Odroid C4

[Brian Beuken]

https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-c4/

4G ram, quad core 905x3 at 2Ghz and  emmc slot..... 
GPU is Mali G31MP2 @ 650mhz, one of the newer generation chips so full OpenGLES3.2 though probably not going to be all that amazing unless well coded, with only 2 cores. Though beats the Pi4 according to their charts, it lags behind the Xu4 (my XU4 numbers were considerably better for an off screen version)
I wouldn't really pay too much attention to a companys own sales blurb though, we often see that the numbers are actually meaningless or sometimes (not so much with Odroids) simply not possible to run the test software. They have a video on line showing Ubuntu 20.04 wayland running GLmark2 on screen, which pops up a score of 292...so Id expect an offscreen score at least 2 times that..making it very close if not better than the XU4


Stock price is $50 so thats actually cheaper than the Pi4, as usual though, the postage is a bit high from Korea... and once they land in europe with that shipping cost and import taxes added the price will be quite a bit higher than the Pi4, probably 70-80euros.
I ordered online and also got their own 12/2a power supply, which can be a bit non standard, and paid 77USDtotal, shipping was 15... we'll have to see if I end up paying duty, that can be hit and miss depending on how busy customs are.

I love Hardkernels stuff, its very robust and they tend to take their time making sure its right before shipping, though the N2 is still not what I consider to be fully usable yet, new updates suggest its almost ready to take on the Intel chips..Can't wait to try this out.

[Brian Beuken]

sigh 31.20euros tax and duty....grrr

[jomoengineer]

Bummer on the tax and duty,
In the USE, there is a ameriDroid site which I believe is easier to purchase from in the US.

The C4 has the Mali-G31 which supports but OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan. That is very interesting to me.

I'll have to put this on the list of boards to get.

[Brian Beuken]

If I get it from anywhere outside Europe, I'll get stung with duty. But hey ho...

Yes theres a lot more boards for sure with OpenGLES3.2...I think its time to write a few extra chapters and some proper code to test them out.

I'll let you know how it performs when it arrives, I think it might need a few months of settling in before its really ready to shine, but if it matches and XU4 for power I will be both amazed and impressed.

[Brian Beuken]

Sahhhweeet my C4 arrived today, much faster than I was expecting, and faster it seems than Hardkernel were expecting too, there's no official OS available yet, none of the download links work;. There's a user version available but it needs a lot of time and effort  to get it set up....I hate time and effort... oh well it can go in the drawer of shame for a few weeks, bugger..
the user version is here.. https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=202&t=38557

According to the post on the forums it may not boot from SD and since I don't have an eMMC on it I am not sure its worth the effort but theres a neat video that does explain what might happen, at least as a 1st test system, only for Wayland  at the moment but I do want to test out some wayland rendering so...might give it a go.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MfHMKcHaUc&t=864s

edit yup, SD boot didn't work
trying an armbian version..

damn, it did boot, and took forever to resize and then update/upgrade, at which point it no longer boots.....no blue pulse
sigh
I tried Armbian one more time, not updating, and installing glmark2, it worked, but software only, however it actually produced quite good scores, suggesting a very fast CPU... as soon as GPU is usable this will be  beastie.
But for now, like the N2 it has to go in the drawer of shame and await software that gets the most out of it.

[Brian Beuken]

ordered a emmc and case which I probably should have ordered at the time, we'll see....

[jomoengineer]

Oh cool. I got word mine shipped yesterday but I only ordered the C4.

Sounds like I'll be ordering more stuff for the ODROID.

[Brian Beuken]

it has an odd 12v power unit as well, so you might need to get that, I generally always get the power units with odroids, you can't be sure they use standard systems.

[jomoengineer]

The Power requirements state it has a DC input range of 5.5v - 15v. However, they do suggest the 12v 2A power adapter.

On thing though, it has an idle power consumption of 1.8W and a CPU stress limit at around 3.8W. I'm thinking the 2A power adapter rating might be too low for some instances. Something in the range of 4A might be best.

This is listed on the ODROID-C4 page:

1 x DC jack : outer (negative) diameter 5.5mm, inner (positive) diameter 2.1mm
DC input : 5.5V ~ 15.5V
– DC 12V/2A power adaptor is recommended
Power consumption:
– IDLE : ≃ 1.8W
– CPU Stress : ≃ 3.64W (Performance governor)
– Power-off : ≃ 0.14W

[Brian Beuken]

If you can find a power wart with 4A go for it, you can never go wrong with too many amps. but the 12v2amp they supplied did the job fine, I just need to get an OS that runs after an update on it