All You Want to Know about ODYSSEY – X86J4105: Don’t Miss Out on Our Q&A!
We have received more and more questions and suggestions for ODYSSEY – X86J4105. Thank you all for the interest in this Windows 10 Mini PC which also supports Linux OS. In this blog, we will keep updating the questions and answers for ODYSSEY – X86J4105. Feel free to let us know what tests, tutorials, and resources you want to know more about Odyssey X86J4105. We will keep updating more content around this amazing board. Stay tuned and we look forward to all of your suggestions!
Let’s take a look first 30 Questions! Which one is your most care about?
Note: We will keep update all resources for ODYSSEY X86J4105 on the blog of Resource Roundup for ODYSSEY – X86J4105: A Windows 10 Mini PC also Supports Linux OS to help you get more familiar with this brand new mini PC. Stay tuned:)
1.Will this machine run pfSense, and does it support AES-NI?
Please see check our blog How to Install and Configure pfSense on X86-64bit Win10 Mini PC? for more details about pfSense installation and configuration.
2. Can we build FreeNAS?
You can extend up to three SATA with the power connector to build your NAS server. Please follow our blog How to Set up FreeNAS Storage Operating System on ODYSSEY – X86J4105 and we will update more tutorials for FreeNAS, stay tuned!
3. How about explaining zFS and RAID on the FreeNAS.
We will have a free NAS with ZFS RAID tutorial, stay tuned with us.
4. The possibilities as a Nuc, video streamer, NAS？
Yes, there are a lot of possibilities for the ODYSSEY board, you can make it as a Nuc, video streamer, or NAS. Any more project ideas? Feel free to let us know!
5. You should rather test a 5 Port SATA to M.2 Adapter to connect more Drives and use it as an awesome NAS with HW transcoding!
There are 3 onboard power source for SATA drive, so if we add 5 drives, will need more external power source.
6. Can you test both the Arduino and RPi functionality on this board to make sure they work as expected?
Please follow this wiki introduced Accessing 40-pin GPIO on ODYSSEY X86J4105
7. Do the GPIO pins also serve the Arduino compatibility?
The left 28 Pins serve Arduino compatibility
8. How would the GPIO be accessed via Windows? Most cool you can monkey with the GPIO via BIOS!
The left 28 Pins serve Arduino compatibility and can be accessed via Arduino IDE under Windows, the Raspberry Pi compatible 40-Pin should be accessed via Debian.
9. How to build Firewall/Router/WiFI solution on this board?
Please follow up our wiki Installing OpenWrt on ODYSSEY – X86J4105
This tutorial demonstrates how to install the open-source OS for the router network. With the help of OpenWrt, your ODYSSEY – X86J4105 can turn into a router and take care of your home network!
10. Any idea where the Ethernet throughput maxes out?
With dual 1 Gbps ports, it could potentially be a really nice high-end router/firewall. The board has dual 1 Gbps ports, we will test the real speed out and share the information.
11. CPU has AES-NI support, so VPN performance should be sufficient. Any tutorials for VPN set up?
We will have a tutorial for VPN setup soon.
12. How is the power draw when it’s idle running on Linux?
Please check the review from the community:
Awesome Tiny Linux PC – ODYSSEY / ReComputer SBC 8Gb Ram Linux Testing – Elementary OS — — via ETA PRIME
13. Tests on Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Zorin Lite, Manjaro, Pop!_OS, Lakka OS?
We will test out some Linux OS soon and will have a blog by next week.
14. Please try Debian with this board
We will test it out soon and will have a blog to explain.
15. Could make for a very compact Hackintosh?
We will test it out soon and will have a blog to explain.
16. Testing batocera linux on this board
Please check the review from the community:
ODYSSEY X86 SBC Emulation Test Using Batocera.linux! — via ETA PRIME
17. Could you add an SSD to the board and use it to boot
Yes, you can boot from a SATA or NVME M.2 SSD (in the video, Linux Mint boots from an NVME SSD). Or you can boot from an SSD or HDD connected via the SATA port. Or from USB, or (I think) micro SD card. So there are loads of boot options.
