Rock 5B Single Board Computer 8GB

Single board computers are incredible little boards full of all the computer technology essentials that would’ve filled entire rooms just a few decades ago. Now we can hold our personal computer’s brain in the palm or our hands. This technology is only getting better and more available for us Makers to tinker with. Build your own laptop, game console or even desktop PC with these awesome single board computers. But sometimes, the popular official Raspberry Pi boards are too hard to find, or you might have need for slightly better performance at similar cost. You need a rock-solid alternative, like Okdo’s Rock 5B Single Board Computer! The Raspberry Pi will always have a place in our hearts at DIYElectronics, but we are awestruck at this natural Raspberry Pi alternative.

This 8GB Rock 5B Single Board Computer is one of the newest Rock Pi’s to rock the Maker world with its advanced features and functionality. As an alternative to the Raspberry Pi 4 module, this Rock 5B actually leaves the Pi board in its tracks with 3 times faster processor power and 7 times faster storage. The Rockchip RK3588 contains two 4-core cortex processors and an Arm GPU. While Raspberry Pi’s are made for user-friendly applications with plenty of available add-ons, this Rock 5B may need some extra tinkering to take advantage of all its other features. But for Advanced Makers, the Rock 5B is a golden Pi alternative with plenty of ports and interfaces for your various PC builds and projects. The 8GB Okdo Rock 5B has enough computing power to rival sully sized computers with awesome key features.

What Awesome Key Features are Included in the Okdo Rock 5B 8GB Single Board Computer?

Within its small form factor, the Okdo Rock 5B 8GB Single Board Computer contains fantastic features that bring functionality to your electronics project. While “Pi” is missing from this board’s name, the similarities are hard to ignore. But we must dig a bit deeper into the juicy details of the additional features at your fingertips:

• Powerful Rockchip Processor – At the heart of the Rock 5B sits its very own high performing Rockchip RK3588 processor that makes up the brains behind these little single board computers. This board contains two whole processing cores, the quad-core cortex A76 and quad-core cortex A55 CPU. With a total of 8-core brainpower, the RK3588 Rockchip caters to many of the small bottle-necking problems that some chips suffer. You can step up your projects in terms of both processing speed, as well as complexity.
• Large Storage Capacity – With 8GM RAM and multiple interfaces, the Rock 5B offers extensive storage capability. Its storage is 7 times faster than Pi 4’s are capable of. A Micro SD slot and high speed eMMC socket are also available on the board for your additional OS and data storages, allowing even more functionality to you.
• Multiple Connectivity & Interface Options – Built-in Gigabit Ethernet, M.2 Keys, USB and HDMI ports are all configured masterfully onto the Rock 5B for an array of connective capabilities. You can connect external components like a keyboard, mouse, camera and display. A standard 40pin GPIO header provides multiple connection points. On top of it all, many additional interfaces allow you to connect a RTC battery, PWM Fan, and heatsink.
• Multimedia Functionality – The Arm Mali G610MC4 GPU of the Rock 5B is ideal for advanced multimedia applications.. The Rock 5B board supports Vulkan, OpenGL, and OpenCL. Multivideo decoders up to 8K@30fps help you run and create gaming consoles or other high graphics applications that require SBC’s with multimedia functionality.

Please Note: This model of the Okdo Rock 5B board is the 8GB RAM/64-bit version. If you are interested in the original Raspberry Pi 4, check out our stocks of Pi boards. We also stock the Rock 4 SE Single Board Computer 4GB.

Additional Resources:

• If you’re ready to dive into tinkering with this board, you might find this Rock 5B Getting Stared Guide extremely useful with installation guides and handy downloads.
• This demo and review video from ETA Prime for the Rock 5B is an interesting run-down on this SBC’s capabilities and shows off its performance while playing a few classic PC games: