I’m looking for an ideal microserver to run locally.
Needs:
- Fast Storage (anything faster than an SD Card)
- Lots of RAM (1 GB minimum, 2 GB ideally)
- Multiple Cores (2 minimum, 4 ideally)
- Low cost (Under $100, under $50 ideally)
- Software Support (Ubuntu 15.10, Debian Jessie)
The last is probably the most important point, as I want this server to mirror what we’re running on the Live website. That means MIPS and ARMv8 are out.
BeagleBone Black
$45 from SEEED, or $39 for the BeagleBone Green from SEEED
Pros:
- Debian Mainline Support
- Ubuntu Core Support
- Single Core ARMv7
- 512 MB of RAM
- 4 GB of Flash storage
Cons:
- 100 Mb Ethernet
- Normal speed MicroSD storage
- USB 2.0
Raspberry Pi B+
$40 from SEEED, ~$30 from AliExpress
Pros:
- Debian Mainline Support
- Raspbian (Debian Jessie)
- 512 MB of RAM
Cons:
- Single Core ARMv6
- 100 Mb Ethernet
- Normal speed MicroSD storage
- USB 2.0
Parallella
$99 from Amazon (headless), $149 from Amazon (HDMI)
Pros:
- First party Ubuntu 14.04
- Dual Core ARMv7
- 1 GB of RAM
- Gigabit Ethernet
Cons:
- Normal speed MicroSD storage
- USB 2.0
Raspberry Pi 2
$40 from Amazon?
Pros:
- Debian Mainline Support
- Pseudo Ubuntu Mainline Support
- Raspbian (Debian Jessie)
- Quad Core ARMv7
- 1 GB of RAM
Cons:
- 100 Mb Ethernet
- Normal speed MicroSD storage
- USB 2.0
Banana PI M1
$30 from AliExpress
Pros:
- 3rd party Debian (Jessie) and Ubuntu
- Dual Core ARMv7
- 1 GB of RAM
- Gigabit Ethernet
- SATA storage
Cons:
- Normal speed MicroSD storage
- USB 2.0
Likely candidate.
Banana PI M3
$78 from AliExpress
Pros:
- Octo Core ARMv7
- 2 GB of RAM
- Gigabit Ethernet
- WiFi b/g/n
- SATA storage
Cons:
- Brand new, so OS Support Unknown
- Normal speed MicroSD storage??
- USB 2.0
Potential candidate.
Creator Ci20
$65 from Imagination Technologies
Pros:
- First Party Debian (Jessie)
- 1 GB of RAM
- 8 GB of Flash storage
- Gigabit Ethernet
Cons:
- Dual Core MIPS (a con because software support)
- Normal speed MicroSD storage
- USB 2.0
ODROID C1+
$37 from HardKernel
Pros:
- OS??
- Quad Core ARMv7
- 1 GB of RAM
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Optional fast eMMC storage
Cons:
- Normal speed MicroSD storage??
- USB 2.0
ODROID XU4
$74 from HardKernel
Pros:
- OS??
- 2 GHz Octo Core ARMv7
- 2 GB of RAM
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Optional fast eMMC storage
- USB 3.0
Cons:
- Normal speed MicroSD storage??
Jetson TK1
$192 from NVidia
Pros:
- First Party Ubuntu (?)
- 4+1 Core ARMv7
- 2 GB of RAM
- 16 GB of eMMC storage
- Gigabit Ethernet
- USB 3.0
- SATA storage
- Desktop Class GPU
Cons:
- Normal speed MicroSD storage??
- Price
Jetson TX1
$599 from NVidia
Pros:
- First Party Ubuntu (?)
- 4 GB of RAM
- 16 GB of eMMC storage
- Gigabit Ethernet
- USB 3.0
- SATA storage
- Desktop Class GPU
Cons:
- Quad Core 64bit ARMv8 (A con because of software support)
- Normal speed MicroSD storage??
- Price (OMFG)