18. Do emulatores with ex GPU.
Please check the review from the community:
ODYSSEY X86 SBC Emulation Test Using Batocera.linux! — via ETA PRIME
19. Can it run emulator’s at 60fps?
It depends on the setup. If you just get the SBC and no GPU then you’ll be more limited on what will run at full speed (but it’ll do Genesis/mega drive and SNES at full speed). With the GPU you’ll be able to emulate newer systems at full speed. This is around the performance levels of my HP T620 plus with a GT 1030, and it can emulate up to Dreamcast at full speed (60FPS) and will do some GameCube and Wii as well. You won’t however be able to emulate PS2 regardless of what GPU you slap onto it due to the CPU lacking the grunt. – -via YouTube comments, thanks for the answer!
20. External GPU into that m.2?
Yes, we will release an M.2 to 16X PCIe module for external GPU
21. This has been on my radar, can I use it with radars?
What kind of radars? We will test it soon with RPLiDAR.
22. What were you using for a boot drive? A usb 3.0 external drive?
Yes, USB 3.0 external drive is the usual tool. or you can also use a SATA or NVME M.2 SSD
23. I can’t find the schematics, is the onboard buck for the hard disks is capable to drive a low-end GPU like 1030? Since the advertisement says it’s possible to drive 3 HDDs ( but I can’t find the info if it is 3,5″ or 2,5″ drives).
It’s 2.5”, and it can drive low-end GPU like 1030.
24. I think it would be cool if some of these SBCs would include an MX230 or something like that. Thanks for this input, we will consider in the next version
Thanks for this input, we will consider in the next version
25. Can the FreeNAS drive be accessed from outside your home network?
Yes
26. Why use x86 over something more modern like x64 or ARM?
Answered by ExplainingComputers: EC: This board is x64 — it is a 64-bit system (or it coild not run FreeNAS). They use “x86”, like many people these days, to mean “not ARM”. 🙂
27. You said FreeNAS works on any 64-bit computer, but the Odyssey SBC is called an x86 board. It it actually 32-bit only or am I missing something here.
Answered by the comment below Explaining Computers video:
The Odyssey X86 is not a 32-bit board! 🙂 It is a 64 bit. These days “x86” is commonly used (especially in the world of SBCs) to distinguish any 32 or 64-bit x86-based hardware from that based on an ARM CPU. In other words, “x86” often means “x86, x86_64, AMD64, etc.
28. Why such a high ram requirement for FreeNAS?
Answered by ExplainingComputers: This I do not know, as at least in this simple application of it, a lot of RAM is free. But the more drives that are added, the more RAM will be used/required. My strong guess is that what I set up in this video would run fine in 4GB.
29. Why a NAS? dedicated hardware … tricky to set up … what’s the use case?? why’s it better than one drive, etc?
Answered by ExplainingComputers: Some people like to store files locally (they do not like their files stored on somebody else’s server in the cloud, as with Onedrive, etc). Indeed, every time I show/mention cloud storage on this channel (which I use a lot), I get a lot of complaints! 🙂 Personally, I do not use a NAS, but I have had a lot of requests to show a FreeNAS setup. 🙂
30. How to boot from an external hard drive that has been removed from an old laptop? The drive is definitely not broken and is connected by a USB to SATA cable to my laptop. When I go into bios settings to switch the boot drive from the internal to the one to the drive from the old laptop I cannot boot from the external drive. My laptop does not recognize it as a bootable drive.
Answered by ExplainingComputers: Windows cannot be run from an external drive — so I imagine that’s your issue. (Well, you can use Windows 2 Go to set this up, but a drive from a laptop will not be set up this way).
31. Do you know if FreeNAS will work with aarch64 boards? Or do you need x86? I’d love to try using the NAS/RAID hat from allnet with FreeNAS, if possible.
Answered by ExplainingComputers: As far as I’m aware, FreeNAS is x86_64 / AMD64 only.
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