Cheap serverbox Hardware

Boxes matching or surpassing the (no longer produced) DreamPlug in price and core features:

Boxes known to use high quality components and wiring for essential parts.

NAS

Name

Speed

arch

RAM

disk

battery

SATA

Wifi

Ethernet

OSHW

price

stability

Banana Pro

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

-

(./)

n

1000

{X}

55

stable

Cubieboard3/Cubietruck

1x2

armhf/sunxi

2

8

(./)

(./)

n

1000

{X}

86

stable

ESPRESSObin V7

1.2x2

arm64/armada

2

-

-

(./)

-

1000x3

{X}

79

OLinuXino A20 LIME2

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

(./)

(./)

-

1000

(./)

51

stable

Cheap

Name

Speed

arch

RAM

disk

battery

SATA

Wifi

Ethernet

OSHW

price

stability

BeagleBone Green

1

armhf/omap

½

4

-

-

-

100

(./)

54

OLinuXino A10 LIME

1

armhf/sunxi

½

-

(./)

(./)

-

100

(./)

36

stable

OLinuXino A20 LIME

1x2

armhf/sunxi

½

-

(./)

(./)

-

100

(./)

44

stable

OLinuXino A64-1G

1.2x4

arm64/sunxi

1

-

(./)

-

-

1000

(./)

47

Adequate

Boxes less ideal - either more expensive or possibly using less than ideal components or wiring for essential parts.

Name

Speed

arch

RAM

disk

battery

SATA

Wifi

Ethernet

OSHW

price

stability

APU.2e0

1x4

amd64

2

-

-

(./)

-

1000x2

{X}

131

BeagleBone Black C

1

armhf/omap

½

4

-

-

-

100

(./)

65

BeagleBone Enhanced 512

1

armhf/omap

½

4

-

-

n

1000

(./)

62

BeagleBone Enhanced 1G

1

armhf/omap

1

4

-

-

n

1000

(./)

79

Cubieboard1

1

armhf/sunxi

1

4

(./)

(./)

-

100

{X}

56

stable

Cubieboard2

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

4

(./)

(./)

-

100

{X}

64

stable

Cubieboard5/Cubietruck+

2x8

armhf/sunxi

2

8

(./)

( (./) )

n

1000

{X}

117

untested

CuBox i1

1

armhf/imx

½

8

-

-

-

1000

{X}

80

CuBox i2

1x2

armhf/imx

1

8

-

-

-

1000

{X}

90

CuBox i2eX

1x2

armhf/imx

1

8

-

(./)

-

1000

{X}

100

CuBox i4Pro

1x4

armhf/imx

2

8

-

(./)

n

1000

{X}

120

CuBoxTV 1GB

1x4

armhf/imx

1

-

-

(./)

-

1000

{X}

100

CuBoxTV 2GB

1x4

armhf/imx

2

-

-

(./)

-

1000

{X}

130

HummingBoard Edge Solo

1

armhf/imx

½

8

-

(./)

-

100

{X}

132

HummingBoard Edge Dual-lite

1x2

armhf/imx

1

8

-

(./)

-

100

{X}

156

HummingBoard Gate Solo

1

armhf/imx

½

8

-

-

-

100

{X}

117

HummingBoard Gate Dual-lite

1x2

armhf/imx

1

8

-

-

-

100

{X}

141

Intel NUC 7CJYH

2

amd64

+8

4

-

(./)

n

1000

{X}

126

MiraBox

1

armhf/armada

1

1

-

(USB3)

n

1000x2

{X}

149

ODroid C1+

1.5x4

armhf/amlogic

1

-

(./)

-

-

1000

{X}

40

ODroid C2

1.5x4→2x1

armhf/amlogic

2

-

(./)

-

-

1000

{X}

51

OLinuXino A20 MICRO

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

(./)

(./)

-

100

(./)

56

stable

OLinuXino A642Ge8G-IND

1.2x4

arm64/sunxi

2

16

(./)

-

-

1000

(./)

