ARMX6 vs. Raspberry Pi

Just want to make a quick comparison between the two platforms, which might help somebody in the future to make a choice.

Raspberry Pi 1:
– slow with PDF files (better if you copy them into a RAM disk and open them from there)
– only two USB ports, limited to 500mAh
– not all mouse/keyboards work well (depending of power consumption)
– stable RISC OS
– all applications run fast enough to be well usable
– display resolution limited to 1920×1080
– slow SD card performance

Raspberry Pi 3:
– very fast
– unstable RISC OS and Applications
– not all mouse/keyboards work well (depending of power consumption)
– slow SD card performance
– display resolution limited to 1920×1080

During daily use the ARMX6 behaves stable and responsive. Even when doing backups in the background onto the build-in SD card, no performance issues can be observed. Reading PDFs is a charm, you can literally flip through the pages with pictures enabled (at least as fast as a rPi3). Anything else is just fast: ArtWorks2, EasyClip, Ovation Pro, etc.

The ordering process was easy and Andrew was very friendly and helpful, suggesting some extras along the way (Serial interface and SSD sizes). It’s been a long time I had such a good experience when buying a computer, it is nothing compared to jump on a website, order click, checkout click, done. No, this feels different, as it should be.
Once the unit arrived, it was plug and play. Basically set your background picture, email account – off you go. OK, some personal adjustments, but R-Comp pre-installed all my PlingStore software already, so I did not need to spend a long time to download and install everything again.

Overall an excellent experience. If you are a professional and need a RISC computer to perform your tasks, this is the machine you buy. There are other companies out there (and I trust they are good, too), but performance wise I cannot think about anything else I would need. Faster hardware is always good, but in terms of stability and reliability, the ARMX6 is a great choice that will not disappoint.

I can’t speak for many applications, because I only use a few, but I’ve seen no sign of instability in RISC OS on the Pi3 (I’m using vanilla RC15), and the display is not limited to 1920×1080 – it’s 1920×1200 “out of the box,” and I’m using it at 3840×2160 with no trouble at all – very easy once I’d worked out how (of course I’m willing to explain how to anyone who asks).

I don’t notice the “slow SD card performance,” but then I don’t use the SD card very much – mostly I use a hard drive. Perhaps that’s “slow” too, but it’s all faster than me.

Maybe I was lucky with my keyboard and mouse – the cheapest ones from Wilkinson’s – but they work fine with the Pi3. (They worked with the Pi1 as well, but I had to put one of them via a powered hub. Don’t need to do that with the Pi3 – I’ve got the keyboard, mouse, hard drive and sometimes a USB stick plugged into it, the USB stick via an extension lead so I don’t wear the connector on the Pi.)

The ARMX6 sounds lovely, of course – but how much does it cost?

Pi3
display resolution limited to 1920×1080

2560×1440 here

unstable RISC OS and Applications

Very stable here. More than my Pi1

not all mouse/keyboards work well (depending of power consumption)

I do not have this kind of problem any more with the Pi3 (and the right PSU)

slow SD card performance

About 20-30 MB/s here

see, that is the thing with the Pi. I was talking ‘out of the box’. Yes, I got the display working at 1920×1200 – but it depends on the RC version I used. Higher than that? Interesting, at least not officially supported and not out of the box, I guess.

And when it comes to Avalanche, AM Player and EasyClip, things went ‘boom’ very often. Not so on the ARMX6. Also Sound is sub-par standard on the Pi, there’s a constant background noise level.

In regards of keyboard: I’m using a backlit ‘Razer Deathstalker’, wired to a USB port. Uses a lot of power and together with a High Definition ‘Razer Abyssus’ wired Mouse, the ‘suggested’ power supply (3A) did not cut it. The mouse ‘resets’ every now and then to the lower left corner and the keyboard ‘misses’ characters while typing.

On my ‘Kingston Micro SD HC I Class 10’ the performance was nothing compared to the SSD – as one would expect it to be. The SanDisc Ultra was not better.

Don’t get me wrong, the Pi is a great machine for its money, but one has to weight the benefits of paying money to get something ‘working out of the box’ – or to fiddle around until it works, for a lot less.

If I want to fiddle around, I go back to my Linux boxes (which I have many as servers running, they are great!), but if I ‘simply want to have something working’, I am very happy now knowingthe ARMX6 is the there. ;)

And when it comes to Avalanche, AM Player and EasyClip, things went ‘boom’ very often. Not so on the ARMX6.

What RO version is the ARMX6 running? High vector o low vector?
Bear in mind that many of the unstable programs are unstable because of their zero page issues.
Other potential problems come from programs that use the SWP instruction IIRC which is down to a processor architecture change and removal of support for that instruction.

