks for the heads up!

[joseroman]

Bought Radxa RockPi 4 NAS. I quickly learned. Regardless of specs. You’ll wanna buy a Raspberry Pi. Save yourself the headache.

[alanreader]

looks nice. Can you pick up 2 meters on it.

[DirtyPlumbus]

It could have been worse, it could have been mine. 😂
This is definitely a hard pass for me. Thanks for heads-up.

[MrPirfree]

Orange PI 5 Plus.
Those plastic cases are a pain to assemble; best buy two for the first one always gets broken. If you want a plastic case, HOT GLUE.
The Orange PI 5 Plus gets you NVME, M.2 wireless, ability to add a EMMC drive as well. 8 cores and 16 g ram; plus two HDMI outputs and one input, USB-C, A few USB -A 3.0, ..