Testing Category - Page 62 of 169 - CNX Software

July 26, 2019July 26, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

How to Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2.0 GHz

Yesterday I played with my new “ICE Tower CPU cooling fan” for Raspberry Pi 4 which cools the board just great but is clearly over the top. Regular reader and commenter m][sko mentioned it was possible to overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2.0 GHz after a firmware upgrade. That looks like a perfect task for my new fansink! I’ve upgraded both the firmware and operating system:

sudo rpi-update
sudo apt dist-upgrade

1 2	sudo rpi-update sudo apt dist-upgrade

then edited /boot/config.txt as root (sudo) to add the following lines to boost the maximum frequency to 2.0 GHz:

force_turbo=0
arm_freq=2000
over_voltage=6

force_turbo=0

arm_freq=2000

over_voltage=6

Do not try to set force_turbo=1, as while it would allow to further boost the voltage, it will change a fuse in the chip, and it will void your warranty. We can now reboot the board to validate the settings, and check those are applied:

vcgencmd get_config int | grep "arm\|over"
arm_freq=2000
over_voltage=6

vcgencmd get_config int | grep "arm\|over"

arm_freq=2000

over_voltage=6

Good. At idle the frequency is lower, but that normal:

vcgencmd measure_clock arm
frequency(48)=666826176

1 2	vcgencmd measure_clock arm frequency(48)=666826176

Voltage is set to 1.0335V:

vcgencmd measure_volts
volt=1.0335V

1 2	vcgencmd measure_volts volt=1.0335V

[…]

July 26, 2019July 26, 2019 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 5 Comments

Intel Mini PCs Linux Performance Comparison

Intel mini PC side-by-side comparison table

Recent vulnerabilities in Intel x86 microprocessors (Meltdown, Spectre, Foreshadow, RIDL, Fallout, ZombieLoad, etc.) are now addressed with mitigation patches for the Linux kernel although have resulted in some performance degradation. As a consequence, my previous comparison benchmarks could be somewhat misleading when compared with new results given the different versions of software at the time of execution. So I’ve repeated running my standard Phoronix Test Suite benchmarks on several of the latest mini PCs each running the latest updated Ubuntu 18.04.2 software with the same Ubuntu 4.15.0-54 kernel. Specifically, the mini PCs I’ve used are as follows: Intel NUC NUC7CJYSAL (Celeron J4005 Gemini Lake) Pepper JobsGLK-UC2X (Celeron N4100 Gemini Lake) Beelink Gemini X X45 (Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake) Beelink Gemini X X55 (Pentium Silver J5005 Gemini Lake) with updated BIOS Intel NUC NUC7PJYH (Pentium Silver J5005 Gemini Lake) Beelink L55 (i3-5005U Broadwell) On each mini PC, I’ve also run sbc-bench which is […]

July 25, 2019July 25, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 46 Comments

Raspberry Pi 4 ICE Tower CPU Cooling Fan Tested

Raspberry Pi 4 ICE Tower CPU Cooling Fan Review

Most of us know the Raspberry Pi 4 can get pretty hot, and a heatsink is required if you intend to get the maximum performance out of your board under heavy loads and/or high ambient room temperature. Some even designed a large fansink for Raspberry Pi 4 to prevent the board from throttling. It’s actually a bit over the top, but Seeed Studio sent me a sample of their “ICE Tower CPU cooling fan”, so I’ve had the chance to test it. ICE Tower Cooling Fan Unboxing & Assembly with Raspberry Pi 4 The package tells us it’s made by 52Pi and design specifically for Raspberry Pi 4B/3B+/3B SBC’s. It’s probably not that useful for the last two. The package contains the heatsink with fan attached, screw sets, a screwdrivers, mounting brackets for Raspberry Pi 3/3B+ and RPi 4, as well as a useful user manual. Raspberry Pi 3 and […]

July 24, 2019July 28, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Chuwi HiPAD LTE Tablet Review – Part 2: Android 8.0

