Orange Pi 5 Plus review

The Orange Pi 5 Plus is built around the Rockchip RK3588. Its main draws are two 2.5G Ethernet ports and an M.2 M-key slot running PCIe 3.0 x4. Owners say that pairing makes it a good base for a NAS or a router. Others praise its multi-monitor output. That mix points at homelab and network projects more than at a first board for learning.

The RK3588 is an 8nm chip with four Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.4GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at up to 1.8GHz. It adds a Mali-G610 MP4 GPU and a 6 TOPS NPU. Memory comes in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB configurations. With eight cores and up to 32GB, the board has room for several containers or a small set of services running side by side. Owners also note it is priced low for a board with this processor.

Storage is a strong point. The board has a microSD slot, an eMMC module socket that takes modules from 16GB to 256GB, and QSPI NOR flash in 16MB or 32MB. The M.2 M-key slot gives it PCIe 3.0 x4 for an NVMe drive. For NAS use, the native NVMe slot means no adapter is needed to attach fast storage.

The two 2.5GbE ports are built on PCIe extended 2.5G Ethernet controllers. Owners describe the dual ports, together with the NVMe slot, as well suited to NAS and router use. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are not on the board. They only arrive through an M.2 E-key module, so wireless needs an extra part.

The 40-pin expansion header is Raspberry Pi compatible. It exposes GPIO, I2C, UART, SPI, CAN and PWM. Video is extensive: two HDMI outputs, one HDMI input, HDMI 2.1 8K output, Type-C DP1.4A and MIPI DSI. Reviewers report driving up to three monitors at once.

This is where the board asks for the most patience. Official support covers Orange Pi OS, Android 12.1, OpenWRT, Debian 11, Debian 12, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04. Armbian is listed as official support. Mainline Linux is listed as not supported.

Owner reports match that picture. They describe the software as still early-stage and less beginner-oriented than Raspberry Pi. A buyer who wants the widest community and the smoothest setup should weigh that. A buyer comfortable with vendor images and Armbian will find a decent range of choices.

Power comes in over USB-C, with a recommended 5V/4A supply. The board does not negotiate USB PD, so a plain 5V supply that meets the 4A recommendation is the safe choice. Owners say heavy loads over long periods need a heatsink or active cooling. If you plan to run it as an always-on router or NAS under steady load, budget for cooling.

Owners report that third-party Amazon prices sit far above Orange Pi's own store. They also say the 16GB model is often out of stock at distributors. The stock gap may mean choosing a different RAM tier from the one you first wanted.

The board suits people building a compact router, NAS or media and display project who want 2.5GbE and NVMe without add-on boards. Its eight-core RK3588 and RAM options up to 32GB give headroom for container workloads. It suits less well anyone who needs mainline kernel support or a beginner-friendly software experience, given the listed lack of mainline support and the owner reports of early-stage software.