Caught between a Rock and a Hard place !

[GreyLinux]

Hi all,

I thought I would start a thread to help me decide whether to purchase a Rockpro64 or wait for the upcoming Hardrock64. I started a thread in the Rockpro64 section of the forum to decide whether I was asking a little to much of the SBC to host all the services , I would like and after a bit of discussion away from the forum, I think the Rockchip RK3399 SOC with Mali T860 MP4 GPU will more than meet my needs .

That being said I cant decide between the 2 devices which hold this chip and GPU, essentially the main objective is to have OpenMediaVault run as the main contender on the board with the other services in docker.

The rockpro64 with NAS case , PCI-e to Dual SATA-II Interface Card and 2 SSD's more than suits this need, but with the smaller form factor of the Hardrock64 and the minimal  difference in speed over usb 3.0 to sata cable,  compared to the PCI-e card is really enticing .

The Hardrock64 would provide me with a smaller form factor overall which is brilliant but the lack of a case and fan setup steers me back towards the Rockpro64 setup .

So I turn to the wisdom and opinions of the community to help me win the battle between the 2 contenders .

thanks in advance

[tophneal]

I'm going to wait for the HardRock, because I don't need the interface options of the RP64 and it's size will fit nicely on the stack of the other SBCs I've already got running.

[GreyLinux]

I'm going to wait for the HardRock, because I don't need the interface options of the RP64 and it's size will fit nicely on the stack of the other SBCs I've already got running.

Do you have a case on mind for it ?

I think if I can 3d print a nice case or create one out of aluminium then the hardrock will be the way to go , do you know if there is a socket on the Hardrock for the fan unit, or is it a case of wiring to the gpio's ?

[tophneal]

Do you have a case on mind for it ?

I think if I can 3d print a nice case or create one out of aluminium then the hardrock will be the way to go , do you know if there is a socket on the Hardrock for the fan unit, or is it a case of wiring to the gpio's ?

All my SBCs with that same footprint are on a stack (brass standoffs and acrylic.) It looks like the HardRock will be able to accommodate the smaller existing RP64 heatsink/fan. Looking at the pictures, it looks like it might be possible that the 2 pins right next to the GPIO are for a fan. The pictures online are not quite big enough to make out the smaller print on the board.

[GreyLinux]

[/quote]
It looks like the HardRock will be able to accommodate the smaller existing RP64 heatsink/fan. Looking at the pictures, it looks like it might be possible that the 2 pins right next to the GPIO are for a fan.
[/quote]

interesting !! I wonder which is more efficient the smaller direct heatsink/fan or a large heatsink but case integrated fan ? I guess the added benefit of the case fan is that it potentially keeps the SSD's cool as well.

now I'm starting to lean more towards the Rockpro and NAS case as it would be good to keep the drives cool as using Jellyfin does make the drives warm up a bit. The Odroid HC1 I currently use causes the attached drive to warm to 54 °C which is a little warmer than I would prefer although within limits.