Have some Q's about the Pandora's specs and what it can do.

[Snoa]

Hey y'all. I'm going to be a high school senior this year, and I was looking at the Pandora as something that could help me in college. I figured the Pandora would be very good for storing notes on the go and for easy-access to information. Of course I'd love to emulate SNES and NES games as well as some games from the DOS days like Ultima and whatnot. But what other systems can the Pandora Emulate? A Nintendo 64? A Gamecube? Maybe even a PS2? How about a Gamboy Advanced so I can play Megaman and Pokemon games?


Also, when I look at the technical specs, I'm seeing things like "Texas Instruments OMAP3530 processor at 600MHz (officially) or Texas Instruments DM3730 processor at 1000MHz (officially)" for the processor, and 256mb and 512mb for the RAM. Which is it? I only see one Pandora for sale (https://www.dragonbo...infarben-1.html) And that says 512mb RAM so does it have a 1000mhz processor as well?


And how fast does the Pandora run? I've seen it play PS1 games very smoothly from what I can tell, but as far as loading times are concerned, not just for games, but overall, how fast is that?


How easy-to-use is the linux-based OS? Some of my friends use Linux and sometimes they have a few issues getting certain programs to run but they say that it isn't bad at all to use. I personally have always used Windows 7, and Windows XP for my older comp. Would I be able to easily adjust to this new OS?


And finally, would you recommend me buying a Pandora? As a future college student who likes his childhood video games and wants a place to easily access things like notes on the go and whatnot, is this the product for me? Sorry for the bombardment of questions and thank you very much for your help!


Edit: Also, I notice that the Pandora is able to hook-up to things like LCD's and telivisions. Does it come with the cables necessary to do this or would I have to buy them seperately?

 

[mcobit]

Hello and welcome to the boards!


You can emulate everything up to playstation near perfectly. N64 has some problems, but some games run really good. Gameboy advance is perfect, too.


The oberall feel of the os is fast. I think you need to use one to really get the feeling for how fast it is.


As for linux: You will get used to it, if you are ready to learn. This is no x86, but an arm processor, so you cannot run windows or windows programs. Everything opensource, can be ported, but there is no guarantee, that it will run fine. Have a look at repo.openpandora.org to see, which software is available.


Hope this helped a bit.


Edit: Pandoras you can order right now have 600Mhz and 512mb ram.


The 1ghz pandoras are a small testrun and cost a lot more.

 

[Snoa]

Thank you, that answers a good bit of my questions And ah, I'm definitely willing to learn how to use a new OS. I love to tinker when it comes to hardware and software, so if it is what I think it is then I should be fine I think.


Edit: Oh wait, so that means I couldn't run DOS games then could I? Oh well, that isn't such a big deal to me. And the 1ghz Pandoras cost about $700 right (Just read a thread about them)? Will they exit the testrun and be officially for sale within a year? And if so will they still be about $700?

 

[mcobit]

You can run older dosgames up to a 486 pc in dosbox. If you are brave and have some time to mess around, you can even get playable starcraft with qemu and win95. i just wanted to say, that winxp and such can't be run natively. You can play dos classics through emulation of course

 

[Linux-SWAT]

The TV-out cable is not yet on sale, but some members of the community build them from time to time.


The 1GHz will be "officially available" once they get out of testing, and once the OP team decide it's OK.


Anyway, the 600MHz can do a lot, i mean A LOT ^^.

 

[Snoa]

@Mcobit: Oh oh okay. That's good then :3


@Linux-SWAT: Oh okay, and yes it seems that the 600mhz can do a lot on the Pandora, but a little extra wiggle room never hurt

 

[Snoa]

And sorry for the repost, but I wanted to make sure that this question would be seen without making another thread:


Does overclocking the Pandora's processor have any negative effects? I'm pretty sure that if you OC a processor on a normal computer, it shortens the lifespan of that processor since more power has to go through it. Would the same be true for the Pandora?

 

[Binky]

I think the same principles are true for the pandora, though I didn't think that overclocking has much of a negative effect.


OverVolting to enable higher OverClocking does, however

 

[Askarus]

Overclocking is no problem as long as you don't overvolt.


Overvolting is also not a big problem because it only overvolts if it really needs to. So if you need some extra power for some games it's no problem.


