Laptop For sdrplay

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Scooby300
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Laptop For sdrplay

Post by Scooby300 » Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:12 pm

Hi All
What specifications laptop would I need for running the sdrplay any advice please not talking basic a decent one or a tablet
Thanks
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Qosmio
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by Qosmio » Tue Aug 04, 2015 7:40 am

Hi,

I just bought two second hands HP laptops a 6930p with Intel 4000HD GPU and T8700 CPU, a HP8730W with NVidia GPU Quadro 2700M and T9600 CPU, for my main work on computer i have a HP8560W with NVidia 1000M GPU and I7 CPU, i use SDR Console because that is the only SDR software that uses GPU acceleration for the waterfall and DSP, in version 3 it will use Direct2d for graphics see http://v2.sdr-radio.com/Software/Version-30 which is even better and faster see the demo at the link i provided.

On the intel graphics base laptop the SDR Console uses a high CPU level because of no GPU hardware acceleration support, her i can see CPU use up to 80 percent when using a sample rate of 8mhz, on the other two laptops with NVidia GPU it runs very good with about 5-10 percent CPU usage on 8mhz sample rate.

So it all depends on what software you use together with the SDRplay and what you like to use the laptop for. i use the HP8730w dedicated for SDRplay and SDR Console. The price for this laptop second hand is 150 euro in the Netherlands.

Cheers
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g1hbe
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by g1hbe » Tue Aug 04, 2015 8:20 am

Hi Scooby.

I used to run my SDRplay on my modest laptop that had a P6200 processor at 1.3 GHz with 2 GB of memory. It worked well at all spans under 5 MHz. Going over that caused it to stutter.
I now have a new (actually secondhand from Cash Converters!) laptop with an I-3 processor clocked at 2.4 GHz with 4 GB of ram and it sails along.
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Andy

Scooby300
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by Scooby300 » Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:07 pm

Hi
Thanks both for your suggestions really appreciated welcome advice from more people please
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DaveB
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by DaveB » Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:24 pm

A laptop with a 2.4 GHz processor could have an i-3 M370 processor - which has a benchmark of 2003 (cpubenchmark.net). I have a laptop with a dual core intel processor with a benchmark of 1800 and it ran SDRPlay OK on HDSDR. But using an RTLdongle with 1.024MHz sample rate and SDR # it needs 30-35% CPU power and when I try and use a fast frequency scanner the CPU doubles and it falls over.

The rule is always go for the biggest/fastest you can afford - ask yourself if you really need a laptop - which what I did. You can get small form desktops with better expandibility eg 6 USB ports and a wireless mouse/keyboard set. I bought a PackardBell iMedia S2885 from Curry's at the end of 2014 - it's cheaper now at £350.00 from Currys - the processor has a bench mark of 4910. You get a terabyte of hard drive in two partitions - so I use the D: drive purely for WAV files. It has 8Gbyte RAM. HD audio with 192kHz sampling rate. It will run SDRPlay and an RTL dongle. With both running a fast scanner the CPU usage goes up to 60-65% and I can still do normal stuff at the same time. The operating system is Windows 8.1.Of course you need a monitor - in my case I had a 22" LG monitor/TV anyway - so you need to factor in that cost.

I also have no problem with running SDR Play/SDR# with a fast scanner and at the same time playing back a full 8MHz wav file on another instance of SDR#. MPXoutput from each one goes to a different VAC line and hence to RDSSpy.

It is also very quiet - I can leave it running overnight in the room where I sleep without it disturbing me - which wasn't the case with the laptop. Laptops run hot and with high cpu usage they can be HOT which caused problems with memory and hard drive errors. I cured that by raising the laptop by sticking small coasters (cup stands - not boats!) on each corner to allow more ventilation.

If you must have a laptop - check the CPU benchmark at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/- I'd suggest a minimum of 3000 based on my old one not being good enough at 1800. Just type the processor number into google and click on the entry. Currys - who I'm not promoting but are an easy web-site to search - are doing a 15.6 inch lap tops at around £350 with 8gB/1 terabyte but only 3 usb ports with a cpu with a benchmark of around 3000. To get up to a benchmark of 4400 you need to spend may be £750.00.

Hope I given you some pointers and things to think about. I'm happy with Win 8.1 after setting it my way - with the Desktop as the priority - I've registered for Windows 10 - but will think long and hard before actually applying the upgrade - and definitely not in the SpE season.

David
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Scooby300
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by Scooby300 » Wed Aug 05, 2015 10:15 pm

Hi DaveB & anyone else who's interested
Thanks for all the advice you have given. I have 4 desktops at the moment 2 of them in the garage one used for business & the Mac mini still in its box not being used. all are I7 quad core but I need a laptop for portability unless there is a way of say set up one of them in the loft &be able too control it from downstairs with a laptop or iPad with full control I also have a acer aspire 1810tz netbook do you think that would run it ? Its about 6 years old what I have been looking at is one of those Lenovo yogo pro 2 or 3 laptop/ tablets could they run it just looking for something that will last a bit
Thanks
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DaveB
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by DaveB » Thu Aug 06, 2015 8:31 am

unless there is a way of say set up one of them in the loft &be able too control it from downstairs with a laptop
You'll have to look up how to do it but remote access is pretty much a standard feature on Windows. When I was at work I had remote access to a PC hundreds of yards away - which was OK until the IT Dept decided to allow automatic Windows updates. It would also regularly use remote access to take over my PC to sort out problems.

Here's what I found on a search http://www.7tutorials.com/how-use-remot ... windows-81 as an example - there will be one for very edition of Windows and it works between PC with different versions of windows

With your suite of PC's you should have plenty of scope for testing this out.

As for whether the laptop you mentioned is suitable - look for the processor it uses - maye on a label on the bottom and google it for the bencmark speed.

Rgds

David
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NN4F
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by NN4F » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:21 pm

Just an FYI, I just bought a budget HP 15in touchscreen, i3-5010@2.10ghz/6gb/1tb HP 15-AC121DX from best buy for $399 it runs all the sdr software and decoding software like a dream, even at the full 8mhz bandwidth...


Paul
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wd9ewk
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by wd9ewk » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:14 pm

Scooby300 wrote:Hi All
What specifications laptop would I need for running the sdrplay any advice please not talking basic a decent one or a tablet
Thanks
I have been using my SDRplay on a laptop and a couple of tablets. The laptop I have is a Dell Inspiron 14R tablet with a Core i3 CPU and 6 GB RAM, running Windows 7 Pro. Tablets... an 8-inch HP Stream 8 tablet with 1 GB RAM, and a 10-inch WinBook TW100 tablet with 2 GB RAM. Both tablets have Windows 10 Home and variants of the quad-core Intel Atom Z3735 CPU used in many tablets and some small laptops (the 8-inch tablet has a Z3735G, the 10-inch tablet has a Z3735D). With the recently-released v1.5.0 API, the tablets work fine with the SDRplay. I have been using HDSDR so far with the SDRplay, and - when I get some free time next weekend - plan to get the SDRplay working with SDR# as well. I don't try to run many other programs when using HDSDR and the SDRplay, and I have HDSDR set for "High Process Priority" so it can make more use of the tablets' CPUs.

Good luck!
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Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
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Scooby300
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Re: Laptop For sdrplay

Post by Scooby300 » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:37 pm

Hi All
Thank you for your replies much appreciated I haven't done nothing with sdrplay for a couple of weeks work commitments but hopefully will be having a mess about with it this bank holiday weekend which by the way is the last one before Christmas :o :o
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