How to Remote control your Raspberry Pi 2

Using your Raspberry Pi is normally accomplished via a keyboard, mouse and monitor but at times this might be awkward, e.g. when controlling a robot or time-lapse photography rig. Remotely controlling a computer is nothing new but it‘s a handy solution to accessing your hard to reach Raspberry Pi project. In this project we’ll install an SSH server, which will enable us to remotely control the Raspberry Pi using the terminal from another machine. We’ll also install a VNC server which will enable us to use the Raspberry Pi desktop over a network. 

Connect up your Raspberry Pi and boot Raspbian to the desktop; you may need to log in using your username and password. If the Raspberry Pi 2 doesn’t boot straight to the desktop type startx in LXTerminal and press Enter. If you’re using a Wi-Fi dongle, make sure that it’s configured and has an IP address. If you’re using an Ethernet connection, open LXTerminal and type ifconfig to find your IP address.

Now we must configure the software that will run on the Pi and give us the access that we need. Open LXTerminal and type the following to setup an SSH server:

sudo raspi-config

Navigate to the Advanced Options Menu and look for SSH server, enable it and exit the application. If you’re asked to reboot, do so and return to the desktop. With the SSH server installed we can now test that it works using another computer. We’re using a laptop running Linux Mint and SSH’d into the Raspberry Pi using the terminal:

ssh pi@IP OF YOUR PI

The first time that you connect to the Raspberry Pi, SSH will ask you to confirm that the Pi is what you think it is via a unique fingerprint, and for this project we can accept that it’s correct. After a few moments you will be asked for your Raspberry Pi password and need to successfully log into your Pi. Any command issued from this point onwards will be run on the Raspberry Pi.

With the SSH server successfully installed, our attention shifts to installing the VNC server. In the SSH session run the following command:

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

This installs the VNC server and to run the server type:

tightvncserver

You’ll be asked for a password – use a strong one with a maximum of eight characters. You will also be asked for a view-only password that isn’t needed at this time.

In the terminal you’ll see the output of the tightvncserver command, and it will advise you that a VNC session has been started and that you can connect using the IP address or hostname followed by: 1.

Now we need a VNC client on our computer to connect to the server running on the Pi 2. We’ve used Vinagre which comes installed on Linux Mint and Ubuntu. Open Vinagre and click on Connect, in the host box enter the IP address of your Raspberry Pi, followed by: 1 and click Connect. You will be asked for your VNC password. With the correct password entered you can now use your computer’s mouse and keyboard to control your Raspberry Pi and the Raspbian desktop is visible on your desktop.

For those of you looking to play Minecraft in this manner, we’re sorry to say that, at this time, it’s not possible due to the way Minecraft renders itself on the Raspberry Pi. Generally though, you’re now able to use your Pi remotely from another computer in your home. In fact, you can have more than one VNC connection running, which will enable two people to share a Raspberry Pi.

NOTE:

SSH is used by system administrators to remotely work with servers across the world, for instance, a VPS or server running a website or web application. Because there’s no physical access to the device a user has to remote in using SSH either via a terminal, or using a web interface provided by a host.

SSH connections are encrypted and it’s highly unlikely that anyone can see what’s being done, unlike VNC which should not be used over the internet. VNC sends its information via an unencrypted connection and any VNC ports that are open can be scanned by malicious parties. In fact, there’s a website that lists websites with open VNC ports and enables you to connect just like Chat Roulette. However, tunneling a VNC connection via SSH, grants you a level of security.

There are SSH applications for all OSes and on Linux it comes by default, and VNC applications are installed with Ubuntu and Linux Mint in the form of Vinagre.

Which is the best Desktop Virtualization software this 2015?

Virtualization technology has fundamentally changed the computing landscape. We’d get in trouble if we claimed that it was a recent invention (early mainframes used it as a means of provisioning resources), but CPU innovations introduced about ten years ago mean that near-native performance can be achieved when virtualizing x86 code. Now that we can squeeze tens of (easily backed-up and restorable) machines into a single box, data center workloads can be made drastically more efficient. We can also simulate foreign architectures too, e.g. ARM, which is useful for developers working on embedded systems. 

It’s a boon for casual desktop users too – trying out a new OS need no longer be a time-consuming exercise in frustration that jeopardizes your current setup. Even if you just want to test a new piece of software, it’s generally safer to do so in a disposable virtual machine rather than risking your current configuration. Support for in-kernel virtualization (through KVM) and the Qemu emulator mean that Linux users no longer need to rely on proprietary tools. Back in the old days, Sun’s (formerly Innotek’s, now Oracle’s) VirtualBox used to be the only real option. But times have changed so let’s see how the other virtualization apps measure up.

Ease of Install

VMware and Virtualbox both rely on kernel-specific modules being loaded in order to work their magic. VMware will need to compile these, which requires you to install a kernel headers package, and all the necessary compiler jazz. Further, it provides an init script to load said modules, but this will be of no use to Systemd users. If this is you, then you may wish to make your own unit file, rather than having to run this script as root (or see the same error messages) all the time. At the time of writing, 3.19 series kernels needed the VMware sources to be patched, but hopefully this is has been remedied by the time you read this. Most distros ship with Virtualbox packages, so if you’re using a stock kernel you won’t need to worry about anything here.

