JWhBnzcq2Sc9wi8K5xWceJ-1024-80.jpg

Raspberry Pi alternative FriendlyELEC have a history of producing ever more powerful single board computers (SBC) for a variety of applications. Their latest board the NanoPi NEO3, discovered by CNX Software seems to be a small device with which to build network storage applications.

FireShot Capture 6713 - NanoPi NEO3 Offers Network Storage in_ - https___www.tomshardware.com_ne.jpg

The RockChip RK3328 System on Chip (SoC) is quite an old SoC, released in 2016, but it is still a powerful chip for such a small board. Providing a quad core Arm Cortex A53 and MAli-450MP4 GPU, add in 1GB or 2GB of DDR4, USB 3 and USB C power and we have an interesting board, as long as it is cost effective. Network connectivity is limited to a single Gigabit Ethernet port (RTL8211E). There is no HDMI or other video outputs on the board, which means all control is via a remote terminal.

qoRwwkuFfnuWhH8got5nVJ-970-80-2.jpg

Storage is available via a microSD card slot, sadly there is no space for any SATA or NVME storage options. GPIO access is provided via a 26 pin interface, which features I2C, UART, SPI and I2S. Operating system support is currently an unknown quantity, but it is a good bet that operating systems for other RockChip boards will be compatible.

In my opinion it is better to buy RPi 4

lol tiny NAS , but ya Raspberry better bang for buck