Rock64 - Use as desktop

[MarkHaysHarris777]

Approaching the embedded world of SBC(s) with a "replacement" mindset is wrong-headed and not helpful.

The Rock64 is a good little desktop environment IMHO but it is not a replacement for my iMac;  nor is it going to replace my mac mini any time soon.  

The proper mind-set is not so much what can this board replace, as what can this board accomplish for the price and for the power ?


The thing is that many of our work-stations today are over-kill BIG time;  they are way more power than how they are being utilized;  that is not to say that there is no use case for these older heavier clunkier behemoths !  I'm just saying that often the kinds of computational tasks that we accomplish in engineering, education, publishing, programming, and a plethora of other things can be accomplished with SBC desktops with minimal power and price !

... not what can it replace, but what can it do ?

[rhille]

Approaching the embedded world of SBC(s) with a "replacement" mindset is wrong-headed and not helpful.

The proper mind-set is not so much what can this board replace, as what can this board accomplish for the price and for the power ?

Please keep in mind that I'm not a native English speaker so the following is with no offense intended.

If I understood your comment correctly, I think these statements are wrong because it basically means you restrict your imagination.

Without the idea of having my old laptop mobo replaced I would not even have discovered the rock64. Now that I did,
I have other ideas what could be done in addition. 

Of course, a little sbs like this cannot replace an intel i7 - but that's not the point here - it should replace an intel pentium M single core cpu.
A ~15 year old mobo - and I'm certain it can do it ( as long as I'm clever enough to make it work).

As said, don't take it personally - just my thoughts about it.

Greetings
Reinhard

[Vasant]

"Of course, a little sbs like this cannot replace an intel i7 - but that's not the point here - it should replace an intel pentium M single core cpu.

A ~15 year old mobo - and I'm certain it can do it ( as long as I'm clever enough to make it work). "

I have a feeling that you are likely to be disappointed -. But please update this thread with your experience.

Most of these low end chips ARM are designed to look good on paper or benchmarks that look good because they run completely in their limited caches. But real world applications require large caches, I am sure that your single core Intel CPU has a larger cache then the 512KB L2 cache on RK3328.

Regards
Vasant

[rhille]

Most of these low end chips ARM are designed to look good on paper or benchmarks that look good because they run completely in their limited caches. But real world applications require large caches, I am sure that your single core Intel CPU has a larger cache then the 512KB L2 cache on RK3328.

You are right - current cpu has 1024KB. I was wondering too if this could be a bottleneck - let's see and yes,
I will report the results once I was able to make this work. 

Regards
Reinhard

[Cyberscavenger]

Although I have received my Rock64 4Gb only a few weeks ago and after waiting weeks for it to arrive I am now attempting to use as a desktop with Android 7.12 on a 64 Mb emmc. I have Ubuntu mate on a generic 8 Mb micro sd. Soon I will try mate on a 64 Mb evo plus in the hope of better performance. To install mate on the micro sd, was reletively simple, after downloading and using the dd command on my Rpi3. To install Android I had to resort to borrowing a laptop with Windows 7 and using a male to male usb cable as per the instructions.

So far Android has much better performance than mate. Both Android 7 and the Rock64 are fairly new and new to me. I like single board computers but they are not always an easy ride. I have no desire to go back to using tower or laptop computers.

[dkryder]

for those who use android for various reasons there is a good android terminal app called termux that in some respects offers a decent linux environment and a while back i ran across this project which is kinda remarkable for a script but here is a link to the project.
https://github.com/sdrausty/TermuxArch

[Ricky]

A few weeks ago I loaded up ayufan xenial minimal an eMMC on my Rock64 4g.  I added Mate desktop since it was the only option I saw.  I did this while at work.  Well, work became very hectic and I totally forget that I wasn't on my office PC. Most of our management systems are run over the internet using a web browser.  At the end of the day I sat there with a big grin on my face.  This little rock64 really rocked.  I have since taken it home with me added a 1tb hard drive and use it for all my record keeping at home.  It makes a great home computer.  When I show my friends my setup they can't believe that something that small could work so well.  Just my thoughts and observation for those of you that are considering a rock64 desktop.  

[tllim]

A few weeks ago I loaded up ayufan xenial minimal an eMMC on my Rock64 4g.  I added Mate desktop since it was the only option I saw.  I did this while at work.  Well, work became very hectic and I totally forget that I wasn't on my office PC. Most of our management systems are run over the internet using a web browser.  At the end of the day I sat there with a big grin on my face.  This little rock64 really rocked.  I have since taken it home with me added a 1tb hard drive and use it for all my record keeping at home.  It makes a great home computer.  When I show my friends my setup they can't believe that something that small could work so well.  Just my thoughts and observation for those of you that are considering a rock64 desktop.  

Glad to know that ROCK64 works well for you :-)