Virt-Manager needs the libvirtd service to be started on your system before it will work, though a user-friendly message informs you of this, and if you’re using a fully featured desktop environment then it will do this for you – all you’ll need to do is type in the root password.

Both VirtualBox and VMware Workstation are reasonably easy to get to grips with, so long as you don’t get distracted looking at every single option. In comparison, VMware Player doesn’t have too many of these, so you will be able to get your machine up and running in no time. However, you’ll want to install the guest add-ons if you want to make the most of any of them.

The Linux guest additions for VirtualBox are much easier to install (the CD will autorun) than the extra ‘tools’ for VMware, which seemed to require copying stuff off the imaginary CD, changing permissions and then running a script. What is this, 1999? Once you’ve done that though, you’ll be rewarded with better graphics and a number of extra features, which we’ll discuss later on.

‘Boxes’ is by far the most easy to use of our selection, if only because it exposes the bare minimum of Qemu / libvirt’s functionality. VMware Player is a joint second with VirtualBox and then their paid-for counterpart is hot on its heels (these are nominally harder by virtue of having more options). VirtManager isn’t really hard to use, but it does expose enough of the Qemu labyrinth that it may overwhelm novices. It also uses a rather convoluted mechanism for managing storage, especially if you want to store your virtual drive somewhere non-standard. In this case you first must add the required directory as a ‘storage pool’. Any weird modules it needs will be supplied by your distribution though, so it’s got that going for it.

Results are: Gnome Boxes first, VirtualBox and VMware Player second, Virt-Manager and VMware Workstation last.

Performance

Thanks to hardware extensions and paravirtualization techniques, it’s theoretically possible to run some tasks at very close to bare-metal speed.

Things being the way they are though, there is usually some kind of performance hit. In fact, pretty much every configuration where we tested a guest desktop resulted in some measure of sluggishness. But you get used to it, and you can deactivate any eye-candy, or use the appropriate fallback mode, if it really bothers you. For the record, we’re not taking 3D performance into account in this category – that would be unfair and it has its own category over the page. For everyday Terminal-based tasks though, you’d be hard pressed to notice any difference between the candidates. Our kernel compilation experiments suggested that VirtualBox lags measurably behind the competition. The Javascript SunSpider benchmark also agreed with this analysis, with both tasks being about 20% slower than the competition. Disk I/O (especially when your virtual disk is stored on an SSD) and network traffic were swift across the board. VMware clinches it in the end thanks to its support for newer Intel processors.

Results are: VMware’s first, Gnome Boxes and Virt-Manager second, VirtualBox last.

Features

All of our candidates are aimed at different usage scenarios, and so all have their unique selling points. Of course, there are some standard features that we have come to expect, such snapshotting, support for Intel VT-x and AMD-V processor extensions and flexible configuration of the virtual hardware. All of these are catered for by all of them, but some do so much more. It’s important to note that Gnome Boxes and Virt-manager, are just frontends for Qemu (via the libvirt abstraction layer). Qemu is at its heart a processor emulator that can provide virtualization through KVM, but is a whole world unto itself.

Gnome Boxes – 2 stars

When called from the command line, Qemu supports a huge number of options, most which of don’t feature in Gnome Boxes , which aims for (and achieves) a simple and clean look and feel. Through its friendly wizard interface it’s possible to set up a virtual machine in roughly three clicks – you just need to point it towards a suitable ISO. Boxes abstracts the difference between virtual and remote machines and you can connect to either through the VNC, SPICE (which allows audio to work over a network) or OVirt protocols. ‘Boxes’ doesn’t offer much control over networking your virtual machine, but at least provides all the NAT voodoo required so your virtual machine can talk to the outside world. The other candidates will happily set up NAT, network bridges or host-only networks, all of which may be useful given appropriate circumstances.

Virt-Manager – 4 stars

(aka Virtual Machine Manager) exposes much more (but not the entirety) of Qemu ’s functionality. In fact, it seems to have gone overboard with its list of supported x86 operating systems, particularly the Linux genus. That aside Virt-Manager makes it relatively straightforward to setup as complicated a machine as you would like - all manner of hardware can be added, including multiple network interfaces. Besides KVM VMs, Virt-Manager can leverage Qemu /libvirt’s support for Xen guests and LXC containers. It can also optionally poll guest resources and in so doing provide very nice graphs (such as those in the Performance section, which follows about 30 seconds of a Windows 10 startup). Virt-Manager also makes use of Qemu ’s recently added support for USB 3.0 pass-through.

Compatibility and snapshots

Sometimes you’ll want to move VMs between hypervisors. All the software here can import machines stored in the Open Virtual Applicance (OVA) format, which is just a tarball containing a VMDK (VMware) disk image and data about the virtual hardware. VirtualBox allows you to export in this format, but has its own Virtual Disk Image (VDI) format and can work with all kinds of others too.

The qemu-img command can be used to convert between all manners of formats. Of particular note is its preferred QCOW2 format, which allows for multiple snapshots to be stored internally using efficient Copy On Write (COW) trickery.

Boxes, VirtManager, VirtualBox and VMware Workstation all have snapshot support, allowing you to efficiently save various states of your VM as you mess with it. VMware Player only enables you to have one snapshot per machine, in addition to its current state. If you’re doing quite involved regression testing, this will be a deal-breaker. VirtualBox and VMware Workstation also allow you to ‘clone’ VMs, and this is an efficient way of snapshotting, since data is only written to a linked clone when its state differs from that of its parent.

