Radxa Rock - the cheap and powerful quad-core mini-computer has already receiving great success with majority of stock vanishing across all major online distributors. Luckily, I had received my Radxa Rock a while back and has now successfully taken over the job of my Wireless Network Attached Storage (NAS) from Raspberry Pi.

The process of setting up NAS on Radxa Rock is much more easier then Raspberry Pi as the external disk is automatically detected and mounted on every boot (Thanks to Ubuntu Desktop based Linaro image), but when using the folder sharing via Samba Share we need to add an extra line to smb.conf to make the data accessible over network.

Raspberry Pi - the hacker friendly, cheap mini-computer started a whole new niche of users tinkering with these easily accessible hardware and open-source software to create awesome projects. There are now a plethora of such ARM development boards from single-core, dual-core to quad-code varieties having all sorts of ARM CPU options like Rockchip, i.MX Freescale, Samsung Exynos etc. with various RAM, connectivity and falsh storage options.

Radxa Rock is the newest entry into this arena and seems to pack a solid punch of hardware and software power, powered by Quad core ARM Cortex-A9 processor the board manages to clock as high as 1.6Ghz and as low as 324Mhz, balancing between performance and power saving. The single-board computer uses RK3188 as the quad-core CPU and comes with 2GB DDR3 @ 800Mhz, 8GB Nand Flash, Micro-SD SDXC up to 128GB, Mali400-mp4@533Mhz GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support, video output via HDMI 1.4 up to 1080p@60hz, integrated Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi with external antenna, LAN, RTC, IR, USB OTG, S/PDIF, headphone jack, built-in microphone and 80 pins including GPIO, I2C, SPI, Line in, USB 2.0, PWM, ADC, LCD, etc. allowing users to easily connect rock with breadboard or other sensor boards.

We have seen success and demand for Mini computers like Cotton Candy, Raspberry Pi, Intel Next Unit Of Computing (NUC), O-DROID X and VIA APC 8750. But here is something which takes the prize for being the only viable looking portable solution to today's high-power desktop computing needs.

Xi3 modular computers are not only small but very rugged, the outer aluminum chassis not only acts as a good heat dispenser but also as an sturdy protector. The modular motherboard lets user buy an future-proof PC as they can simply swap out components easily as new technology gets available saving cost later on PC upgrades. Xi3 systems are also energy efficient and have models using just 40W of power.

Don't miss the video introduction to this promising new era of desktop computing posted below.

Portable computing units are in-vogue and the latest to join the bunch is ODROID-X, a powerful computing unit with PC like performance powered by an ARM Cortex-A9 Quad Core and 1 GB 800 Mhz DDR RAM.

ODROID-X is aimed mainly at android developers and comes with an impressive hardware spec-sheet similar to "Samsung Galaxy SIII", i.e. a 1.4 Ghz quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor, 1GB RAM, Mali-400 GPU, on-board Android 4.0.4 ICS (also supports Ubuntu 12.04), 6 USB 2.0 ports, micro USB port, micro HDMI port with full-hd 1080p video output, standard 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack, 50pin IO expansion port, 100 Mbps Ethernet port and an SD card slot for storage. The best part the board is available (from end of this month) for $129 with free worldwide shipping.

Be it the "Cotton Candy", ultra low-cost "Raspberry Pi" or the Intel Next Unit Of Computing (NUC) device, the concept of low-cost, portable, pluggable computers is definitely in-vogue.

The latest to join the party is APC $49 android powered mini-computer, powered by an 800MHz (VIA WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC) processor, 512MB DDR3 memory, 2GB on-board NAND Flash, support for graphic resolutions up to 720p, HDMI, VGA, 4 x USB, audio out / in, microSD and Ethernet. The computer will be featuring an custom version of Android 2.3 optimized for mouse and keyboard input, the board which is compatible with Mini-ITX and MacroATX form factors will be able to connect to any external display device via VGA/HDMI port for a fully functional desktop PC experience.

High resolution, real-life usage images and pictures of "APC 8750" in action are posted below.

Project "Raspberry Pi" with aim to launch a viable - world's smallest yet cheapest computing platform has a new rival. It seems citing the traction gained by "Raspberry Pi", Intel has now unveiled there own plans to launch a ultra-portable PC hardware - Intel's ultra-small "Next Unit of Computing" (NUC) PC.

Intel's NUC is a complete computer, featuring a Sandy Ivy Bridge Core i3/i5 CPU, Thunderbolt, HDMI, and USB 3.0 ports, two laptop memory slots, two mini PCIe headers - all nicely tucked into a portable 4x4 inches motherboard assembly. Since, this is not a final product and not much is know about it - speculations have that the Intel NUC won't be as cheap as "Raspberry Pi" but should retail at approximately $100-$300 range and is expected to arrive in the second half of the year.

If you liked the Plug and boot USB Stick Computer here is something you would absolutely love - a credit-card sized, ultra-low-cost (~15GBP or 25USD), portable computing device capable of playing 1080p30 H.264 video, audio, OpenGL ES 2.0, HDMI output, USB, SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot, 700MHz Broadcom media processor (having an ARM11 core, Broadcom GPU core, DSP core and support for Package-on-Package (PoP) RAM), 128/256 MB RAM, 100MBit Ethernet, and a number of I/O pins for a serial port and other custom expansion.

A working Raspberry Pi Beta Board video demonstration booting into OS, playing 1080p Video, audio and games while connected to a standard HDMI TV.