What’s going on cryptocurrency Universe—this is part 3 of my Orange Pi comparison series, and in this one I’m testing the Orange Pi 5 Plus for Verus mining on single-board computers. I’m looking at the real-world stuff that matters for mining: hash produced versus watts consumed, plus temps and cooling. I also compare it directly against the Orange Pi 5, because on paper the 5 Plus costs more mainly for connectivity, not necessarily more mining performance. In my testing, the Orange Pi 5 Plus initially looked like it was pushing higher (I saw it bouncing around 9 MH), but once it started averaging out it landed right in that same neighborhood as the Orange Pi 5—about 6.8 to 7 MH. Temps were solid too (around mid-50s C on my setup), and honestly my “ghetto” cheap fan + copper heatsink combo was cooling better than the pricey cooler that looks nicer. Power was basically the same as well (around 9.2–9.3W on my setup), and I remind you that each power brick has its own base load—when you plug in multiples, the per-unit watts can balance out closer to ~8.5W (and don’t exceed 80% load). Bottom line: unless you need the extra I/O on the 5 Plus, for mining I’d stick with the cheaper Orange Pi 5.