VMware enables you to mount a guest’s VMDK image on the host, which can be useful as well, although the same thing can be achieved by converting to a raw disk image and using standard Linux tools and arithmetic to calculate partition offsets.

Results are: VMware Workstation, VirtualBox, and Virt-Manager first, Gnome Boxes second, VMware Player last.

VirtualBox – 4stars

The original desktop virtualization client, VirtualBox is probably still the go-to tool for many. The program has a clean layout which makes setting up a virtual machine straightforward, but it also manages to offer a host of useful options. As well as limiting the number of CPU cores a guest OS can access, VirtualBox enables you to specify a percentage execution cap for host CPU utilization.

VirtualBox also has support for video capture, so by night you can record Windows tutorials for your YouTube channel. It can import all manner of virtual disks. It only offers USB 2.0 host controller support though, and even then only if you install Oracle’s proprietary extension pack. The shared clipboard and drag and drop options (uni or bi-directional, as befits your whim) are pretty useful though. VirtualBox has handy indicators for disk and network I/O, as well as CPU usage.

VMwarePlayer – 3 stars

The free offering from VMware has come a long way since its inception back in 2008. Most notably, it’s no longer just a player and is more than capable of setting up a quality virtual machine for your amusement. As well as supporting a number of networking configurations (NAT, bridged, host only etc.), it offers some nice traffic shaping options, which is useful if you’re testing the latest version of, say, a DDoS client or seeing how much malware you can get onto a Windows XP virtual machine before it implodes. VMware also supports USB3.0 devices, and installing the guest tools will also enable shiny graphics, shared clipboards and shared directories. Player falls down slightly when it comes to snapshots (it only allows you to make a single one).

VMwareWorkstation – 5 stars

There is a non-free version of VMware Player (VMware Player Pro) available, but we reasoned that for this Roundup we may as well explore the more upmarket Workstation, instead. There are a plethora of extra developer options here, including the ability to group virtual machines into a sort of virtual phalanx, so that they can be simultaneously spurred into action with a single click. VMware Workstation also has support for the new instructions that are available on modern Intel processors, as well as enabling you to set up machines with up to 16 vCPUs and 64GB of RAM. But the Workstation program is largely geared towards integration with the rest of the (considerable) VMware suite, and hence will find most of its relevant use in enterprise environments.

Graphical acceleration

Any of our candidates would serve you admirably, if you just wanted to install a simple virtual machine and weren’t going to be doing anything graphically intensive. However, if you require 3D acceleration then you will have to go with VMware or VirtualBox. Once you’ve jumped through the hoops of getting the guest additions installed (including sidestepping VirtualBox’s double negative question that tries to make you avoid its experimental WDDM support, which is required if you want to use Windows 7’s Aero interface, for instance) then you can enjoy 3D acceleration in VirtualBox and the two VMware clients.

VirtualBox allows you to allocate up to 256MB of system RAM to the virtual graphics card, whereas VMware allows up to 2GB. Note that this doesn’t come from your real graphics card, so often you won’t see any benefit past 256MB. VirtualBox also provides 2D acceleration for Windows guests, which ought to speed up video rendering, display stretching and color correction, though it very much depends on the host configuration – on a fast machine this setting didn’t seem to make much difference. A Windows virtual machine is probably not going to run Battlefield 4 or Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (fortunate then that it’s being ported to Linux) with everything turned up to 11, but older or less demanding games will be fine, we wasted a good hour playing popular indie title Don’t Starve before we realized this Roundup was due. It was a much smoother experience on VMware than VirtualBox, but may be that was configuration related – we were using the latest proprietary NVidia driver on Arch Linux which may have favored one over the other.

Results are: VMware’s leads again, VirtualBox second, Boxes and Virt-Manager last.

Licensing and development

VirtualBox used to be subject to a Personal Use and Evaluation License. However, the guest additions and most of the codebase were released under the GPL v2 license at the end of 2010, following Sun’s acquisition by Oracle. However, the exception to this general open source release is the Oracle extension pack for providing a USB2.0 host controller, RDP support and PXE network booting, which remains proprietary. Technically, VirtualBox is subject to a dual-license, so that enterprise customers can pay for a license if the GPL scares them. In fact, some claim that Oracle is neglecting this one time de rigeur tool as all the releases over the past two years have been maintenance-only updates. If this were the case at least Oracle is doing its neglecting of products with the right kind of license.

VMware Player is only licensed for non-commercial use so you may need to part with some dinero to use it legally. A VMware Workstation licence will set you back about £180, which is only really worth it if you want to interoperate with the rest of the formidable VMware suite. VMware has been regularly updating its products, but (apart from 3D support) the open source offerings are hot on its heels. Gnome Boxes , VirtManager , Qemu and libvirtd all come under GPL or LGPL licenses and enjoy frequent updates. Qemu in particular has come on in leaps and bounds since development shifted to GitHub. Also, while we’re on the topic of licensing, we note that VMware has recently been slapped with a GPL violation lawsuit in Hamburg. Naughty.

Results are: Boxes and Virt-Manager first, VirtualBox and VMware Player second, VMware Workstation last.

