Key Takeaways
- Milk-V Jupiter offers a cheap entry to RISC-V computing with dual Ethernet ports and PCIe x8 support.
- Installation is simple with modded Ubuntu, Bianbu, and Fedora, but app compatibility is limited.
- Not recommended for mainstream users due to software issues, lack of app support, and performance limitations.
From Apple’s M4-powered iPads to the highly-anticipated Snapdragon X Elite laptops, the computing landscape has witnessed some major developments in the CPU sector in 2024. But for me, the break-neck advancements in the world of RISC-V computing triumph over everything I’ve seen this year. One of these is the launch of the Milk-V Jupiter, an extremely affordable mini-ITX motherboard featuring a RISC-V processor.
You see, motherboards powered by the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture have been around for a while: HiFive already has a handful of RISC-V development boards, and it has already been four years since the release of the Ampere eMAG workstation. But what makes Jupiter different from everything else is that the mobo is geared toward consumers. To drive home that fact, the cheapest version of Milk-V Jupiter costs almost $60, the same as the base Raspberry Pi 5!
Having experienced broken packages and faulty apps firsthand with my ARM SBCs, I knew I had to keep my expectations low for something that’s as experimental and – dare I say – underdeveloped as RISC-V software. And well, the results were pretty much what I expected. Although the Milk-V Jupiter packs some decent hardware for the price, it’s still held back by the lack of development in the RISC-V space.

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My first hands-on experience of RISC-V is with the Milk-V Duo S, and I’m excited
The Milk-V Duo S is a RISC-V SBC that has an Arm CPU in tow, though you can’t make use of it just yet.
Disclaimer: Milk-V sent me the K1 (8GB) variant of the Jupiter motherboard along with a few SBCs. However, the company didn’t have any input into the contents of this review.

A surprisingly cheap mobo with a RISC-V processor
Milk-V Jupiter mini-ITX RISC-V motherboard
Just don’t expect a lot from it
Milk-V Jupiter, powered by the Spacemint K1/M1 SoC, is the world’s first Mini ITX device to support both RVA22 and RVV1.0. Besides integrating a PCIe x8 interface, it features dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, onboard Wi-Fi 6/BT 5.2, and even supports NVMe SSDs, making it an ideal choice for an entry-level RISC-V desktop. On paper, it’s pretty impressive, but it’s incompatible with many common apps and rife with performance issues.
- Extremely cheap for a mobo with RISC-V CPU
- Installing OS is quite simple
- Includes a PCIe x8 slot
- Most apps don’t work on a RISC-V processor yet
- No SATA ports
- Flimsy performance in most workloads
Pricing, specs, and availability
Milk-V announced the Jupiter at the beginning of July and began accepting pre-orders for the motherboard the same month. Priced at $60, the base version of the board comes with a K1 SKU and 4GB of memory, though you can upgrade the RAM to 8GB. The Jupiter also has another M1 model, which has faster CPU clock speeds and 16GB of memory. Arace is the only website that sells the Milk-V Jupiter to international clients, though you might need to wait for a while as the motherboard has gone out of stock several times over the last month.
Design and features
A tiny mobo hiding a clear little secret
At first glance, the Milk-V Jupiter looks like an unassuming mini-ITX motherboard. In addition to a smaller CR1220 battery socket, it packs the standard 24-pin power supply connector and front panel headers. But upon closer examination, you may notice that instead of an empty CPU socket, it boasts a built-in 8-core Spacemint X60 RISC-V processor. Likewise, the Jupiter also doesn’t require you to slot in any RAM sticks, and depending on your model, the soldered LPDDR4 memory on the mobo can range from 4GB-8GB on the K1 SKU and 16GB on the M1 chip.
