Bret.dk
bret.dk · Personal blog · on HN since 2022
Bret writes reviews and comparisons of single-board computers, including Raspberry Pi, Radxa boards, and Intel N100 machines.
What HN saysHN commenters link its Pi test results and discuss it in SBC comparisons against N100 boxes; the author appeared in the thread to explain the site.
21HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
22stories submitted
966story points
5 months agolast shared
2022people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1The Raspberry Pi CM5 Is Weeks Away?3 people · 44 points · first shared 2024 · 8 comments on HN
- 2PoE-Powered SBC Shelf3 people · 11 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 3Raspberry Pi 5 Review – bret.dk3 people · 5 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 4Radxa Dragon Q8B: A Laptop Cosplaying as an SBC?3 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 5Radxa Rock 5 ITX: 8-Core ARM Mini ITX Board with LPDDR5 RAM2 people · 43 points · first shared 2024 · 59 comments on HN
- 6Is the Intel N100 a better option than high-end ARM RK3588 boards at the moment?2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 7RISC-V based single board computers are getting there1 people · 282 points · first shared 2022 · 143 comments on HN
- 8Intel N100 Radxa X4 First Thoughts1 people · 282 points · first shared 2024 · 283 comments on HN
- 9Results of 500 MicroSD Benchmarks on SBCs1 people · 168 points · first shared 2022 · 70 comments on HN
- 10Official Raspberry Pi NVMe SSD Review1 people · 84 points · first shared 2024 · 75 comments on HN
- 11Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 Review: Cooler, Faster, Better?1 people · 19 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 12Official Raspberry Pi MicroSD Card Review1 people · 7 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 13Raspberry Pi 500 Review: NVMe, 16GB RAM, Mechanical Keys1 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 14Radxa X5 Release Imminent?1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 15Every Single Board Computer I Tested in 20251 people · 4 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
CrimsonCape · 2026-06-15
Yeah, this space seems pretty sparse. Some of the Radxa SBCs are getting closer to a hardware solution for your vision, but there isn't real mainstream software. A self-hosted DNLA server is probably the most realistic option but DNLA has seemed to fall by the wayside in favor of paid streaming and plex/jellyfin.
https://bret.dk/radxa-dragon-q8b-a-laptop-cosplaying-as-an-sbc/
ch_123 · 2026-05-28
Do you have a reference for this? Looking around, I see it being beaten by other ARM SBCs, and even low end Intel devices.
Many years ago, I measured performance per watt of the original Raspberry Pi when they were still relatively new. The performance per watt lagged behind even a beefy Intel box since the original Raspi was so slow that it destroyed any gain it got from using so little power.
EDIT: One set of benchmarks I found as an example: https://bret.dk/raspberry-pi-5-review/#Performance-Per-Watt
sthlmb · 2025-10-19
Hey! So I was quite surprised to see my site posted on here so soon after hitting the "go live" button, and thanks for your comment.
I wrote a blog post about why I made the site at https://bret.dk/introducing-sbc-compare/ if anyone's interested, but to TL;DR it, I didn't set out to create a site like this, it was a side quest after creating the automation and database to support my reviews, which do indeed focus on the hobbyist trying to explore Raspberry Pi SBCs and their many alternatives.
I have full specifications and hardware capabilities hidden behind a feature flag at the moment as I'm working my way through adding all of that data (currently at 80 SBCs in the database, and I'm only adding those I own and have run tests on) so there should be something similar to what you're asking for soon. Thanks again!
magicalhippo · 2025-01-09
However you can get an N100-based box for about $150 (including shipping) with 16GB RAM and 500GB NVMe storage[1].
The N100 has a more powerful CPU[2], and can use OpenVINO which llama.cpp supports, so better token performance than the Pi. The N100 has far better storage performance due to x4 M.2 slot, and if you need even more RAM you can upgrade[3] it to 32GB.
The RPi 5 was a very niche board to begin with, the 16GB option at $120 even more so IMO.
[1]: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007511663921.html (semi-random example)
[2]: https://bret.dk/raspberry-pi-5-review/#Raspberry-Pi-5-Benchmarks
[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/179c9m1/comment/k58n4wt/ (needs to be single module, not dual)
distances · 2024-10-24
It does quite enough. Some test results are here: https://bret.dk/official-raspberry-pi-m-2-hat-review/#Temperatures-in-…
And for any moderate use cases the need for any cooler at all could be disputed. I bet most RPi use cases don't include heavy computing.
3np · 2024-07-28
Noticed the same thing and I hope we see the N305 from the same generation take over or more vendor offering both options. Considering the rest of the platform package, it can really benefit from 8 cores instead of just 4.
The N100 can be a fair step up compared to Rpi5 but even RK3588 is already 8 cores. Would be a shame if many of the current generation of exciting hackable x86 mini-platforms lock in at the N100 as it will feel obsolete years earlier the the N305.
I run/ran stuff on both, as well as various ARM SBCs and previous generations like J4125/N5XXX. Considering the core-count, RK3588 is still a better pick for many use-cases unless single-thread performance is that important. Benchmark comparison: https://bret.dk/intel-n100-a-challenge-to-arm/
happymellon · 2024-07-09
Like the Radxa one? With samples being sent out, hopefully not too much longer.
https://bret.dk/radxa-rock-5-itx-first-look/
tiffanyh · 2024-04-15
Why Not Smaller?
Why is this board so (physically) large in size?
You can see how much wasted space, by looking at this photo:
https://bret.dk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/radxa_rock_5_itx_cam_lcd_rt…
aarroyoc · 2022-07-31
I bought the Mango Pi MQ-Pro a month ago and while at first the software support was missing (only Tina Linux was available), later some ISOs started to appear. Right now I'm using the Armbian headless image based on Ubuntu 22.04[0] which works almost perfect and allows me to work on porting things to RISC-V.
[0]: https://bret.dk/armbian-on-the-mangopi-mq-pro/