The verdict

Virtualization is a tough ol’ Round up to judge. If you want to run 3D games, then you won’t even be looking at Gnome Boxes or Virt-Manager, and, unless you have better results with VirtualBox than us, you’ll probably find VMware is the hypervisor for you. But then again, this technology isn’t anywhere near mature enough to compare with DirectX11 running natively. You might even have better luck running games in Wine [Ed –or not] with some of the experimental performance patches. We don’t really like the VMware licenses, especially the one that makes you pay money after a 30-day trial, but the enterprise features of Workstation will be a boon for some. In particular, if you grab VMware’s vCenter Converter, then you can virtualize a machine with the click of a button, ideal if you want to test something new on your current setup.

We haven’t covered the wealth of command-line tools that are provided with all of our candidates, but they are there, along with more than ample documentation. You can use them in your scripts when you go on an all-out virtualization binge, summoning to action an army of virtual machines from the safety of the command line. Hacker types may also prefer to use Qemu directly, and people wanting a simple free and open source solution will be happy with Gnome Boxes.

But there can (except in the event of some sort of tie) be only one winner, and this time it goes to Virt-Manager – we couldn’t really let VMware win after all. Virt-Manager enables you to harness a huge amount of Qemu’s power without having to mess around with lengthy terminal incantations. Machines can be paused, reconfigured, moved around and cloned – all without fuss.

The only thing it lacks is support for graphics acceleration, and who knows, maybe one day this will come. VMware Player and Gnome Boxes tie for second place, as they both score highly for simplicity, and we like the Boxes icon which features a tesseract (or hypercube, or box in a box if you like). VirtualBox and VMware workstation take joint third place, the latter costs money and the former really should perform a little better than it does.

1st – Virt-Manager.

2nd – VMware Player.

3rd – Boxes.

4th – VirtualBox.

5th – VMware Workstation.

KaOS 2015.02 Review

Unlike most other Linux distros that burden users with ample choice, KaOS has consciously decided to keep the options limited. The installable live distro is available only for 64-bit machines and offers only KDE as the desktop environment (DE). Its repos only feature x86_64 packages and the install yields a GTK-free base system. 

The package and desktop restriction isn't to ensure a bloat-free release, but because the developers believe in working only with the best available DE. By its own admission, the distro is designed for users who’ve tried others only to conclude that KDE is the best option for them.

Being a rolling release, users don't have to worry about fresh installs and complicated upgrades. With the underlying Pacman package management system, a single command is all you need to keep an installed system up to date.

Building blocks

The distro features the distro independent Calamares installer. Like most popular distros, KaOS doesn't let users choose what packages to install. However, the installer does provide several partitioning options, and the chance to carve out partitions to your liking. While there aren't any helpful tool tips to guide first time users, the installation process is straight forward and the install intuitive.

While the distro ships with the usual complement of standard apps, such as browser, office suite, music player and IM clients, it only carries the QT alternatives for each as far as possible. This isn't to say that GTK apps are entirely absent. But you’ll only find these where the QT counter parts aren't up to scratch or the software’s popularity necessitates their inclusion.

The distro doesn't use any upstream repos, choosing instead to build each package from scratch specifically for KaOS in its three repositories. The Core repository contains all the essentials like the Linux kernel, Systemd, etc. The Main repository comprises the drivers, libraries and firmware needed to get the apps to function properly. The apps themselves are relegated into the Apps repository, which is fully rolling. This means that KaOS provides rolling updates for all packages and that no package is ever older than one year, which ensures tighter integration.

The distro ships with Plasma 5 as the default desktop and features KDE 14.12 with all language packs preinstalled, proprietary NVidia drivers and Linux Kernel 3.18.7. It can play YouTube videos out of the box and supports a variety of multimedia formats. Due to its focus on QT apps, the distro offers Calligra 3.8.92 as the default office suite, although LibreOffice is available in the repos. The distro also includes various QT/KDE-specific internet apps such as Qupzilla web browser and KDE-telepathy.

You can install popular GTK apps such as Firefox 35.0.1, Thunderbird 31.4.0, etc. from the repos using the powerful Octopi package management tool. The latest release also features CacheCleaner, a tool for Octopi to remove packages from Pacman cache.

KaOS is designed for a very specific user base: KDE aficionados and advanced users who've finally tired of hopping distros and are skilled enough to work with a rolling release.

This is a well-rounded distro that delivers on its mission statement – a fully functional, rolling KDE release. We gave this a Cloudy Circuitry score of 85/100.

Bodhi Linux 3.0 Review

Bodhi Linux is essentially a one man project, so Jeff Hoogland’s retirement seemed to sound the death knell for the beloved build-your-own distro. Thankfully, he had a change of heart and returned to continue work on the release that was under development when he quit.

This third major release of Bodhi is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and uses Linux kernel v3.16. This is also the first release that supports the UEFI BIOS found in nearly every new machine as well as the SeaBIOS found on some newer Acer and HP Chromebooks.

On the other end of the spectrum, the latest release also works with processors that don’t support PAE, such as the Pentium M Centrino.

In addition to borrowing the underlying infrastructure and core libraries, the project also uses a customized version of Ubuntu’s user friendly Ubiquity installer.

