Is it possible to use orange pi 3 + Armbian as desktop PC ?

[ProstoUser]

Hi all .

 

Before i buy Orange Pi 3 ( 64-bit 1.8GHZ ARM Cortex™-A53 , 2GB RAM ) , i want to  know:

 

Is it posible to  use this PC + Armbian as desktop PC ?

I want to  use

1. Firefox Browser

2. YouTube 720p60 or FullHD ( Desktop version )

3. Having ability to watch something with videoplayer. Videoplayer need to have support of large variants of codecs.

4. Listen music. And also online radio ( this can be done via audacious )

 

I had expirience in using Raspbian.

 

quick search on this forum return small amount of useful information.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

[lanefu]

RK3399 - based SBCs are the only thing I would recommend as a desktop.

 

H6 can do accelerated video but it won't be out of the box.  You'll have to assure a video player is built with cedrus libraries etc.

 

Others can hopefully provide clearer answers than me.

[forever_ noob]

Videos work ok with MPV player on H6(it works otb with recent kernel), there's no hdmi audio so some usb soundcard could cover that part.

Opi3 has bunch of ram so your Armbian and DE should run smooth.

There's no gpu accel in browsers but cpu can handle YT videos if there's ram.

I don't know if that audio out port works, i have opi lite 2 that hasn't have it.

You could gain at least extra 1GB of zram if your ram gets filled with 2GB version, so around 3GB of fast RAM memory what should be fine.(I wouldn't recommend 1GB ram version for DE, in theory it could work but some of the ram is used by the GPU and it gets filled fast with multimedia in browsers)

 

There's up to date info if you haven't come across it https://linux-sunxi.org/Xunlong_Orange_Pi_3 and this https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort

[Saru]

@forever_ noobSo, until now, there is no Arm Board that allows you to see Youtube in the browser (in Armbian) using hardware acceleration?

[Werner]

6 hours ago, Saru said:

@forever_ noobSo, until now, there is no Arm Board that allows you to see Youtube in the browser (in Armbian) using hardware acceleration?

Not sure but I think RK3399 can do. @NicoD?

[NicoD]

Only RK3399 is good for main desktop. I've used NanoPi M4V2 with 4GB for + 1 year and it was awesome, amazing not having it make any noise. Played youtube great, now also with mainline + GPU acc browser out of box.

I would not recomment an H6 board, it is a lot less powerful and less supported.
I don't know about OPi4 or OPrk3399. Seem decent boards, but I don't know how hardware support is at arnbian for it.

I now again us my older NanoPi M4 with 2GB ram and 256GB NVMe with 9GB swapfile. That way I don't get out of ram. Even 4GB+2GB zram wasn't enough for having a few programs and a lot of browser taps open. So having MVMe is a hug possitive.
 

I now bought a new pc and since only used that as main desktop. It makes a lot more noise, consumes almost 10x as much. But I can do everything at 4K. With my M4/M4V2 I could work at 1440p and still able to watch perfect 1080p YT video. Overclocking to 2Ghz/1.5Ghz also makes it play a little higher video quality. Like the LinusTechTips 1440p videos at 1440p display res.
 

I like the RockPi4 too. But the M4V2 has an awesome metal case and good plugable NVMe hat.
I used to use Odroid C2, Odroid XU4, RPi3b+ but they all had problems with something. C2 did everything great at 720p. XU4 was great for gaming, unstable for browsing, it also overheated immediatly when used. RPi is just sh*t. I would not want RPi4 for desktop, not even 8GB model.

[Saru]

@NicoD
If I have not misunderstood, RK3399 is the most compatible with Armbian to get all its potential. Especially what board with RK3399 recommends?
I ask that question because I am an "average Joe" and I can not make Armbian use all the potential of my board (TVBOX X96MINI, AMLOGIC S905W), nor is there sound at the analog output and suffers when opening Youtube at 240p, but it serves to write in the forum xD.

[Werner]

6 hours ago, Saru said:

I can not make Armbian use all the potential of my board (TVBOX X96MINI, AMLOGIC S905W),

What did you expect from a system that is neither supported nor maintained?

[Saru]

I had the board before I met armbian XD although I was not disappointed, I do several things:

- Edit documents with WPS Office(better looking than LibreOffice)

- Listen to YouTube music with FreeTube (configured for audio only)

- Browse with Firefox but only non-demanding pages (no YouTube XD)

- I have arduino-IDE installed although I have not yet tried to program a board (Chinese version-Aliexpress)

When someone understands the limitations of the board or the software being used then they can enjoy it  , that's my opinion as "average Joe" who knows next to nothing about Linux XD.

[I thank balbes150, translated with google translator]

[xwiggen]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:46 AM, ProstoUser said:

Hi all .

 

Before i buy Orange Pi 3 ( 64-bit 1.8GHZ ARM Cortex™-A53 , 2GB RAM ) , i want to  know:

 

 

I wouldn't buy it for retail ~$80 in any case, because it's not much of an upgrade over an RPi 3.

 

For that price you can get (and probably want) 4GB LPDDR4 instead of 2GB LPDDR3, go with either RK3399 as mentioned (M4V2) or RPi4.