Raspberry Pi 5 SBC alternative Radxa Rock 5T offers up to 32GB RAM and two M.2 slots

The Rock 5T is a new single-board computer that offers the features of the Rock 5 ITX in a more compact form factor that measures just 3.23 x 4.33 inches. The Rock 5T is very well-equipped for an SBC and can be useful in many situations.

This Raspberry Pi 5 competitor comes with two M.2 slots that are connected with two PCIe 3.0 lanes each, which is fairly uncommon for an SBC. These slots can take up two SSDs, but depending on the model variant, the Rock 5T comes with pre-installed eMCC storage. An microSD card slot is onboard as well.

The compact device is further equipped with 4 to 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, depending on the configuration. It is powered by the Rockchip RK3588 SoC is with four Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55 cores. The integrated NPU has a performance of up to 6 TOPS.

External displays can be connected via two HDMI ports that support 4K and even 8K resolutions. Alternatively, DisplayPort via USB Type-C and an MIPI-DSI interface are available, the latter of which supports Full-HD screens with at up to 60Hz. Overall, the Rock 5T can be connected to three monitors and further offers an HDMI input.

Two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports can be used for accessories or external storage. In terms of wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 are support, but the counterpart to the Raspberry Pi 5 can also be integrated into networks via two 2.5GbE ports with PoE support.

Cameras can be connected via MIPI-CSI, and as usual, there is a pin header for connecting sensors and actuators. Arace Tech is already selling the 16GB RAM SKU of the new Radxa Rock 5T for around $140. Unfortunately, the commercial version with the Rockchip RK3588J, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 is currently unavailable.