Storage-wise, you’re looking at the typical microSD + eMMC module combo you’d find on any run-of-the-mill SBC. And while the Jupiter does have an M.2 SSD slot, it’s only capped at the outdated PCIe 2.0 standard, with the mere two-lane capacity of the socket further crippling the data transfer speeds for NVMe SSDs. Speaking of drives, it doesn’t feature a single SATA port, meaning you’ll have to make do with the existing storage options.
The PCIe slot is a noteworthy aspect of the Jupiter, as Milk-V claims you can use it to interface GPUs, network cards, and PCIe to SATA adapters with the motherboard. Before you get as excited as me when I first heard the news, remember that RISC-V is still in its infancy stage, at least in the consumer computing space. Plus, the PCIe x8 socket is afflicted with the same bottleneck as its M.2 counterpart, as the 2-lane PCI Express 2.1 interface will restrict its usefulness even if (and when) driver support improves in the RISC-V ecosystem.
The PCIe x8 socket is afflicted with the same bottleneck as its M.2 counterpart, as the 2-lane PCI Express 2.1 interface will restrict its usefulness even if (and when) driver support improves in the RISC-V ecosystem.
Another interesting tidbit about the Jupiter is that if you’re not in possession of a spare power supply, you can plug in a 55x25mm DC power adapter into the mobo. Or for the average consumer who doesn’t have these connectors lying around, you can even power the Jupiter using the onboard USB Type-C connector, which is something I really appreciate. Also, it has a built-in Wi-Fi 6 alongside two 1GbE RJ45 ports that are compatible with PoE modules.
First boot and OS installation
Quite simple, all things considered
Software, or the lack thereof, is easily the worst thing about the Jupiter, and I’m not talking about operating systems. Currently, the mobo supports specially modded versions of Ubuntu, Bianbu, and Fedora Workstation, and they were far easier to set up than I’d expected. For the microSD card, the process is identical to how you’d set up an OS on an SBC: flash the img.zip file to the microSD card using a flashing tool and plug it into the tiny slot in the bottom right corner of the motherboard. And voila, the Jupiter will load into the operating system within a few seconds.
Currently, the mobo supports specially modded versions of Ubuntu, Bianbu, and Fedora Workstation, and they were far easier to set up than I’d expected.
Meanwhile, configuring the SSD was a little more cumbersome. Since the Milk-V doesn’t feature any UEFI or BIOS, there’s no way to use a bootable USB drive to install an operating system. As such, you’ll have to download a dedicated flashing tool called TitanFlash from the CPU manufacturer Spacemint’s website. The problem with this utility is that there’s no English interface, though Milk-V’s documentation does a solid job of explaining everything. Basically, you have to plug the NVMe SSD into the Jupiter and connect it to your PC before turning on the motherboard. Once it appears as a dfu-device, you can download the appropriate .zip image for either of the three operating systems and flash the image directly to the SSD.
Overall, the setup process is surprisingly painless, and having tested all three operating systems, I didn’t encounter a single crash on Ubuntu or Fedora Workstation (though software compatibility was a different story altogether). But before I proceed to the next section, there’s a weird quirk with the storage that’s worth mentioning. By default, the rootfs partition is restricted to 6GB of storage, and you might want to extend it.
I didn’t encounter a single crash on Ubuntu or Fedora Workstation (though software compatibility was a different story altogether).
Although GParted makes the entire process a cinch if you’re using microSD cards, extending the partition is a little cumbersome for SSDs. For some reason, most options in GParted are greyed out if you use an NVMe SSD and the only workaround is to boot into your favorite distro using the microSD card and then run the Check command on the rootfs partition on your SSD. Nevertheless, the entire procedure, from the first boot to modifying the partition is fairly quick and bug-free, which is more than what I can say about the software…
Software and app compatibility
A lot of fine-tuning is required on the drivers and application front
As you may have already guessed, this is the section where I talk about the lackluster performance and app support in the RISC-V ecosystem. For reference, I tested the motherboard on two separate occasions, once with my 1000W Corsair RMe1000 PSU and the other time with a 67W Type-C power brick. So clearly, the motherboard was getting enough juice to spread its wings during the tests.
