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Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com)
Linux.com reviews a
Linspire powered Koobox. "A few weeks ago, I finally got my hands on
a Linux-based Koobox Mini PCs. The Mini is a full PC in a very small, quiet
package, and well worth a look. Linspire sent me the top-of-the-line
Koobox, which includes a Pentium M 725 1.6GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM,
slot-loading DVD/CD-RW drive, two USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
port, a 60GB hard drive, DVI video out, and 10/100 Ethernet. The video and
chipset is an Intel 915GM that uses 8MB of shared memory, so you actually
have 504MB of dedicated system memory. The sound chipset is also from
Intel, and the system has one line-in and one line-out port for audio -- so
the system sound is OK, but you're not going to have surround sound or
anything like that."
(Log in to post comments)
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 8, 2006 18:27 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] That review didn't make much sense... The reviewer had major problems with just about everything he tried, mentioned that the box is MORE expensive than a comparable Mac Mini, then claimed it's a good value??
Using shared memory for the video is an awful AWFUL idea. When your CPU goes to 100%, you get glitches in the video. Memory bandwidth is cut drastically because a significant chunk is spent shifting dots to the DAC. All to save, what, a buck or two on the BOM? After my experience with the ss40g I will go out of my way to never buy a machine with shared video memory again.
So... Despite the glowing remarks at the end, this review really seems to be saying "stay away!"
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 8, 2006 20:34 UTC (Fri) by bfields (subscriber, #19510) [Link] All to save, what, a buck or two on the BOM? I thought it was all to save having to run proprietary drivers. Or are there intel chips that don't depend on shared memory?
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 10, 2006 5:20 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Nope no non-shared memory Intel cards.. although that would be nice.
But nowadays shared memory realy _isn't_that_bad_.
Ok, so the latency is a bit high, but considure that with these 915 and 945 chipsets your running memory access over PCIe. (8xx chipsets had a Intel-specific memory pathway) Also say your running "400mhz" DDR2 memory and it will take advantage of dual channel stuff if your motherboard supports it and you have matched RAM.
64bit memory pathway I suppose.
On this the GPU runs at 333mhz and Intel claims a fill rate of 1.3GB/s. With the 945 chipsets they CAN run faster.
Depending on the application Intel has versions of these that run a bit slower and a bit faster.
As for video stuttering.. I don't think so. At least not with these guys, not unless your having driver issues or scedualling issues with X or something like that. I don't think the CPU enters into it anywere on how the GPU is able to access the RAM it needs.
But all that in mind the onboard solutions from ATI and Nvidia outperform Intel's quite readily. But then again they only use propriatory drivers and right now the Intel stuff can do AIGLX. You'll have to wait for Nvidia and ATI to come out with that stuff. (and any future stuff X developers do)
You would want to use these devices if you want a.. Non-3d-cad/non-3d-animation unix workstation, Regular Linux desktop, regular Linux desktop. Multi-media PC, etc etc.
If you have a decent CPU (probably faster then this koobox) it'll plenty fast for games up to and including 'Return to castle wolfenstien' level games.
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 11, 2006 0:25 UTC (Mon) by beoba (guest, #16942) [Link] Does anyone know of a benchmark/review which compares the performance of current Intel graphics with what's currently available from ATI/NVidia/whoever?
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 11, 2006 1:34 UTC (Mon) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] This is the closest I know of..http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2427&p=2
It's comparing the performance of low-end versions of modern cards vs onboard ATI and Intel solutions.
Keep in mind that the hardware in that is a 3+ghz Pentium4 and it's the 945g, which uses the slightly faster GMA 950 chip. The Koobox uses a slower 1.6ghz pentium-m (which I guestimate is roughly comparable to a 2.6-2.8ghz Pentium4) and the chipset I beleive is a 915g, which uses the GMA 900.
on my system at home I have a 945g with Pentium-D 930 cpu. Right now I have a ATI x800 (currently about teh fastest supported by DRI r300 drivers), but I tried out the onboard stuff for a long time before using the ATI stuff.
It gives acceptable performance for 2d and 3d stuff. Specifing the VideoRam size helps performance. You may need to specify something like:
It may be a temporary tweak, or may be something unique to certain versions of the drivers, but specifing INTEL_BATCH=1 before playing video games and such will allow for a 75% or so increase in performance. You may sacrific some resize and rotate stuff though. I am not 100% sure what it does or what it is for.
Also if your using DRI drivers nowadays there is a driconf GUI utility for configuring your video card options. For instance sometimes specifing certain color depths or disable TCL pipeline bypass for certain games (ppracer comes to mind) will help out.
I think that Intel's 'next gen' onboard video cards, the GMA 3000 will offer performance more on par with low end video cards from ATI or Nvidia going into the future. But I don't know of that for certain.
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 11, 2006 7:59 UTC (Mon) by dberkholz (subscriber, #23346) [Link] The i965 is roughly equivalent to r200-class Radeons (8500-9250).
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 11, 2006 17:30 UTC (Mon) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Got benchmarks?
It's been my experiance that the current i915/i945 are about comparable in performance from 9200 to 9600 ATI cards. If you look at straight bullet point hardware features they may not be all there (lack of hardware TNL, for instance) but bullet point feature lists aren't going to give a accurate representation of real-world performance.
Intel claims comparable performance with 9600 cards with currently aviable cards.
For newer stuff it's obvious that the i965g is designed as a directX 10 compatable card with good enough features to run multimedia on Vista with it's Areo interface stuff which requires a fairly substantial video card.
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 9, 2006 7:26 UTC (Sat) by pjm (subscriber, #2080) [Link] The reviewer had major problems with just about everything he tried I'd guess that the reviewer attributes many of those problems to the linspire installation, rather than to the hardware. The conclusion does include “I might recommend ditching Linspire and installing a different distro once it's in your hands”.
Review: Linspire Mini Koobox (Linux.com) Posted Sep 10, 2006 3:58 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Mac Mini for the x86 uses pretty much the same onboard video as this guy.
Macs nowadays are using the same generic Intel hardware everybody else is.. they just stick it in a nice case with that EFI stuff and DRM stuff for OS X. Otherwise it's not much different from this 'Koobox'.
I am more interested in how it sounds quiet-wise. Also if that audio supports spdif and digital passthru then it'll do surround sound just fine as long as you have a receiver that supports that stuff.
It would probably make a very nice Mythtv front end and living room pc.
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