Last month, I received HiPad LTE tablet, and in the first part of the review I checked out the specifications of the 10″ tablet with a MediaTek Helio X27 deca-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32 GB storage, and had a look at the accessories including the keyboard dock. I’ve now had more time to actually play with the device, so I’ll report my experience with Android 8.0, and the pros and cons of the latest Chuwi tablet. General Impressions My previous tablet was Onda V18 Pro, and Chuwi HiPad LTE is clearly an upgrade thanks to the faster Heliox X27 deca-core processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. The 10.1″ display has a 1920×1200 resolution, not quite as good as the 2560×1600 resolution of the Onda tablet, but I still found the screen to be crispy and sharp. I found the tablet to be great for browsing the web and watching YouTube […]

July 14, 2019August 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

ODROID-H2 Review – Part 2: Ubuntu 19.04

After many months of delays due to Intel not mass-producing Gemini Lake processors, Hardkernel started selling ODROID-H2 again, more exactly ODROID-H2 Rev. B, and the end of last month, and the company sent me a full kit for evaluation. You can check out ODROID-H Rev. B with Type 3 case and the assembly instructions in the first part of the review. I’ve now had time to play with the board using the pre-installed Ubuntu 19.04 operating systems so I’ll report my experience in this second part. Note that ODROID-H2 does not rely on a custom version of Ubuntu, and instead you can download and flash Ubuntu 18.04 or 19.04 ISO directly from Ubuntu website. First Boot and System Information I had already connected two SATA drives inside the enclosure, one SSD and one HDD, but before booting the device I connected an HDMI cable, one Ethernet cable, USB keyboard & […]

July 12, 2019July 12, 2019 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 12 Comments

Beelink L55 Review – An Intel Core i3-5005U Mini PC Tested with Windows 10 & Ubuntu 18.04

With the shortage of Gemini Lake processors, some manufacturers have taken to releasing new mini PCs using older CPUs. The Beelink L55 is one such example and uses Intel’s Broadwell I3-5005U CPU which is a dual-core 4-thread 2.00 GHz processor with Intel’s HD Graphics 5500. The L55 is a ‘NUC’ style mini PC and physically consists of a 128 x 126 x 46 mm (5.04 x 4.96 x 1.81 inches) box case with a front panel that includes the power button, a headphone jack and a couple of 3.0 USB ports and then on the rear, two more 3.0 USBs, two 2.1 USBs, HDMI (1.4), DP and two gigabit Ethernet ports. Note that there is no SD or micro SD card slot. The full specifications include: The L55 comes with either a 256GB or 512GB (as tested in this review) M.2 SSD with pre-installed Windows 10 Home version 1809 together […]

July 8, 2019July 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Testing Ubuntu 18.04 on XIDU PhilPad 2-in-1 Hybrid with Touchscreen

So I’ve recently completed the review of XIDU Philpad 2-in-1 hybrid with Windows 10. The laptop features a 13.3″ touchscreen and support stylus, and I was intrigued whether those would work in Ubuntu 18.04. So I flash the Ubuntu 18.04.2 Desktop ISO to a flash drive and installed Ubuntu to another USB flash drive to give it a try with persistent storage. Note that while it’s OK for testing, running Ubuntu 18.04 from a USB flash drive is very slow, so it’s not recommended. The good news is that you can enter the BIOS by pressing either Esc or Del at boot time, an option is available to select Linux in the BIOS. I could then select Partition 1 in my bootable flash drive, and install Ubuntu 18.04 on the other drive with some patience, and everything works smoothly, albeit slowly due to using a cheap USB flash drive during […]

July 5, 2019July 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

XIDU PhilPad 2-in-1 Hybrid 2K Laptop Review

I had never heard about XIDU laptops and tablets, and it’s apparently the brand name of “Shenzhen Baohuazhong Co Limited” that was founded in 2014 and specializes in the design, development, manufacturing, distributions, and support for computer systems. I came to know about the company as they approached me to review one of their laptops, namely XIDU PhilPad XT133A model with an Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core Apollo Lake processor coupled with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, and equipped with a 13.3″ touchscreen display with 2K (2560×1440) resolution. XIDU PhilPad Specifications SoC – Intel Celeron N3350 dual core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 GHz / 2.40 GHz (Turbo) with 12EU Intel HD graphics 500 GPU; 6W TDP System Memory – 6GB DDR3 Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Display – 13.3″ touchscreen IPS display with 2560 x 1440 resolution Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, built-in microphone and speaker Camera […]