Libre Computer La Frite Single Board ARM SBC AML-S805X-AC 1GB Mini PC

the screws were shotty, to be honest, which bothered me setting this up for the first time. I felt like I had to thread the grooves into the mounting points. one of the screws has this fissure on the head, another screw wasn't threaded all the way. pick up some quality m2x1.5mm laptop screws if this bothers you. the solder also had some blobs, to be nit picky. it's the worst manufactured solder job i've seen, but that is not saying anything at all. all the boards i've seen in my life have been pristine. at $25 ($5 coupon) for the board and 16gb emmc, I had to give that star back. its running debian just fine after following the guide to flash the emmc on the libre computer forums, just look up "AML-S805X-AC emmc flashing" you have to have a pi, sbc or a non AMD pc running linux to flash using this method. I think it should come with a usb emmc reader rather than the cord, but that was probably to keep costs down. maybe you'll want one. I used my le potato. its a neat little board. with m3 mounting holes, the footprint is about 58x49.5mm, same as a pi, but with m3s instead of m2.5s

As a lot have said- programming the emmc is the biggest hurdle. Lack of instructions on their site or easily available on the web can lead to some headaches. But, once that's done the size and actual computer are great. Just do some research before jumping in on this. You have to buy the emmc made for this and programming it can be a pain.

I've used this board for a few years for everything I can think of. For the money it's pretty awesome. There is significantly more hand holding and software drawbacks than a Raspberry Pi but honestly if you're looking for an inexpensive thing to tinker with that has ethernet or the wifi adapter LibreComputer recommends there's not much out there that's any better for the price. It does require an emmc module for any reasonable use so there's an extra $10 cost there. It can boot from USB, but it's USB 2.0 so not feasible for an OS. Flashing the emmc can be challenging until you get the hang of it. Obviously very very very VERY limited with only 2 USB and 1GB RAM. But fun to play with and excellent for CoreElec or light gaming if you're in to that. Otherwise plan on command line only. It can run wayland barely. I've used it with Sway but a browser kills it. Hardware decoding via ffmpeg and mpv is mostly possible but crashes often. Stick to CoreElec for playing videos.

The main advantage of this board is that its libre from the boot loader all the way to the OS you load into it. It took me a couple of tries with raspbian but the official image threw “ARM64 magic” errors so after updating the bootloader I tried with Debian and works great! (I just dd the Debian image for the AML 905x) Currently running Debian 12 with kernel 6.1, the 1GB RAM is not really a limitation for low level signaling and of course the GPIO works (almost) out of the box and can be controlled with simple bash or python scripts. Will definitely keep using this for future projects.

Performance This board is extremely slow. With only 1 GB RAM and a very limited AML-S805X CPU, even basic tasks such as booting the OS, navigating menus, or running simple applications feel painfully sluggish. While it includes 16 GB eMMC, the read/write speed does not compensate for the overall lack of power. Compared to other low-cost SBCs like the Raspberry Pi 3 or even some Allwinner boards, the La Frite is disappointing: Boot times are excessively long. Running Armbian or any lightweight distro consumes nearly all system resources. Not suitable for multitasking or even modestly demanding projects. Connectivity & Compatibility Software support is very limited. Although there are Armbian and LibreELEC builds available, many features are poorly optimized, and the community is quite small compared to Raspberry Pi. Setting up peripherals or trying to use it for multimedia playback is inefficient and frustrating. Real-world use Home server: Not recommended, even for the simplest services. Media center: Video playback is choppy and far from smooth. IoT / maker projects: Vastly outperformed by cheaper, newer boards. Education: The slow performance ruins the learning experience. Pros Low cost (when available). Compact size. Comes with eMMC, which is generally faster than microSD in theory. Cons Extremely slow for nearly any practical use. Poor software support and small community. Outdated hardware in 2025. Better alternatives exist at the same or slightly higher price point. Final verdict The La Frite SBC AML-S805X-AC is a disappointing product. While it looked like a budget-friendly alternative on paper, in practice it is an outdated, underpowered, and painfully slow board. If you’re looking for an SBC for personal projects, media playback, or lightweight servers, there are far better options available. 👉 Recommendation: Skip this one and go for a Raspberry Pi 4, Orange Pi 3B, or a board with Allwinner H6/H618 or Rockchip RK3566, which deliver far more value in the same price range.

I have been working and still working with upgrades cost effective solution for pc computing. Thank You Mark Hancock.

Not a great beginner board due to finding the right software for it can be headache , and dealing with only two USB ports is challenging , buy their bigger 35 dollar board instead it's software is easier to get , still if you want a challenge this board is for you hint buy a powered USB hub as well if you buy this