I would like to upgrade by current s905X box with a S905X3 box.
I have read a lot of threads here, and I can’t find one at a reasonable price that looks ok.
X96 Max Plus and X96 Air were my first choice but they seem to overheat.
Tanix TX3 seems to work fine but has no bluetooth
A95X F3 Air does not seem to overheat as much but it looks like it uses MT7668 that is not supported for bluetooth.
I’m at lost about which one does not overheat and has complete Wifi / blutooth, VFD support, and is still around US$40.
Could you share your experience with good boxes ?
Thanks !
Its not difficult to solve the overheating of the X96Air if budget is the issue.
Any box with adequate heatsinking is going to double the price. The new C4 from hardkernel looks to be an excellent choice for €50.00 but postage will add another €20.00 unless you can find a local supplier.
I got an X96 Air and while it does get hotter that I would like, it in no way overheats. Mine hovers around 68°C to 74°C which is still below the thermal limit of the S905X3 chip at 105°C
And as @Shoog said it’s a simple task to modify it and bring the temps down. I got mine for £40 UK on Amazon. It’s one of the better “cheap” boxes I’ve used… and I’ve used a lot
This is not true, thermal throttling kicks in at 75C on this box. I have seen it happen as my performance governor should lock the CPU at 1900mhz and when it hits 75C it drops to about 1500mhz.
Its less likely to throttle if you have “on demand” governor, but CE comes with the governor set at “performance” by default and it certainly helps performance this way.
Did not know that… as I said mine never hits that high or if it does it’s only for a few second. The point is even without any modifications it’s still a perfectly usable box for the price.
The reason it only hits it for a few seconds is because it throttles and the temp drops in response. As you say its perfectly functional in this state, but aesthetically its bad form and I worry about long term reliability.
I have used both an Odroid N2 and a VIM3 as my main CoreELEC hub.
By far the best S905X3 / S905D3 box I have used in other rooms is a VIM3L. The HTPC kit is not overly priced, is fully supported by CE and has no issues with overheating since both a heatsync for the top of the board and a metal plate for the bottom are included.
As pointed out by kostaman you pay for what you get.
Personally I don’t understand people who are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands for TV’s and surround systems who won’t then spend a smaller (in comparison) amount on a supported box or system to run it all.
There is nothing that meets your requirements. You either accept heat issue’s (and resolve them) or pay twice as much for a product that is well engineered. There is nothing that offers both.
ok so that’s really heat issues that we have to deal with. Could changing the heatsink be sufficient to lower the temp to an acceptable range ? is that feasible ? I saw the fan mod and I must admit I don’t think that I’m able to do that much
People have achieved good results with a heatsink - but to my mind the physical modifications necessary are more difficult than a lazy fan. However increasing the through venting with some well placed holes would probably knock 5-10C off all by itself.
Thanks @Shoog. More holes sounds like something achievable. One more question. X96 Max plus and X96 Air seem to be the same, except for the case. Could it be that X96 Max plus handles dissipation better ?
The X96 is used in the bedroom.
