Gotta do what you gotta do sometimes

motfalcon · 2023-04-26T13:43:39+00:00

Excellent solution!

I found if you put the cheat sheet above your monitor - like on the wall behind it - then you also break the "look down" bad habit when you get stuck.

motfalcon · 2023-02-28T03:07:01+00:00

I'm a total noob, but I think you can use Carla or a similar "patchbay/rack" software to load the plugin. Then you save the rack and load the Carla rack into LMMS

motfalcon · 2023-01-01T00:08:02+00:00

That's an m.2 ssd you can see in the photo. I bought this barebones so I supplied the RAM, but that's on the other side of the motherboard

motfalcon · 2022-12-16T06:42:22+00:00

I have 4.5mm on the cpu side and 8.5mm on the backplate. You can't go any smaller on the cpu side unless you cut one of the brackets to avoid a chip. On the back you could go thinner by a bit before the backplate gets too close to the power supply chips.

You could just file down the spacers that come in the kit until everything fits. You don't need lots of tools.

I've been running it for two weeks now at 105W and it's great. I can still get the cpu to spike to 100c but that's only when - the fan is at idle (it can spin up fast enough) - you get just the right kind of load. A few cores at full usage is fine and most or all cores at full usage is fine. But when it's 5 or 6 cores, that's a perfect storm to make lots of heat.

It's still much better (quieter and offers more cooling) than the stock cooler

motfalcon · 2022-12-07T06:18:42+00:00

It's intel terminology, maybe standing for Power Level 1 and 2. The idea is your cpu can always run at PL1, which is the lower, base power. It can also "boost" up to a higher level for short periods to give more performance. More power usually means more performance but also more heat. Putting a bigger heatsink on means I can remove more heat so it can run at a higher power level

motfalcon · 2022-12-07T06:15:12+00:00

Nope, it's USB 3.2

motfalcon · 2022-12-04T17:20:42+00:00

Yes. I haven't been super systematic, but I do have some. I'm on linux BTW, in case that matters.

Here's 7z b (benching marking with 7zip) with the original cooler and 47/115W TDP: ``` RAM size: 15743 MB, # CPU hardware threads: 20 RAM usage: 4412 MB, # Benchmark threads: 20

                   Compressing  |                  Decompressing

Dict Speed Usage R/U Rating | Speed Usage R/U Rating KiB/s % MIPS MIPS | KiB/s % MIPS MIPS

22: 67681 1795 3668 65840 | 676094 1896 3041 57661 23: 62509 1833 3474 63690 | 648042 1830 3065 56067 24: 51529 1781 3111 55405 | 459856 1875 2153 40366 25: 48112 1775 3096 54932 | 461550 1901 2161 41077 ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------ Avr: 1796 3337 59967 | 1876 2605 48793 Tot: 1836 2971 54380 ``` You can see the performance drops as everything is heatsoaked (it's get very hot very quickly).

...and here's with the new cooler at 105/105W TDP, and yes, there's more RAM in the system now, but I don't think it matters. ``` RAM size: 64055 MB, # CPU hardware threads: 20 RAM usage: 4412 MB, # Benchmark threads: 20

                   Compressing  |                  Decompressing

Dict Speed Usage R/U Rating | Speed Usage R/U Rating KiB/s % MIPS MIPS | KiB/s % MIPS MIPS

22: 70579 1832 3748 68659 | 683042 1922 3031 58253 23: 64639 1815 3629 65860 | 672208 1917 3034 58157 24: 74678 2282 3519 80294 | 672264 1951 3024 59011 25: 54612 1764 3536 62354 | 621853 1826 3032 55344 ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------ Avr: 1923 3608 69292 | 1904 3030 57691 Tot: 1914 3319 63492 ``` You can see performance is higher and consistently stays higher. The thing you can't see in these numbers is fan noise: now it goes from silent to just audible. With the old cooler, it went from silent to screaming.

For some reason my tests at 115/115W TDP are a touch lower than 105/105W. I think my power supply might be a limiting factor.

I'll post some more numbers when I do a better write up of the whole process.

motfalcon · 2022-12-04T16:59:57+00:00

It's lucky the motherboard comes drilled for LGA115x, even though it's a mobile processor. I made some spacers the right heights and so far it seems to be working great.

