Skylake based Intel compute sticks released!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 Jan 2016 at 21:05

Thats some pretty powerful USB powered computing there:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...-m-compute-sticks-get-faster-and-look-better/

new boy · 7 Jan 2016 at 21:10

These are amazing.

I have no use for one, but to think these are probably considerably more powerful that the old pentium 4 desktops I have to suffer at work is mind blowing.

Orangey · 7 Jan 2016 at 21:52

Wrong board? :confused:

Or are these threatening to take compute market share from GPUs?

Razor Time · 8 Jan 2016 at 01:51

I want one but dont know why.

IceShock · 8 Jan 2016 at 02:14

can it run crysis

Rroff · 8 Jan 2016 at 03:10

IceShock said:
can it run crysis

The original yes... with some big caveats - the older Atom ones are like xbox 360/ps3 GPU performance though with a newer feature set (DX11) but without decent cooling probably suffer from throttling in all but the best designed compute stick like devices, some of the newer CPUs have around 50% faster graphics performance.

EDIT: Dunno what they are doing wrong but couple of places have them at 8-10fps in the Crysis benchmark with medium settings (I know if you don't go into fullscreen proper it halves or worse your framerate with those SoC GPUs) on my Z3740 based tablet it was around 28fps with similar settings. Though that might be the benefit of the older more brute force dual channel memory compared to the newer single channel setup more commonly found on the more popular Z3735. etc.

Diagro · 8 Jan 2016 at 08:47

I like them.
it's cool to see that all I need is to plug it into a monitor or TV and have my own personal powerful pc to use.

almoststew1990 · 8 Jan 2016 at 09:00

This SoC low power tech is much more interesting and exciting to me than desktop components as the technology is actually moving at a decent rate.

humbug · 8 Jan 2016 at 12:15

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Thats some pretty powerful USB powered computing there:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...-m-compute-sticks-get-faster-and-look-better/

Potentially a good idea, but there is some vital information missing, what is the performance of them?

oweneades · 8 Jan 2016 at 12:55

CPU's are either the Cherrytrail Atom (In quad core guise) or the more powerful Skylake based Core M models (so ULV Skylake at a lower clockspeed IIRC).

Performance will be better than a Quad core Baytrail which I would consider more than adequate for day to day computing (browsing the web, light productivity, 1080p youtube etc) - I am basing this from using my Toshiba Encore.

Davedree · 8 Jan 2016 at 13:51

oweneades said:
CPU's are either the Cherrytrail Atom (In quad core guise) or the more powerful Skylake based Core M models (so ULV Skylake at a lower clockspeed IIRC).

Performance will be better than a Quad core Baytrail which I would consider more than adequate for day to day computing (browsing the web, light productivity, 1080p youtube etc) - I am basing this from using my Toshiba Encore.

Bought a n3150 for my gdad and it's impressive for 8-12w real consumption. My am1 uses 21-35w for comparison.
The only thing I hate is intel locked out dts hd master windows support on celerons and I think pentium braswells.

Rroff · 8 Jan 2016 at 15:32

oweneades said:
CPU's are either the Cherrytrail Atom (In quad core guise) or the more powerful Skylake based Core M models (so ULV Skylake at a lower clockspeed IIRC).

Performance will be better than a Quad core Baytrail which I would consider more than adequate for day to day computing (browsing the web, light productivity, 1080p youtube etc) - I am basing this from using my Toshiba Encore.

If you have one of the original Encores like myself then the performance isn't a good guide to the Atoms, etc. in general I'm finding

the original devices used the higher end Atoms that were a little brute force whereas the newer ones/models found in most devices aren't as good for actual performance i.e.:

Z3740 - 2xLPDDR3 1066MHz - 17.1GB/s (as found in the older Encores)
Z3735 - 1xDDR3L-RS 1333MHz - 5.3GB/s (as found in many tablets and compute stick devices)
Z8300 - 1xDDR3L-RS 1600MHz - 12.8GB/s (starting to replace the above)

Makes quite a lot of difference - while the 3740 more or less matches the Core 2 desktop CPUs MHz for MHz, core for core, the others are a bit disappointing. You have to go to the higher end Core Ms or the Z8500 for something that matches or beats the older Encores.

For instance on my Encore I could run eve online at around 30fps - not a great experience but playable whereas when I tried it on a Z3735 tablet it was just a stuttery mess of a slideshow.

AthlonXP1800 · 8 Jan 2016 at 17:14

My eyes are on Core m3 compute stick with 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC hopefully based on 5.1 spec. If chinese makers built at half price then I would grab one. Glad Intel dumped Realtek wireless adapter.

I got Meegopad T01 stick for a year now, very good performance with total system power consumption at just incredible 1W when energy efficiency mode enabled in UEFI but realtek RTL8723BS wifi is not very good on Windows 10 cos it wont let me connected to 5G network to enjoyed high speed wifi which was worked fine on Windows 8.1 so I bought £8 AC600 USB wifi dongle worked fine with 150Mbps wifi browsed internet and watched netflix over the last few months without desktop PC.