These cute little low power chips are pretty cool. I build a 100% silent media PC with an N3700 earlier in the year, which runs very nicely and in theory should cope with 4K @ 30fps when I next get a new TV.
I did exactly the same but didn't care about 4k and with the lack of any real speed improvements on the currently available Braswell I just stuck with the older J1900. Happy to trade the bit of speed it cost for absolute quiet on the cheap. Absolutely fine for browsing the web and doing e-mail, etc... Only moving part in the whole rig is the DVD burner which doesn't get much use anyway. Now the only issue I have is that I am able to notice the buzz in my LED overhead bulb and will need to upgrade that. hahahahaha.
With intel's focus on power efficiency you could do this even with much more powerful chips - I've got an overclocked 4770k that's passively cooled with passive power supply. The system fan is optional, but that allows a lot more thermal headroom (and at very low speeds you can't really hear it), so I tend to leave it on.
I bet an undervolted skylake - even a high-end skylake - could be entirely silent (if you have the space for a huge passive cooler), and only slightly slower than an actively cooled processor for non-continuous workloads.
I too built a system with the n3700 earlier in the year and I hope that they've fixed the thermal throttling first while trying to increase the clock speeds! My n3700 in a fanless embedded system can only sustain 2.4 GHz on all four cores until only about 40-45% CPU utilization and if all 16 EUs are taxed in the GPU, the clock speeds struggle to hit mid-500 MHz clocks.
What good is increasing the clock speeds for the CPU and GPU if it can't sustain those loads? Seems like a marketing gimmick to me unless they're solved those issues for embedded solutions, for which the vast majority of these chips are used in.
The point of these chips, my guess would be, is to get smooth operation while not killing your battery or need active cooling. If you want sustained high performance go with the 45+ watt chips. Mobile will always have more limitations than full fledged desktops running on hundreds of watts. But squeeze out some extra performance in short bursts makes mobile that much more nice to work with.
Intel isn't selling them with a cooler as passively cooled chips. That is up to whomever builds whatever with the chip. Just because your particular product was built that way and has that issue is not indicative of an issue with the chip generally.
I doubt your problem is thermal. That N3700 has mere 6.0 W TDP, i.e. it is not allowed to consume any more power. This limits the maximum sustained clock speeds. At 10 W with a silent fan it should be able to perform significantly better. But such models don't exist yet, apart from the ones in the previous generation.
Commenting when you have neither experience or ownership of said product. Nice.
This thing could technically be used in tablets and/or 2-in-1s the way that Intel is pitching the product and I'm telling you right now, it thermally throttles. If it can survive in an enclosed laptop environment, surely in my usage scenario with a good-sized passive heatsink + expelling case fans in an mITX system it should be able to reach high clock speeds if indeed it was not thermally constrained.
In media playback, it's fine, but in Steam Big Picture mode, the interface is laggy. With that many EUs and the ability on paper to output UHD 4K @ 30fps, the interface should not lag. Why does it though? Because especially on the GPU side, it throttles!
Should I need to add a fan to a 6W chip to get the performance it offers up on paper compared to the previous embedded J2900 generation which could consistently clock well with the same setup? No.
There is a problem and it's probably why they rushed to release these updated chips. The n3700 only had retail availability about 3-5 months ago. Trust me, the N-series first go around on Braswell was a failure and us beta testers got duped. The J-series release is the true release stepping. Intel porked me.
Stop commenting if you don't have experience with the product.
I've got a silent HTPC system too (using a slightly older J1900). These look like they have some enhanced graphics options, a smaller lithography and likewise a lower TDP, but are probably pretty similar overall.
It's funny, I too have a silent PC. It has a Core i7-2600K in a cramped itx box. The only two fans are - one in the power supply, and the other 160mm or 200mm (don't remember exact size) installed on front of the case. I was hearing the 5400rpm HDD spin so switched to SSD. No more noise from my rig, granted that I'm not doing anything serious with it these days. The desktop use around 25W on idle.
But it would be cool to have a very slim and tiny desktop with these chips completely passive cooking.
It's nice to see Intel is continuing to put work into making more practical processors that fit into peoples' lives better than those huge, hungry Core iX chips in impractical, immovable desktop computers. Some of the most usable computers out there without stupid fans and high cost are using Bay and Cherry Trail processors. I would like to see more of them start to ship with 4GB of RAM in dual channel though. Most of the more cost effective computers are still on a single memory channel with only 2GB even though the processor is capable of doing more. I would really love to see a Stream 11 with dual channel memory and maybe 64GB of storage. It'd make the perfect little computer once you reload it with Linux to get rid of all the Windows 10 telemetry that has a lot of people losing their minds these days about Microsoft spying.
Even the big cores are actually pretty tiny today. Even at 6 W TDP I'd rather have 2 Skylake cores than 4 Braswell cores for general office work. Comparable multi-threaded performance and vastly superior single threaded performance. The production cost is not all that different, it's just Intel charging more for the powerful chips because they know these are worth a lot more for many people and applications.
That is the point. They weren't including support for 4GB RAM for segmentation. Otherwise, we will be fine with these Atoms with 4GB RAM. I can't forget that Asus T100 with 2GB RAM.
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dananski - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
These cute little low power chips are pretty cool. I build a 100% silent media PC with an N3700 earlier in the year, which runs very nicely and in theory should cope with 4K @ 30fps when I next get a new TV.savagemike - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
I did exactly the same but didn't care about 4k and with the lack of any real speed improvements on the currently available Braswell I just stuck with the older J1900. Happy to trade the bit of speed it cost for absolute quiet on the cheap. Absolutely fine for browsing the web and doing e-mail, etc... Only moving part in the whole rig is the DVD burner which doesn't get much use anyway.Now the only issue I have is that I am able to notice the buzz in my LED overhead bulb and will need to upgrade that. hahahahaha.