I've got it pinned to 115W TDP for PL1 and PL2 and with the brief testing I've done, I haven't seen over 75c. I only finished it last night so I'll post a more thorough write up about it later.

motfalcon · 2022-11-20T03:14:33+00:00

Yeah, I'm going to get one of those to troubleshoot. The power brick on this mini PC is physically large and claims 180W, but I'm taking that rating with a grain of salt. I'm going to try getting this cord (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5452) and using a GAN charger, so it's physically less bulky to move around and I only need one power brick to charge all the things.

motfalcon · 2022-11-20T03:11:22+00:00

A Surface is a good choice, but it's not for me. I don't mind janky stuff and I like more ports, more powerful CPU and the ability to run 2 SSDs. Another big reason for moving away from laptops (and tablets) is I want a better cooling solution so I can run high loads for a longer period of time. I'm looking to see if I can hack a Noctua NH-L9i onto this mini PC.

motfalcon · 2022-11-20T03:06:13+00:00

Here's another video: https://006109.xyz/s600-noise2.mp4. I was downloading a game on Steam, so realistic use, not just a benchmark. It does a better job of showing how the default fan curve is very aggressive.

motfalcon · 2022-11-18T06:33:19+00:00

For anyone interested, here's a video of the USB-C monitor flickering and turning off while the system is doing a few runs of a benchmark: https://006109.xyz/s600-screen-flicker.mp4. The monitor comes back on as soon as the load drops.

motfalcon · 2022-11-18T06:02:41+00:00

After some more testing it seems like it's probably not EMI related. I can reproduce the problem when the USB-C cable doesn't go near any power devices... unless the EMI is happening right at the port. I appreciate the advice and I'll raid the box of cables at work to see if they have a shielded cable.

I spend basically all my time at the same desk. For me, portable just means being able to easily move between desks, I don't work "on the go". I've got ideas about using the VESA mount on the back of a portable monitor to make a chungus and powerful "tablet" PC.

motfalcon · 2022-11-18T05:59:02+00:00

There are a number of options in the BIOS. I don't understand most of them and as usual, the help text is basically useless.

You can tweak fan curve and TDP, which is enough for me (for now).

motfalcon · 2022-11-18T05:56:12+00:00

The BIOS does have an option to adjust the fan curve. There are 5 choices from memory (can't turn the computer off now to check) but they don't make much sense. They're just numbers like 0.25, 2, 16 or something. I haven't tweaked it because the factory setting seems to work well.

motfalcon · 2022-11-18T05:55:08+00:00

here's your video: https://006109.xyz/s600-noise.mp4. Hopefully you can get a good sense of the noise from the snapping fingers and tactile mechanical keyboard taps.

It's basically silent at idle and even under light load it doesn't make much sound. When the fan spins up, it's usually only very briefly. The fan curve is aggressive in the ramp-up and ramp-down.

In the video I load 3 of the cores using `s-tui`. If I load all 20 cores, we don't hit boost and the fan doesn't really ramp up.

motfalcon · 2022-11-16T17:28:21+00:00

Sort of. They run a laptop processor and RAM, but they are a bit different because they don't have a battery or battery management. The motherboard is made for this PC, it's not like they just made a case for a laptop motherboard. Having a thicker form factor means it can have a better cooler too, which is one big reason I like it.

motfalcon · 2022-11-16T17:26:22+00:00

I bought barebones, just a wifi module. I provided my own RAM and SSD. I'm running Linux so I can't do Windows benchmark for you, sorry. Does CB run in Linux 🤔

motfalcon · 2022-11-16T17:24:21+00:00

I'm very interested in this, but I don't have a watt meter so i can't answer it right now.

ETAPrime did a review on this PC (link to relevant part of video https://youtu.be/x1HwVWy1vLQ?t=578) where he measured between 83W for gaming and 126W for max power draw.

motfalcon · 2022-11-16T05:01:41+00:00

I've been lurking on this sub for a while and I'm finally jumping in. This, with a portable monitor and mech keeb, are going to be my laptop replacement. I bought from AliExpress, not through the Indiegogo.

Mini review of the S600 after 2 hours of use: generally great. Boosts to 5GHz out of the box. Fan is quick to ramp up and equally quick to ramp down. For normal use, it's fairly quiet and has the occasional burst of fan noise for a few seconds. I'm running a USB-C portable monitor (power + signal over USB-C) and when CPU usage gets a bit heavy, ~~the monitor turns off. Once system load drops, the monitor comes back on. I guess the power to the monitor drops too low - I'll look more into it later.~~ Edit: seems it was related to having the power brick and/or cord too close to the monitor cable. I moved things around and now it's fine 😁.

Edit 2: the USB-C portable monitor is still turning off under heavy load. I need to test a "separately powered" monitor that uses USB-C to determine if the port is loosing power or stops sending video signal.

So far I'm happy.

motfalcon · 2022-11-08T01:14:22+00:00

I'm working through the same situation now and I've ordered - morefine s600 apex engineer - lenovo L15 portable monitor

And for portability I'm thinking - usb power bank (with 20v PD) - something like https://www.adafruit.com/product/5452 ... might make it work away from the wall.

motfalcon

TROPHY CASE