u/PlatimaZero

The Luckfox Aura is an impressive compact embedded single board computer (eSBC) built around Rockchip's RV1126B, packing quad-core performance, a built-in NPU for edge AI, Wi-Fi 6 dual-band, gigabit Ethernet with PoE support, USB 3.0, dual MIPI CSI-2 quad-lane camera connectors, 4K video encode and decode, MIPI DSI display output, an RTC battery connector, and onboard audio, all starting from just USD $50.

In this video I unbox the board, take a close look at the hardware, flash Debian 13 (Trixie) to the eMMC using SoC Toolkit, connect to Wi-Fi, run apt update and upgrade, and put it through the SBC Tier List where it earns a well-deserved S class.

Whether you're after something ideal for running OpenClaw with local TTS and STT, aiming to run Frigate NVR with RKNN inference, want a PoE-powered headless Linux server, or are simply after an affordable Debian board that works right out of the box, the Luckfox Aura is well worth a look.

In this video we check out the Radxa Dragon Q6A, a compact single board computer (SBC) powered by the Qualcomm QCS6490. This eight-core ARM SoC packs Kryo Gold and Kryo Silver CPU cores up to 2.7 GHz, an Adreno 643 GPU, and a Hexagon 770 NPU with 12 TOPS of AI compute, alongside Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and LPDDR5 RAM.

Starting from $99, the board supports eMMC and UFS storage, PCIe Gen 3 x2 in an M.2 2230 slot, HDMI 2.0 at 4K, MIPI CSI and DSI connectors, a PoE header, and both 12V DC barrel and USB-C PD power input. We cover flashing via EDL mode on Windows, using rsetup for safe system updates, setting CPU and GPU performance governors, WebGL and BaseMark browser performance testing, and running Llama 3.2 locally on the Hexagon NPU.

Supported operating systems include Qualcomm Linux, deepin, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and Windows on ARM, and we finish with an SBC Tier List placement. Benchmark results and power draw figures are in the pinned comment below.

The ZimaBoard 2 from IceWhale is a compact x86 home server running Intel's N150 processor with 16GB of RAM, 64GB of eMMC storage, dual 2.5Gb Ethernet, and a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot - all in a palm-sized fanless form factor.

In this video we unbox it, boot into ZimaOS (IceWhale's Debian-based home server OS built on CasaOS), tour the app ecosystem, push updates live, test PCIe GPU and NVMe SSD expansion, throw in a 10GbE NIC from AliExpress, and crack it open to see what's inside.

Whether you're after a low-power NAS, a lightweight home lab node, or a self-hosted media and smart home hub, the ZimaBoard 2 has a surprisingly capable feature set for its size and price point.

In this video, we take a look at the Banana Pi BPI-RV2, a compact single-board router powered by a RISC-V processor. If you haven't heard of RISC-V before, it's an open-source processor architecture that is gaining serious traction in the SBC and networking space, and this board is a great example of why. Built around the SiFlower SF21H8898 SoC, it packs a 4-core 64-bit RISC-V CPU, a hardware NPU with L2 and L3 offloading, 20 gigabit switching capacity, a 2.5GbE WAN port, PoE support, NVMe and Wi-Fi expansion via M.2, and even a nano SIM slot - all in a small, wall-mountable form factor with an optional case.

We walk through the hardware, cover how to flash OpenWRT 25.12.2 (the first stable release that actually works on this board, only available since March 2026), and set it up from scratch using the serial console, UCI commands, and LuCI. I also cover some gotchas around finding the right firmware file, fixing network access post-flash, and getting WireGuard installed for a site-to-site VPN setup. This is a great little open-source router board for homelab use, small business networking, or anyone wanting proper hardware offloading without spending a fortune.

If you find the channel useful, consider joining the Patreon linked below; your support directly funded the two BPI-RV2 boards used in this video. Thanks also to PCBWay for sponsoring; links to both are in the description and pinned comment.

In Part 2 of the GEEKOM A5 Pro review, we go much deeper into this compact AMD Ryzen-powered Mini PC, which makes a compelling alternative to traditional single board computers (SBCs) for anyone wanting serious x86 performance in a small form factor. We kick things off by wrapping up the out-of-the-box Windows benchmark results, then crack it open for a full teardown to see what is going on inside, including the dual-channel DDR4 Kingston SODIMMs, a PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD with its own heatsink, and an upgradeable M.2 Wi-Fi slot. If you have been wondering whether a Mini PC can hold its own against dedicated SBCs or even full desktops for everyday tasks and light development work, the Geekbench scores here might surprise you.

From there we wipe the drive and do a completely fresh Windows 11 install to see how the driver situation holds up out of the box, before moving on to what most of you are probably here for: Debian Linux. We install Debian with the Cinnamon desktop, run through apt update and apt upgrade, grab Chrome, and then benchmark the system properly including WebGL and browser GPU performance. We also put the NVMe SSD through its paces using hdparm and dd to get real-world read and write figures rather than just relying on marketing specs.

By the end of the video we have benchmarks across three configurations, a solid picture of Linux hardware compatibility on mainline Debian, SSD throughput numbers, boot speed results, and an honest verdict on whether the GEEKOM A5 Pro earns a place in your setup. Whether you are coming from the SBC world and want something with more grunt, or you are just looking for a capable low-footprint Linux or Windows machine, this one covers it all.

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- Amazon: https://plati.ma/go/mer1 (Affiliate Link)
- AU Official: https://plati.ma/go/s4a5
- US Official: https://plati.ma/go/c75d

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