Chinese factories have been cranking out USB thumb drive-sized mini PCs in a range of configurations for the last few months. The MK802 has gotten a lot of attention, but there’s a new model coming soon which has a significantly faster processor.
The new Mini PC is powered by a 1.6 GHz Rockchip RK3066 ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor with Mali 400 graphics. It has 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage.
It isn’t widely available yet, but I received a tip from a guy in South Africa named Reno Botes saying that it’ll cost about $89 US. He’s already taking orders from wholesalers, but the original manufacturer is also expected to start selling directly to consumers soon.
Update: OvalElephant is now taking orders in the US for $90 for a device based on the same design.
Botes has posted details about the new device on a YouTube page. It has 802.11n WiFi, a microSD card slot, a USB 2.0 port, and a microUSB port, as well as an HDMI connector.
The device ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software and comes with the Google Play Store and Adobe Flash Player preloaded.
If you don’t want to wait for this new model to hit the streets, there are a few other ARM Cortex-A9 mini PCs available from AliExpress for $70 to $90. But most of those models seem to have 512MB of RAM rather than 1GB.
Now, we are talking.
If this device is real, this is a completely new platform. The sticks on Aliexpress are based on Renesas EV2 Cortex A9 @ 533 MHz (even if the description says other otherwise). I’ve heard people tried Cortex A9, but add to limit the frequency to 600 MHz or it would overheat, and this guy claims he has mini PC with a dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.6 Ghz is hard to believe. I hope to be proven wrong.
Unless he did not use a Chinese SoC, but in that case the price is extremely aggressive.
Bah, I hope this isnt something stupid like 600MHz * 2 (CPU cores) + 400 MHz Mali graphics = 1.6 GHz.
I’ve just updated the post with a photo Reno sent me. It looks like this device uses a Rockchip RK3066 which does seem to be running at speeds up to 1.6 GHz.
The RK3066 would be ideal for this task. It is cheap, dual core, has a standard GPU so it will be hackable.
maybe this can run counter strike portable with ease
as long as it runs on Android or linux on ARM :))))))))
wow, thats what i was waiting for to set up a mini linux server in my house
I am also considering this to be my low-power home, Linux server.
This should work well in tandem with a NAS. 1GB is plenty for running server software, large-scale storage can be provided by the NAS.
If this is indeed true then I have found my next toy. Next on the list is the ODROID-X quad Exynos.
Hey guys. I can answer most of the questions. There is a limited amount that will be offered to buyers in areas where the manufacturer does not have wholesale partners as yet. I am helping him promote the product and can take orders. Payment will be made directly to the manufacturer. First items can be shipped on Monday.
They used to sell, and still do actually, the mk802. He bought his own mould and created this device. He only gave me the go-ahead to promote it for him yesterday so I still need some info from him too.
The benchmark scores speak for themselves 5556 compared to my mk802’s 2000. He has tested it in the Chinese climate without problems. He says the items did not heat up like the mk802 devices.
How about Linux support? Anything available for it? Are the drivers open sourced?
No Linux support just yet.
Linux support is going to be very important for this device.
Android is nice if you want to use it as “TV-smartener” but not enough if you want to use it as a home server or a desktop machine.
This device should absolutely be capable of the latter two roles and that will require good Linux support.
The RK3066 has a Mali-400 GPU. That is fairly well supported under Linux.
Hopefully, other hw parts as well.
If this starts to sell, this will get Linux support fairly quickly, since this can be used as a fairly usable Linux desktop.
Is there any information on the speed of the DDR3 RAM modules?
rk3066? agree with a couple of comments, now the pc-on-a-stick gets really interesting. a10 is cheap and nice, but too slow (for me)
Yes, this should be plenty powerful for a Linux desktop or a powerful Android device.
im looking forward to this. Been waiting for a dual core one since Cotton Candy, but doesnt look like that particular device is happening any time too… But this one could be good. Will give it a few weeks though for the reviews to start rolling in!
Also, the Cotton Candy was for $200 which is waaay to much.
$89 for a dual-core stick with 1Ghz is a deal.
Thanks Brad, You are the first on entire internet on this. You have even beaten the Chinese. 😀
Do we know anything about the speed of the RAM onboard?
If this has speedy DDR3 RAM, then it could really work well as a Linux desktop computer.
Even the Allwinner A10 could work well in that role when paired with fast RAM so this could be really great.
It is claimed to have DDR3, just as other units already available have.