Atomic Pi - High Speed SBC with Peripheral ICS

What I love: * The price: other x86 SBCs with the same CPU cost $100. Other mini PCs from China cost at least $80. This board is a bargain. * USB3.0, real gigabit ethernet (it really reaches than 900mbps) and low power consumption make this board the best $35 NAS solution. * x86_64 architecture, 2GB RAM and full Windows and Android x86 compatibility make this board the cheapest way to get a half decent PC fully capable of handling office tasks. * The ability to choose your own WiFi antennas, exposed GPIOs, Linux and Android compatibility, the precence of a eMMC, onboard bluetooth and WiFi, make this board quite versatile. * The big heatsink didn't allow the CPU to reach more than 55°C in my tests. Now that it's out of stock I'm regretting buying only one. What I dont like: * The absence of a DC barrel jack. But this board can still be powered easily with bradboard jumpers. * A 16GB eMMC is too small for Windows 10 (but it's more than enough for Linux) * I would have expected to find at least some cheap PCB WiFi antennas includeded in the box. Withouth them WiFi is basically useless and now I have to wait to get some from Aliexpress. * There is no audio jack. You can either use audio over HDMI, or use a cheap USB sound card. Or use the big external expasion board (not yet available from Amazon). Raspberry Pi comparison: * The Atomic Pi is a little bigger than two Raspberry Pi. * The Atomic Pi is much much faster than a Raspberry Pi. * The Atomic Pi can diplay 1080p videos from VLC and even from Youtube (with Firefox). WIth the Raspberry Pi you have to use its own player and just forget about streaming a HD video from a browser without stuttering. * The Atomic Pi requires a slightly more powerful power supply than the Raspberry Pi. * The Atomic Pi doesn't require a SD to work. * The Atomic Pi, as a server, is just better in any way than the Raspberry Pi (storage speed, network speed, software compatibility). * The Raspberry Pi, as a TV media center, can be controlled with your TV remote with HDMI-CEC. The Atomic Pi cannot. * The Raspberry Pi has a more flexible and better community supported GPIO interface. * Unlike the Raspberry, the Atomic Pi is already properly cooled out of the box. I didn't found a way to overclock it, but I cound easily change the frequency governor. How I use it: I soldered a power connector, from a barrel plug and a common breadboard pin strip. Then I disabled the PXE boot, I booted a Linux live pendrive and flashed the provided Debian Buster minimal image to the eMMC (instructions provided). Then I installed a desktop environment (with the command taskel), so now I have a little Linux desktop. I also installed a Samba server, so it doubles as a quite fast NAS. Finally I 3D printed a plastic case from Thingiverse and it's now complete.

I have purchased (more than ten) of these. I have used them for TV set-top boxes as well as other servers: * Plex media server * Camera Server (and or recorder) * 3CX phone server (or SBC relay) * General NAS server. * OPNsense Firewall (works great!) The above servers all run great as "Headless" servers (with 2GB of RAM). Pretty much any freebsd or debian based install will work on this x86 64-bit compatible board. (I like to use the USB 3.0 port for a regular hard drive.) It comes with Lubuntu 18 installed (but in much need of current updates). Runs great with this install. You always restore this install from the DL site. It is "Camera Ready" so it can work with the GEO Cam 1080p webcam for about $13 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SYJJKBP (also by DL) Limited Model: This model board is in limited supply for this price. However Aaeon continues to make them (in a newer SBC format) called the "UP board" (search for "Aaeon UP Developer Board with Intel Atom x5-Z8350") https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XRLV6QW Pros: * great price for what you get. * regular BIOS (efi boot only) * regular HDMI (with sound via HDMI default) * has sound amplifier (works as "Line out" if only supplied by 5V) * has onboard Bosch accelerometer * Has console "serial" port (needs adapter for USB) for trouble-shooting * onboard blue tooth * onboard WiFi (needs antennas) * boots from any efi device (SD Card, Onboard eMMC drive, USB, Network) * It can run Windows 10 (but with only 2GB of RAM you would really need to ameliorate it) Caveats: Needs stuff... * needs a new cmos battery. * needs power supply * needs wiring for power supply (or a baby break-out board) * needs wiring for USB 2.0 port * needs wiring for regular Stereo sound out * internal eMMC drive is small (can use SD card or USB3.0 hard drive) * needs external WiFi antennas if you wish to have solid WiFi access. Needs two antennas per unit. Here are four antennas (for two units): amazon.com/dp/B07W4T7HX2 + amazon.com/dp/B07H3P9KDQ In the attached photo you will see a 3D printed case with a small 5V fan, and a hard drive (underneath-- attached to the USB 3.0 port). There is a header on the motherboard for a USB 2.0 port (There is nothing in the USB 2.0 port in the photo). I negotiated a price for baby-breakout boards to have a barrel power connector. In the photo you will see a 20W "ultra thin" power supply from the "CHUX" distributor item 32905940921 (at the ali x site) I printed the case to adapt this PS. I will try adding WiFi antennas onto this case (and maybe I will add a 1/8" sound port) If you enjoy Linux and enjoy tinkering with inexpensive SBCs then you would enjoy these.