An enlightened desktop Bodhi is one of the few distro that uses the light and attractive Enlightenment desktop, and the latest release features a customized desktop based around Enlightenment E19.3. The one major change that long term users will notice is that unlike previous releases users aren’t asked to choose a layout style when they boot into the desktop. The developers argue that the consistent look will help make Bodhi more approachable to new users, although it wouldn’t have hurt to include other predefined styles in the Profile Selector tool like before.

In line with Bodhi’s philosophy of installing a minimum base for users to build their system, the distro ships with the Midori web browser and a bunch of Enlightenment apps written using the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL). These include the file manager, the Terminology terminal emulator which includes bells and whistles like a visual tab bar and Gravatar support, and the Ephoto picture viewer among others.

There’s also the ePad plain text editor which is written by Hoogland himself in EFL and replaces the Leafpad editor featured in previous releases. ePad in its current form supports most of the features you would expect from a text editor. Another in-house app of note is eepDater which is a simple but fully functional update manager.

Any distro that ships with a minimal set of apps and calls upon its users to flesh out their installation must have an exceptionally good package management system. Bodhi Linux, piggy-backs on the excellent apt-get packaging tool and the AptURL protocol, has an app installation platform that’s flexible and easy to use. New users can just use its online AppCenter, optimized for the included Midori web browser, while experienced users can use the Synaptic . Bodhi’s online Appcenter includes a limited number of frequently used apps – such as LibreOffice, Firefox, Okular, VLC, Handbrake, Thunderbird, Pidgin etc –has also been overhauled in this release. The search functionality has been improved and now looks up queries in the software titles as well as their descriptions for more meaningful results. Furthermore, users now have the ability to rate the apps.

Bodhi Linux is more than a stripped down version of Ubuntu. The distro adds features that’d be of use to users irrespective of their skill set: You can e.g. use the distro in Presentation mode which temporarily disables the screensaver, lock and power-saving features, and if you forget to enable this mode and quickly disable the screensaver, the distro offers to enable the Presentation mode for you. Now that’s what you call user-friendly.

This Linux distro is a wonderful minimal version for DIYers that provides an ideal base and all the suitable tools for customization. We gave this a Cloudy Circuitry score of 95/100.

Imagination Creator C120 Review and Test

Imagination Technologies is most well-known for its PowerVR division, In February2013, Imagination acquired MIPS Technologies, masters of the most popular instruction set you've never heard of: MIPS. Being thus possessed of GPU and CPU silicon, it makes strategic sense to release a product with both.

The fruit of its labor is the Creator CI20. As we know this class is dominated by the Raspberry Pi, there are plenty of alternatives though. Many of these, e.g. the Beagle Bone Black and Intel's x86 Galileo, offered a little more computational horse power. But now the Pi has had a reboot and is capable of running a desktop smoothly, these rival boards have lost their raison d'être.

The Creator is powered by a dual core, 32-bit, 1.2GHz CPU, it features 1GB of DDR3 memory and 8GB of NAND storage. Besides that there is an SD card slot, 100Mb Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, an IR receiver and three USB2.0 ports, two full-sized and one mini. USB On-The-Go is enabled through a jumper, and the mini port is paralleled with one of its larger siblings, so only two ports can be used at once.

The board itself is powered by the same barrel connector as the Sony PSP. As you'd expect there's an HDMI port and a 3.5mm audio jack. There are also all manner of I/O pins for the hard core.

The Creator officially supports Debian, or vice versa, since Debian has supported the MIPS architecture for some time. There are also images available for Gentoo and Arch Linux, as well as the embedded-centric Angstrom and Yocto Sano.

Interestingly there is also an Android 4.4 image available, although being based around the Android Open Source Project you'll have to side load any apps you want. The MIPS architecture is fully supported by Android, but many apps are still compiled solely for ARM, limiting the current potential here. However, those wishing to develop for Android may be tempted by this low cost device, though they'll have to put up with a 5minute (or 1cup of tea) boot time.

Highest on our list of gripes is the board's fussiness over displays: the developers warn that passive HDMI-DVI adapters may not work, but we found at least one monitor that it failed to talk to over HDMI, leading us to suspect that someone broke it. In fact, the 3.0 series kernel shipped with the Debian image can't query EDID data, it is possible to compile your own 3.16 kernel, but at the time of writing this breaks acceleration.

Numerically the Ingenic JZ4780 SoC seems impressive, but comparing the Creator's MIPS architecture to ARM or x86 is akin to comparing apples and oranges. The Raspberry Pi 2's four cores will trump the Creator for multithreaded applications, but floating point-heavy math operations will favor the Creator's FPU. The PowerVR graphics can do 1080p at 60Hz, or 2k at 30Hz, outdoing the more basic Pi output. Booting Debian takes a couple of minutes and the XFCE desktop was sluggish with frequent tearing when moving windows. Games like Supertux and Chromium BSU run fine though, and it does come with some quite impressive 3D demos. One such demo achieved about 9 million triangles a second as so many blocks arrange themselves into various shapes above a valley. But pretty demos alone do not a Pi-conquering board make, and, sad to say, the CI20 Creator's extra features aren't quite justified by the £20price differential.

If not for the Pi 2, this could tempt many hobbyists. It still has a few extra features, but only for a small niche. We gave this a 6.5/10 score.

