Quartz64 Model A single board computer review and demo, including running Manjaro with a MATE desktop, and testing the board’s PCIe slot and SATA port.
The Quartz64 and accessories shown in this video were purchased from Pine64, where you can find out more about the board here: — and also on its Wiki pages…
![[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 1](https://img.involve.asia/rpss/campaigns_banners/64040-f9qXcjmIrDv2g2y8689gs9l2NABqHASp.png "[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 1")
![[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 2](https://img.involve.asia/rpss/campaigns_banners/68772-0nY1XvIU18FW3ycFXLrGrUyTgqsllBkz.jpg "[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 2")
![[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 3](https://img.involve.asia/rpss/campaigns_banners/68745-vDBjuNX2DjCpCalfkVHjRdeyUHGS3ehC.png "[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 3")
![[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 4](https://img.involve.asia/rpss/campaigns_banners/1642994644-NcO0B9U2arEF1cBTqT84T4cVDMI5DrDm.jpg "[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 4")
![[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 5](https://img.involve.asia/rpss/campaigns_banners/39556-4iBSRCRdhBF305mzqzIRZ5VLzqY227Fc.gif "[Video] Quartz64 Model A – PCIe & SATA SBC 5")
Can you do a Speedtest on pcie? I have to think there is benchmark software available
At 0:08
New graphics for the intro?? They look good!!
At 6:39
Request going forward….
While going through the ribbon cable connectors I realized that it would have been better if you had used a pointer of some type. My original thought was something like a crayon like shape made out of plastic, (so it doesn't get wax on the parts and the plastic won't damage the delicate electronics).
This may be something to look into for future videos.
Will there be a"Mr. Pointer" in the future??
Another interesting board let down by unfinished software.
Useful info to know. Thanks !
I like your channel very much. Still, I haven't seen review of Firefly ROC-RK3588S. Please check and make a review. It's competitor to Khadas VIN4. You can also make comparison review. It would be interesting. Thank you 🙂
"Let's go and take… a… closer… look…" – I swear this gets slightly slower each video, about the same rate the rotation of the earth slows. It's only tiny, but it's there.
It seems like when they ordered the board they had someone ordering decent number of those from them for some purpose (probably hardware controller) and the deal was so good they agreed to try to sell the rest as general purpose sbc, hence its weird design. Thanks for good review
How I wish that Coral TPU PCIE version was still here, but it's not. I should build then a nice Frigate video server based on this board.
Interesting board, but not have a good software support and not having wireless networking makes it a litte bit useless. The PCIe slot get some points from me
I'm just curious if you actually use any of these sbcs for any purpose other than just tinkering around with them every now and then. Like, do you have one set up as a NAS or as a retro gaming system? Or do you have one set up as a weather station for daily use? Or do you just use your full desktop computer for that stuff still and the sbcs are still in the "big boy toy" category for the time being? For me it is just sitting on my book shelf as sort of a novelty item, but I only have the Raspberry Pi 3 which I got 6 or 7 years ago or something like that. It just didn't have enough oomph to satisfy any of my own needs so I've just been using my normal desktop computer for all of the purposes I can think of for an sbc.
Just like Queen song – Another One Bites the Dust, another SBC with hardware and no software.
Nice video, thank you, Christopher.
I’m not very familiar with the SBC scene, but what’s stopping you from using armbian or void or something that has a kernel that supports the hardware? Is it just than pine64 chose hardware that has bad Linux support and now they have to write drivers?
A year is more than enough time to get things ironed out. You were very generous.
I know you like the board, but it's going to be obsolete before they get it fixed.
No ads for this one? Where will you get your income?