Pros; It's cheapest x86 sbc out there! Compatibility with Windows 10. x5-8350 is a solid cpu for retro gaming and multitasking. Dual Band Wifi Bluetoth 4.0 USB 3.0 HDMI 2.0 Cons; Lack of DC barrel jack. 2Gb Ram and 16GB eMMC might be okey but I would expect 4gb Ram and 32GB eMMC as an option at least! 2Gb Ram causes significant bottleneck over the cpu. Very poor documentation. Just a single USB port.

Ethernet and sound did not work out of the box with the included OS. Rather than troubleshoot I installed Ubuntu Mate 19.04. Ethernet worked without additional steps taken. For sound it defaulted to the Mayfield analog audio. I went into the sound setting and changed it to the HDMI sound output to get sound working. Steps taken to power the board 1. cut the cable from an old charger I no longer used 2. strip one side of the cable 3/4 of an inch. strip the other side 1.5 inches. (do this for both positive and negative wires) 3. tin the shorter 3/4 inch side of the cable. fold the 1.5 inch side in half to double the thickness of the cable and tin. 4. the marked area on the power supply in the picture will tell you the polarity of the cables. in this case inside tip is positive and outside is negative. - insert the 3/4" thinner wire into the Atomic Pi. Positive into pin 3. Negative into pin 4. After tinning you may need to use pliers to press the the wire in order to make it fit into the Atomic Pi header. - on the folded thicker side of the cable insert the positive wire into the DC plug tip. Negative around the outside of the plug. I used a twist tie to hold the outside negative wire around the barrel jack. I could try to form it around the barrel with pliers, but this is a temporary solution until I receive female 2.5 mm barrel jacks purchased elsewhere. In retrospect, folding and tinning the negative 1.5mm barrel jack wire may have been unnecessary, wrapping and taping the wire around the barrel jack may have been optimal.

The good - It can run linux well - It can run windows.. but not that well - Price is only $35 The bad - 2GB ram is bare minimum. 4GB would have been far better - 16 GB of onboard storage is not enough. 64 GB would have been better - 1 usb port is not enough - no power supply included - SD reader is not fast - Couldn't log into the included OS. Ended up having to reinstall the OS to get it to work. When I first got it, I booted it up and it asked for a password. The password is supplied, but the password on mine didn't work. I tried default passwords as well and the who thing was frustrating. I ended up putting ubuntu on an SD card and booting into that. That was ok, but painfully slow. I will probably get a couple of SSD's and some usb 3.0 enclosures and turn it into a NAS. I currently have it booting from an old laptop drive in a usb2.0 enclosure. So to make this useful I ended up spending $12 on a power supply. Then $2 on a barrel connector. Some leads from the barrel connector to the board. I purchased a usb3.0 hub so I could plug in a mouse and a HD for $20. So in all it was more of a $70 investment. I still need to design and 3D print a case for this. Is it worth it? It's not a bad little board. I don't regret my investment. The initial password thing kind of soured me on it along with the power supply as well. I'll get it to function for my purposes and for a decent price.

