A tiny x86 SBC with Raspberry Pi GPIO (Radxa X4, tested)

The Radxa X4 unites an Intel N100 SoC with a Raspberry Pi RP2040. The best of both worlds, right?

Let's explore thermals, power delivery, peripheral and OS support, and even take Linux and Windows for a spin on the PCIe Gen 3x4 NVMe SSD!

I purchased all the devices used in this video, there were no sponsorships; halfway through testing, Radxa sent a review unit in addition to the one I bought and tested, but all my testing was performed on the retail unit.

More about the Radxa X4 and my experience using it:

Contents:

00:00 - Anticipation
02:14 - Bringing the heat
03:02 - Design hampers performance
04:05 - HABs are the new HATs
05:57 - Raspberry Pi Inside
06:39 - Windows and (light) Gaming
07:59 - BIOS and Radxa's Bane

[JohnneyleeRollins]

Red Shirt Jeff is the pi killer we all deserve

[neothermic]

One tiny thing to consider, if it ships with thermal pads rather than thermal paste, it might be relying on the physical distance being bridged. Replacing thermal pads with paste can lead to poor contact, and might explain why it got too hot! This is especially true for CPUs without an IHS like the N100 SoC, as you can't put too much pressure on the CPU else it'll just crack, so you're either relying on a VERY tight tolerance mount, or you're using a thermal pad to give everyone a bit of breathing room.

[codeman-dev]

8:45 "The hardware is very cool though..."

You mean "The hardware is very hot", right?

[velocity]

That "crumbly thermal pad" you show looks like Honeywell PTM7950. It's a bit of a pain to apply, but it performs better than paste and sits somewhere between paste and liquid metal in terms of thermal performance. Helps to stick it in the freezer a while before trying to separate it from its plastic. Cut to size, peel 1 side, apply, and then peel the other off carefully.

[CDVentress]

Hey Jeff, I’ve been watching you for years, but I don’t usually comment but wanted to say congratulations on the great job you keep doing every day. Thanks.

[gortys]

Jeff, it would be wonderful if you could make a follow up video 6 months after to see if there is enough support and improvements. Tahank you for the video ❤

[bcastroalves]

It's not a Raspberry Pi killer, but at least it's something quite different from the other SBCs, which are basically ARMs (well, we have some RISC-V, but not at the same level of performance and support). I really liked this proposal from Radxa, already thinking about buying one, but here where I live, the problem of energy dissipation will be worse.

[TheHardie]

For a second I regretted the purchase of a N100 Passive cooled MIni PC for my personal Router/Home Lab Project!
But then the performance and thermal numbers helped a lot to calm down! xD
Thanks @Jeff Geerling for this honest review!

[kritikusi-]

beautiful review. I was thinking about replacing my Pi5 with these. I will definitely wait and see what other revisions will become available. Thanks @Jeff you rock dude!

[nikobellic]

Thumbnail designs are always on point with Jeff

[coder]

I'm surprised that they didn't just pre-load firmware onto the RP2040 that would be used from the host-side in Linux to emulate the Raspberry Pi GPIO header and provide a compatibility layer for existing HATs and software.

[josh]

Thanks Jeff, interesting board for the right use case and once the bugs get polished out. Would be interested to see how it performs with an improved heatsink

[rpalme]

Glad to know that I'm not the only one with a big box of still mostly functional tech with such a name. I call mine my "Box of broken dreams."

[MarcBehar]

Any video with an SGI logo demo is a win for me

[eliteschwn]

About dual channel, the N100 cant do that. Yep its 2024 and we have still ram single channel cpus around

[zimbu_]

If he's Jeff Geerling until next time, then who will he be after next time?

[vikingforties]

Well, the world of liquid nitrogen cooling had to come to SBCs sooner or later.

[gabrielnilo]

By comparing Lattepanda Mu with Radxa it seems like Radxa has great value.
Even if the heat is a problem, you can buy a Radxa X4 12GB with 128GB eMMC WiFi 6 for $100 and still have $85.90 to buy a custom cooler to deal with the heat...
It does seem fun to try to cool this board.

[minigpracing]

The next generation of the n100 may be impressive, and having it on a CM4 sized board would be great.

[zambonidriver]

30 seconds in, I smell a kernel recompile. 😂