32 Gigabits is equal to 4 gigabyte. So in this case the ram uses four 8 gigabit chips to get to 32 gigabits in total. The Gb vs GB nomenclature is not very clear is it?
It's probably a side effect of them being soldered on the board, they've counted 4 of chips, each being 8 gigabit. If it had used sticks, then I doubt they'd have been counted as such. Some GPU reviews have done the same.
Yeah, but that's stupid anyway. Only drive manufacturers use base-10 units. We should just call a billion byes "drive gigabytes" and leave the rest as regular GB.
Disagree, there are actual standards on this kind of thing.
Drive units are using correct SI order of magnitude prefix notation, whereas RAM manufacturers are not, and most people do not use them correctly. Windows reports sizes incorrectly (using the traditional, incorrect method). OS X reports sizes using SI notation these days, correctly.
That's my thought as well. Looking at it purely from a HTPC perspective, without HEVC support, it really offer very little over a much cheaper Atom-based Liva. As a generic workstation, you can't upgrade the RAM and the SSD upgrade path is very limited. It lacks a second gigabit port, so you can't make a router out of it either. For gaming, it's worthless unless you use it as a streamer, but then you can do that with much cheaper units as well. For $450-500, it's a terrible purchase no matter what your end goal is.
The relatively new AC 3165 WLAN chip is supported in kernels 4.1+. With older kernels an Intel driver will be needed. I'm not sure of the exact minimum kernel version that the Intel driver supports. All of the other hardware should be supported in recent distros.
Nice to see Anandtech providing small footprint "mini PC" reviews. I just ordered a MSI cube with a Broadwell CPU. To the user who noted no H.265 support, Intel added driver support to Haswell and Broadwell months ago. The author of this review didn't mention H.265 support, and did not test it. Perhaps, another review or an update will include H.265 testing.
This is interesting... According to Intel, only those CPUs with Iris 5500 or later have hardware accelerated H.265. Glad my mini-PC has such a GPU. :) See here: https://communities.intel.com/thread/59216
I replaced a much larger HTPC with one of the cheap and tiny ECS LIVA units (dual core Bay Trail-M, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, 2GB RAM, 32GB emmc). For $99 it has proven to be a great little streamer for the modest needs in our bedroom. Low tdp. No fan . No blinding blue LEDs to disconnect.
I've been using the same unit in my living room for about a year now. The latest release of Windows 10 insider has nearly broken the Netflix app completely. I may have to move on to another platform or go back to Windows 8.1.
My personal opinion is the cost is too high for most usage scenarios. The CPU is too costly and is bring the entire package down with it. This is a huge departure from the LIVA and LIVAx2 and their minimalist / low cost platform. If this had replaceable RAM as well I think it would have a chance. I can't see paying nearly $500 for this when you can get a whole Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 Tiny with Windows for the same price.
If it won't hardware accelerate HEVC and (particularly) HEVC 10 bit, what is its performance like when playing back those (as well as 10 bit h.264)? Seems a rather notable absence in the review.
I remain unconvinced. For $150 more, you can add a screen, a battery (which is a very useful built-in UPS), and a Windows license. It's called a tablet. It seems like an absolute no brainer to go that route. I would velco one of those onto the back of a monitor before buying something like this.
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solarrocker - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Uhm, 4 x 8 Gb (4 GB)?Is my Dyslexia affecting my math now as well...
Tobol - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
8 Gb == 1 GB so I guess 4 x 1 GB = 4GB is correctsolarrocker - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
True, didn't notice the lowercase b.Why are they even writing it like that, haven't seen such a notation for RAM in, well, ever. Or is this common practice now?
Stuka87 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Memory is technically always measured in bits (and thereby noted megabit, gigabit, terabit, etc). Its just simplified for the masses into gigabytes.LoganPowell - Friday, November 27, 2015 - link
Not my first choice for a desktop. The ECS Liva core does not even made it to consumer based rankings (see http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-desktops... for example...)mctylr - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Individual RAM ICs are measured in bits, whereas RAM modules are measured in both bits or bytes, depending on the audience.solarrocker - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Thanks, guess I never really looked at it that way.wffurr - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
8 Gigabits (Gb) is 1 Gigabyte (GB). So 4 X 8 Gb is indeed 4 GB.harpocrates - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
32 Gigabits is equal to 4 gigabyte. So in this case the ram uses four 8 gigabit chips to get to 32 gigabits in total. The Gb vs GB nomenclature is not very clear is it?Vepsa - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I wouldn't say that it isn't clear, its just that most people don't know they are different which is sad IMHO.cjb110 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
It's probably a side effect of them being soldered on the board, they've counted 4 of chips, each being 8 gigabit. If it had used sticks, then I doubt they'd have been counted as such. Some GPU reviews have done the same.GatesDA - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
It's weird, but the lower-case "b" matters. For some reason it's listed in gigabits, and 8 gigabits (Gb) = 1 gigabyte (GB).mctylr - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
No, it's not weird if you are use to using SI (metric), where prefixes are case sensitive as well (i.e. Mega versus milli).frenchy_2001 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
And if you want to be pedantic, they are NOT using the right symbol either.It should be 4 x 8Gib = 4 GiB
Gi = 2^30
G = 10 ^9, SI notation
http://wintelguy.com/gb2gib.html
mkozakewich - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Yeah, but that's stupid anyway. Only drive manufacturers use base-10 units. We should just call a billion byes "drive gigabytes" and leave the rest as regular GB.piroroadkill - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Disagree, there are actual standards on this kind of thing.Drive units are using correct SI order of magnitude prefix notation, whereas RAM manufacturers are not, and most people do not use them correctly. Windows reports sizes incorrectly (using the traditional, incorrect method). OS X reports sizes using SI notation these days, correctly.
