Alive and well?

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NoiseFreeGuy
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 7:16 pm
Location: Guelph, Canada

Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:31 pm

It's been quite a while since I logged in here (more than two years).
I am very glad to see the site still alive. :)

Is there a thread or two where I can learn about what has happened here to keep the site open?

The last time I was here there was serious talk of shutting down the site.
I guess the owner was getting burnt out?

A lot has happened over the past few years re: silent PC's.

We are now at a stage where you can build a truly silent PC (not just pretend it's silent). :)
I recently bought a Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet with a Intel Atom Z3740D CPU.

This has inspired me to look for motherboards with this CPU and possibly build a home system with it.
I hope others here can guide me to a successful system build.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:39 pm

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:I recently bought a Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet with a Intel Atom Z3740D CPU.

This has inspired me to look for motherboards with this CPU and possibly build a home system with it.
That CPU (actually a BayTrail-T) is specifically meant for hybrid/mobile environment: but you can look for some different ones, belonging to the same Silvermont series (such as those BayTrail-D/BayTrail-M/Avoton), even if no one among them can go as low as the 2,2W TDP BayTrail-T ones (and no one among them is that inexpensive!).

tim851
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by tim851 » Tue Aug 12, 2014 2:37 am

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:We are now at a stage where you can build a truly silent PC (not just pretend it's silent). :)
I built my first truly silent PC in 2008.

It was silent enough for a buddy of mine to sit two feet next to it while it was placed on the desk and with the side panel off (had been tinkering) without noticing it was running.

NoiseFreeGuy
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 7:16 pm
Location: Guelph, Canada

Re: Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:52 am

quest_for_silence wrote:
NoiseFreeGuy wrote:I recently bought a Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet with a Intel Atom Z3740D CPU.

This has inspired me to look for motherboards with this CPU and possibly build a home system with it.
That CPU (actually a BayTrail-T) is specifically meant for hybrid/mobile environment: but you can look for some different ones, belonging to the same Silvermont series (such as those BayTrail-D/BayTrail-M/Avoton), even if no one among them can go as low as the 2,2W TDP BayTrail-T ones (and no one among them is that inexpensive!).
Thanks Quest for the info. It's a pity I can't get an Atom Z3740D CPU-based motherboard.
I checked a few of the MB's you linked to.
Quite a few are using the Celeron J1800/1900 series CPU's (Biostar, Gigabyte, ASRock).

How do these CPU's compare to the Atom Z3740D?
To me they seem to be a completely different family/animal?

What's the closest I can come to the Atom Z3740D?

NoiseFreeGuy
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 7:16 pm
Location: Guelph, Canada

Re: Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:56 am

tim851 wrote:
NoiseFreeGuy wrote:We are now at a stage where you can build a truly silent PC (not just pretend it's silent). :)
I built my first truly silent PC in 2008.

It was silent enough for a buddy of mine to sit two feet next to it while it was placed on the desk and with the side panel off (had been tinkering) without noticing it was running.
Hi Tim.
Silence is all relative.
I've been using PC's in a silent environment for more than 20 years now.
How have I achieved this?
By taking my already quiet PC and putting it in an adjoining room, running the cables through the wall.

Sure it's a bit of a hassle when I want to access some USB ports, CD-ROM drives etc., but the true silence I achieve in my working room is well worth it. :)

quest_for_silence
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:16 pm

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:How do these CPU's compare to the Atom Z3740D?

Difficult to say, there are different benchmarks for mobile/hybrid and desktop use. Anyway: http://ark.intel.com/compare/78867,78866,78416

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:To me they seem to be a completely different family/animal?

AFAIK they belong to the same family: http://ark.intel.com/products/codename/ ... Trail#@All

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:What's the closest I can come to the Atom Z3740D?

AFAIK no one. With reference to power draw maybe a quad core with 2Mb cache and 7.5W TDP, (N29X0/N35X0) but they have several different technical features. With reference to technical features, perhaps the J1900/J2900: to be fair, those latter just offer QuickSync as the Z-series Atoms, but they are even hotter than the N-series (TDP 10W vs Z3740D TDP around 4W).

NoiseFreeGuy
Posts: 332
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:57 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
NoiseFreeGuy wrote:What's the closest I can come to the Atom Z3740D?

AFAIK no one. With reference to power draw maybe a quad core with 2Mb cache and 7.5W TDP, (N29X0/N35X0) but they have several different technical features. With reference to technical features, perhaps the J1900/J2900: to be fair, those latter just offer QuickSync as the Z-series Atoms, but they are even hotter than the N-series (TDP 10W vs Z3740D TDP around 4W).
So how about my getting a spare Dell Venue Pro 8 (Atom Z3740D), connecting it to a monitor, keyboard and mouse and using it as a desktop?
I can just pop in microSD cards when I need to add more disk space.

