Atom X3/X5/X7 Windows device discussion thread

[Kaido]

Doesnt' seem sold anywhere. Also not sure $350 is a good price as you can find i3 nucs for 250 (then another $40 for ram and $50 for ssd); i think the mobile i3 is a bit faster than the pentinum; but perhaps i'm missing something obvious ?

1. They are not out yet.

2. Missing OS ($99 for Win10), which comes with the Braswell MINIX. So you're looking at close to $450 complete for the NUC. The i3 is definitely worth an extra $100 - if you need the power. But for a typical Office PC (Office & Internet) or mom/grandmaputer, a Celeron or Pentium model should suffice.

Also, that pricing is just rumored. The current MINIX Z64 models are sold at $159 shipped on Amazon, which is what makes them attractive. But even if the new Celeron model turns out to be $250, it's still a good deal because you get Windows 10 with a usable PC, no having to deal with a paltry 32-gig eMMC boot drive & only 2 gigs of RAM.

 

[Kaido]

I think this'll be on my to get list, going to research how good the N3150 is (which is thankfully quad core instead of dual core) before choosing between that and the N3700. Already got a N3530 laptop so I have a decent idea of how the Pentium is (not the greatest in some areas).

CPU Boss has a basic comparison:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Pentium-N3700-vs-Intel-Celeron-N3150

Nearly the same. I'll be interested to try them side-by-side. Both support 8 gigs of RAM, which is $36 shipped on Amazon, so if there's no major (noticeable) performance difference, I'd probably get the cheaper one & do an upgrade myself. Although 4 gigs is pretty okay for a Celeron machine!

 

[kenzz]

Had a stopover in Hong Kong a couple of days ago and made an impulse buy of an Asrock Beebox ... Win 10, N3150, 32gb eMMC, 2gb ram, 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 HDMI, 1 DP ... USD215 compared to $250 on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...17&ref_=sr_1_6&refinements=p_89:ASRock&sr=8-6 .

An impulse buy ... tempted by the price and includes slots for both msata and a 2.5" SSD or HDD, one USB port is the new style typeC but no SD card slot. I assume similar specs to the new Minix but is not fanless. With a 2.5" installed I assume a fan is preferable anyway. At present I'm happy booting win10 off the original eMMC and with a spare 2gb stick of ram and old HDD I've installed. Probably will consider later whether to upgrade to msata or sata SSD.

 

[Bryf50]

I have the Kangaroo. It runs extremely hot and throttles in normal desktop use. I opened the thing up and it has a decently sized passive heatsink on it, more than a tablet usually would. Cherry trail seems worse than my bay trail tablet which runs cool and can hold its turbo clocks for quite a while without issue.

 

[you2]

Missing OS isn't relevant to myself since I run linux; but that does raise an important question: will the minix machine run linux ?

1. They are not out yet.

2. Missing OS ($99 for Win10), which comes with the Braswell MINIX. So you're looking at close to $450 complete for the NUC. The i3 is definitely worth an extra $100 - if you need the power. But for a typical Office PC (Office & Internet) or mom/grandmaputer, a Celeron or Pentium model should suffice.

Also, that pricing is just rumored. The current MINIX Z64 models are sold at $159 shipped on Amazon, which is what makes them attractive. But even if the new Celeron model turns out to be $250, it's still a good deal because you get Windows 10 with a usable PC, no having to deal with a paltry 32-gig eMMC boot drive & only 2 gigs of RAM.

 

[Kaido]

Missing OS isn't relevant to myself since I run linux; but that does raise an important question: will the minix machine run linux ?

I'd think so, but I'd wait to confirm before you buy. The issue with the current Baytrail-T model is that it's 32-bit, so getting other OS's on has been goofy. This will be a 64-bit model. Assuming you can tweak the BIOS for Secure Boot & all that jazz, then it'd probably play pretty nicely with Linux. We'll see!

 

[Kaido]

Engadget just posted their Atom X5 Compute Stick review: ($159)

http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/22/intel-compute-stick-2016-review/

...while the first model felt too slow for comfort, this one simply feels comfortable.

