Hello to the Khadas community!
I am a Linux tinkerer that has his PC recently die upon him (won’t go into details here). I own a few Raspberry Pis, on which I use NixOS using UEFI. As you may have noticed, this is a very custom setup. Therefore, I would like to keep the hardware <-> software layer as generic as possible.
I am looking for an SBC to buy, for everyday use. Following are my needs/expectations:
- CPU: Has at least 4 high performance cores (at least Cortex A72 or later). Higher cores is better since my job is to compile code hourly.
- GPU: Can run a display at 2160p60fps. I won’t be using graphics a lot but responsiveness matters to me. I prefer to use a minimal window manager (BSPWM and Sway) so I don’t need fast graphics. Just graphics that work reliably.
- RAM: Minimum 8GB but 16GB or 32GB is preferred. I’m willing to pay extra for ECC RAM.
- Networking: 1 Gigabit ethernet is a must. I don’t need BT or WiFi.
- Storage: Having eMMC is nice but I also want an SD Card slot, for peace of mind.
- Firmware: I prefer having firmware on the SPI Flash instead of on the SD Card or on eMMC storage.
- EFI: I am not going to use Android/Ubuntu. I will be using RHEL and NixOS. So I need EFI support. Either u-boot or TianoCore is ok, I don’t have a preference.
- Everything should be fully upstreamed. This includes u-boot and Linux support, especially for the GPU drivers.
- Power delivery with USB-C PD is a nice to have.
I don’t have a max budget per se, but I can afford an SBC with a max budget of 400 USD.