Vepsa - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I think this would be great for a LSTP thin client.bznotins - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Feels like no hardware H.265 support is a deal-killer.Looking-forward to the lower-power Skylake CPUs for future streaming boxes.
nathanddrews - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
That's my thought as well. Looking at it purely from a HTPC perspective, without HEVC support, it really offer very little over a much cheaper Atom-based Liva. As a generic workstation, you can't upgrade the RAM and the SSD upgrade path is very limited. It lacks a second gigabit port, so you can't make a router out of it either. For gaming, it's worthless unless you use it as a streamer, but then you can do that with much cheaper units as well. For $450-500, it's a terrible purchase no matter what your end goal is.Meh.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
"The only unfortunate aspect here is the complete absence of any sort of hardware acceleration for HEVC."It strikes me as particularly ridiculous that Intel has rolled out their 14nm parts with iGPUs that have no H.265. WEAK.
Pissedoffyouth - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
What's the Linux support like? I'd want one to use as a main desktop PCJaybus - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
The relatively new AC 3165 WLAN chip is supported in kernels 4.1+. With older kernels an Intel driver will be needed. I'm not sure of the exact minimum kernel version that the Intel driver supports. All of the other hardware should be supported in recent distros.WJames65 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Nice to see Anandtech providing small footprint "mini PC" reviews. I just ordered a MSI cube with a Broadwell CPU. To the user who noted no H.265 support, Intel added driver support to Haswell and Broadwell months ago. The author of this review didn't mention H.265 support, and did not test it. Perhaps, another review or an update will include H.265 testing.ganeshts - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Please note the final paragraph in the HTPC Aspects section. HEVC decode (even hybrid acceleration) is NOT supported in the Broadwell Core M SKUs.WJames65 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Yeah, I see that line in the HTPC section. However, Intel says otherwise: http://techreport.com/news/27677/new-intel-igp-dri...WJames65 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
This is interesting... According to Intel, only those CPUs with Iris 5500 or later have hardware accelerated H.265. Glad my mini-PC has such a GPU. :) See here: https://communities.intel.com/thread/59216Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I replaced a much larger HTPC with one of the cheap and tiny ECS LIVA units (dual core Bay Trail-M, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, 2GB RAM, 32GB emmc). For $99 it has proven to be a great little streamer for the modest needs in our bedroom. Low tdp. No fan . No blinding blue LEDs to disconnect.Einy0 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I've been using the same unit in my living room for about a year now. The latest release of Windows 10 insider has nearly broken the Netflix app completely. I may have to move on to another platform or go back to Windows 8.1.Pissedoffyouth - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
And what did we learn today about using alpha software?Gigaplex - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Windows 10 insider program is not alpha. It's more like a cross between beta and release candidate.Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Mine is running Windows 10 but I'm not a Netflix user. Are you on the fast ring for updates?Einy0 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
My personal opinion is the cost is too high for most usage scenarios. The CPU is too costly and is bring the entire package down with it. This is a huge departure from the LIVA and LIVAx2 and their minimalist / low cost platform. If this had replaceable RAM as well I think it would have a chance. I can't see paying nearly $500 for this when you can get a whole Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 Tiny with Windows for the same price.Kinematics - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
If it won't hardware accelerate HEVC and (particularly) HEVC 10 bit, what is its performance like when playing back those (as well as 10 bit h.264)? Seems a rather notable absence in the review.Oxford Guy - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Because this unit shouldn't exist. Thank Intel for releasing 14nm parts with no H.265. LOL.Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - link
I remain unconvinced. For $150 more, you can add a screen, a battery (which is a very useful built-in UPS), and a Windows license. It's called a tablet. It seems like an absolute no brainer to go that route. I would velco one of those onto the back of a monitor before buying something like this.