Single Board Computers are available through oemsecrets.com from leading suppliers and manufacturers like Adafruit, Beagleboard, Intel, Raspberry Pi, Seeed Studio & more.  

In this blog we will be shining the light on a few SBCs and highlighting various aspect of the product based on our research which will include:  

  • We’ll show you what the product is like physically
  • We’ll explain what sets this product apart from its competition
  • We’ll highlight any comparable products
  • We’ll highlight pro and cons we found
  • We’ll highlight what people think of the product

We will be keeping you updated as new SBCs gets released, so without further ado, let us go straight and discuss the Best Single Board Computer of 2021! 

What is a Single Board Computer (SBC)? 

Single board computers also referred to as simply SBC came into light in the 1970. They can be defined as computers that have their interfaces, processor and, memory, soldered in place on a breadboard or one circuit board. The most popular one which we’ll start with today is the Raspberry Pi and Arduinos. 

1. Raspberry Pi 4 

Raspberry Pi 4 was released in 2019, however, in 2020, an updated 8GB of RAM version was released, making the Raspberry Pi 4 a worthy candidate for tasks that require more memory in comparison to the smaller variants of 2019. The variants included 1,2 and 4 GB RAM versions.  

Raspberry Pi is now a household name and has the biggest support and development community which is why this product is the best for anyone new to a single board computer. 

At the time of writing RS components had the best price at £58.40 for the Pi 4 8GB model B. 

What's special about this Raspberry Pi 4? 
According to the manufacturer notes, this board offers 90% greater performance than its predecessor and even better it uses power, more precisely 20% less.  

The price is affordable, and we know it can run some high performance tasks like video scaling because of features like its powerful graphics processing unit (GPU). 

Features: 

CPU: Broadcom BCM2711,
Quad core Cortex-A72
(ARM v8) 64-bit SoC 1.5GHz 
GPU: Broadcom VideoCore VI 
Memory: LPDDR4 SDRAM 
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0,
Dualband 2.4 & 5GHz wireless,
Gigabit ethernet, PoE   

2. Rock Pi 4 Model C 

Rock Pi 4 Model C stacks up well against the previous Raspberry Pi 4 we’ve discussed above. However, its currently available only with 4 GB RAM. Its manufactured by Radxa from China and can run on either Linux or Android. 

At the time of writing Distrelec had the best price at £58.40 for the Rock Pi 4 model C. 

What's special about this Rock Pi 4 Model C? 
According to the manufacturer notes, this supports both Linux and Android and we liked it because it supports multiple storage options and supports AI stack with GPU acceleration which you would agree is great for computer vision applications and robotics. It comes with an onboard antenna and is compatible with the Raspberry Pi camera. It has an additional embedded Multi-Media Card (eMMC) interface meaning it has both flash memory and flash memory controller integrated onboard silicon.   

A few things we thought they could improve is the level of support as this could be a problem since they haven’t got a bigger community base like Raspberry Pi do. affordable, and we know it can run some high-performance tasks like video scaling because of features like its powerful graphics processing unit (GPU). 
 

Features: 

CPU: Rockchip RK3399,
Quad core Cortex-A53 (ARM v8)
64-bit 1.4 GHz 
GPU: Mali T860MP4 
Memory: LPDDR4-3200  
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0,
Dualband 2.4 & 5GHz wireless,
Gigabit ethernet  

3. Asus Tinker Board 2S

Like the impressive computers Asus make, the Asus Tinker Board 2S delivers a mighty punch and is ideal for IoT projects, and even better you can use it as your media centre. Since it has a GPU and a dual 4K display out via channels like USB-C, DSI and HDMI, it makes it more versatile in its capabilities.  

At the time of we didn’t have this listed on our website but we’’ get you a link as to where you can get one of this at the best price. 

What's special about this Asus Tinker Board 2S? 
The Tinker board brings fun as well as performance to the table. As mentioned above its excellent as a media center but not only that, it has some features that make it slightly superior to it rivals like a USB-C port.  

What we noticed as well is, it comes with an RTC header and the manufacture also notes that it comes with protection against electrostatic discharge and overvoltage.  
 

Features: 

CPU: Rockchip RK3399 ARM
64-bit architecture, 1.8 GHz 
GPU: Mali T860 MP4  
Memory: 2 GB LPDDR4 
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0,
Dualband 2.4 & 5GHz wireless,
Gigabit ethernet, BLE   

4. Arduino Mega 2560

Arduino Mega 2560 is designed from the powerful ATmega2560 processor and therefore, capable of handling complex projects as it can be used as a full desktop computer. Some of the recent project powered using the Arduino Mega 2560 include 3D printers and robotics projects.  

It features more memory and pins to be precise a 54 digital input/output pins which gives you better equipment performance and according to the datasheet 15 pins can be used as PWM outputs, 16 analog inputs, and 4 UART hardware serial ports.

At the time of writing Mouser had a few in stock with the best price at £28.99 for the Arduino Mega 2560. 

What's special about this Arduino Mega 2560? 
This microprocessor board is designed to handle more ambitious projects as we mentioned in the paragraph above and its broad pin slots allow it to handle deliver more in terms of performance on projects other similar boards would struggle with.  

The price is affordable, it comes with a USB connection as well as a handy reset button.  
 

Features: 

CPU: ATmega2560, with a
RISC, 8-bit architecture, 16MHz  
GPU: n/a 
Memory: 8 KB SRAM, 4 KB EEPROM 
Connectivity: None 

5. PocketBeagle 

This is probably the tiniest single board computer from BeagleBoard.org foundation and is based on the Octavo Systems OSD3358-SM processor. It’s not at the same level with the new Raspberry Pi 4 we discussed earlier but has a few similarities as an SBC.  

It has a sleek design and most importantly it doesn’t cost much and at the time of writing Farnell electronics & element14 had the best price at £28.50 for the PocketBeagle (BB-POCKET). 

What's special about this PocketBeagle? 
What we liked about this Pocket Beagle is the easiness to which you can program it using it USB key-fob feature. It has 2 PRUs (programmable real-time units) which is an advantage in a Linux based system which is uncommon.  

Beagle products are designed to accommodate open-source and this PocketBeagle allows for imagination and greater learning potential. It also has 72 expansion pin headers and 44 digital I/Os for expansion and better interfacing.  

Features: 

CPU: Octavo Systems
OSD3358-SM, ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, 1GHz 
GPU: PowerVR SGX530 
Memory: 512 MB DDR3 
Connectivity: None   

Summary

There are dozens of other SBCs, but we have only highlighted a few you can quickly get your hands on even with parts shortages. So, which one should you choose? This is entirely dependent on your project.  

Send us some feedback and we’ll keep adding onto this list.