[DJ_Izumi]

3D Mark Sky Diver: 5182 (Graphics: 4935, Physics: 7865, Combined: 4570)
3D Mark Cloud Gate: 9551 (Graphics: 11 976, Physics 5591)
3D Mark Ice Storm Extreme: 49 982 (Graphics: 55 203, Physics: 37 552)

And I'm back with some new parts. The biggest swapping the off brand CL11 2x4GB 1600mhz kit for a 2x8GB G.Skill CL9 1600mhz kit. Those tighter timings have given it a non-trivial boost in GPU performance. This is likely as fast as the IGP will get on this system as RAM overclocking is not possible on the Lenovo. This was another CAD$111.28. This 'MiniPC' has not been cheap and it won't even do HEVC in hardware, ha ha. My brother has made a similar machine but he went with a Dell Micro with a Celeron Sky Lake CPU that can decode HEVC at bitrates and frame rates far higher than this thing can in software. But it's been FUN Frankensteining this thing.

Note these improved benchmarks, all the improvements are on the GPU side:

3D Mark Sky Diver: 5797 (Graphics: 5555, Physics: 7957, Combined: 5369)
3D Mark Cloud Gate: 10 259 (Graphics: 13 264, Physics 5722)
3D Mark Ice Storm Extreme: 59 579 (Graphics: 72 015, Physics: 37 136)

I also added the FLIRC which I'm kinda so so on honestly. Not sure I'd buy another one.



The biggest issue I have with the FLIRC is that there's a delay between IR signals, so if you want to do multiple buttons in sequence, you'll heve to wait a moment or it'll repeat the next button press. This is in contrast to my MCE receivers where I can button smash all the buttons I want and it's snappy to act on the input. On the plus side the FLIRC is tiny and for a PC suitable for rapid deployment for media pkayback when traveling, the less wired dongles the better.

I do have an 802.11AC NIC coming in to replace the 2.4ghz 802.11N NIC, but yeah, this thing is almost as tricked out as it can be.  The final upgrade is likely going to be a BDXL drive but I'm in no hurry to get that as Kodi's own support of decryption BDMV discs has not moved at a particularly fast pace.