...

The Compute Stick's tiny fan made itself known while I was running benchmarks, even though it was about 12 feet away from me in my living room.

Funny thing is, the prevously Baytrail model is slighty faster in certain things like Geekbench:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...s-new-compute-stick-deliver-on-its-potential/

The Core M models sound nice, but I'd much rather buy a NUC than a stick for their pricepoint ($400+) & just wall-mount or VESA-mount it if needed.

 

[TeknoBug]

How on earth is the X5 Z8300 similar to the Z3735F? That's really bad. But I know both only uses single-channel memory.

 

[386DX]

How on earth is the X5 Z8300 similar to the Z3735F? That's really bad. But I know both only uses single-channel memory.

Cherry Trail was all about GPU improvement there was virtually no change to the CPU cores. Both CPU runs at similar frequency but Z8300 has a 10% lower TDP.

 

[Kaido]

Meego announced three new Atom X5 computers:

http://liliputing.com/2016/01/meegopad-unveils-3-new-cherry-trail-mini-pcs.html

Apparently there are two X5 chips out now:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Atom-x5-x5-Z8500-vs-Intel-Atom-x5-x5-Z8300

1. Z8300
2. Z8500

The Z8500 has a faster turbo, supports 3 instead of 2 displays, and most importantly, maxes out at 8 gigs of RAM instead of 2 gigs, which explains why some X5 devices are shipping with 4 gigs of RAM.

 

[Kaido]

Pipo's triangle touchscreen computer is getting the X5 treatment:

http://liliputing.com/2016/01/pipos...ni-desktop-pcs-get-a-cherry-trail-update.html

VOYO is going X7 with a $220 pre-order price:

http://liliputing.com/2016/01/voyo-v3-is-a-mini-pc-with-atom-x7-4gb-ram-128gb-storage.html

After looking at the comparison numbers, it seems like the X5-8500 (not the X5-8300, which only supports 2 gigs of RAM officially, although it appears it can support 4 gigs unofficially) is the chip to get. The X7-8700, Celeron N3150, and Pentium N3700 are all about the same performance-wise as the X5-8500, all support 8 gigs of RAM, etc. I think the biggest limitation, outside of however much RAM comes with them (I'd suggest 4 gigs minimum) would be the SSD speed. Tronsmart already got bit with a slow SSD & is releasing their remixed X5 Plus with a supposedly faster SSD, so I'd keep an eye out in reviews for the read/write speeds of the onboard eMMC or whatever they use.

So aside from monitoring SSD speed, the thing I'm most curious about is the GPU performance of the X7 (and Braswell Celeron/Pentium chips). Not that it'd make an enormous difference, but for a box hooked up to your TV 24/7, it'd be nice to eek out some extra performance in a tiny, low-watt package.

 

[TeknoBug]

I just came across an MSI NUC with N3150 for $230, I got some DDR3L-1600 RAM and a spare Windows 8 key laying around to upgrade to Windows 10.

 

[Kaido]

I just came across an MSI NUC with N3150 for $230, I got some DDR3L-1600 RAM and a spare Windows 8 key laying around to upgrade to Windows 10.

A Cubi? I really like the design on those.

 

[you2]

fry was selling the msi cubi i3 for $250 yesterday.

 

[Kaido]

fry was selling the msi cubi i3 for $250 yesterday.

I constantly regret not living next to a Fry's Especially since most of their awesome deals are in-store-only!

 

[TeknoBug]

fry was selling the msi cubi i3 for $250 yesterday.

Crud, would've been nice, I paid almost $400 (CDN) a year ago for the i3 4010U NUC, great CPU.

 

[Kaido]

Kangaroo Plus: $170, no OS, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD

http://liliputing.com/2016/02/kanga...es-for-170-with-twice-the-memory-storage.html

Available right now on Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856659001

Interesting that they removed Windows 10 from the unit. That's what the big deal with the original was...$99 is how much an OEM copy of Windows 10 Home costs, so you basically got a free computer with your Windows license. So now you're paying an extra $70 for a PC with double the RAM & double the SSD storage, but you have to spend an additional $99 to get Windows on there (unless you want to go with Linux).

