I’ve had good luck with old Chromebooks converted to run Linux… if you don’t need GPIO, these are nice because they have integrated battery, display, and keyboard. Also can be easily had for < $50. I have 5 Lenovo N23, which I use Portable and at repeater sites (as igate).
My main station computer (where I run YAAC) is a SBC, running Armbian. I’ve had no issues with this setup and do use GPIO pins to key the radio.
The main problem you’ll have with the clone boards will definitely be finding compatible kernels that support all of the board features you’re trying to use. The big understated feature of the real raspi is amazing compatibility and software support, everything tends to “just work”. With a clone board, you’ll be digging through wiki pages and forum posts trying to figure out what the latest information for your board is.
For the specific board you linked, I think you’ll find it severely underpowered for running a graphical window manager and YAAC. If you do go for a knock off board, I’d suggest something with at least 4GB of RAM.
-Masen, KF7HVM
