FastRhino R68s Router Offers 4GB RAM, Dual 2.5 GbE, Dual Gigabit Ethernet for $ 80 (in China)

Rockchip RK3568 powered NanoPi R5S router gained direct competition due to friendliness FastRhino R68s with the same processor, but more memory up to 4 GB RAM, two 2.5 GbE ports and two Gigabit Ethernet ports (or one in addition to the R5S) and two USB 3.0 ports.

FastRhino R68s is simply a router in the traditional sense and you don’t have an HDMI port that acts as a display interface or an M.2 NVMe jack to add extra storage, as found in the NanoPi R5S. The plastic case used with the R68s will not be able to cool the RK3568 Rockchip, as well as the metal case of the FriendlyElec device, but there are plenty of vents, so it may be enough.

FastRhino R68s Specifications:

• SoC - Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 @ processor up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, 4Kp60 H.265 / H.264 / VP9 video decoder, 1080p60 H.264 /H.265 video encoder
• System memory - 2 GB or 4 GB LPDDR4X
• Storage - 16 GB eMMC flash for OS
• networking
  • 2 2.5 GbE RJ45 ports (via 2 Realtek RTL8125BG-CG PCIe controllers)
  • 2 Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports (via 2 Realtek RTL8211F-CG ports)
• USB - 2x USB 3.0 ports
• Miscellaneous - Power button, reset button, recovery port
• Power supply - 12V / 1.5A via DC plug
• Dimensions - 126 x 115 x 25 mm
• Weight - TBD

There is no information about the software, but it should definitely run OpenWrt as the NanoPi R5S does. The device is also discussed on OpenWrt, where we find that the multi-threaded score of the RK3568 aes-128-gcm is equal to that of a dual-core Intel Celeron 3865U processor at 1.80 GHz. If we look at the pictures on the board, we can see that there is really no expansion socket inside the device.

The main attraction against the NanoPi R5S is the extra Gigabit Ethernet port, or for people who need 4 GB of RAM. The R68s router is sold on Taobao with prices starting at 468 RMB (70 USD) for the 2 GB model and up to 538 RMB (80 USD) for the 4 GB variant. For reference, the NanoPi R5S retails for $ 75 with a metal case. More details can be found on YouTube (Chinese only) and on the manufacturer’s website.

Thanks to Nader and theguyuk for the tip.

Jean-Luc started Winteringhamfields Software in 2010 as a part-time business before resigning as a software engineering manager and began writing daily news and full-time reviews later in 2011.