The Radxa X4 is a pretty cool single board computer with an Intel N100 chip.
I compare the X4 to traditional a Mini PCs and a Raspberry Pi 5 to find out if it is the SBC everyone has been asking for.
Blog post with details about the Radxa X4 and how to get serial communication between the RP2040 and Intel N100:
Radxa X2L review:
Raspberry Pi 5 with 2.5 GbE:
Bret.dk post on the X4:
Radxa X4 Arace Tech (non-affiliate):
Maker/IoT Boards for Sale:
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MokerLink 8 Port 2.5 Gigabit Managed Switch:
ASUS 2.5G Ethernet USB Adapter:
BrosTrend 2.5GB Network Card:
Pineberry Pi/Pineboards HatDrive! Bottom:
Pineberry Pi/Pineboards HatDrive! Top:
Pineberry Pi/Pineboards HatBRICK! Commander:
Pineberry Pi/Pineboards HatNET! 2.5G:
Silicon Power 512GB SSD:
Sabrent 512GB SSD:
Crucial 1TB SSD:
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Sandisk Extreme microSD:
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The 12GB RAM version is now available on Arace Tech for $100. The documentation is now also referencing a 16GB version but there's no indication that this version is currently available.
It is shame that Radxa really messed up with that poorly designed heatsink/case. I suspect that there will be quite a few third parties making cases for it though.
But as far as the board itself is concerned, as long as you don't need the camera and other connectors on the Pi 5 then the N100 is obviously going to give superior performance.
The Pi5 still struggles with 4k browser playback that was originally promised with the Pi4.
All in all, the luxury of being able to throw practically any OS at the X4, knowing that 99% will work out of the box gives way more confidence in using the product and not having to potentially fiddle about to get things fully working on ARM.
The debacle of the RK3588 means that for full functionality use, the N100 is a very obvious choice over ARM.
All of the extras that you need for the N100, you also need for the Pi5, including cooling.
The one area that the Pi5 cleans up in is with regards to power consumption but even the N100 board only requires as much power as many a lightbulb.
I have already noticed that Pi5 fanboys/girls are attempting to defend it in any way possible, in cringe watching moments. Share prices have to be protected now that the company has gone public, so I think that many commenters are coming from very biased positions.
The lines between which one to choose are fairly clear but it will be obvious that X86 now truly challenges the ARM Pi monolith, so a Pi6 will come very soon.
I'm going to wait for an N97 version from this, or one of the many other manufacturers that are bound to jump on the bandwagon. The performance gap, especially with the GPU, will just widen even further.
Whilst this board alone will not kill off the Pi5, partly due to economies of scale, once others jump in, then the reign of PI could be coming to a rather quick end unless radical changes are made.
With all the issues that Intel currently has, these budget Alder Lakes may well be saving them, so I expect production to ramp up to cope with future demand.
No MIPI, no camera. No computer vision, no use
Great video!! Can i have your contact information to have a cooperation opportunity?
Get cheap chrome books they can be unlocked for whatever os, and some have very small rectangle motherboards. There are lots that can be had for $9 or less per
The holes are for wifi antennas
Thank you for your review. I order 2 of them to use one as dedicated firewall and the other as dev mini pc plateforme.
Maybe use proxmox to share power inside the first one. I will see.
I order also the cases and the POE HAT so thanks for the complete review.
The perfect Intel CPU sbc/cm still has not seen the light of day. Valiant effort by Radxa but the N100 is gimped by its constraints. Too many drawbacks for me. I wish Intel would license out their IP to another company.
Good video as usual! 👍
Yea this have opengl and better than raspberry pi. I think it is a killer
Thanks for posting all your experience with the UART and RP2040, I used it as reference in my testing! It's good to know we have a lot of the same conclusions. I think the biggest takeaway is this is more a smaller Mini PC and less a Pi SBC replacement
It have 16 GB variant.
Nice video! Thank you! You have a new subscriber.
I bought a kit of Hat adapters. Little extension pieces. Some straight some ninety degrees and stuff like that. They come in handy.
The 12GB ram model just got pricing along with 3rd wave preorders its $100USD or $115 w/ 128GB eMMC.