SBUD102 V5 64 Bit Single Board Computer Network Switch,

The first time I ordered this product, I had a terrible experience. I had been looking for any single-board computers that had more than one Ethernet port in order to have a functional low-power router for a home network. When I received the board it reported 2GB of RAM, but would constantly crash or kernel panic across several different Linux distributions. I checked the SD card I was using as well as investigating overheating as possible causes. After some research, though, it appears that this board will tell you the specs of the CPU and RAM based on whatever the bootloader (uBoot) claims instead of any actual basis in hardware, because multiple hardware configurations exist for the board. (In fact, for better or worse you can "flash" the uBoot image to report several other configurations.) Rather than trying to custom-flash something in uBoot I shipped the first board back as a defective unit, and Amazon had a replacement out to me within a couple days. The new unit reported 1GB of RAM and has worked solidly for a week with none of the issues I had seen in the first board. The new board is functioning as a router for my home network, and so far it has handled firewall, routing, and traffic shaping simultaneously without any noticeable hiccups. Two warnings: One, be sure to buy an AC adapter as this unit doesn't come with one. Two, know that there's no physical case available at the time of this review. Instead of a physical case, there are provided plans for a 3D-printed case. I've had those plans printed out, and the resulting case appears to work just fine and fit the board rather snugly with decent clearance below and above the board.

This product seems like a good idea, but the implementation has been terrible. I've been looking for a low-cost single board computer with multiple gigabit ethernet ports to use as a home internet gateway. While the specs of this board fit the bill perfectly, the board itself is an incredible disappointment. First of all, the design was poorly done, with wrong-gender connectors on the board, making it necessary to find and modify rare cables to make it work. The V5 design uses a male Molex connector for power, and the V7 design does something similar with the SATA power connector. Good luck finding the proper cables... Secondly, the operating system is not well supported. There are a couple of flavors of linux available, notably Arch Linux and Armbian, but neither is anywhere close to being bug free for this board. The board will only report a single MAC address for all of the physical ports, updates to the board's U-Boot can easily brick the system, and the instructions for recovering from any of these problems are either nonexistant or inaccurate. Finally, the website support for this product is a joke. Questions usually go unanswered, and when answers ARE given, they're generally wrong. An internet gateway has to work 24/7. Reliability is foremost in a device that you intend to install and then hopefully forget about for the next few years. Everything about this board is as if someone took a great idea, then handed it off to an idiot to implement. Do not waste your money on this board.

----- Update 2018/21/08: Recieved my unit. The thermal design of this board is really bad - even using an properly sized heatsink on the SOC without an enclosed case the back of the board considerably heats up (and I'm not using an cheap PSU here). I can probably guess why a lot of people have issues with it failing easily and being unreliable no matter the skill-set. To add to it their quality control seems to lack considerably as well just looking at my sample ... If you plan to run this be prepared to apply all work on your own. The only hope there is is that pfSense is developing a product based on it - and will offer an aluminium case "soon" (maybe this year). To date the official ESPRESSOBin forum is spam ridden by russian posts and the TOPAZ switch is not properly documented. As such I have to retract a star since the manufacturer seems to have abadoned this SBC (besides the sales) after the Kickstart campaign. Sight ... and people complain about the FriendlyARM or Hardkernel not providing proper support (urm). Never will I buy another Marvell powered SBC, or one from GlobalScale either. Allwinner and Rockchip here we go ... (I just hope they learn to produce some low-power/low-heat SOCs as well ... ------ Original review: I'm not sure how people can come up with how good their Wiki is. It's not. This is a board that is alive because of some enthusiasts that keep it afloat and hack around quirks, the manufacturer shows little care for the board at all. Their support and communication is barely existent. Just check the official forum or the subreddit. Its really a shame for such a great piece of hardware for anyone wanting to build their own router.

It's a nice board - not a hobby board like Raspberry Pi Good features for routing/storage solutions for Marvell based platforms - bit fiddly with the switch, but a low-level Linux dev can work thru this. Out of the box, it will take some work to bring the board up - not unusual for these types of HDK boards, but for those that have previous experience with hobby board, it might be a challenge. Box includes the board and a USB-A 2.0 to Micro-USB cable, this is for connectivity to the board from host PC, not power - power supply is not bundled with this SKU/Kit.. Recommend 12VDC/2A power supply -- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013CWOCHE/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_2 The MV3720 runs warm - might consider a heat-sink for the SoC - lots of kits there... For SD Card - the SanDisk Extreme's are perhaps a good choice. In summary - like I said - nice board - for a linux pro - for a hobbyist - consider the Raspberry Pi 3 or Asus TinkerBoard to get started before jumping into the EspressoBin.