I’m not a very expert “fiddler” – Linux is more trouble than I can be bothered with. It wasn’t exactly rocket science to get 3840×2160 resolution. I’ve done nothing else fancy, everything else is “out of the box.”

As for backlit keyboards…well if it’s worth hundreds of pounds to you to have a backlit keyboard, good luck to you! My cheapo keyboard works, no hiccups at all, as does my cheapo mouse.

Some things might be “slow”, I don’t know, I’ve not timed them. I don’t care much about milliseconds; nothing happens slowly enough that I notice any delay (apart from the 11 or 12 seconds it takes to boot up).

From a user perspective I do not care much, if it is a ‘testing’ version or not. All I want is a solid running machine, that is reliable and not crashing all the time. I have that when it comes to Linux, but now I have it with RISC OS as well.

My rPi3 is, BTW my Web browsing machine, running Linux. Performing very well for that task, too.

Was/is the ARMX6 worth the money? For me it is, as it is 100% TAX deductible and out-performs the rPi’s in daily use.

I think once the rPi 3 is better supported, it will be the the next step forward for the RISC OS world. But to attract new folks, IMHO it currently fails.

All I want is a solid running machine, that is reliable and not crashing all the time.

I’ve not had a single crash with the Pi3 running RISC OS (RC15). But I don’t expect to use it for everything – I use my Mac for DTP, web browsing…indeed for most things. Horses for courses… http://clive.semmens.org.uk/index.html?RISCOS%2FAppsq

All I want is a solid running machine, that is reliable and not crashing all the time.

I’ve not had a single crash with the Pi3 running RISC OS (RC15). But I don’t expect to use it for everything – I use my Mac for DTP, web browsing…indeed for most things. Horses for courses… http://clive.semmens.org.uk/index.html?RISCOS%2FAppsQ

I’ve not had a single crash with the Pi3 running RISC OS (RC15)

I have, but in all fairness I am a modder by nature. I almost never have anything stock. I do minor web browsing on RO Pi3, I do DTP and programming mostly. If the Pi3 SD bus is at 100Mhz, you could potentially enjoy 104 MB/s on UHS 1 cards but stock is capped to around 30 MB/s. I’ve opted to SD over USB which is ironically faster, even though SDFS is excellently written and USB stack is being fixed and modernised.

I also never turn my Pi off. It’s always on, and I’ve been able to use it with 2 weeks uptime no problems, no reboots. This is nothing short of a miracle for a cooperative multitasking OS and is a testament to the quality of the RO code base.

My Pi crashes a fair few times. And about 95% of the time it’s my own fault, the other 5% is old software that needs alignment exceptions turned off, that sort of thing.
To be fair, when working with module code in service calls, you’re on par with the OS do need to be careful what you do. Things that are fairly easy with RISC OS but would be painful and protracted with other systems. Of course, the downside is a crash will bring down the machine, we can’t just rely upon the OS to abort crappy code. So, yeah, most of the problems are of my own doing, such is the fun of hacking. ;-)

I’ve had weeks of uptime. Not very often, we get brownouts if too many milking machines go on at the same time, plus this time of year I shut down everything when not in the house (I expect this great heat to break with an epic thunderstorm). Otherwise, yeah, the Pi is a 24/7 machine. I can trust it to quietly do its thing without hassle.

I’ve been able to use it with 2 weeks uptime no problems, no reboots.

Mine’s been running non-stop since April 26. No reboots. Rebooted it several times on April 26 in the course of getting the 4K mode configured.

My ARMX6 is on 24/7 mostly running email and some browsing. It is only rebooted around 2-3 times a year when RComp issue a new ROM or service pack.

I’ll let you know if I ever have to reboot the Pi.

Oh, I told a lie – I have rebooted it once since April 26th – in order to time the reboot. (Just under 12 seconds.)

What RO version is the ARMX6 running? High vector o low vector?
Bear in mind that many of the unstable programs are unstable because of their zero page issues.

I watch for updates on the forum, but have seen nothing since March, where 40% of reported zero page faults were in rcomp applications

The officially supported RO on ARMX6 is currently low-vector only. I’m running the RComp beta release ROM from 21st April.

Raspberry Pi 3: unstable RISC OS

Which RISC OS unstability are you referring to? There are certainly applications and 3rd party modules that are not ARMv8 compatible, but since quite a while RO itself is very stable on Pi 3.

One big advantage of the RPi is that you can just grab the latest nightly build beta ROM and enjoy all the new bugfixes and features. Currently not possible with the ARMX6.

Faster hardware is always good, but in terms of stability and reliability, the ARMX6 is a great choice that will not disappoint.

@Rob I agree with all the points that you make about the ARMX6 and Andrew’s helpful service. I bought mine as a DIY Kit because I like to tinker. It worked out of the box and it was easy to fit a SATA SSD hard drive as my boot drive.

