Astronomers - Works Wonderfully With 12V
I bought this to replace an aging (and venerable) NUC 7 to run my observatory which requires telescope control, dome rotation, basic/initial data stacking and plate solving. IYKYK. I required this to run on 12V. At least when I bought this, this was not specified to run on 12V on Amazon, though Bosgame's website indicates it runs on 12-20V. For my fellow astronomers out there, this is true. Background: I replaced the 512GB SSD with a 2TB SSD (Silicon Power 2TB NVMe M.2), upgraded to 32GB RAM (Timetec 32GB KIT(2x16GB) DDR4 2400MHz), and replaced the WiFi card with an Intel AX210. None of this was necessary, and this unit was still cheaper than any alternative I found with a processor at this performance level. The Wifi module upgrade was $26 and installed in 4 minutes. The RAM and SSD upgrades were easy for someone who can barely use a screwdriver and knows little about computers. Note: there is only one slot for the SSD. Opening this up showed decent quality control and an easy layout to work with. Power consumption: A stress test with N.I.N.A image capture, PHD2 guiding, Cartes du Ciel, Gemini mount control, ASCOM Hub (for dome control), and, just to make it interesting, SIRIL (astronomy image processing program) stacking 450 subexposures peaked at 37 watts before settling down to 25-26 watts with BIOS settings unchanged from factory settings ("Balanced performance"). Under "normal" conditions, meaning capturing images; controling the dome and mount and cameras; and PHD2 guiding running, this hummed along between 15-21 watts, so less than 2 amps. This is slightly less than my NUC7 with an i5-7260U processor, but this AMD 3550H processor has twice as many cores and threads. The speed improvement over my old processor was significant and immediately noticeable. This will also run laps around Intel N100-N300 processors while allowing for dual-channel RAM. WiFi - Astronomers will know why I automatically upgraded the WiFi module before even turning the computer on. For most users, the standard WiFi module will be more than good enough, but I'm running this 65 feet from my house. The computer is inside a fiberglass observatory. With the upgraded module, download speeds were around 240-260 Mbps in perfect conditions in the observatory with the computer away from the metal telescope pier and without an USB Wifi antenna. With the computer attached to a steel pier, the signal dropped (very expectedly) down to a respectable 35-70 Mbps download (enough for Windows Remote Desktop). As planned, I use this with a relatively cheap TP-Link USB wifi antenna away from the telescope pier. Wifi speeds in this configuration range between 150 to 220 Mbps download. The connection is quite stable and still plenty fast over Windows Remote Desktop. For comparison, inside my house, download speeds were over 600 Mbps, so the physics of walls and distance still apply. In my use so far, I have not had any latency issues controlling this from inside my home (with the computer outside in the observatory) using Windows Remote Desktop in a suburban neighborhood with quite a number of Wifi networks visibile (houses are close together). The connection does not drop. I ran a CrystalDiskMark Read/Write Test with the somewhat generic SSD I bought to replace this was a respectable ~2800MB/s write and a RNK4K speed of ~280MB/s. It is no speed demon, but this was both better than I expected and more than good enough for astronomy. In indoor and outdoor testing, I've only ever heard the fan turn on at initial startup. Even while "stress testing," I never heard the fan turn on during normal use. This thing was cool to the touch indoors and outdoors. I did check temps via HWmonitor a couple of times and never saw temperatures approach 50C. Heavy gamers might have a different experience here. It should be noted that astronomy programs intended to run telescopes and observatories do not tax processors and memory like modern games do, so gamers' mileage may vary. However, image stacking and processing programs can tax processors and memory a little and the fan never turned on and power consumption remained below 40 watts in my limited use. Cons: 1. The plastic quality is somewhat to be desired. I'm nitpicking hard here as that same plastic allows for more effective WiFi range than my NUC had, which was a metal Faraday cage of otherwise beautiful build quality. I'd rate the build quality as good enough, particularly at this price. 2. No SATA expansion slot: Hence the reason why I got a 2TB SSD. I knew this going in, and now you do. I will not take a star off of my rating for this because they do not advertise this as having the capability to add a second SSD/SATA drive. 3. This is advertised as only being able to use 2400Mhz DDR4 memory, but the module inside the unit was 2666Mhz DDR4. I don't know whether this was faster memory operating at 2400Mhz or whether the motherboard/processor can handle faster memory, but I had bought new memory sticks for this computer before I knew I could potentially squeeze out a little more speed with 2666Mhz DDR4. It is difficult to call this a con because I don't know the actual limitations of the computer. For most users, this underpromise and overdelivery might be a good thing. If expecting to upgrade from 16GB RAM immediately, check with BOSGAME first to ensure it can only operate with 2400Mhz. Overall, in the two weeks I've had this, I've been happy with its performance for astronomy. It has significantly better performance than an ASIAir and uses marginally more power than otherwise lower-performing N97, N100-N305 Intel processors. 1-1.5A under normal loads is extremely reasonable either in the field or in an observatory. This thing is a steal thus far. Read more
