A) slow last gen chip (rk3088), superseded by rockchip's RK3166: far slower than an i.mx6. B) no easy path to run linux, only really intended for Android stick use (Rockchip hasn't had an open source come to jesus meeting & won't- freescale makes docs avail). C) extremely limited I/o on the MK808 and all Android sticks- single USB + HDMI is it.
There are some interesting sticks out if the i/o limitation is ok but the MK808 is obsolete & slow.
That's true, the IO performance is nothing to write home about. But the CPU / GPU is really good. The only Linux I got working on it is Kali Linux. But Ubuntu is also available. I think a SOC with dual SATA for raid would be really cool for a small server.
Many "low-cost" (80-150$) 1 or 2-bay NAS (seagate, netgear, dlink, zyxel etc..) can be "hacked" and the OS can be substituted with Linux.
The difference is that they don't have a video output, and I think the CPUs should be more limited (many have Marvell Kirkwood 800mhz-1.5ghz), but they are designed for NAS usage so multiple SATA ports, eventually gigabit ethernet etc..
Having said that, probably the best home NAS could be built out of an HP Microserver N54L: 250$ for an Amd Turion "small" server that supports up to 8GB of RAM (16GB sometimes), it has 4 (non-hot-swappable) disk slots (but there are guys who have installed more using 2.5 disks and the dvdrom slot).
there are plenty of forums and sites showing how to do it, the only downside is that it is bigger (but 4 slots) and it consumes more power
EDIT: I'm still deciding which way to go in order to substitute my old Seagate Dockstar running Debian (and with a single old 2.5 disk attached to one of the USB ports)
