CHUWI LarkBox

[magnum354]

Hi everyone. I'm running dolphin on my phone (OP7t pro) and it is awesome. I wanna get a small form factor set up for my TV but money is tight, so I was looking into the Pi4 8gb model. Seems like it struggles a little from what I'm reading here, so I've been considering possibly going with a CHUWI LarkBox like this 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/chuwi-larkbox/coming_soon

From what I can see, the only issue that might come up is the CPU. Even though it's much faster than the Pi 4, I still worry it won't cut. Any thoughts? And I apologise if this just doesn't follow the rules. I tried to do an extensive search and read all the rules listed, but I totally understand if this gets deleted. Lol. Here are the Specs of the LarkBox for your consideration.

CPU Intel N4100 2.4GHz (likely be upgraded to [color=#363636]J4115 2.5GHz at launch)[/color]
Integrated GPU UHD600
6GB of RAM
128GB of storage

[Shonumi]

Quote:From what I can see, the only issue that might come up is the CPU. Even though it's much faster than the Pi 4, I still worry it won't cut. Any thoughts? And I apologise if this just doesn't follow the rules. I tried to do an extensive search and read all the rules listed, but I totally understand if this gets deleted. Lol. Here are the Specs of the LarkBox for your consideration.

No worries about the rules, you're all good. It was probably best to make this a separate thread and leave the Pi 4 topic strictly about Pi 4 stuff, so I moved your question to its own discussion.

At any rate, you're pretty much correct that the CPU is going to be the biggest concern here. The UHD600 integrated GPU isn't great, but it will handle Dolphin at low resolutions as I recall. The N4100 is not so good for Dolphin. It has a low base clock (1.1GHz) which won't get many games running anywhere near fullspeed. You can't rely on Turbo Boost/Burst frequencies for performance, since that's all dependent on how the CPU will throttle to deal with its temperature. Even then, assuming you could consistently use Turbo on the N4100, it's a Celeron CPU with very low TDP, meaning its 2.4GHz is going to be lower than the 2.4GHz you'd see on desktop CPUs (or even laptop CPUs). So, in terms of Dolphin, it's not a good option.

The J4115 is better. Higher base clock, larger TDP, but it may be a gamble. It's basically the same one used by the Odroid-H2, but there isn't a lot of info or demonstrations on Dolphin's performance on that CPU.

For something like a small form-factor PC/mini PC for Dolphin, I really wouldn't recommend any recent x86 CPU that doesn't have a base clock or something like 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz. You could probably go a bit lower, but that seems to be a comfortable spot to run most (not all) games in Dolphin at fullspeed. For Intel, anything current on the market will do. For AMD, be sure to look at their Zen 2 CPUs. Zen 3 isn't out yet, but it may be worth waiting if you're not exactly in a hurry to build or buy something.

I'd start searching around for "Mini PC" options to get an idea about what kind of price you're willing to pay for what size package you want. Generally, you get what you pay for the smaller you go. The less expensive options tend to have drawbacks of some sort. Having said that, there's no need to pay a premium just for the form factor.

[magnum354]

Thank you Shonumi. You guys on here are awesome. So I'm thinking of going with an Intel i3 9100 CPU with integrated UHD630 graphics instead of the Lark Box. I'd pair it with 8gb of memory and a 120gb SSD. You think that'll run dolphin without problems. I'll list the parts I'd purchase to compete the build, maybe you can share your thoughts on it. I have a 450 PSU and the SSD in hand already, so I'll only need to purchase the CPU, RAM and MB. Thanks for any input you can offer.

CPU i3 9100

• 9th Gen Intel Processor
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• Only Compatible with Intel 300 Series Motherboard
• Socket LGA 1151 (300 Series)
• Processor Base Frequency 3.6 GHz
• DDR4 Support
• Intel Optane Memory and SSD Supported
• Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 offers mainstream performance for exceptional overall productivity
  

Memory
   G-skill aegis 8GB DDR4 sdram (pc4 24000)

ASRock lga 1151 (300 serious) motherboard. H310cm.

[Shonumi]

Yeah that'll definitely run the vast majority of games in Dolphin at fullspeed. Aside from ones that are pretty much demanding no matter what hardware you have (like Rogue Squadron 2 and 3), I can't see you have any issues.

The integrated GPU will dictate how high you can raise your resolution. I know the UHD 620 can handle 2x (720p) in some games, so I expect the UHD should be a solid 2x and maybe 3x (1080p) in some. I might be wrong, so it might pay to look at some videos to get a fuller picture.

At any rate, I'm sure that setup will be more than capable of serving as a sort of "mini-console" for Dolphin.

[magnum354]

(06-03-2020, 07:05 AM)Shonumi Wrote: Yeah that'll definitely run the vast majority of games in Dolphin at fullspeed. Aside from ones that are pretty much demanding no matter what hardware you have (like Rogue Squadron 2 and 3), I can't see you have any issues.

The integrated GPU will dictate how high you can raise your resolution. I know the UHD 620 can handle 2x (720p) in some games, so I expect the UHD should be a solid 2x and maybe 3x (1080p) in some. I might be wrong, so it might pay to look at some videos to get a fuller picture.

At any rate, I'm sure that setup will be more than capable of serving as a sort of "mini-console" for Dolphin.

So I ordered everything and I decided to go with a dedicated 1650 GPU over the integrated UHD GPU. I'm pretty excited and I can't wait to put it together. Now my next decision is what OS should I use. This rig will be strictly for Dolphin, so I'm completely flexible on the OS. I just want it to run smooth. I've only ever used windows, so windows 10 is the safe choice. But I hate how windows high jacks your PC for updates and all of its BS applications running in the background. Linux would be new to me but seems efficient and maybe would run better. There's also windows 7. I'm down to dust off an old win7 disc and through it into this machine. Any thought? Thanks for everything.

[Shonumi]

I would say, stick to what you are most familiar with, at least for now. I wouldn't bother with Windows 7, especially when Windows 10 is technically free even without activation. If Windows is what you know, it's probably best to use that. Even so, if you eventually wanted to switch to Linux to reduce the amount of excess software, you should take the time to play around it first before jumping over to the OS completely.

Ubuntu is pretty straightforward and easy to get to grips with, and building Dolphin on it is very simple. If you do dabble with Linux, Nvidia's proprietary drivers are a must if you have one of their GPUs.

[bomblord]

Linux is definitely scary and has anywhere from a very mild to a very steep learning curve depending on your flavor but it's rewarding to learn.

An extremely cut down version of Linux like Lubuntu/Xubunutu/etc will certainly use less resources than Windows (and even boot on systems Windows says it doesn't support due to RAM/feature requirements) however keep in mind that in some cases a particular application can run better in a more bloated Windows environment because of better driver implementation or a game/application having more work put into the DirectX version or just in general the Windows codebase.