Recommended ARM-based development boards

[Dirk Broer]

The more cores (at just 5v for the complete board mostly) the merrier, so no less than a quad will be recommended here.

If you want low cost on both purchase and running:

• The Raspberry Pi2, featuring a Broadcom BCM2836 (a quad-core Cortex-A7@900MHz) based credit card sized board at some $35.
• The Odroid-C1+, featuring an Amlogic S805 (a quad-core Cortex-A5@1500MHz), a credit card sized board at some $37.
• The Banana Pi M2, featuring an Allwinner-A31s (a quad-core Cortex-A7@1000MHz), a credit card sized board at some $50.

Tip: the Banana Pi M3, featuring an Allwinner-A83t (an octa-core Cortex-A7@1800MHz), a credit card sized board at some undisclosed yet $$.
Tip2: a so-called android-tv running on a Rockchip 3288, a quad-core Cortex-A17@1600MHz.

When you want to spend a little more on purchase:

• The Odroid-XU4, featuring a Samsung Exynos5422 (an Octa-core made out of a quad-core Cortex A15@2000MHz and a quad-core Cortex-A7@1400MHz in big.LITTLE) at some $75.
• The Cubietech Cubieboard4/CC-A80, featuring an Allwinner-A80 (an Octa-core made out of a quad-core Cortex A15 and a quad-core Cortex-A7 in big.LITTLE), at some $125.
• The Pcduino 8A, featuring an Allwinner-A80 (an Octa-core made out of a quad-core Cortex A15 and a quad-core Cortex-A7 in big.LITTLE), at some $136.

Tip: a so-called android-tv running on a Rockchip 3368, a octa-core Cortex-A53@1500MHz.

[vaughan]

My son and I are running 4 Odroid C1 and 1 Odroid XU3 successfully here. Nice low price and low energy consumption.

They are crunching the Asteroids project quite happily.

[Dirk Broer]

My son and I are running 4 Odroid C1 and 1 Odroid XU3 successfully here. Nice low price and low energy consumption.

They are crunching the Asteroids project quite happily.

I bet the XU3 is 224191...

You know there's a new Odroid-C1+?
With HDMI port, Micro-USB OTG and pre-applied heat-sink

and for the price of two quad-core C1+'s ($37 each) you get an octa-core XU4 ($74):

[Dirk Broer]

The 64-bit ARM chips are being pushed to the market, just like a few years ago with the x86 architecture. What can you buy?

Feature	Banana Pi 64	NanoPi M3	Odroid-C2	Pine A64/+/++	Raspberry Pi 3
SOC	Allwinner A64	Samsung S5P6818	Amlogic S905	Allwinner A64	Broadcom BCM2837
CPU	1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 quad-core	1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 octa-core	2.0 Ghz Cortex-A53 quad-core	1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 quad-core	1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 quad-core
GPU	Mali-400 MP2 (2x@500MHz)	Mali-400 MP	Mali-450 MP2 (3x@700MHz)	Mali 400 MP2 (2x@500MHz)	VideoCore IV (1x@400 MHz)
RAM	2 GB LPDDR3 (733 MHz)	1 GB LPDDR3	2 GB LPDDR3 (912 MHz)	512MB (standard) 1GB (+) 2GB (++) LPDDR3	1 GB LPDDR2 (400 MHz)
WiFi	802.11b/g/n	802.11b/g/n	No	Optional (802.11n)	802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth	4.0	4.0	No	Optional 4.0	4.1
LAN	10/100/1000 Mbps	10/100/1000 Mbps	10/100/1000 Mbps	10/100 Mbps 1000 Mbps (+/++)	10/100 Mbps
USB 2.0 host ports	2 ports (3rd via GPIO) 1x microUSB otg	2 ports 2 headers 1 microUSB otg	4 ports 1x microUSB otg	2 ports Micro-USB port (for power)	4 ports Micro-USB port (for power)
eMMC	8 GB (standard) up to 64 GB	No	Optional up to 64 GB	No	No
MicroSD	up to 256 GB	up to 64 GB	up to 64 GB	up to 256GB boot disk (FAT32) up to 32GB	up to 64 GB

To be save, partition SD cards bigger than 32 GB into 32 GB partitions with 32k sectors.

[Dirk Broer]

The more cores (at just 5v for the complete board mostly) the merrier, so no less than a quad will be recommended here.

If you want low cost on both purchase and running:

• The Raspberry Pi2, featuring a Broadcom BCM2836 (a quad-core Cortex-A7@900MHz) based credit card sized board at some $35.
• The Odroid-C1+, featuring an Amlogic S805 (a quad-core Cortex-A5@1500MHz), a credit card sized board at some $37.
• The Banana Pi M2, featuring an Allwinner-A31s (a quad-core Cortex-A7@1000MHz), a credit card sized board at some $50.

Tip1: a so-called android-tv running on a Rockchip 3288, a quad-core Cortex-A17@1600MHz.

