Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

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G4HDU
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Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by G4HDU » Sun Nov 22, 2015 8:37 pm

I've been looking at a variety of different mini PCs with a view to running SDR Console remotely at a quiet very low noise location. Most of them seem to be either celeron or atom based with 2GB ram and either windows 8.1 or 10.

Has anybody tried any suitable server software on one of these devices (there is a selection at http://www.geekbuying.com/category/TV-Boxes-505/ ? Or does anybody see any reason why they might not even get off the ground?

73
Barry
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jon
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by jon » Sun Nov 22, 2015 10:20 pm

Simon Brown has an interesting article here http://sdr-radio.com/Blog/ArticleID/39/ ... tel-Z3735F

His sdr console is excellent for remote access to an SDR.
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G4HDU
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by G4HDU » Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:02 pm

Thank you for that info, for once I am barking up the right tree! Off to Amazon and ebay to have a look for one.

Tnx again for that.

Edit: Ordered one and will post with how I get on with it.
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DaveB
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by DaveB » Mon Nov 23, 2015 11:03 pm

You may yourself limited to running at 1.536 MHz bandwidth - as the higher the sample rate the more cpu processing power is required. HDSDR uses the least processing power.

If you just look at the % of CPU usage of the application you might think SDR# is the pretty good as at 2Mbps sample rate it says it uses 7-8%, SDR-console uses 12-14%, and HDSDR around 6%. But it turns out that SDR# makes heavy use of the system and the "System" Application is running is using 28% of the CPU power - giving a total consumption of 42%! Both HDSDR and SDR-console do not use the System app - it must be that the bulk of the program/processing is under the .NET 4.6 Framework. And interestingly when two separate instances of SDR# are running the System application still uses 28% of the cpu processing power.

These figures are from a desktop with an i5-4460 with a benchmark figure 5 times thar of the tablet chip.

I'm sure you'll get it working - but would love to know how well and what programs you can actually use.

David
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micked
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by micked » Tue Nov 24, 2015 8:21 am

I´l run 8Mhz bandwith on my Chuwi 8 Inch 1920*1200 , Intel Atom Z3736F Quad Core, 2.16GHz, 2GB DDR3 RAM + 32GB eMMC.

it takes abut 85% of cpu power in max bandwith so I recomend backing of some to 4-5 Mhz to make it more cpu friendly :)



http://www.geekbuying.com/item/CHUWI-Hi ... 46599.html
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G4HDU
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by G4HDU » Sat Nov 28, 2015 1:53 am

Well I took the plunge and purchased a mini pc. It is a dual core with 1gb of ram with windows 8 installed. So far I have got sdr console and rtl1090 (with a dongle) installed.

Running it headless is proving a problem with tightvnc and teamviewer so I'm waiting for a headless ghost HDMI simulator to arrive so that the Intel graphics doesn't get upset. Seems it gets moody if there isn't a monitor attached and it becomes painfully slow.

Next stage is to configure and hook up some antennas to the box. Got to say that so far I'm very impressed with how nippy it is. I'll post back when I've got it running.
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DaveB
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by DaveB » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:16 pm

I just took delivery of the Linx 1010B with keyboard at 6pm. It is not intended for use with SDR - but I had to try it out to see what it performed like. It comes with Windows 10 pre-installed, 2Gb RAM, 32Gb 'hard drive', 2 full size USB 2.0 sockets as well as the micro USB socket that is used for charging. Filer Explorer reported that 7.5Gb out of 29Gb had been used prior to any other software.

Using an RTL dongle:
With HDSDR running the CPU reports 36-38% for an RTL dongle bandwidth of 2.4MHz, dropping to 19-21% at 1.024MHz
With SDR# build 1347 I could not run at 2.4MHz bandwidth - CPU usage was 100%. Dropping the bandwidth to 1.024MHz gave somewhere around 85% total CPU usage of which 65% was used by SDR#. One thing I had to do was make sure that the resolution of the FFT display in SDR# was limited to 4096 - I usually ran it a 32768 - but that significantly increases the CPU load. Why is SDR# so CPU hungry? - almost certainly to improve the performance of the software.

Also note SDR# build 1347 is running sucessfully on Windows 10. When I first tried to run it Win10 said I needed to install NET framework 2.5 to 3.5 - and gave me the option to do so. Once that was done and the tablet pc rebooted everything was fine.

From this I would estimate that, with HDSDR, there is a good chance of being able to run 8MHz bandwidth with SDRPlay.

One correction to an earlier post in this thread - and I will update when I do some more checking. The "System" service is hogging 28% of the CPU capacity on the Desktop today (Win 8.1) even with SDR Sharp not running. On the Win10 Tablet PC "System" is consuming next to nothing.

I don't plan to do any more testing immediately - but at least we know it works - and it also raises questions whether this combination would work with Airspy at 2.5MHz bandwidth. That is NOT a dig at Airspy as I don't reckon SDR# and SDRPlay at 5MHz would be viable.
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G4HDU
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by G4HDU » Wed Dec 02, 2015 9:39 am

Well, so far so good...

Took delivery of the hdmi ghost header and installed it - I now have the ability to run headless without the constant screen flashing when connecting with tight VNC or Teamviewer. Apparently the Intel HD graphics chip set doesn't like operating without a monitor attached which is what causes the problem with remote control software.

Next job is to mount it all in an IP65 plastic enclosure lined with either copper foil sheets or spray on emi conductive paint, cable input/ output glands for connection to antennas and the solar panel (it is going to be mounted remotely in an electrically quiet location).
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EDDS
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by EDDS » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:28 pm

Hi,

i will receive my sdrplay soon and im looking for a cheap mini computer to host the sdr.

is this one powerful enough to run sdr# with 8 mhz bandwith??
http://www.dealsmachine.com/best_277104.html

regards
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sa6bsc
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Re: Windows 10 mini PCs - Anybody tried one?

Post by sa6bsc » Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:32 pm

Hello!
When i recive my sdrplay i whould try to run it on my pipo x9.
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