Pros 1. Power Efficient overall - 15w peak/ ~5w idle power consumption is pretty good 2. z8350 is a reasonably good processor. QuickSync compatible 3. Comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage which is more than you will probably get with many other SBCs 4. No hardware weirdness with any OS option (i also have an ACEPCT-11, running a headless server in it is like pulling teeth) Cons 1. makes a breakout board mandatory to power the device properly - unless you are okay with exposed live leads 2. very less built in storage and RAM. For the price it is okay, but a higher priced option with a 4GB RAM / 32GB storage option would have been much appreciated. 3. Only one USB port. Most z8350 devices come with only one USB3 ports. But a couple more USB2.0 ports would have been welcome. Overall for the price, this is a very good device. If you want x86, this is the one to go. I was running a plex server in this (a single 720p transcode) before the dearth of storage and USB ports made it impossible to run. Right now in mid 2020, if your power budget allows it, you can also buy a used first generation chromebox with Intel Core U (CULV) processors for approximately $45 - a lot of them are reaching end of life and are getting liquidated. So, that is also another option.

I bought this board after seeing a youtube review of it and the claim it could run windows 10. I was going to use it as a Plex server / web computer for our living room TV. Windows 10 will install....BUT you will not find a Intel hd vid driver and so you're stuck at 800 x 600 res and there is no sound driver so no sound over hdmi (windows 10 64bit no updates due to install hd being too small). This is 100% useless for the reason I bought it. I then spent 2 days trying to figure out Linux well enough to link a media folder in plex, couldn't get it to work and now this rebranded SBC from a failed robotics company (do your research) just sits in limbo. If you're buying to use windows 10 and your Linux skills are non existent don't do it and save yourself some frustration.

Note: I'm writing this review on my Atomic Pi!! IF YOU BUY THIS, TAKE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A "PLUG-AND-PLAY" BOARD!! You will have to do some tinkering, soldering, software work, etc! So to everyone complaining about this thing now being very user friendly with the connections and all, you should've known what you were getting into! To anyone who hasn't, go on Youtube and just search up "atomic pi". The videos by ExplainingComputers and ETAprime are especially good. I can solder, so I had no problems splicing into some jumper cables to an existing power supply and hooking it up. Right off the bat, I want to say that the stock Lubuntu OS is not great, so I suggest saving the technical files and installing a new OS. Since it's x86 based, just about any Linux distribution will do! Big plus compared to stuff like Raspberry Pis, which have to have an ARM-based operating system (note: I don't hate the Raspberry Pi, I still want one in addition to this APi). That said, I love this thing! This thing has 64 bit architecture!! My old laptop didn't even have that! $35 will get you a last-gen RPi 3, which is not bad or wrong in any way, but this board has a bit more "oomph", plus it can run without a Micro SD card thanks to the onboard 16 GB of eMMC flash storage! eMMC is very rare on SBCs of this price point, and the 2 GB of RAM is actually sufficient for basic desktop usage. I bought this as a secondary desktop/tinkering computer to experiment with. If it blows up by some mistake on my part, I'm only out $40 or so! To be honest, the community around this is sub-par. There is a forum and some documentation, but not a whole lot. That is partially because this is actually a rebranded industrial board. It was manufactured by AAEON, as the MF-001(AAEON is an award winning Taiwanese tech company, and part of ASUS). These boards were sold to Mayfield Robotics, which used them as the "brain" of the Kuri personal assistant robot. That project went bust, and they sold the boards to Digital Loggers, who bought them, ran a Kickstarter campaign for breakout board development, and then rebranded it as the Atomic Pi as you see it. The 9-axis inertial navigation sensor and real time clock are highly unusual for an SBC, and I like it! I made the choice to overwrite the Lubuntu OS, and instead installed Raspbian Buster for x86(a.k.a Raspberry Pi OS). It's a lot less buggy, and has a very nice interface. It actually installed with 64 bit architecture, which is great. Web browsing is adequate, not stellar, but it IS an SBC. Running apps is great, I love the open source nature of Raspbian, but it does take some skill to navigate. Oh, and the massive heat sink works a treat! It barely gets warm to the touch, with no fan, and working the board hard! Oh, and as you could probably tell by the picture, I built a skeletal riser case out of Legos for it, it works great. There are 3D files on Thingiverse for cases for this thing, if you have access to a 3D printer. Overall, it has it's quirks, it's not a desktop, and it's not for everyone, but I LIKE THIS THING!!