Samus - Wednesday, November 25, 2015 - link
Yep, J1900 is pretty snappy with an SSD and 4GB. The 2GB/eMMC systems typically paired with it don't do it justice.emn13 - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
With intel's focus on power efficiency you could do this even with much more powerful chips - I've got an overclocked 4770k that's passively cooled with passive power supply. The system fan is optional, but that allows a lot more thermal headroom (and at very low speeds you can't really hear it), so I tend to leave it on.I bet an undervolted skylake - even a high-end skylake - could be entirely silent (if you have the space for a huge passive cooler), and only slightly slower than an actively cooled processor for non-continuous workloads.
SpartyOn - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
I too built a system with the n3700 earlier in the year and I hope that they've fixed the thermal throttling first while trying to increase the clock speeds! My n3700 in a fanless embedded system can only sustain 2.4 GHz on all four cores until only about 40-45% CPU utilization and if all 16 EUs are taxed in the GPU, the clock speeds struggle to hit mid-500 MHz clocks.What good is increasing the clock speeds for the CPU and GPU if it can't sustain those loads? Seems like a marketing gimmick to me unless they're solved those issues for embedded solutions, for which the vast majority of these chips are used in.
ajp_anton - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
"What good is increasing the clock speeds for the CPU and GPU if it can't sustain those loads?"To complete short tasks quicker.
lindarne - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
The point of these chips, my guess would be, is to get smooth operation while not killing your battery or need active cooling.If you want sustained high performance go with the 45+ watt chips.
Mobile will always have more limitations than full fledged desktops running on hundreds of watts.
But squeeze out some extra performance in short bursts makes mobile that much more nice to work with.
savagemike - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
Intel isn't selling them with a cooler as passively cooled chips. That is up to whomever builds whatever with the chip. Just because your particular product was built that way and has that issue is not indicative of an issue with the chip generally.MrSpadge - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
I doubt your problem is thermal. That N3700 has mere 6.0 W TDP, i.e. it is not allowed to consume any more power. This limits the maximum sustained clock speeds. At 10 W with a silent fan it should be able to perform significantly better. But such models don't exist yet, apart from the ones in the previous generation.SpartyOn - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
Commenting when you have neither experience or ownership of said product. Nice.This thing could technically be used in tablets and/or 2-in-1s the way that Intel is pitching the product and I'm telling you right now, it thermally throttles. If it can survive in an enclosed laptop environment, surely in my usage scenario with a good-sized passive heatsink + expelling case fans in an mITX system it should be able to reach high clock speeds if indeed it was not thermally constrained.
In media playback, it's fine, but in Steam Big Picture mode, the interface is laggy. With that many EUs and the ability on paper to output UHD 4K @ 30fps, the interface should not lag. Why does it though? Because especially on the GPU side, it throttles!
Should I need to add a fan to a 6W chip to get the performance it offers up on paper compared to the previous embedded J2900 generation which could consistently clock well with the same setup? No.
There is a problem and it's probably why they rushed to release these updated chips. The n3700 only had retail availability about 3-5 months ago. Trust me, the N-series first go around on Braswell was a failure and us beta testers got duped. The J-series release is the true release stepping. Intel porked me.
Stop commenting if you don't have experience with the product.
Oxford Guy - Friday, November 27, 2015 - link
A little like the way the expensive G1 ssd never got TRIM support but the soon after released G2 model did.bill.rookard - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
I've got a silent HTPC system too (using a slightly older J1900). These look like they have some enhanced graphics options, a smaller lithography and likewise a lower TDP, but are probably pretty similar overall.hp79 - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
It's funny, I too have a silent PC. It has a Core i7-2600K in a cramped itx box. The only two fans are - one in the power supply, and the other 160mm or 200mm (don't remember exact size) installed on front of the case. I was hearing the 5400rpm HDD spin so switched to SSD. No more noise from my rig, granted that I'm not doing anything serious with it these days. The desktop use around 25W on idle.But it would be cool to have a very slim and tiny desktop with these chips completely passive cooking.
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
It's nice to see Intel is continuing to put work into making more practical processors that fit into peoples' lives better than those huge, hungry Core iX chips in impractical, immovable desktop computers. Some of the most usable computers out there without stupid fans and high cost are using Bay and Cherry Trail processors. I would like to see more of them start to ship with 4GB of RAM in dual channel though. Most of the more cost effective computers are still on a single memory channel with only 2GB even though the processor is capable of doing more. I would really love to see a Stream 11 with dual channel memory and maybe 64GB of storage. It'd make the perfect little computer once you reload it with Linux to get rid of all the Windows 10 telemetry that has a lot of people losing their minds these days about Microsoft spying.MrSpadge - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
Even the big cores are actually pretty tiny today. Even at 6 W TDP I'd rather have 2 Skylake cores than 4 Braswell cores for general office work. Comparable multi-threaded performance and vastly superior single threaded performance. The production cost is not all that different, it's just Intel charging more for the powerful chips because they know these are worth a lot more for many people and applications.zodiacfml - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
That is the point. They weren't including support for 4GB RAM for segmentation. Otherwise, we will be fine with these Atoms with 4GB RAM. I can't forget that Asus T100 with 2GB RAM.jaydee - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
Pentium N3700 for $161? Huh?djsvetljo - Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - link
It's now March and I can't find a single motherboard with these CPUs embedded. Anandtech, do you have any inside[email protected] - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...Try that one
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