Best cheap hardware to run Nextcloud on?

Another new very interesting one with RPI form-factor (shipping 31st of July):

Doesnā€™t have SATA, but USB3 which should be good enough for most needs. Also has a faster CPU and up to 4GB ram, which I think is a BIG plus if you want to run some additional apps and services on it. Last but not least, I think Rockchip SOCs have generally much better main-line Kernel support, but I canā€™t say for this exact very new model (ok checked: no full mainline support yet, but the Rockchip in-house kernel is at least 4.4lts based and initial support for the SOC is in kernel 4.12). No wifi though, but it might be better to connect it to a dedicated OpenWRT router via the GbE port anyways.

Edit: I think we found a winner for now :wink:

1 Like

I have been thinking about porting NextCloudPi to other boards.

Because NCP is based on Raspbian, I was looking at porting it to DietPi, which provides Debian based images for many ARM boards.

1 Like

Also, the Nextcloudpi docker for ARM could be already used on any of them really without further effortā€¦ as long as they can run docker

1 Like

Boy, the Rockchip looks GOOD!

Gigabit + USB3.0 + SSD HDD = <3

Thanks for sharing

Iā€™ve run OCRmyPDF on a Corei5 with 4 cores, and it shutdown because of overheating.

Iā€™d prefer a complete x86/x86_64 processor for a cheap hardware.
Since at some point i would like to have other modules running such as Nextant or CODE/Collabora.

But hey

that sounds impressive for such a little guy.

1 Like

Did a bit of a check on the BananaPi and that sata port looks inviting but reports on the web say I/O very poor.

New 64 bit SBC on the market that it aint a RK3399 but 64bit & has USB3.0 & can have 4gb Ram.

If the prices are right $24.95ā€“$44.95 1gb - 4gb https://www.pine64.org/?product=rock64-media-board-computer then so far the ROCK64 MEDIA BOARD COMPUTER is looking a winner.

https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=7147

Havenā€™t seen any benchmark reviews but the RK3328 will be faster than the Pi3 but quite a margin I expect.
Interested in that USB3.0 port as that might just be the SBC with the I/O for SOHO / Workgroup.

Also the eMMC modules are prob a shade faster than a Class10 SD and actually quite good prices also.

Looks like the winner for maybe an Android install running Kodi & Linux Deploy with a shared Nas / Nextcloud with the storage on that USB 3.0 port, who knows until we get some reports.

1 Like

I just got one so expect a post on how things go.

4gb version + psu + 32gb eMC module Ā£67 delivered.

I am going to set under Android and Linux deploy as the Kodi / Nextcloud media centre seems like a good idea.
I will publish what the I/O is like as that is the biggest prob with most of the SBCā€™s I have tested so far as to be honest the results have been relatively poor.

Waiting for the postyā€¦

Just a quick note for those interested to use ROCK64 with Linux: The above performance numbers are irrelevant since Android uses an outdated 3.10 kernel while Linux development happens currently with 4.4.70 and 4.12 soon in parallel. The Android builds also miss all the performance tweaks while ayufanā€™s ROCK64 Linux builds fortunately use all our Armbian optimizations now but for whatever reasons the most important script rock64_fix_irqs.sh currently gets not executed automatically (so I added this to /etc/rc.local when testing the last weeks)
With more capable SSDs and USB Attached SCSI we now get 380MB/s and network performance with Linux is 940 Mbits/sec in both directions. ROCK64 is the fastest SBC for NAS use cases currently around. Some details especially in the posts below: Building OMV automatically for a bunch of different ARM dev boards - Seite 12 - General - openmediavault

That is from one of the Armbian guys

2 Likes

great! let us know. I might get one myself

Yeah if you do let me know what you are trying as I will try and work in parallel.

I found some great info on the armbian forums where the Rock64 are at the end of the threads.

I know there are a lot of Raspberry Pi fans out there but boy does the I/O suck big style with a single usb2.0 hub and ethernet all competing to use a restrictive bandwidth.

I think I might ditch the idea of Android/Linux Deploy because of the kernel and just concentrate on a NAS / Nextcloud base aiming at getting some real world I/O of the RK3328 pulling from disk and delivering over ethernet.
Started to think the Rock64 would make a great KODI box but that will be at the end of my tests and only on top of NAS / Nextcloud.

Been trying to source a SATA III port multiplier, Sata II cheap as chips but the JMB321 gets some bum reports.
Lindy do a great Sata III USB 3.0 port multiplier / Raid card but its Ā£99
https://www.lindy.co.uk/cables-adapters-c1/i-o-c125/usb-3-0-esata-to-5-sata-port-multiplier-raid-adapter-p7315
There are cheaper such as Lycom with no RAID and would need a USB - Sata convertor.
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom-st-172a-sata-iii-6gbps-1-to-5-port-multiplier-low-profile-host-adapter

That Lindy card is a great bit of kit, but if anybody has found a clone/cheaper anywhere please post.