 

[Kaido]

Crud, would've been nice, I paid almost $400 (CDN) a year ago for the i3 4010U NUC, great CPU.

I'm thinking about getting a Zotac EN760 (~$550 barebones) for my HTPC, which is basically an i5 Haswell BRIX with a 2GB GTX860M:

http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-dual-core-Processor-OS Barebone-ZBOX-EN760-U/dp/B00KX8OX2K

Not crazy heavy duty, but better than HD Graphics & Iris Pro by a long shot, and not quite as bad price-wise as the BRIX GTX760 (~$850). Should probably hold out for Skull Canyon, but with no ETA...meh.

 

[Raduque]

The Core M models sound nice, but I'd much rather buy a NUC than a stick for their pricepoint ($400+) & just wall-mount or VESA-mount it if needed.

Honestly, I'd rather have a Stick than a NUC. It's so much easier to share things on a TV with a Stick. I could even do a remote login thing with my tablet or laptop if I didn't want to lug a kbm everywhere.

I have a Core m3 in my Spectre, and it's performance is more than satisfying.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Wint...b-g-n-LAN-Bluetooth4-0-HDMI-H-265-363000.html

I just installed one of these as my new HTPC.

TINY! Less than 4"x4"x1", I think.

I knew in advance pretty-much what to expect from the specs, 2GB / 32GB eMMC / Atom (Cherry Trail, this time), having purchased a Lenovo IdeaPad 100s (Z3735F, 2GB / 32GB eMMC), and being happy with its performance.

Overall, seems like a win.

$81.00 + $5.00 DHL "5 day" shipping, from geekbuying.com.

Even came with a free HDMI cable, besides the power adapter!

Specs on their site are wrong, though, it's not a 64-bit OS (I hoped that it was), and it's not HDMI 2.0, though I think it can do 4K @ 30, but I don't have a 4K display to test with. I also haven't tried playing back any H.265 rips yet.

But it's smaller than my previous mini-ITX HTPC (Ivy Bridge G1610), has no fan that I can tell, so it's a little quieter, and uses less power. (Granted, my G1610 probably only took 30-40W anyways, but this is even better.)

Edit: The Win10 32-bit Home edition came activated. So you're getting a legit copy of Win10 Home (ok, 32-bit, but whatever), and a tiny little mini-PC, for less than $100.

I was debating whether to set up a relative with one of these, or use it for my HTPC. I decided to be the guinea pig, and use it myself. Now I'm thinking of getting another, maybe next month, for the relative. Sure takes up a lot less room than a micro-ATX slimline case. Only problem is, they still have a need to watch DVDs. So this mini-PC wouldn't work for that, unless I bought them an external DVD drive, but then it takes up more room, and is possibly more unsightly than the micro-ATX case is.

 

[Kaido]

$81.00 + $5.00 DHL "5 day" shipping, from geekbuying.com.

That is stupid cheap...heck, even a Windows 10 Home license is $99...

 

[you2]

Is it full windows 10 or one of those restricted version for mobile devices ? Also I couldn't tell if the thing would run linux. Still wish it had 4+GB. I find it hard to believe that thing can run windows 10 with 2GB of ram (esp if you open a couple of windows in the browser). Did you check how much free memory it has after boot up ?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is it full windows 10 or one of those restricted version for mobile devices ? Also I couldn't tell if the thing would run linux. Still wish it had 4+GB. I find it hard to believe that thing can run windows 10 with 2GB of ram (esp if you open a couple of windows in the browser). Did you check how much free memory it has after boot up ?

What is this "restricted version for mobile devices"? Can you link me something about that?

As far as I know, it's a full version of Windows 10.

And it has 1GB free RAM after booting, and running MagicJack, Firefox with internet radio playing, and Task Manager.

 

[TeknoBug]

Larry, MagicJack? You mean that crappy spyware/keylogging thing?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Larry, MagicJack? You mean that crappy spyware/keylogging thing?

Keylogger???

It's a cheap VOIP service, that uses a USB dongle.