Intel Edison Review and Test

Originally, the Edison was intended to use the SD form factor and be powered by Intel’s shiny new Pentium-class Quark processor. Feedback from users of the Quark-based Galileo development board, however, suggested this idea wasn’t going to fly thanks to extremely limited performance. Intel’s answer was a swift redesign into a module format, and to combine a 100MHz Quark with a 500MHz dual-core Atom.

The Edison is still impressively tiny, especially when you look at the feature list: as well as the dual-core CPU and low-power co-processor, the 35.5 x 25mm package includes 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 4GB of eMMC storage, and 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi, plus Bluetooth 4 and 2.1 EDR. Its 40-pin Hirose high-density connector at the rear also carries 14 GPIO channels (four of which support pulse-width modulation), two UARTs to an SD card channel, I²C, I²S, SPI and even USB.

You might wonder how a hobbyist gains access to these wonders, and you’d be right to do so. The official answer from Intel is by using a motherboard into which the Edison bolts; it boasts an Arduino pin-out for GPIO and power, along with USB and micro-SD ports. Using this board, you can turn the Edison into a ridiculously overengineered Arduino Uno, complete with embedded Linux OS and wireless network connection – it isn’t 100 per cent compatible with the Uno, but it’s good enough for most cases. Doing so, though, negates the size and weight benefits of the Edison: the Arduino motherboard is nearly as large as three Arduino Uno boards.

A better option, although I haven’t been able to test it at the time of writing, comes from US-based hobbyist electronics specialist SparkFun. The SparkFun Blocks for Intel Edison are significantly smaller than the official motherboard, and each one is designed to break out a particular feature: there are Blocks to add analogue to digital conversion, USB ports, motor control, pulse-width modulation, GPIO and even one Block featuring a built-in rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Each Block has a Hirose connector on each side, enabling them to form a stack that combined whatever features you desire with the Edison as the cherry on top.

The fact the Spark Fun Blocks had to exist at all, however, shows that Intel has perhaps missed the mark. The Galileo may have been a poor performer, but its form factor was at least well suited to hobbyists; the Edison is only immediately usable with either the oversized breakout board, making it a more powerful Galileo, or with third-party add-ons.

For industry, the Edison offers more possibilities. People who can spend the time designing circuits with tiny high-density connectors will find the Edison more tempting than the relatively feature-light Raspberry Pi Compute Module, and with the added bonus of using the familiar x86 instruction set architecture.

For educational use, combined with the SparkFun Blocks, there’s certainly an argument for the Edison. For hobbyist use, though, a Galileo is a better option, as is just forgetting about x86 compatibility and using a proper Arduino board at a fraction of the cost.

The Intel Edison is available for £47.94 including VAT as a bare module (useless to hobbyists) or £81.54 including VAT bundled with the Arduino motherboard as reviewed; a cheaper breakout board bundle costs ____.

How to create your own Raspberry Pi 2 chassis

We already used 3D printers for PC modding, taking you through the basics of using TinkerCad to design your objects. There’s far more to TinkerCad than making 2D fan grilles and modding components, though, and in this post we’re going to use it to create a case. 

Most reasonably priced 3D printers can only cater for sub mini-ITX motherboards, but Intel NUC and Raspberry Pi cases are definitely options for printers with 6in³ printing capacity or more. As Raspberry Pi 2 is the hot hobbyist product of the moment, we’re going to create and print a custom-designed case for it using the 3D Systems Cube 3 printer, while also showing you how to go about creating your own. As the Raspberry Pi 2 is fanless and doesn’t have any active cooling, this job is really easy and you can have some fun with the case design too.

Tools You’ll need:

1. TinkerCard

2. 3D printer or 3D printing service

3. Digital vernier caliper

4. Finger files

How to…

1. DOWNLOAD RASPBERRY PI STL

To create your Pi 2 case, you first need a 3D model of the PCB. Thankfully the Pi B+ PCB is physically identical to the Pi 2 in terms of case layout, and is available to download for free from [www.thingiverse.com]. Search for the Raspberry Pi B+ board by jayftee and grab the 9MB STL file.

2. IMPORT MODEL INTO TINKERCAD

Importing the STL file into TinkerCad [www.tinkercad.com] is easy, and you can then start to build your case around it. In the right-hand menu, under Import, simply point TinkerCad at your downloaded STL file and upload it.

3. START WITH A CUBE

Now you can start building the case, starting by dropping a cube shape into the workplane from the same menu. You can, of course, choose any shape but we’ll be making a rectangular case so we’re starting with a cube.

4. ENLARGE CUBE TO FORM BASE

Modify the cube so it’s the right size for the base of your case. You can either use the measurements provided by TinkerCad to guide you, or simply make the base a little larger than the PCB. The total PCB model size is 58.5x 86.89 mm, so your base needs to accommodate that area measurement.

5. CREATE SCREW HOLE INSERTS

With the PCB lined up on your base, create some cylinders for inserting holes into the case to mount the PCB. You can use standard PC screws – just make a cylinder that’s slightly smaller than the screw thread (a digital vernier caliper will come in handy), so the screw can bite into the plastic.

6. PLACE INSERTS INTO BASE

Move the inserts on to the case and position them in the PCB mounting holes, in order to ensure they line up once the case is printed – another good reason to have a 3D model of the PCB to hand.

