Need for Speed? Need for More Speed? ODROID-N2+

We announced the S922X hexa-core powered ODROID-N2 device almost 15 months ago as one of the fastest ARM single board computers.
The default maximum Cortex-A73 quad-core clock frequency was 1.8Ghz and Cortex-A53 dual-core frequency was 1.9Ghz.

Recently, the SoC vendor Amlogic released a revised silicon design of the S922X.
Rev-A is replaced by Rev-C with an improved CPU core power rail budget and higher clock frequencies.

Before: Meson chip version = RevA (29:A – 40:0)
After: Meson chip version = RevC (29:C – 40:0)

With the revised chip design, the Cortex-A73 big-core maximum clock frequency is now 2.2Ghz.
This results in a 22% performance improvement over the previous 1.8Ghz clock frequency.

We call this new beast of a SBC the “ODROID-N2-Plus”. The price will remain the same as the previous model.

Need even more performance? Why not!
We’ve just tested over 300 samples of the revised N2+ boards, and we found that all of the boards could be overclocked to 2.4Ghz. This is a 33% clock frequency improvement over the original N2.
We could finally enjoy some GameCube retro games on 64bit Android OS with a playable speed thanks to the overclock.
Please note that we can’t guarantee the overclock to 2.4Ghz but we believe most of them will work at that frequency range.

The Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome desktop experience with the Wayland GPU driver is also quite impressive. Upstream kernel 5.7 can use the hardware VPU acceleration via a slightly modified MPV.

We will release Android and Ubuntu OS images for ODROID-N2+ within a couple of days.

Here is a brief performance comparison chart

N2plusBenchmarks1.png

A cooling fan may be required to prevent “throttling” due to the SoC temperature if your computing load is continuously very high at 2.4Ghz clock speed and the ambient temperature is 35°C (95°F) or higher.
We are selling a large 80mm quiet cooling fan separately to support the 2.4Ghz turbo speed at higher ambient temperature. https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/80x80x1 … connector/
Otherwise, the stock heatsink is enough for a normal room temperature 25°C (77°F) or less.

ODROID-N2Plus-2208-NOFAN.png
ODROID-N2Plus-2208-FAN.png
ODROID-N2Plus-2400-NOFAN.png
ODROID-N2Plus-2400-FAN.png

Additionally, the onboard RTC backup battery source was changed to a widely available bare RC2032 coin cell instead of a proprietary one. You can keep the time over several years once you install a coin battery.

N2pluscoolingfanxh.jpg

The system height decreased from 34mm to 29mm approximately thanks to the slimmer heatsink.

N2vsN2plussize1.jpg

Availability: You can order 4GB model now and we will start shipping from 20 July.
N2+ 4GB model($79) https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid- … yte-ram-2/
N2+ Cooling Fan($4) https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/80x80x1 … connector/

2GB model will be ready to order from 21 July and shipping from 24 July.
N2+ 2GB model($63) https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid- … yte-ram-2/