2024-10-19, 05:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 2024-10-19, 05:51 PM by mvallevand.)
For fun I picked up a Radxa X4 https://radxa.com/products/x/x4/ since I wanted to see how a true minimum Windows 11 client/server would work with NextPVR. For this test I ordered the 4GB/32MB version so probably you can't go smaller than that since it is well under the Win 11 spec. This was $80 US $112 CDN (shipping is always high for these SBC's)
I already had an USB 3 power supply so that kept the cost down. However the first thing I noticed is that as their web site said it does need a fan. It will get hot and throttle or even stop while and since I didn't order the case I ended up for now just placing a 3" fan on it which does the job well enough for testing. Really attaching a fan with thermal paste is the way to go.
Because I only have 4MB disk free I have tried to minimize what apps I've added for testing. It does show the 8.63GB file from the 24H2 update bug so if that is a true number and I will do a lot more playroom. For now as this shot shows https://imgur.com/a/8Pd6WXS NextPVR will capture and play 1080i on a local client without issue for speed, memory or temperature. When I tried the same channel streaming to a remote web client the numbers were only slightly higher https://imgur.com/a/g4dfpjm with ffmpeg doing h/w decoding. This is something how SBC can do, not even the RPi5
On the same box I am also able to PXE boot LibreELEC and the server and client use much less resources. At the same time Windows will support USB tuners that you can't run on Linux. Network bootting is great the 2.5 GB NIC works well but it might even be better running from emmc or M2 SSD.
Bottom line it is fun to play with and I was surprised Win11 worked as well as it did but I think it might be worth spending the money to get the same Intel N100 in a NUC.
Martin
I already had an USB 3 power supply so that kept the cost down. However the first thing I noticed is that as their web site said it does need a fan. It will get hot and throttle or even stop while and since I didn't order the case I ended up for now just placing a 3" fan on it which does the job well enough for testing. Really attaching a fan with thermal paste is the way to go.
Because I only have 4MB disk free I have tried to minimize what apps I've added for testing. It does show the 8.63GB file from the 24H2 update bug so if that is a true number and I will do a lot more playroom. For now as this shot shows https://imgur.com/a/8Pd6WXS NextPVR will capture and play 1080i on a local client without issue for speed, memory or temperature. When I tried the same channel streaming to a remote web client the numbers were only slightly higher https://imgur.com/a/g4dfpjm with ffmpeg doing h/w decoding. This is something how SBC can do, not even the RPi5
On the same box I am also able to PXE boot LibreELEC and the server and client use much less resources. At the same time Windows will support USB tuners that you can't run on Linux. Network bootting is great the 2.5 GB NIC works well but it might even be better running from emmc or M2 SSD.
Bottom line it is fun to play with and I was surprised Win11 worked as well as it did but I think it might be worth spending the money to get the same Intel N100 in a NUC.
Martin