83

pcDuino 3S

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

4

-

-

-

100

{X}

89

untested

Pine64 PINE A64-LTS

1.2x4

arm64/sunxi

2

-

(./)

-

-

1000

{X}

40

untested

Pine64 ROCK64 1GB

1.5x4

arm64/rk

1

-

(./)

(USB3)

-

1000

{X}

33

Pine64 ROCK64 2GB

1.5x4

arm64/rk

2

-

(./)

(USB3)

-

1000

{X}

43

Pine64 ROCK64 4GB

1.5x4

arm64/rk

4

-

(./)

(USB3)

-

1000

{X}

53

ROCK Pi 4 A 1GB

1.8x2+1.4x2

arm64/rk

1

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

-

1000

{X}

44

ROCK Pi 4 B 1GB

1.8x2+1.4x2

arm64/rk

1

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

n

1000

{X}

54

ROCK Pi 4 A 2GB

1.8x2+1.4x2

arm64/rk

2

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

-

1000

{X}

54

ROCK Pi 4 B 2GB

1.8x2+1.4x2

arm64/rk

2

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

n

1000

{X}

64

ROCK Pi 4 A 4GB

1.8x2+1.4x2

arm64/rk

4

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

-

1000

{X}

70

ROCK Pi 4 B 4GB

1.8x2+1.4x2

arm64/rk

4

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

n

1000

{X}

80

Rock960 4GB

1.8x2+1.4x4

arm64/rk

4

32

-

(M.2+USB3)

ac

1000

{X}

139

unstable-untested

Rock960c 1GB

1.8x2+1.4x4

arm64/rk

1

-

-

(M.2+USB3)

ac

1000

{X}

69

Sheeva64

1.2x2

arm64/armada

1

4

-

.

-

1000x2

{X}

89

Up Board A10-0116

1.9

amd64

1

16

-

(USB3)

-

1000

{X}

107

Up Board A10-0232

1.9

amd64

2

32

-

(USB3)

-

1000

{X}

127

Utilite Value

1

armhf/imx

½

4

-

-

-

1000

{X}

134

Wandboard Solo

1

armhf/imx

½

-

-

-

-

1000

{X}

98

Wandboard Dual

1x2

armhf/imx

1

-

-

-

n

1000

{X}

118

Wandboard Quad

1x4

armhf/imx

2

-

-

(./)

n

1000

{X}

138

Legend:

TODO

Boxes working with mainline linux and mainline u-boot, but needing changes to Debian packages:

Name

Speed

arch

RAM

disk

battery

SATA

Wifi

Ethernet

OSHW

price

notes

Cubieboard2-Dual

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

(./)

(./)

-

100

{X}

58

needs custom-configured u-boot

ITEAD Core EVB + AW2041

1

armhf/sunxi

1

4

-

(./)

-

1000

{X}

82

needs u-boot

ITEAD Core EVB + AW2042

1x2

armhf/sunxi

2

4

-

(./)

-

1000

{X}

97

needs u-boot

Pine64 SOPINE A64

1.2x4

arm64/sunxi

2

-

(./)

-

-

1000

{X}

43

needs u-boot

Promising

Upcoming boxes looking promising, but not yet available for general sale:

Name

Speed

arch

RAM

disk

battery

SATA

Wifi

Ethernet

OSHW

price

notes

Caninos Loucos Labrador

1.3x4

armhf/amlogic

2

16

-

-

n

100

{X}

possibly ~40)

Unsuitable

Raspberry Pi boards might become usable if alternative firmware works and gets packaged for Debian.

Devices too expensive not listed here (that'd be a looong list). Some such options are described at a mailinglist post.

Kernel

Wiring

Licensing

OSHW

A hardware equivalent of Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) is OpenSource Hardware (OSHW).

Beware of similar looking labeling like "Open hardware". Might be just a typo, but is often used when e.g. publishing a PDF but not sources for board schematics.

Also beware of boards (correctly) labelled as OSHW, where System-on-Chip is on a non-OSHW daughter board.

Misc


CategoryHardware