01-23-2019, 08:21 PM
Hi All,
I got a rock64 (4G) thinking it would be an upgrade to my raspberry pi 2 B v1.1 . However I was surprised to discover that it performed worse than my pi.
My experience so far has been:
With raspberry pi:
- install rasbpian
- install ubeify (a wrapper around omxplayer) to use the pi as a media player. the gui kinda sucks but it can handle 1080p no sweat and works well with my 4k tv
- firefox / iceweasel is slow and can't be used for youtube.
The pi was easy to setup. There were literally no extra steps other than flashing my sd card with raspbian and running the ubeify install script.
With rock64
- wanted to do a custom install of debian (thought this was possible) but couldn't because bios wouldn't show up on hdmi without an os
- installed armbian image on to my sd card (debian 9)
- firefox behaves not much better than raspberry pi. youtube incredibly and not usable
- video incredibly choppy with vlc
- attempted to use ubeify (omxplayer) and performance much worse than my pi. Video stutters and stalls.
What gives? I thought the rock64 was a more powerful computer and could do what my pi did but better (i.e. so I could use firefox and vlc on it no sweat).
Also the rock64 runs hot too. The aluminum case feels warm vs the pi which seems to manage power better.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I know I'm not the first to attempt this, but finding information on how to get a lightweight computer for multimedia purposes hasn't given many useful results to me.
-ekg
01-30-2019, 09:31 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-30-2019, 09:32 AM by va88.)
I presumed the same as you, only looking at the hardware and not taking a peek in the forums first.
It's a very unstable piece of hardware across most of the available software and OS' unfortunately, and it looks like there's no glimpse of future improvement.
To both of you I suggest the following. Fetch Armbian's Ubuntu build and then follow this thread: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/9310-rk3...-renegade/
(01-23-2019, 08:21 PM)ekg Wrote: Hi All,
I got a rock64 (4G) thinking it would be an upgrade to my raspberry pi 2 B v1.1 . However I was surprised to discover that it performed worse than my pi.
My experience so far has been:
With raspberry pi:
- install rasbpian
- install ubeify (a wrapper around omxplayer) to use the pi as a media player. the gui kinda sucks but it can handle 1080p no sweat and works well with my 4k tv
- firefox / iceweasel is slow and can't be used for youtube.
The pi was easy to setup. There were literally no extra steps other than flashing my sd card with raspbian and running the ubeify install script.
With rock64
- wanted to do a custom install of debian (thought this was possible) but couldn't because bios wouldn't show up on hdmi without an os
- installed armbian image on to my sd card (debian 9)
- firefox behaves not much better than raspberry pi. youtube incredibly and not usable
- video incredibly choppy with vlc
- attempted to use ubeify (omxplayer) and performance much worse than my pi. Video stutters and stalls.
What gives? I thought the rock64 was a more powerful computer and could do what my pi did but better (i.e. so I could use firefox and vlc on it no sweat).
Also the rock64 runs hot too. The aluminum case feels warm vs the pi which seems to manage power better.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I know I'm not the first to attempt this, but finding information on how to get a lightweight computer for multimedia purposes hasn't given many useful results to me.
-ekg Well, this is disappointing to read. I have a Pi3b+ and reading the specs of 4gb instead of 1gb and a usb3 port, I just ordered this yesterday. I figured it would be a substantial performance boost.
So, how is their return policy 
(02-06-2019, 05:29 PM)Baracuda2 Wrote: (01-23-2019, 08:21 PM)ekg Wrote: Hi All,
I got a rock64 (4G) thinking it would be an upgrade to my raspberry pi 2 B v1.1 . However I was surprised to discover that it performed worse than my pi.
My experience so far has been:
With raspberry pi:
- install rasbpian
- install ubeify (a wrapper around omxplayer) to use the pi as a media player. the gui kinda sucks but it can handle 1080p no sweat and works well with my 4k tv
- firefox / iceweasel is slow and can't be used for youtube.
The pi was easy to setup. There were literally no extra steps other than flashing my sd card with raspbian and running the ubeify install script.
With rock64
- wanted to do a custom install of debian (thought this was possible) but couldn't because bios wouldn't show up on hdmi without an os
- installed armbian image on to my sd card (debian 9)
- firefox behaves not much better than raspberry pi. youtube incredibly and not usable
- video incredibly choppy with vlc
- attempted to use ubeify (omxplayer) and performance much worse than my pi. Video stutters and stalls.
What gives? I thought the rock64 was a more powerful computer and could do what my pi did but better (i.e. so I could use firefox and vlc on it no sweat).
Also the rock64 runs hot too. The aluminum case feels warm vs the pi which seems to manage power better.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I know I'm not the first to attempt this, but finding information on how to get a lightweight computer for multimedia purposes hasn't given many useful results to me.
-ekg Well, this is disappointing to read. I have a Pi3b+ and reading the specs of 4gb instead of 1gb and a usb3 port, I just ordered this yesterday. I figured it would be a substantial performance boost.
So, how is their return policy
Check the post above yours and follow the directions. The Rock64 is an incredibly capable hobbyist board, but you have to actually do a little work to set it up. The Pi is easier to get working out of the box, but with about 10 extra minutes of setup the Rock64 utterly destroys the Pi in any performance contest.
(01-23-2019, 08:21 PM)ekg Wrote: With rock64
- wanted to do a custom install of debian (thought this was possible) but couldn't because bios wouldn't show up on hdmi without an os
- installed armbian image on to my sd card (debian 9)
- firefox behaves not much better than raspberry pi. youtube incredibly and not usable
- video incredibly choppy with vlc
- attempted to use ubeify (omxplayer) and performance much worse than my pi. Video stutters and stalls.
There is a Media Script for the Rock64 on Armbian.