Make that now

• The Raspberry Pi3, featuring a Broadcom BCM2837 (a quad-core Cortex-A53@1200MHz) based credit card sized board at some $35.
• The Odroid-C2, featuring an Amlogic S905 (a quad-core Cortex-A53@2000MHz), a credit card sized board at some $40.
• The Banana Pi M3, featuring an Allwinner-A83t (an octa-core Cortex-A7@1800MHz), a credit card sized board at some $70.

[Dirk Broer]

A few years further, and the field has changed considerably. 64-bit capable SOCs we already had four years ago, but 64-bit operating systems -and BOINC applications catering for them- were less common.
Now there is both 64-bit Linux/ARM and 64-bit Android/ARM, and we are no longer confined to the somewhat mediocre performance of the Cortex-A53 based SOCs.
In 32-bit userland nothing still beats the Odroid-XU4 with its Exynos 5422 (a quad-core, high-end Cortex-A15 coupled to a quad-core mainstream Cortex-A7), or it must be the similarly equipped Cubieboard 4 with its Allwinner A80 SOC, also a quad Cortex-A15 coupled to a quad Cortex-A7. The user community behind the Hardkernel product trumps -excusez le mot- that of Cubieboard though.
Other 32-bit octo-cores: the Banana Pi M3 (eight Cortex-A7's in an Allwinner A83, trying to run at 2000 MHz) and the Cubieboard 5 (eight Cortex-A7's in an Allwinner H8, trying to run at 2000 MHz). Of those two the Banana Pi M3 suffers from overheating -amongst others. Chris Skull owns a Cubieboard 5, we'd best ask him about his experiences.

The only disadvantage of these octo-cores is that they can only run 32-bit OS-es and apps. The productivity of my Odroid-XU4 is on the same level as my Raspberry Pi 4B's that operate on a 32-bit Raspbian at stock speed. As Vaughan already mentioned about the XU4, the stock cooling leaves to be desired -both in performance and noise- and it could do with a leftover chipset cooler with heatpipe and a fan, something like 52Pi does for the Raspberry Pi 4 and the nVidia Jetson Nano.

In the 64-bit userland nothing beats the Odroid-N2+ at the moment, having a hexacore Amlogic S922X that can be overclocked to 2400 MHz for its four high-end Cortex-A73 cores and to 2000 MHz for the two mainstream Cortex-A53's. Be sure to order their 80mm fan too with the board, that comes with an immense heat sink. At the moment I only have an Android equipped N2+, but I'll order one to have Ubuntu Mate or Armbian soon too. Using the route of adding an alternative platform in the cc_config.xml you can let the 64-bit ARM boxes run 32-bit apps too. At least: This works with Linux, it ought to work with Android too. The only thing I can't run at the moment in 64-bit Android is Ralph, for which I have to edit that cc_config. All other projects that have Android apps have them for 64-bit Android too -sometimes only 64-bit even.
Other boards with a good 64-bit high-end ARM Cores are of course the Raspberry Pi 4's, of which the best two models have enough RAM to take full advantage of a 64-bit OS.
Not only do the Pi 4's have a good CPU, thay also have lots of tailored hardware and a big community for support. This can't be said for a lot of their competitors. nVidia -them of the competitors video cards- have a nice, if expensive SBC platform in the shape of the Jetsons (no kidding): Nano, Xavier NX and Xavier AGX. Only the first falls into the category of affordable boards, if just barely. It has a quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU (the same as AMD used for their ARM venture) and of course CUDA-capable GPU. Main USP of the board is the access to nVidia's Jetpack Library.

[vaughan]

The Odroid XU4s with the small fan don't last very long. The fan fails and they get too hot. 75 percent failure rate so far but YMMV.

[Dirk Broer]

The solution -but you can throw small casing away: Clicking the picture gets you to a XU4 cooling topic on www.reddit.com

[Dirk Broer]

The Odroid XU4s with the small fan don't last very long. The fan fails and they get too hot. 75 percent failure rate so far but YMMV.

I replaced mine after failure with the passive XU4Q heatsink I got together with the XU4, and coupled it to a Noctua NF-A4x20. Silent, and cool.

[Dirk Broer]

I replaced mine after failure with the passive XU4Q heatsink I got together with the XU4, and coupled it to a Noctua NF-A4x20. Silent, and cool.

Still running my Odroid-XU4 24/7/365 with the 'Q' heatsink and Noctua NF-A4x20 fan, but in order to get more bang for the buck I will now change that to a Xigmatek Porter N881 chipset cooler and change the fan to a 80mm 5V Noctua NF-A8. I will also change the OS from Hardkernel's Ubuntu Mate 20.04 to Armbian Jammy 22.05, to have better control over the LITTLE.big core speeds, the better cooling should be enough to let those Cortex-A15 cores run at 2000 MHz. System ran stable as a rock under Ubuntu Mate, just a tad slow (1400 MHz for the LITTLE Cortex-A7 cores, 1500 MHz for the big Cortex-A15 cores).

The Odroid-XU4 still is my personal #1 choice for a 32-bit ARM cruncher, with the ASUS Tinkerboard/Tinkerboard S with its Cortex-A17 equipped Rockchip RK3288 a close second.
It is just that 32-bit crunching is not exactly the future, BOINC-wise.