DON'T Use Raspberry Pis for Servers! (Use THIS)

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Music (in order):
"If You Want To" - Me
"Town Groove" - Me
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Recording Gear

Servers and Networking
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:25 Save Time & Money With Hello Fresh
1:36 Pis are great for servers, but impossible to get
2:19 The VIM1S
2:29 The VIM1S Specs
4:23 What could this be used for?
5:30 Benchmarks and Power Draw
7:56 Putting the VIM1S to use in the real world
13:30 Better options? Libre Computer Le Potato
14:44 What would I get?
15:46 Wrapping Up

[elmestguzman]

I sounded like a good alternative until you mention the 100mb networking and the GPIO that doesnt match raspberry pi layout. total deal breakers for me. I think a better performance comparison would be the Pi 3B. When available Thepihub has is for $42. Nice review really enjoy your videos.

[AI-xijk]

I like your calm and unbiased presentation. You keep it interesting without having to resort to cheap YouTube tricks like talking very fast or shouting or other things. 👍

[kekistanifreedomfighter]

For me what stands out is the hardware decoding for modern high efficiency video codecs like h256, vp9, and especially av1 since it's so new.

[nicolas.predella]

The main issue i ran into with non-Pi devices is poor support: devices which on the paper look interesting end up being unusable because they only run OK on an arm debian from 1999...

[thewiirocks]

I think the real winner turns out to be the Orange Pi 5. Only slightly more expensive than the VIM1S, faster than the Pi 4, plenty of I/O, and support for M.2 drives. You can also swap built-in Wifi and Bluetooth for the M.2 by getting the 5b. But for server uses, I would generally recommend the original OPI5.

[Tore_Lund]

My old trusty Raspberry Pi 1A, which I upgraded with a switch mode 3.3V power supply feeding the board directly, uses around 1/2 W. Ideal for low power battery powered stuff. Obviously not the ideal hub for a media center being slow and lacking a network connector, but otherwise. Idle 100mW, Can't remember the sleep consumption, but I think it is in the 4mW range.

[KRAFTWERKK]

As a German i have just ONE requirement: the LESS power consumption the better. Because energy prices in German are just absolutely insane and getting insaner with each day....

[..]

I honestly expected 2.5gb Ethernet from the catchy video title. At 100mb you might as well use smoke signals to transfer data.

[brian]

I bought some Khada's boards around 2017. The flashing tool at that time was highly confusing and in Chinese, if that was not frustrating enough it required Microsoft windows. Flashing was a process that took many attempts. you would literally waste hours of you life. While the hardware was impressive compared to the RPI3 at the time the Khada's VIM was tossed in a box where it's sat for 5 years. It is good to see they have integrated an onboard flashing OS. I may consider them again.

[Nik]

Maybe the Pi 3 Model B or B+ would be a better comparison. The Zero originally started as a super low cost PC (it was $5 when it came out) and the prices are currently high because of lower supply and scalpers. According to an interview with Raspberry's CEO, the supply problems with the Zero and the 4 should be resolved by the end of the year and I expect prices to drop like a rock.

With all that being said, I'm not trying to hate on the video, just trying to be constructive. I do agree with all the the other cool stuff about the VIM1S and I think it looks like a cool SBC. As someone who designs purpose built SBC for a living, its always nice to be introduced to a new general purpose SBC manufacturer.

[manicmarauder]

After seeing how well this held up against the Pi4, now I kinda do want to see their more powerful version. I do think the different gpio was a bit of a misstep though.

[evilcoleslaw]

LibreComputer also has the ROC-RK3328-CC (Renegade) 2GB RAM variant for only $5 more than Le Potato. USB 3 and gigabit. Replaced a dead Pi3 B+ with one and am very happy. No onboard BT/Wifi though.

[davocc]

I ran a Pi 2 for quite some time with 100mbit Ethernet (the adaptor is on the USB bus on that system) and also USB-2 connected spinner hard drives. Functionally it worked within requirements - it was able to serve and exceed streaming speed requirements to watch video on a PC that was read directly from the device, the OS handled contention rather well so slowing down to a point of impeding serving (on SAMBA) was surprisingly rare. I found it stable and workable, the only reason I moved it onto another function was the appearance of the Rock64 which had a USB-3 and had gigabit ethernet on a proper bus of its own; software was remarkably weak on this platform as Pine were comparatively freeloading off the community at the time (according to some insiders). I find that manufacturers who focus too much on android do it to the detriment of everything else; that said some manufacturers are outsourcing their OS development to DietPi or Armbian which is a superb way to handle the problem, the OS development there is generally quite good and their update and maintenance processes are well run.
But if your objective is an always-on server that can do slave-functions both these might work. Examples of "slave functions" include file serving on a basic/standard level, download-mule functions running an Aria2 service to perform large scale downloads in the background leaving your browser and workstations free to do their thing without even having to be turned on, an absolute Godsend for slower connections, large files or kicking things off before you leave for work or go to bed.... There's a wild number of other things that both of these can perform as their projects were developed for even earlier and less featured eras of SBCs.

[yjk_ch]

RPi 4 does have ability to boot from internet when OS is not present(It boots into OS installation program), which if I remember correctly, can be also entered by holding Shift during boot.
But still, having recovery system on the board itself is really nice on VIM1S. And on Pi 4, you also have to wait for Pi to download boot image from the server.

[ed]

I used to get the Pi Zero for 9 Euro...darn, inflation goes fast.
I stopped the video at 6:20 simply because I still had not heard the price, which is a pretty important factor in choosing to drop the Raspi for it. Had you mentioned it earlier, one would know if it is even worth watching the video

[jonathanmarshall]

Aren't the Le Potato's A53 cores superior to the VIM1S A35? I understand implementation matters (along with LPDDR4 vs DDR3). Please clarify.

[Commut]

Your other videos convince me that I don't need one of those for a file server when I can score various much ballsier thin clients and tiny desktops used and ready to go. Between Hardware Haven and STH used business class hardware looks mighty good.

[the_bogeyman.]

I was lucky to purchase the last R.Pi 4B 8GB and R.Pi 400 on the shelf of a local store, at normal price and I am glad I went for it.
I wanted to get some more R.Pi 4B 4GB and 8GB, but they never came back in stock and online prices was insane all over the place.

The Raspberry Pi 5 was presented and it's coming very soon, I am half tempted to preorder a few of them (at human msrp) thrhu their selected resellers.
I have the feeling that we gonna see the same scenario of crazy prices and scalping. Time will tell.

[zeeweenor]

if you need a cheap good android tv box walmart makes one 4k onn streaming box for like 20 bucks if you are in the u.s

[LaLaLand.Germany]

Err... I´m looking for something to do my daily stuff as running Firefox, watching videos and such. No gaming, not even in a browser window.
I was looking into mini pc´s but then I found this. Can this do that? Run a gui os and ff?