I also have a Pi 3 and my only issue with it was the cpu running hot so I have a fan and heat sink fitted. Both machines work well for my purposes and I would recommend either to anyone looking to move into the RISC scene. However, I am still dreaming of a Titanium board.

Which RISC OS unstability are you referring to? There are certainly applications and 3rd party modules that are not ARMv8 compatible.

Not the RISC OS itself. I am referring to 3rd party applications (Avalance, Organizer Pro, AM Player, Messenger Pro). I also found the rPi3 is running hot very easily and reduces its speed accordingly. When leaving the cover open, or adding a heat sink, it is running fine.

Also, it all comes down to ‘perspective’. In my case, I am not interested in toying around with RISC OS or the hardware. I just want some applications to run without crashing. And from my experience, out of the box, the ARMX6 is delivering – where the Pi falls short. Maybe you have a different experience, and yes, I know the Pi is meant to be toyed with. And yes, the ARMX6 does cost more than 100$ what I would pay for a Pi3 including SD card and PSU.

But putting it into context (wanting a running device, according to some specifications, out of the box), the ARMX6 is IMHO a very good (but more expensive) choice.

I never said the Pi is bad or of cheap quality. Honestly, I am very impressed by it. But it just did not work out for me in daily use. Simple as that. Context.

BTW: my ARMX6 is running RISC OS 5.23 (30-Jun-2016), Alignment Exceptions Off.

only issue with it was the cpu running hot so I have a fan and heat sink fitted

Yes, same here. Problem: in Northern Australia it is always warm/hot with a high humidity. Maybe this is a factor with stability, too.

I am still dreaming of a Titanium board.

:) I was thinking about it, but decided against it. I wanted a higher display resolution and although that might have been possible, I did not see the advantage. All Applications are running fast, and the Webbrowsing experience will not improve anyway (this is where I consider more speed as useful).

Andrew enabled the Serial port on the ARMX6 for me (including an external DB9 port), so I can actually use it for my work. That was the one real advantage of the TiMachine for me – but R-Com enlightened me with this hidden feature on the ARMX6.

Problem: in Northern Australia it is always warm/hot with a high humidity.

Not such a big issue in Tasmania, especially in winter.

Thanks for comments on the Serial port, I will note that for the future.

at least not officially supported and not out of the box, I guess

I did not use anything specific. Just my own MDF.

And when it comes to Avalanche, AM Player and EasyClip, things went ‘boom’ very often.

I suspect you have something wrong in your components. But I confirm Avalanche crashes a lot, on all computers.

I’ve not had a single crash with the Pi3 running RISC OS (RC15)

No crash here for the OS.
Not a single crash either with Organizer, AM Player, Messenger Pro.

I never said the Pi is bad or of cheap quality.

Although to be fair, it is cheap quality. I like my RPi3, but there’s no denying that some weird design choices were made in keeping costs low. This is why IGEPv5 and ARMX6 cost more. They’re higher quality boards.

Andrew enabled the Serial port on the ARMX6 for me (including an external DB9 port), so I can actually use it for my work. That was the one real advantage of the TiMachine for me

For me, I dream of PCIe, but for tinkering reasons. I am ashamed to admit that I literally dream about the titanium board. Can’t get the stupid thing out of my mind and I want it so bad! Curse you Elesar! What have you done to me!? T.T

I have been tempted by by the ARMX6 diy kit, but benchmarks are putting me off a little as it doesn’t feel like much of an upgrade from the RPi3. I don’t have 4k monitors, and have no intention of upgrading to one and I don’t use artworks or legacy applications so the only real benefit to me would be the onboard sata port.

I might still get one for dev purposes as it’s a good platform for a lot of people and it’d be nice to release stable apps on it.

Which RISC OS unstability are you referring to?

Not the RISC OS itself. I am referring to 3rd party applications (…, Organizer Pro, …)

Not sure what you are referring to here. There is no Organizer Pro.
However, there is an Organizer application, but I know of no reason why any recent version would not work on an RPi3, and we have had no reports of any RPi3 problems.

Perhaps you can clarify which applications and versions you are referring to?

I don’t have 4k monitors, and have no intention of upgrading to one

I only paid £299 for mine (sold as a TV, but absolutely fine as a monitor – it’s got 3 HDMI inputs, so I can switch between the Pi and the Mac at a click of the remote) – if you’ve got room on your desk for a 43" monitor I really can recommend it.

And the Pi3 (or a Pi1 for that matter) drives it just fine, and you really won’t notice that it’s only 24Hz. I’ve been using it for over a year now, and would really miss it if I had to go back to tiddly little screens for any reason.