Categories
Devices

Dell XPS 15

High-end relatively light-weight (2kg) notebook with 4K 15.6″ touchscreen. Dell XPS 15 9550. Device performance is good. Good Wi-Fi speed (important since Ethernet port is absent). Good CPU, SDD, Video performance.

Dell_XPS_15_9550

There is a lot of good points about the device:

  • high performance
  • high resolution
  • tiny display borders
  • bright display colors
  • keyboard backlight
  • chasis materials
  • ~4h batery life (84Wh)

And some points that is not that good

  • glance display reflect light
  • touch screen cause fingerprints on display
  • tiny borders on touchscreen cause touches when change display angle
  • low HiDPI suport in Windows environment
  • lack of Ethernet port
  • Unavailability of dock accessories on Ukrainian market
  • Windows 10 HOME (that is not support virtualisation and bitlocker)
  • Long boot (15 seconds of BIOS POST)

Also there are McAfee Antivirus and additional DropBox space as a bonux for 1 year.

HiDPI compatibility

Windows, Windows applications, Java applications, sites, etc need may or may not be HiDPI aware. The issue with browsers is just about images that may (and one day will) be better for high resolution clients. The issue with OS and application are more painful. A lot of application just not usefull anymore on 15″ 4K display. OS trying too zoom Windows application to work with high DPI. For some it works, for some not.

FastStone Image Viewer on UHD display
FastStone Image Viewer 5.5 on 4K display

Java Application
Java applications are just tiny windows that is hard to work with.
Java_Application_on_4K_display

Categories
Devices

Gigabyte BRIX i7-5500

New Gigabyte BRIX GB-BXi7-5500 is the only nettop available now on Ukrainian market with Intel Core i7 CPU. Intel NUC 5i7RYH still not there. Therefore, I decide to get Gigabyte BRIX i7-5500 and among other compare it to my old Intel NUC D54250

Box

GB-BXi7-5500 BOX

Device

It is actually very similar to Intel NUC.
GB-BXi7-5500 front
GB-BXi7-5500 back

Categories
Devices HDD SSD

Intel NUC D54250WYK

Introduction

Most annoying issue about my old PC was that it cannot playback 1080/60p and 4K video smoothly. Since 3D was not in use last couple of years I decide to switch from discrete graphics to internal. Also after some market investigation I decide to switch from classic desktops to nettop. So I was trying to buy nettop that will give me at least same computing power as previous PC but also gives me 4K and 1080/60p video playback. I chose Intel NUC Kit D54250WYK.

Intel NUC

Inside Intel NUC

Intel NUC inside

I did add 2x8GB DDR3 1600 and Crucial M500 480 GB mSATA drive and did some tests.

SSD Speed

Crucial M500 480GB

Windows 7 performance

windows_performance_chart

Passmark PerformanceTest v8

PassMark Rating

Also did some tests to compare with previous PC. Results in short: about same FPS in 3D, faster video playback (compressed 4K is OK), faster load, 90 times smaller (in volume), 20 times lighter, 10 times less power consumption, less noise. Details below: