How far can the pandora be pushed CPU and screen wise ?

[TooCoolToRule]

Say for example somebody had the money for a 1 of a kind Pandora. How much more powerful a CPU could be fitted on the motherboard, how much extra ram could you add (maybe faster ram too), and maximum resolution for a screen of the same size ? I understand a more powerful CPU (if possible) would cause more heat and may need custom vents added to the case.

 

[EvilDragon]

Whatever money you throw at, the best CPU available to work with Pandoras PCB is the one on the 1GHz unit.


That's the reason the Pyra is in development (and has a CPU board, which can later be upgraded with new CPUs).

 

[Exophase]

You would probably need to pay ED millions of dollars to get something better than Pyra, and you'd get it no sooner.

 

[EvilDragon]

Oh, I would welcome that. With a few million dollars I could probably get one of the latest ARM SoCs

 

[Exophase]

But on the other hand, you may need to pay someone billions of dollars to get something like Pandora but sooner than Pyra. So yeah, just wait for Pyra.

Although I suppose if you got someone to mod an existing device to be like a Pandora and redo the necessary software stack for it you might be able to get it done for only hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

[EvilDragon]

Naah, I meant with billions of dollars, I could probably get one of the best available CPUs for the Pyra. After all, the Pyra IS an updated Pandora.

 

[fusion_power]

Even the best available CPU can drain battery power alot, so if this CPU would half the Pyra battery time, no money in the world would help there I guess.

 

[TooCoolToRule]

Thank you kindly for your replies and comments. How similar is the Pyra to the Pandora ? Similar enough for you to accept Pandora's in part exchange for the Pyra ? I don't really wan't to get rid of my Pandora but it is need of a little upgrade (like the 1ghz CPU) and some TLC (like a new aluminium case :wub: ). Do you have cases in stock, EvilDragon ? You can put me up for a Pyra too . I wish the Pyra was about the same level as my Tegra K1 Xiaomi Mipad tablet .

 

[Wally]

Do you even read the forums?

 

[FBnil]

How much more powerful a CPU could be fitted on the motherboard

The thing is that the hardware is already fixed. With SoC (System On a Chip), all the things are inside the plastic of the microchip. All you can hope for is that you can overclock it to 1.3Ghz (around the maximum you can get without it hanging too much). 1.1Ghz works well enough for me. 1.2Ghz was the max I could get out of it, but it hung often. Overclocking will lower the life of the SoC, of course. But you probably will damage other components before that happens.

Now, the memory is 512Mb, however, you can create  a swapfile, and thus, getting a big SD and fast card gives you enough virtual RAM. Good enough for all the applications that run on the OpenPandora.

Wait, so you have an OpenPandora, and it is not the 1Ghz version.

And so, if you have a classic then buying a 1Gz will give you pretty much a better machine. However, if you have a rebirth... it is not worth the upgrade. (read the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console))

If you want the Pyra (and that is a BIG upgrade), then you will need to sell your OpenPandora now... do it later and you will not be the only one that wants to trade-in your openPandora for a Pyra. So the price you will get is good now. But it is getting lower and lower. (look at the forum). At the launch there will be more people wanting to buy an openPandora for cheap, so at least you will have buyers.

The Tegra K1 Xiaomi Mipad has an NVIDIA Tegra K1 quad-core 2.3 GHz processor with 2GB RAM

The Pyra will have only 2.0Ghz, but you could probably overclock it a little.

Both machines have such different GPU's that I do not know which one is the faster gaming platform. They are probably similar, although I tend to think that TI (Texas Instruments) tends to be slower, but also use less electricity. (and yet, there are such fantastic coders here, that they manage to get spectacular speed results... ). As for non-gaming: I think Linux will run better, the GUI can be made much lighter than Android.

In terms of capabilities, the Pyra will both be able to boot into Android (and run the same apps), there you can do speed-comparison--tests yourself, AND it is a full fledged mini laptop. Consider also selling your Mipad?

As for many of us, the openPandora has enough speed already. Why do YOU need the speed for?

Is it because the Pyra will have cool things like simcards, HDMI, and a better screen (finally I can give a powerpoint presentation!), and the speed improvement will make (hopefully) dreamcast and PS2 emulation possible.

Not sure what your aim is for your Pyra, do you need it? Do you have big databases that require more RAM to run?

If you want more oompf, you need to wait for the Pyra, or search for micro PC mini-computer, such as an NC1000 or a palmtop (the last one is just kidding... however, it IS a gamecomputer too...). To be honest, on this laptop you can even make them print your own letters on the keys... which, is kinda cool.