7. CHECK BASE FOR CLEARANCE

You now need to raise the inserts, so they don’t go all the way through the base when you convert them in to holes. Lift them by 3-4mm so the screws can pass a little way into the base – you can check they’re clear by looking underneath the case.

8. CREATE CUT-OUT INSERT

As we saw in last month’s 3D printing feature, it’s best to create holes in as many parts of your project as possible to cut printing time and costs. We started by laying down a large object in the base to create an opening – we’re also moving the PCB model out of the way for now.

9. SWITCH TO HOLE MODE

Now convert the object into a hole by selecting it, then clicking on Hole in the Inspector box, which converts it from a colored object into a hole. It should now appear translucent, which indicates that it’s acting as a hole and not a solid object.

10. GROUP OBJECTS

To finish creating the hole, select the base and hole only (leave the mounting holes separate for now), and select Group from the top tool bar. This process will delete the area of the base with which the hole is merged.

11. CREATE CUT-OUT DESIGN

You can then create a vent using individual pieces or, as we did, drop some letters and numbers into place. You can simply enlarge or reduce them to size as needed, depending on your chosen vent design, or you could lay them on top.

12. INSERT SUPPORTS

To hold the characters in place, we created small supports that connect them to the case at the edges. They’ll still look like they’re suspended, but this reinforcement will help them to survive any knocks. We also reversed the lettering, so it will read the right way when you pick up the box.

13. GROUPOBJECTS

Merge your vent design objects into one group by selecting them and clicking the Group icon again, being careful to avoid any objects that you don’t want to group yet.

14. CLONE BASE

We want to apply the same design to the lid of the case, and the easiest way to do this job is to clone the entire base, then remove the PCB support holes as shown. You can move the lid to one side for now.

15. ADD PCB STANDOFFS

You don’t want to screw the PCB directly into the base, so create some small standoffs into which you can insert screws. These bits are just like the standoffs in a PC case, except you only need them to be 5mm or so high. Place these standoffs over the mounting holes.

16. CREATE HOLES

You can now convert the mounting holes from solid objects into holes. Check if they’re aligned with the standoffs, then click on each one and convert it into a hole using the same method employed in step 9.

17. GROUPOBJECTS

In the same way you grouped the vent objects together, you can now group all the base objects together so you can move on. Hold down the left mouse button down, as you would to select an area in Photoshop, or characters in Word, then click the Group button in the top menu.

18. CREATE SIDES

Now put the PCB model back in place and create some side sections. Only two sides of the Raspberry Pi 2 have ports, so the other two can be solid objects. We dropped in a couple of cube shapes and manipulated them to form 3mm-thick walls that run from end to end as shown.

19. CREATE LID MOUNTS

You’ll need away to mount the lid too. You could have a sliding lid, but we preferred the idea of securely screwing it into place. We created two mounts that could sit inside the case, level with the side sections.

20. INSTALL LID MOUNTS

These mounts sit diagonally from each other, and only two are needed so save space – most of the lid will rest on the base’s side sections anyway. We’ve placed the mounts so that there’s still enough clearance between the PCB and the side sections – at least 2-3mm.

21. ADD LID MOUNT SUPPORTS

We went through to the end and printed a test base at this point, but found the supports were too weak, breaking when screwing the lid into them. We went back and added these corner braces to strengthen them. You can also add vents in the sides – we opted for a hexagonal pattern.

22. PLACE LID

Now you can move the lid into position, lining it up with the base and side sections. You can then move onto finishing the side sections and creating holes for the mounting screws.

23. SURROUND PORTS

You don’t really need to create a sealed case with the Raspberry Pi 2, but a sealed case definitely looks neater, so we went some of the way, and surrounded the end ports at the side and the bottom by extending the lid.

24. CREATE PORT SIDE SECTION

We then added a further surround in the lid section, as well as a long side section as the final piece –we’ll cut holes into this part through which the ports can protrude. The idea will be to delete the PCB model, leaving a 3D-printable and two-part case.

25. CONVERT TO HOLE

By converting the side section to a hole, it becomes translucent so you can see the ports you need to cut out to provide access. There are just three – the HDMI port, micro-USB connector and audio output.

26. ADD PORT AND LID HOLES

You then need to recreate the ports from appropriately shaped objects, and then resize them to provide plenty of clearance around them. For the HDMI port, we opted for a rectangular hole, rather than a larger-sized hole shaped like an HDMI port, to ensure there was enough clearance.

27. PRINT YOUR DESIGN

Click on Design, then Download for 3D printing to get the STL file for your design, and either print it on your own 3D printer or use a third-party service, then enlarge any trouble some holes and file the edges. Here’s our design, printed on 3D Systems Cube 3, with a Pi 2 installed.

Raspberry Pi 2 Alternatives

The Raspberry Pi may not have been the first single-board computer on the market, but its success – selling five million units and counting – has led to an explosion in the market never seen before. Here’s a look at the most notable competition to the Pi.

Lemaker Banana Pro

The follow-up to Lemaker’s Banana Pi, as reviewed in Issue 131, the Banana Pro improves on the original design by adopting the new B+/Raspberry Pi 2 GPIO header and adding integrated 802.11/b/g/n Wi-Fi. Additional features over the Raspberry Pi 2 include on-board SATA, infrared support, Gigabit Ethernet and wider compatibility with various operating systems. Its dual-core AllWinner A20 processor, however, lags behind the Pi 2’s BCM2836 in the performance stakes, and there are only two full-sized USB 2 ports – although, unlike the semi-compatible ports of the Pi, they’re fully standards-compliant.

