X7 Two Week Review

[robmich]

It just has some sticky adhesive, easily removed. I found it on e-bay by searching for 100x100x5 mm thermal pad. Here is a link:

http://goo.gl/r1P67x

Here are some final pics with a couple showing actual temps during use and a stress test. The mod takes all of 5 minutes and I can now say that this Windows geek believes this is the ultimate small windows based unit. Just my opinion of course., but I have built so may htpc units and this is by far the best value for what it offers...

Rob

I received my second X7 and in a head to head, it looks like the cooling mods that I have used drop the overall temperature by 25 degrees over a non modded version. I measured this with HWINFO and AIDA64. During extended operations, it never gets above 55-59c.

I just installed Win10 on my newly received X7 and Kodi and will be comparing. So far so go as everything works in Kodi that I have tested in Win 10. More later...

Rob

[portezbie]

Wow, that is impressive for such a simple mod. I look forward to your thoughts on Windows 10 and how it performs on this box.

Thanks for all your reviews.

[kolibri]

One question. If I dont put cooling mod in my pipo x7 and do some heavy computing (games, 1080p video, etc) will I damage my device? Or there is some protection from overburn?

[hey69]

No damage. The device will however trothle down in speed

[rainmanone]

How about non-Kodi video performance ? I'm trying to watch 1080p videos via Popcorn Time (or even use BS Player, as it automatically locates subtitles for movies), and the video is not so smooth, choppy. Also, streaming video from youtube, via Chrome is also choppy at times (no problems with Firefox).

any ideas ?

also, the swapfile Windows is creating, grows quite large, for some reason. the PC started with 23GB free on c: drive. now it is 7 GB free, all due to the size of the pagefile and the Windows folder size.

[no_spam_for_me]

Because of YT you should have a look at http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-...472#post493472

I don't know which size your pagefile gets but you can define the size...

Because of sxs at windows:
Maybe you should do
[Control Panel] -> [System and Security] -> [Administrative Tools] -> [Disk Cleanup] -> [Clean up system files]
=> Windows Update Cleanup
I can cleanup ~357 MB (but using offline installation for security/important updates, so it's maybe much more at your system)
Have a look at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...g-windows-update-cleanup-in-windows-7-and-8x/ "Table B"

[peterscm]

I think my unit out of the box got issue.

1. Fresh setup (no other software installed) and everything seems fine. I leaving the unit idle for 2 days.
2. After connected to my home WiFi, it will auto reboot after few hours sitting idle. I have disable all power saving features and use an external fan to cool it down.
2. Tried the latest drive, still will auto reboot.
3. Used original power adapter and even tried 12V 4A adapter. Same result - auto reboot. There is no pattern for the auto reboot.
4. The unit will overheat and slow down till CPU only run at 0.05 GHz. Have to use a fan to cool it down.

I think I should return it to my dealer.

Please advise.

[smokie171]

Do you know what your cpu temps are? Is it throttling down? You should check out the thread on heatsink modding. A simple mod could be the fix. Good luck

[peterscm]

Last I check, the temp stays below 65 C. There is a fan blowing under the box to cool it down.

Just reflash BIOS & Firmware. Now monitoring it.

[pipox7toronto]

Thanks for the tip on the thermal pad! I ended up doing the same to my Pipo X7 to both the CPU and the back of the circuit board and my CPU temp went from about 80C to now about average 57C which I think is fine. I was surprised with such a dramatic temperature reduction. I didn't bother with a fan or metal heat sinks - just the thermal pad. Pics below

Here's the one I bought from **** for $8 US (from Hong Kong)
100mm x100mm x 5mm GPU RAM IC Chip Cooler Conductive Silicone Thermal Pad Blue
http://www.****.com/itm/100mm-x100mm...item3a9db1ad34