And for the price: Be patient. The official sale will begin within a year. GC now tries to get some routine with the new CPUs. When that's done and mostly of old units are sold OPT might reduce the price for the 1Gh units.

 

[Link]

I expect to have the 1GHz units in my shop within a few weeks time, just waiting for the kinks to get ironed out in Germany.


I'm based in Vermont, so the turnaround to Florida is 3 days for UPS Ground usually.

 

[Snoa]

@Binky and Askarus: Ah, thanks for informing me. Good to know that when I do get a Pandora I can safely overclock a little bit.


@Link: Alright thanks, I'll definitely keep your store in mind, shipping prices look to be REALLY pricey when buying from EvilDragon's store since it's all the way in Germany so it's nice to know I can buy a Pandora from somewhere actually in the US that will get to me sooner and have cheaper shipping.

 

[sebt3]

Link is a nice chap that will provide you the same level of support as ED : awesome

 

[Snoa]

Good to know, good to know. I notice that the Pandoras are just a smidge more expensive on Link's site than on ED's site, but I expected that and the difference in shipping price makes up for it. BUT I'm not looking to buy a Pandora for awhile now I don't think. Maybe if I can't bear to wait I'll buy one for my Birthday on August, but I also kinda want to wait for the newest thing to come out, like how you don't really want to buy an Iphone 4 when the Iphone 5 is about to come out. But seeing as how Pandora's seem to be upgradable, I don't think it will matter. Hmm. Lots of thinking to be done, Money is tight around here so these types of purchases need to be planned out.

 

[kirkanoss]

was going to point you to links shop bought mine from him in april the 512mb 600ghz model and been loving it ps1 works great


also i will be making more tv out cables if you do need or can pick up a ext connector and grab the av guide http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi?0,0,0,0,23,465

 

[Snoa]

Jeez, everyone on this forum is so techy and resourceful ^.^ I think I'll fit right in. If only *I* could contribute back in some way

 

[sebt3]

If only *I* could contribute back in some way

there's many way to help, here is a few :


- helping other in the support section


- getting up in the moderating team


- report (helpfull) bug report for the problem you get on either the bugtracker (bugs.openpandora.org) or the app release thread


- update, maintain, add more content to the wiki : http://www.pandorawiki.org


Just to list a few

 

[Snoa]

That's true. I would definitely help with bugs and support but I know nearly nothing about Linux and don't have any experience with an actual Pandora. In the future though I'll definitely want to help others out for sure On another site, I was always in the tech support forums helping people out, 'cause I know it just plain sucks to have a shiny piece of tech turned in to a paper weight ;-;

 

[Link]

Good to know, good to know. I notice that the Pandoras are just a smidge more expensive on Link's site than on ED's site, but I expected that and the difference in shipping price makes up for it. BUT I'm not looking to buy a Pandora for awhile now I don't think. Maybe if I can't bear to wait I'll buy one for my Birthday on August, but I also kinda want to wait for the newest thing to come out, like how you don't really want to buy an Iphone 4 when the Iphone 5 is about to come out. But seeing as how Pandora's seem to be upgradable, I don't think it will matter. Hmm. Lots of thinking to be done, Money is tight around here so these types of purchases need to be planned out.

My Pandora prices do seem higher, but if you pay ED via PayPal, he will charge you the PayPal fees on top of the initial amount listed.


I have to import the Pandoras into the US which costs about $10 a unit after taxes and customs brokerage fees. So this is another reason why units in my shop are a bit more.


Also, the Euro has tanked in recent months.

 

[Snoa]

Oh I completely understand, I wasn't trying to say that you were trying to rip me off or anything. I didn't know about the Paypal fee but I do know about the troubles of buying outside of the U.S.

 

[TangentDelta]

I had the same exact thoughts that you had. "Hey! Why not use this awesome little linux PC to help me in college!". Not that good of an idea. While I was taking notes in one of my classes on my Pandora, I noticed that the professor was glaring at me every now and then, along with everyone in the class room. After class, the professor stopped me and said that it was very distracting having me playing on my "Nintendo DS" during class. I then had to explain to her that it was actually a miniature PC, and not a Nintendo DS. Although she understood, I decided to not use it for note taking, since it was automatically assumed that it was a DS, and not a linux PC.