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The aged question of which Computer

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:01 am
by SatInterested
Hi all....

Looking through the local catalogues to see whats available in new computers..

I have seen a comment in here about the use of low powered computers and Tablets used for SDR..

My Interest will be in Sat. Telemetry....so looking for low power that can handle the software for decoding...may need to have open a few programs at a time to do this....or has anyone run audio from computer to computer and works decoding Telem.

Many say the computer works with SDR, but not much details in what sort of programs can run at the same time, and the cpu usage doing such a thing..

So was looking at Atom Z3735 ASUS EeeBook X205ta.....

Regards
John

Re: The aged question of which Computer

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:45 pm
by WhoaNellie
I have the computer you mention - it's a nifty little computer with good battery life and nice small size but not too small. But it's underpowered, with a Passmark score of under 1000 for the CPU, and "only" 2GB RAM. I use it mostly to listen to HF with the 1.5MHz IF bandwidth using HDSDR and it works OK, but it often stutters when trying anything wider, not being able to process smoothly an IF bandwidth of 5MHz or more.

Go to http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php to access a searchable list of CPUs in alphabetical order. The Asus X205TA CPU at a score of 908 will work OK with HDSDR which uses low resources at the 1.5MHz IF bandwidth, but with SDRUno which has a higher CPU usage it slows down even more and can't always process the signals especially listening to broadcast FM without stuttering/buffering. Another computer I have running Windows XP, with a CPU that has a Passmark score of 2451, runs everything at all IF bandwidths without stuttering or buffering. So I'd get something with at least that powerful a CPU.

Re: The aged question of which Computer

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 9:12 am
by SatInterested
Hi all..

Thanks for the reply WhoaNellie, yeah I can imagine it would stuggle to show up wide bandwidth, but chances of me wanting to see 5Mhz at one time, can't really see a need...if I need to look at other Freq. I would simply tune there.

I ended up getting the same Brand ASUS with a Cherry Trail Z8300 cpu....it has a little more grunt, and can handle about 4 different software running at the same time....which is plenty good enough at this stage. I am impressed with the life of the Battery...can charge it at the start of the week and with casual usage last 5 days.

John