We all know Raspberry Pi – the little computer spawning mini-Nintendos and kid style desktops – but you probably haven’t seen the ODROID-C1, a mini computer that’s twice as fast as Pi. Just because there is a significant bump in speed don’t expect a huge bump in price.
Built off a quad-core Amlogic ARM style CPU, the 1.5GHz ODROID-C1 packs nearly 215% of the processing speed that the Raspberry Pi can offer (700MHz) and comes in at $35 which matches the Pi B+ price. That’s not to say that this price tag will get you a full-fledge machine but it will certainly get you started.
This mini computer features ARM Mali-450 MP2 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a gigabit ethernet port, three USB 2.0 ports, micro USB and HDMI ports as well as support for microSD and eMMC 4.5 flash storage. If WiFi or Bluetooth are on your needs list, a dongle of some sort will be in order.
Raspberry Pi has developed a serious community of developers but over two years has seen little in the way of hardware improvements. This ODROID-C1 can be paired to make a complete system that runs UBUNTU or KitKat and can handle your XBMC library.
The ODROID-C1 is available via Hard Kernel for $35 with worldwide shipping. Additional information on setup and configuration as well as add-on recommendations can be found on the ODROID wiki page.
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