Hardkernel’s Linux-friendly, $119-and-up Odroid-H2+ SBC updates the H2 with a faster Gemini Lake Celeron J4115 CPU. It also improves the 12V power input, adds GPIO pins for USB 2.0 and HDMI CEC, and upgrades the 2x GbE ports to 2.5GbE.

Ever since Hardkernel’s Odroid-H2 launched in 2018 after an unveiling the month before, it has held the trophy for being the world’s fastest open-spec, community-backed Linux hacker board. The only problem was that it was hard to find one available due to a supply shortage of the Gemini Lake family Celeron J4105. The SBC has now been eclipsed by an SBC that not only has a slightly faster CPU — and one that is shipping in volume — but also a pair of much faster 2.5GbE Ethernet ports: the Odroid-H2+.

Odroid-H2+ and detail view
(click images to enlarge)

The $119 and up Odroid-H2+ runs Ubuntu on a similarly quad-core Celeron J4115 that Intel released early this year “for small manufacturers like us,” says Hardkernel. “We therefore expect that most of the existing parts supply problems to be resolved.”

The Celeron J4115 is clocked at 1.8GHz with a Turbo Boost speed of up to 2.5GHz or 2.3GHz in multi-thread mode. The earlier J4105 was clocked at 1.5GHz/2.3GHz when the H2 was launched, although Seeed clocked the chip on its recent Windows-focused Odyssey – X86J41058x at up to 2.5GHz Turbo. Like the J4105, the J4115 provides Intel UHD Graphics 600 and a 10W TDP.

Hardkernel also added a Realtek RTL8125B Ethernet controller that boosts the pair of 1 gigabit per second ports to 2.5GbE. Linux users will need to perform a “manual driver installation since the upstream kernel still needs a patch.” The SBC ships with an Ubuntu 20.04 image and also supports or Linux distros and Windows 10.

This is the only SBC in our New Year’s catalog of 136 community-backed hacker boards with 2.5GbE ports, and we have seen no new 2.5GbE entries since then. (We are skipping the mid-year update this year due in part to a lack of new SBCs but will be back with a new catalog at the end of the year.)

More and more routers, router boards, and high-end embedded computers offer 2.5GbE or 10GbE, but it is still atypical on mainstream embedded SBCs and systems. Last month, Wally’s launched a commercial DR6018 SBC with a 2.5GHz port. Compex sells the same board as the Compex CP01 for $495.

A 2.5GbE port is particularly useful if you have a network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports that speed. If you buy a board with a much more expensive 10GbE port, they typically cannot fall back to 2.5GbE, so the NAS is limited to 1GbE throughput.

The Odroid-H2+ has boosted the number of GPIO pins from 20 to 24 to add USB 2.0 and HDMI CEC support. The CEC function requires a 3rd party CEC adapter board. Finally, “we also changed the 12V SATA power circuit to improve the suspend-resume power control sequence of 3.5” HDDs,” says Hardkernel.

The H2 and H2+ are “100% forward hardware and software compatible, including same board size and overall configuration,” says Hardkernel. “Everything you do on the H2 from a hardware viewpoint can be done exactly the same way on the H2+.”

The Odroid-H2+ is also referred to as the RevB+. It follows last year’s RevB model, which added minor improvements to the PCIe-to-SATA bridge, SATA power, NVMe I/O, and BIOS.

Otherwise, the H2+ remains the same as the H2. The 110 x 110mm SBC offers 2x SATA 3.0, HDMI and DP, 4x USB (2x 3.0), and an M.2 slot for NVMe storage. Other features include an RTC and a heatsink that supports 70°C temperatures at full load. (For more details see our earlier stories linked to above.)

 
Further information

The Odroid-H2+ is available for $119 plus shipping without RAM, storage, or power adapter. The cheapest 8GB eMMC module in the Hardkernel store costs $12.90, and a list of compatible RAM modules includes a roughly $52 Kingston/Corsair module with 8GB DDR4. So for an 8GB/16GB combo we’ll add $65 for a total of $184. Add a $9.40 power adapter and you are up over $193, which is still cheaper than a lot of x86 based maker boards, not to mention pricier commercial SBCs.

More information may be found in Hardkernel’s announcement and shopping page. It’s also available on pre-order at AmeriDroid starting at $134.95 in the same bare-bones configuration, with shipments expected by the end of the month.