[EDIT]
http://www.oodelay.com/oodelay-ub-208rm-usb-3-0-esata-to-5-sata-drives-h-w-raid-port-multiplier-adapter-bridge-board/

But to be honest after enclosures, PSU, above cards its looking better just to buy a box.

Another board and total NAS solution I just came across even though I have gone for the Rock64.

http://kobol.io/helios4/

ā€œThe Marvell ARMADAĀ® 388 is a robust energy-efficient System on Chip (SoC) with very powerful processing abilities especially suited for headless data processing, networking and storage. This Dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU clocked at 1.8 Ghz integrates a Cryptographic and XOR DMA engines to provide the best level of performance for NAS functionality.ā€

ā€œThe only ARM based board on the market that offers 4x SATA 3.0 ports. This is the key feature that makes this platform the first single board computer specially designed for Network Attached Storage. Enjoy up to 40TB of storage (4x Disk of 10TB) while insuring enough throughput to share your data across your entire home or small office network.ā€

A nice collection of supported ARM boards can be found on the Armbian page:

https://www.armbian.com/download/

Sadly many Chinese board manufacturers only supply badly outdated images with many security flaws (like this one: https://forum.armbian.com/index.php?/topic/1108-security-alert-for-allwinner-sun8i-h3a83th8/) and outdated kernel versions. Armbian and the Sunxi community try to get support into the mainline kernel so these boards can be used with modern kernels:

https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort

The Rockchipā€¦ looks amazing.

What OS are you installing?

I would really like to port NCP to a more powerful board, but I donā€™t have much time to do it. I was looking at dietpi, as they have many boards and itā€™s based on debian.

Its a bit more complex than that and a lot has to do with the SoC manufacturer. The Armbian guys do stellar work and are.
Certain suppliers such as Allwinner are full of proprietary code and the problem is many updates are what enthusiasts have reverse engineered with many hitting a cul-de-sac where they can go no further.

The OrangePi & BananaPi boards are very true of what you say and like the Raspberry they actually suck when it comes to I/O.

The Olimex products are supposed to have good opensource that is current.
The Odroid stuff is supposed to be OK.

Rockchip apart from the MALI graphics are 100% opensource and they are pushing cleverly into that area.
The asus Tinker board uses an RK3288 which was there chromebit really.
With the RK 3328 I might end up wishing I had waited until the RK3399 Firefly has come down in price and maybe alternatives using that chip had arrived but I am expecting reasonable support.

So far there are quite a few images to choose from but mainly Debian Jessie / Stretch & Ubuntu Xenial with also various Android images to choose from.
http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/ROCK64_Main_Page
Its a really new board but it has started with extremely good support.

Not really sure how well the Helios4 will be supported but the Rock64 is looking extremely good as you can see on the main page.

If I have a choice, I prefer that it uses as much open source as possible, so rockchip looking even better!

Thinking of going straight for the openmedia vault image by Ayufan


https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-build/releases/download/0.4.16/jessie-openmediavault-rock64-0.4.16-83-armhf.img.xz

As reading through the Armbian forums they have a series of fixes and tweaks and are managing very near the theoretical max of USB3.0 UAS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI)

Then thinking of putting Nextcloud on top of that but the scripts and tweaks are documented so its quite open but probably thinking of aiming at Stretch or Xenial with OpenMediaVault & Nextcloud and posting an image here.

I really havenā€™t made my mind up but thought I would start there and get to grips with things and finally see how it copes running Linux in a chroot under Android 7 so that it can also me an android TV box with KODI as well.

Yeah Rockchip are definately going the right direction in regards to opensource its a shame the likes of Allwinner are not.
Rockchip are going to get a boost because they are going to power the next generation of Arm Chromebooks so we should see a lot of developers and documentation.

So, how are you planning on installing Nextcloud on that board? from scratch?

Yeah from scratch and being an early adopter its highly likely going to turn into a nightmare :slight_smile:slight_smile:)

My Linux / Android / SBC skills when I get back into the flow will probably be able to hack a way through and maybe see if I can get some interest from Ayufan maybe.
Some of the people in that Armbian forum are seriously top notch and they seem to of taken to the Rock64 with what it offers for its price. I have been holding off the RK3399 because of cost but I am going to take a punt on the RK3328

I am a Raspbian fan and I have tried and the I/O does suck and for me the Pi is now a strange choice.
Raspberry need a Pi4 or a revision pretty quick that can provide I/O and it will kill the Rock64, but if its true about 2019 before any new models its looking like Pine have made a very good choice of hardware or just stumbled across the right balance for SoHo at the right time.

Its why I am thinking Android last as the chroot and kernel may be a problem with getting Collabora running.

Another one I missed.

http://espressobin.net/

ā€œMuch more than just another SBC
Low Power 64-bit Super Storage / Super Networking / Super Computeā€

Nacho,

If you are serious about trying to build NextcloudPi on a more powerful board, I am interested in helping. I am willing to test it and help you work out the bugs. I was thinking of buying an Odroid XU4or a Rock64 to try installing Nextcloud. I would prefer to use NextcloudPi because of the great work and support you are doing.

1 Like