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/9310-rk3...-renegade/
With this you've got hardware accelerated video in Chromium, and in video players.
The Rock64 is a lot more powerful than the RPi 2B in many ways.
The only advantage the RPi 2B has towards the Rock64 is that it doesn't overheat.
Don't ever judge an SBC on a "first experience". You would better have had something like "I need help getting my Rock64 working like I want it to" as title.
The Rock64 is a totally different architecture than the RPi's. So do not expect to use the same software on it. Experience with the Raspberry isn't anything as experience on any other SBC. They have got their closed world which isn't really representable for anything else.
Do your research, ask the right questions. And you'll get it all working like you want it.
The use of Armbian is already a good step.
Good luck.
I feel you. I have 14 raspberry pi’s, a tinker board s, nano pi fire 3. All these boards work. I have tried Ubuntu, ambian, Debian and diet pi. All perform the same. No a/v audio.
My setiathome get computational errors that points to internal cpu or memory errors. Not a great first experience, regardless of distro.
(01-23-2019, 08:21 PM)ekg Wrote: Hi All,
I got a rock64 (4G) thinking it would be an upgrade to my raspberry pi 2 B v1.1 . However I was surprised to discover that it performed worse than my pi.
My experience so far has been:
With raspberry pi:
- install rasbpian
- install ubeify (a wrapper around omxplayer) to use the pi as a media player. the gui kinda sucks but it can handle 1080p no sweat and works well with my 4k tv
- firefox / iceweasel is slow and can't be used for youtube.
The pi was easy to setup. There were literally no extra steps other than flashing my sd card with raspbian and running the ubeify install script.
With rock64
- wanted to do a custom install of debian (thought this was possible) but couldn't because bios wouldn't show up on hdmi without an os
- installed armbian image on to my sd card (debian 9)
- firefox behaves not much better than raspberry pi. youtube incredibly and not usable
- video incredibly choppy with vlc
- attempted to use ubeify (omxplayer) and performance much worse than my pi. Video stutters and stalls.
What gives? I thought the rock64 was a more powerful computer and could do what my pi did but better (i.e. so I could use firefox and vlc on it no sweat).
Also the rock64 runs hot too. The aluminum case feels warm vs the pi which seems to manage power better.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I know I'm not the first to attempt this, but finding information on how to get a lightweight computer for multimedia purposes hasn't given many useful results to me.
-ekg
Hi,
would you mind post the temperatures you Rock64 work with the aluminium case? I am interested on it but a bit scared about how warm it is.
Thanks.
(05-17-2019, 12:47 AM)davidm Wrote: (01-23-2019, 08:21 PM)ekg Wrote: Hi All,
I got a rock64 (4G) thinking it would be an upgrade to my raspberry pi 2 B v1.1 . However I was surprised to discover that it performed worse than my pi.
My experience so far has been:
With raspberry pi:
- install rasbpian
- install ubeify (a wrapper around omxplayer) to use the pi as a media player. the gui kinda sucks but it can handle 1080p no sweat and works well with my 4k tv
- firefox / iceweasel is slow and can't be used for youtube.
The pi was easy to setup. There were literally no extra steps other than flashing my sd card with raspbian and running the ubeify install script.
With rock64
- wanted to do a custom install of debian (thought this was possible) but couldn't because bios wouldn't show up on hdmi without an os
- installed armbian image on to my sd card (debian 9)
- firefox behaves not much better than raspberry pi. youtube incredibly and not usable
- video incredibly choppy with vlc
- attempted to use ubeify (omxplayer) and performance much worse than my pi. Video stutters and stalls.
What gives? I thought the rock64 was a more powerful computer and could do what my pi did but better (i.e. so I could use firefox and vlc on it no sweat).
Also the rock64 runs hot too. The aluminum case feels warm vs the pi which seems to manage power better.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I know I'm not the first to attempt this, but finding information on how to get a lightweight computer for multimedia purposes hasn't given many useful results to me.
-ekg
Hi,
would you mind post the temperatures you Rock64 work with the aluminium case? I am interested on it but a bit scared about how warm it is.
Thanks.
I have a 1gb rock64 running nextcloud, plex media server, and RPI-Monitor, inside a closed cabinet with 2 1TB usb drives attached. It's in a custom made plexiglass stack that's open on all sides and runs on average at 58C. That is 20 degrees hotter than my Raspberry Pi 2 B running pihole, pivpn, and RPI-Monitor, but the Pi is on top of the cabinet just laying next to my router. I have been more than pleased with the performance of my 2 rock64's(both 1gb), so much so that I have sold off my original pi 1 b, my zero w, and have listed my 3B on ebay. When i sell my 3B i'll be getting another rock64 to run use as my pihole/pivpn server and then putting my 2B on ebay. My raspberry pi's have been reliable and run without issues, however i can live with the rock64 running a little hotter than my pi's ran for the performance gains in regards to the usb3 port, the gig ethernet, and the faster ram. My kodi box is faster, my nextcloud/plex server is faster, and if i ever get an internet connection faster than my current 100Mbs I expect my pivpn connections to be faster. The PI is a great SBC, but the rock64 is better IMO.
It took me over two weeks to setup my Rock64 2GB to the way I wanted and by God, it outperforms the PI at everything.
It may take a while to setup but it beats the PI3 at everything; for me anyway.
I'm using it as a desktop for Internet browsing and watching movies from a samba share. it's really, really fast! I have a 16GB eMMC but... I've just ordered a SSD and a USB3 to SATA cable to use that with it. can't wait to get it! 
My point is, RaspberryPI is quicker out of the box and hardly any setting up to do. Rock64 needs a lot of configuring but once it's done, the speed is absolutely awesome!
I can't even imagine how fast the Rock64PRO is.
Just my two cents.
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