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arm based rigs, how many people out there?

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Evilsizer

Senior Forum Spammer
Joined
Jun 6, 2002
wondering how many might be using something like the odriod or pi for all their computing needs? i just cant seem to play games like i use to so im changing my focus from like my i7 920 in sig to possibly a odriod U3 or the XU.

im leaning to the XU because its the newest samsung Exnoys5 with a onpackage PowerVR chip. though im not sure how its suppose to compare with the Mali 400 quad core on the exnoys 4 on the U3. U3 might be more then enough and its half the price if you get the CE version. still hard to pass up a being able to get the newest based quad core. one thing that seems hard is to find one that runs at 2ghz. not sure why im stuck on that speed, im sure 1.8ghz or even 1.6ghz quad core in linux is going to be more then enough.

hopefully we have some people here running either one or both and can give some feedback. :comp:
 
... for all their computing needs?
I'm going to speculate that this is highly unlikely. I'm basing that on the performance of a near two year cell phone and an HP Touchpad running Android. These devices are designed to make the best of the available battery life and they give up a *lot* of performance to do so.

The second issue is OS. Are you comfortable with Linux? Do any of these run Windows? Do they run Android? Are you comfortable with abandoning Windows for all of your needs and wants? I haven't booted Windows or a Windows VM on my PCs in months. That's more because I gave up on Garmin navigation than I found something on Linux/Android to replace it. there are Android options such as co-pilot but they are tedious to use.)

OTOH if your needs are extremely limited, say just web browsing, email and so on, one of these would probably do the job. How do they stack up against the Raspberry Pi? They seem a bit more expensive (but do have USB 3.0 at least.)

I've got a couple Atom based SBCs that I use for NAS boxes. They or the low power AMD equivalent would seem like a better choice to me if you are looking to downsize. Something like this at least has a SATA port.

I think the tiny SBCs are good for dedicated tasks but lack capabilities needed for a general purpose computer. I've been fooling around with an Arduino and it is fun, but really suited to the task of a micro-controller and not a lot more.
 
Are you looking more for the cheap, quiet, small, or another factor of something ARM based?
 
while i understand the basis for performance, in the arm realm soc. the XU is really strong, i think cpu speed should be a bit higher. i use to play in cmd line in dos back in the day on my 386sx 6mhz. just messing around with one of the most popular linux distros a while back when they were on conical i think it was called or 11.xx version. i had no problems with it and getting all my hw to work but that was a intel mobile based mitx rig 2 in sig.

are performance per watt is much better then atom IMO. as hard numbers between the two in linux i dont think would be all that comparable but would have to do. since from my understanding the way the kernel handles the cpu would be a bit different. the current Exnos octa 5 on the XU seems really strong, being a quad core or as some want to say 8 but only 4 active at most. i though i posted it but may have forgotten, my gaming needs are dropping off big time. i think the games i will be playing will be more then enough on the samsung soc and being in linux.

i get you two may not follow me but most or all our computing needs aside from gaming. can be handled by either Pi or Odriod U3/XU platforms. from the way im looking at it since i use to use a atom 230 and then got a 330 back in the day. other then the fact that only Mpeg2 hw decode was there for the onboard video. it was enough for me doing the forums here, newegg, and news reading as well as email. leaving gaming or more high end gaming like something such as COD or current MW etc. older games i play still like trine, im sure if linux native woud be playable on the Odriod XU. though i have always been more of a fan of the Risc arc vs X86. the main draw back has always been cpu speed scalability for Risc (aka arm) cpus.

hank if i wanted i can order a eMMC card for the odriod U3 with andriod 4.xx on it. they do not have one that will run on the XU since it is a different cpu in a way. they do offer linux on eMMC card for the XU being ub 13.xx

in either case though, the XU isnt old hw by anymeans maybe in smartphone years. the U3 would be even older but both are still quad cores. for office,web, and other non gaming apps it is more the able to handle the loads. only thing that would be nice upgrades on the odriods would either be MSATA/MPCIE slots for SSD's or SATA3 ports for SSD's. the right combo of hw is going to make the difference, eMMC is nice and faster then SD cards but still not like a ssd in the other forms. you spend say 1-2k on a gaming pc yet watch youtube or netflix on it, how much of a waste in electrity used is that for something that can be done by the U3 at $65+shipping and maybe uses 25watts at most fully loaded.

sorry for going on a bit a few tangents and/or repeating my self, habit i have a hard time breaking. my POV is for me, Arm is the way to go, just need more support. arm is way more of a option then any atom setup imo. just need to get the IO's on the board...

 
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... performance per watt is much better then atom IMO.
I have no doubt of that. These have been highly optimized to work in phones and tablets where hours of operation on battery is required. Atom OTOH is a mainstream processor that has been slimmed down a bit to reduce energy costs. One of my NAS boxes (with two 2TB drives) uses 32 watts as measured at the wall plug. That's pretty thrifty compared to my other desktop (~170 watts if not crunching) but a lot more than an arm based system would use.

I agree that I/O seems to be a weak point. In addition to Ethernet and USB which they seem to have, I would want SATA/mSATA or USB 3 for a drive. I could probably replace the Atom board in my NAS with one of those if it had a couple SATA ports.

If you're determined to get more from less, an arm is probably the way to go. I'm pretty sure it has more processing power than the first PC I owned (25 MHz 386) and that met my needs back in the day. However S/W was a lot simpler back then and my expectations were lower.
 
well, current performance of arm+mali or powerVR+arm, people are playing Quake3A at 1080p. i know that isnt a new game but gives some idea of the performance it has. i recall back in the day that one of the guys who does reviews, either computer shopper or other mag. said that all we needed was p3 933/1ghz with 512mb ram for all our office/web/work needs. i think samsungs arm exynos 5 quad core, might be around a core 2 dual core in performance(one of the lower end ones maybe 1-1.2ghz clock speed wise).
 
arm based rigs....

Like the Raspberry pi I have no use for?

If they can run a standard (or close) distro of say Ubuntu, that would be a step in the right direction, as AFAIK there's more support for products in the actual distros than ones made for the ARM architecture. :shrug:

But to answer the original question: No. I have no idea what to do with my rPi....
So for now, Windows for me.......
 
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