Seaberry carrier board turns a Raspberry Pi into a desktop PC with 11 PCIe slots
- Reference: 1637867351
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/11/25/seaberry_rpi_carrier_board/
- Source link:
As we [2]mentioned earlier this month , the forthcoming Linux kernel 5.16 will sport better support for the Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module. This tiny daughterboard plugs into I/O carrier boards, making the Compute Module a lot more versatile than the [3]Raspberry Pi 4 proper .
[4]
Seaberry Pi CM4 carrier board
A popular use for this looks to be controllers for DIY low-end NAS servers, such as the forthcoming [5]Wiretrustee SATA Pi and [6]Radxa Taco . At least using a Pi means more choice of OSes and hardware, and the expectation of a longer useful life, than a bespoke solution – our thanks to the reader who pointed out that Helios64 creator Kobol has [7]shut down .
[8]Do not try this at home: Man spends $5,000 on a 48TB Raspberry Pi storage server
[9]Linux 5.16 to bring mainline support to Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module – and the nifty devices built around it
[10]Bullseye! Debian-based Raspberry Pi OS scores an update with 'less closed-source proprietary code'
[11]Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: Nippy stocking filler for the nerd in your life – if you can get one
Don't get your hopes too high too soon, though. Although the Seaberry board lets you build a desktop PC using off-the-shelf components, as blogger Jeff Geerling [12]describes , at $435 (about £325), it's nearly 10 times the price of a cheap x86 Mini-ITX motherboard. Yes, you'll still have to add an Intel or AMD chip – but then a top-end Compute Module 4 with Wi-Fi, 32GB of eMMC and 8GB of RAM will set you back £85 anyway.
As Geerling discovered when stuffing a Taco with high-end SSDs, [13]it led to performance disappointment , so don't blow your wad just yet.
You can't get one for a few weeks anyway. Canadian kit-making boutique [14]Alftel Systems has sold out. Normally, it specialises in IT security and wireless, making specialised gizmos such as [15]this $350 board for putting 12 M.2 cards into a single PCIe slot, and the company is reeling from the level of interest from hobbyist Raspberry Pi fondlers:
[16]
"Our initial stock was sold out too fast (in a matter of a few minutes) after Jeff Geerling posted his video review on YouTube," the company said. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.tindie.com/products/alftel/seaberry-pi-cm4-carrier-board/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/09/linux_pi_compute/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/24/raspberry_pi_4_model_b/
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/11/25/seaberry.jpg
[5] https://sata.wiretrustee.com/
[6] https://wiki.radxa.com/Taco
[7] https://blog.kobol.io/2021/08/25/we-are-pulling-the-plug/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/48tb_rapsberry_pi_nas/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/09/linux_pi_compute/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/raspberry_pi_os_bullseye/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/28/pi_zero_2_w/
[12] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/mini-itx-seaberry-adds-11-pcie-slots-raspberry-pi
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/48tb_rapsberry_pi_nas/
[14] https://www.alftel.com/
[15] https://www.tindie.com/products/alftel/pci-express-carrier-board-for-x12-m2-radio-cards/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YaAVl6rGqDHzWN01XblVdgAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Not a surprise
Nail soup
http://soupsong.com/snail.html
Re: Not a surprise
I'm writing this on a ten year old USFF Lenovo desktop which will walk all over a Raspberry Pi and cost me less than a B.
Re: Not a surprise
My basement dwelling server cost the same as a RPi 4 - came with 8 sas drive slots, 24gb of ram, 4x 1 gigabit ethernet, 2 x 8 gigabit fibre cards, 2 x 4 core CPUs, 2 psu's... Admittedly it's cost me about £250+ for sas hard disks and a second 8 drive caddy (plus second raid array to manage it).
Still cheaper than one of these efforts...
Re: Not a surprise
> I'm writing this on a ten year old USFF Lenovo desktop
With 11 PCIe slots?
Even my old ml350 server which is vast only has 6 slots, even if it does house 18->24 disks (depending on FF). Can't think when I last saw a machine with 11 PCIe slots.
Re: Not a surprise
Agreed. Many uses for the Pi (not all but many) could be solved equally well or better with a £10-20 thin client from eBay. Used of course but those things tend not to break. With the "optional" extras (case, power supply, storage) supplied as part of the deal rather than on top.
The Pi has its place but it isn't a universal solution. It's too expensive, big or power hungry in some applications, it's underpowered in others. I get tired of all those comments here and elsewhere for any other SBC that amount to little more than "it's not a Pi" as if that is a bad thing.
I am struggling to see the use case for this board, the price point rules it out for a lot of stuff. It's up against desktop boards (both ARM and PC based) for far less and much better I/O throughput in particular. There doesn't even appear to be GPIO facilities for control systems. I can't really see where it fits unless Pi compatibility is a specific need.
Re: Not a surprise
Probably mostly useful for test. If I want to develop Pi compute + some random cards, I might want to test on a bench with existing cards before I build an integrated solution.
Or as an industrial control/capture. If I need 10 pciE cards to capture N inputs but don't need much processing, this might easier/cheaper/more reliable than a rack of 3-4 PCs with a few cards in each.
Thinking back to VME crates with a single CPU card and a dozen data I/O cards
Phun and games
People do this for fun and life long learning. One cannot really put a price on that.
Re: Phun and games
“your engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
This is more or less exactly what I want to build a home NAS. I want something that makes a Pi fit in a standard case (tick), that gives it plenty of onboard storage (tick - although I’d settle for Sata ports, I don’t need PCIe), and that doesn’t chew through the power like a junky on a binge (which is why that old PC or Mac just won’t cut the mustard)
That being said, I don’t want it at that price. At £120 or less, including the compute board, I’d buy. More than that? No thank you.
Not a surprise
In my experience, any minimalist hardware quickly becomes more expensive than the full fat kit, when you add on all the optional extras that turn out not to be so optional!