If you’re planning to get the Milk-V Jupiter for everyday tasks, you might see decent results with the occasional stutter. The UI was fairly responsive at 1920×1080 resolution, and besides the occasional lag, Chromium didn’t pose too many issues when I attempted to run eight tabs at the same time. The LibreOffice apps that came pre-installed with Ubuntu worked just as well, and so did GIMP when I installed it via the Store app.
Although the Store app had some useful productivity apps, it was rather unresponsive and took a few minutes to load pages. When I noticed Retroarch inside the app, I immediately installed it. Sadly, the emulator’s UI responded at a snail’s pace to any inputs, and I spent nearly five minutes trying to enter the Download cores option before giving up entirely. As for the packages you could download via the terminal, well, everything was a hot mess. Forget about Steam or Kubernetes, the Jupiter couldn’t even install the Snap store. My attempts at setting up Obsidian and a handful of other productivity apps failed just as miserably. Ollama also failed to run, though I never should have expected it to work on a RISC-V system to begin with. YouTube on Chromium ran terribly, as there were plenty of dropped frames even at 480p.
While I managed to install Docker, grabbing the images was another ordeal altogether. In my futile attempts to grab over 25 images, including those for Python, Java, WordPress, NextCloud, and MySQL, the Docker Engine could only pull three images: Ubuntu, Alpine Linux, and TensorFlow (of all things). Before I wrapped up my tests for Ubuntu, I plugged my GTX 1080 into the Milk-V Jupiter on a whim. To nobody’s surprise, the GPU failed to send an output to the Uperfect UGame K118 monitor I used for the tests. Aside from Ubuntu, I spent some time with Fedora Workstation, though the performance was slightly worse than everybody’s favorite Linux distro.
Should you buy the Milk-V Jupiter?
The Milk-V Jupiter is definitely worth your hard-earned money if:
- You’re a developer who wants a slice of the RISC-V pie.
- You’re a hardcore computing enthusiast and desire some hands-on experience with the open-source standard.
- You don’t mind spending $60 on something a little different from your average SBC.
You should stay away from the Jupiter motherboard if:
- You want a finished product that’s powerful enough to run more than just the bare minimum number of apps.
- You need a proper motherboard for your next gaming PC build.
It’s a bit difficult for me to pass a verdict on the Milk-V Jupiter. The mini-ITX motherboard is clearly lacking, though the fault doesn’t lie in the hardware. Sure, a few extra SATA ports would’ve been better, but the marginally small pool of compatible apps is a real deal-breaker. The lack of drivers for external devices like GPUs doesn’t help much, either.

Related
Forget about Windows on Arm, where’s Windows on RISC-V?
Windows on Arm is old news at this stage, I want to know about the cutting-edge of architectures.
I have absolutely no doubt that there will be some major strides in the development of RISC-V in the coming months, especially with the Jupiter making the open-source ISA more accessible with its cheap price. As someone who’s knee-deep in the world of computers, I’d probably come up with some cool (if not slightly insane stuff) with the Milk-V Jupiter. But until the software compatibility and performance gets better, I’ll remain hesitant to recommend the motherboard to anyone who’s not a diehard fan or a developer, as RISC-V is clearly not ready for mainstream adoption just yet.

A surprisingly cheap mobo with a RISC-V processor
Milk-V Jupiter mini-ITX RISC-V motherboard
Just don’t expect a lot from it
Milk-V Jupiter, powered by the Spacemint K1/M1 SoC, is the world’s first Mini ITX device to support both RVA22 and RVV1.0. Besides integrating a PCIe x8 interface, it features dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, onboard Wi-Fi 6/BT 5.2, and even supports NVMe SSDs, making it an ideal choice for an entry-level RISC-V desktop. On paper, it’s pretty impressive, but it’s incompatible with many common apps and rife with performance issues.