(I'm currently using an AOpen i855GMEm-LFS with Pentium-M CPU 1.86GHz and WinXP)

quest_for_silence
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:36 pm

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:So how about my getting a spare Dell Venue Pro 8 (Atom Z3740D), connecting it to a monitor, keyboard and mouse and using it as a desktop?
I can just pop in microSD cards when I need to add more disk space.

(I'm currently using an AOpen i855GMEm-LFS with Pentium-M CPU 1.86GHz and WinXP)
Set aside I don't think you can use an external monitor with it, but that tablet is, ahem, a tablet.
So, from a desktop perspective, it's low on RAM, it's low on storage, and it's not expandable (not to mention it's low on performance). Does it actually fit your needs? I can't help about that.

On the other hand, I said there are no really close siblings, but most of the Z-series features are meant for tablets, so that a J1900 (if you need transcoding) or a N2910 (if you don't need the QuickSync feature) are more probably that not better CPUs than the Z3740D: just they can't compare to this latter with reference to heat (but they are low on heat too, when compared to desktop CPUs).

If I can take the liberty to say, probably you have to write down all your actual requirements, rather than trying to track down that specific Atom.

NoiseFreeGuy
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Sat Aug 23, 2014 8:11 pm

quest_for_silence wrote: Set aside I don't think you can use an external monitor with it, but that tablet is, ahem, a tablet.
So, from a desktop perspective, it's low on RAM, it's low on storage, and it's not expandable (not to mention it's low on performance). Does it actually fit your needs? I can't help about that.
Actually the tablet can be used with an external monitor/keyboard/mouse etc.
But you are right about it being low on RAM/storage, not expandable etc.

If I can take the liberty to say, probably you have to write down all your actual requirements, rather than trying to track down that specific Atom.
Yes you are right. I think I should look at the family of CPU's you mentioned and motherboards that house them. It's interesting though that many of them are soldered to the MB, something that us builders are not accustomed to.

But if I can find a CPU/MB that is in the 10W region I'd already be a step ahead of my current Pentium-M which has TDP around 21 Watts.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Aug 23, 2014 9:15 pm

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:Actually the tablet can be used with an external monitor
Are you talking about that? Because in the web-published specs I've read just about:

"Ports & Connectors
1 x Micro-AB USB2.0 (for trickle charging and data transfer)
1 x Headphone and microphone combojack
1 x 3FF micro-SIM slot (coming soon, optional with WWAN configuration)
"

(I mean, I saw no HDMI...).

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:It's interesting though that many of them are soldered to the MB, something that us builders are not accustomed to.

But if I can find a CPU/MB that is in the 10W region I'd already be a step ahead of my current Pentium-M which has TDP around 21 Watts.

I think you can't compare your current combo with them: even a powerful Core i5 is so efficient that it should draw not so much more than it, if any, even with its nominal fourfold TDP.

Anyway, you can look also to some barebones, like the various NUCs/BriXs/Zboxes (which usually runs on mobile hw like your one), or some fanless options like the Shuttle XS35V4 (actually a Bay Trail J1900, a quad core 10W TDP cpu).

NoiseFreeGuy
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 7:16 pm
Location: Guelph, Canada

Re: Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:50 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
NoiseFreeGuy wrote:Actually the tablet can be used with an external monitor
Are you talking about that? Because in the web-published specs I've read just about:

"Ports & Connectors
1 x Micro-AB USB2.0 (for trickle charging and data transfer)
1 x Headphone and microphone combojack
1 x 3FF micro-SIM slot (coming soon, optional with WWAN configuration)
"

(I mean, I saw no HDMI...).

Yes and there is another option as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPY4m8iY0k

Anyway, you can look also to some barebones, like the various NUCs/BriXs/Zboxes (which usually runs on mobile hw like your one), or some fanless options like the Shuttle XS35V4 (actually a Bay Trail J1900, a quad core 10W TDP cpu).
OK, thanks!

quest_for_silence
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Re: Alive and well?

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:18 pm


NoiseFreeGuy
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 7:16 pm
Location: Guelph, Canada

Re: Alive and well?

Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Fri Aug 29, 2014 12:38 pm

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:
NoiseFreeGuy wrote:Actually the tablet can be used with an external monitor
Are you talking about that? Because in the web-published specs I've read just about:

"Ports & Connectors
1 x Micro-AB USB2.0 (for trickle charging and data transfer)
1 x Headphone and microphone combojack
1 x 3FF micro-SIM slot (coming soon, optional with WWAN configuration)
"

(I mean, I saw no HDMI...).

Yes and there is another option as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPY4m8iY0k
And here is yet another option:

http://plugable.com/products/UGA-165

Although this one costs $40.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Alive and well?

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Aug 29, 2014 12:59 pm

NoiseFreeGuy wrote:Although this one costs $40.

I think there are other Atom Z-series tablets (like the Acer Switch, IIRC) which offer a much more convenient, straight HDMI output.

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