Oh man that (lack of) support sucks. It will be interesting to see what their as yet unnamed [1] RISC-V board with "same form factor, similar price and performance" will be like in a few months. They haven't announced it, but it's almost certainly using the StarFive JH7110 SoC, the "mass production" version (with twice the cores and with a PowerVR GPU) of the JH7100 which was supposed to be released in the BeagleV "Starlight" 10 months ago. The JH7100 has been available in the BeagleV beta board (300 boards distributed free in April 2021) and in the VisionFive v1 and is at this point quite well supported. Hopefully the JH7110 will be able to use all that work and be good out of the box.
[1] they know the name, but are holding a competition to guess it
Maybe the 64 stands for 2064.
Thank you for the video, Christopher. You have been kind to the manufacturer of this SBC. Your production quality and presentation skills are top notch!
Next.
It's a shame that, with Raspberry Pis being in such short supply, that developers of boards with potential like this haven't capitalised on the situation. This is an ideal time for alternatives to the Pi to rise to the challenge and fill the gap in supply. I would be very interested to see how the Quartz64 handles a Debian-based non-desktop OS with Octoprint or Klipper on top of it. I realise that this ignores the main reason for buying the Quartz64 (the SATA and PCI-E connections), but if the price is low enough then this doesn't matter. Perhaps in this instance, the Model B would be more suited.
The PCIe slot is a 2.0 x1, according to their sales page.
I find the software support by Manjaro to be odd because at least on the pinebook pro is very nice when you make animations instant. I practically daily drove that arm device for in person classes
Hmm, I'm buying one now.
I bought this board probably around the same time as you. My purpose was graphical testing to see what I could do. I was disappointed that graphics is still lacking after a year. With so much potential for display outputs on this board, you think they would move GPU support up in the priority list. Still waiting on that to happen.
Great vid, thx!
Thanks – this is interesting.
Bit disappointing that you can't use the USB3 and the SATA port at the same time.
Bit disappointing that there still isn't a working operating system for it.
Pity really.
Bravo Chris, more good stuff………
Just FYI, the device only has a single PCIe Gen2 lane and is mutually exclusive with another SATA port that is accessible via pin headers on the board.
I'd love to see an SBC with A77 cores or better, aswell as with more PCIe connectivity. It's a shame that PCIe bridge/switch chips are still so expensive because they're mainly used in server environments, yet some of them are made on nodes as old as 28nm…
benchmark and try installing a rx 6400 please.
Thnx Chris, Let's see if your video either stimulates the development of it's potential OR KILLS the project; simply because hardware without the required software is no more than a paperweight. QQQ: have you by any chance tried an OS by 'the competition' that has similar hardware AND got it working? [if there is such a thing available?]
Another great video 🤓
AS always great video.
I wonder if a 36 watt supply is enough to also power a PCIe card. Some cards draw more than others. It could affect the board's ability to stay stable or even boot
The back of the board looks like a Pick and Place nightmare !…cheers.
Radxa Zero gives you much more for the same price level… Thanks for making this video. Greetings from Ottawa.
it looks like The First Pine64 Board when it was released to Run Windows-10 – and we all know how That Went!
. The ROCK64 and its Pi-Zero Replacement boards have all Failed – so, why keep trying to Present their Failed Designs.!
It's always "Potential". Ship it now, and "Promise" things will get better. Sometimes they do. Most times they don't. If you buy this, buy it for what it does right now, not what it might do in the future. Once they get your money, helping you get the "Potential" is an expense to them. The #of SBCs that are oh so close, is many times more than the ones that nailed it.
damn… did you tried with other distros? cause manjaro isn't that light-weight overall, probably with mx linux will work flawlessy or sparky linux?
You should make a 3D print a retro computer case video for various retro computers using a raspberry pi as the computer.
…Is a SBC with a PCIe slot really a SBC as such anymore? It just seems to be a regular computer, just with hard-wired and un-upgradable memory and CPU.
Thanks for the video Chris. Your hard work is appreciated.
The one thing this shows quite clearly is just how important the software development side of things actually are.
Not to be pedantic, but being a pedant, at 5:22 ish you say spinning 90, when you meant spinning 180 🙂