Intel MinnowBoard Max

One of several open-hardware projects Intel is throwing at the hobbyist market, the MinnowBoard Max is significantly more expensive than the Raspberry Pi but includes a full-fat dual-core 64-bit x86 Atom processor and 2GB of RAM in its top configuration. As detailed in Issue 136’s review, it’s a significant improvement over the 32-bit original and boasts some of the best software compatibility of any hobbyist single-board computer. It lacks the community built up around the Raspberry Pi, however, and the add-on Lure boards for it are currently thin on the ground.

SolidRun HummingBoard

The HummingBoard began life as an internal development board. Available in several editions, ranging from a single-core model to the reviewed HummingBoard-i2ex, it uses an uncommon computer-on-module (COM) design. As such, it’s theoretically possible for SolidRun to release upgraded modules you can buy at a lower cost to replacing the entire device, although no such modules have appeared yet. A promised quad-core variant is also missing, leaving the top-end model lagging behind the Raspberry Pi 2, despite using the more efficient Freescale i.MX6 SoC.

CubieTech Cubieboard 4

The Cubieboard 4 might be bulky and pricey, but it’s a beast. Based around the AllWinner A80 SoC, it packs four Cortex-A15 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A7 1.2GHz cores in ARM’s big.LITTLE layout, but with the ability to run all eight cores simultaneously, giving highly threaded workloads a great speed boost. The 2GB of RAM is also generous, but the PowerVR G6230 GPU means hardware graphics acceleration is unavailable outside Android – a major blow for anyone hoping to run a more flexible operating system.

Hardkernel Odroid C1

As soon as the Raspberry Pi 2was announced, Hardkernel was quick to position the C1 as a more powerful alternative board. Based on an Amlogic SoC, the Odroid C1 includes four 1.5GHz Cortex-A5cores, a Mali-450 MP2 GPU and 1GB of DDR3 memory, along with Gigabit Ethernet and a Raspberry Pi+/2 compatible 40-pin GPIO header. Support for Android and Ubuntu 14.04 is included as standard, but the board again lacks the excellent community enjoyed by the Raspberry Pi.

Imagination Technology Creator CI20

The Creator CI20 uses the MIPS instruction set rather than the more common x86 or ARM ISAs. The CI20 has enjoyed an upgrade since its first release; with double the flash storage at 8GB and an eye catching purple PCB. Its dual-core 1.2GHz CPU is also more efficient than its ARM rivals, but can’t beat the quad-core BCM2836 for multi-threaded speed. Its PowerVR SGX540 also lacks acceleration support outside Android, although Imagination has promised to address this issue in the future.

How to overclock, update, and multi-boot your Raspberry Pi 2

The similarities between the original BCM2835 and the new quad-core BCM2 extend to their support for overclocking, providing power users with a means to squeeze a little more power out of their Raspberry Pi the risk of a shortened lifespan. The safest way to get some extra speed out of your new device, assuming you’re running Raspbian, is to use the configuration wizard. At the terminal, type: 

sudo raspi-config

Scroll down to 7 Overclock, hit Enter, read and acknowledge the warning, then choose the bottom option – labeled Pi2 – from the list that appears. Make sure you don’t use any of the other options, including None; these settings are designed for the original Raspberry Pi, and could leave your shiny new Pi 2 running slower than stock speed. Exit the tool by tabbing to Finish and confirm you’d like to reboot when asked. For even higher speeds, you can adjust settings directly within the boot configuration file. Run the following command at the terminal:

nano /boot/config.txt

Head to the bottom of the file, and use the following to adjust the performance of the processor:

arm_freq - Core clock frequency in megahertz

gpu_freq - GPU clock frequency in megahertz

sdram_freq - Memory clock frequency in megahertz

over_voltage - Increase the SoC’s voltage, in steps of 0.025V

Be aware, however, that manually adjusting these settings – in particular the voltage – can render your warranty void.

GPIO expansion

Although the latest Raspberry Pi models have a longer general-purpose-input-output (GPIO) header than their predecessors, it still lacks many functions of rival devices – in particular support for hardware pulse-width modulation (PWM) or analogue inputs. The solution is a GPIO expansion board.

There are plenty of add-ons from which to choose, many of which are tailored to a particular task such as robotics or home automation. A comprehensive list is available at [elinux.org/RPi_ Expansion_Boards].

Updating the firmware and kernel

You’re almost certainly aware that Raspbian needs regular updates to keep it performing in tip-top condition, but you may be running an older kernel and firmware release if you’re relying on the traditional method of using this command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

To ensure you have the very latest kernel and modules – providing bug fixes, stability and even performance improvements – you need to use a separate tool bundled with Raspbian. At the terminal, type the following command:

sudo rpi-update

This command refreshes the firmware, kernel and all the modules from the official GitHub repository, ensuring that your system is bang up to date.

Multi-boot via NOOBS

While its name may suggest that it’s designed for newcomers, NOOBS (New Out-Of-Box Software) includes one feature that power users may find very useful indeed: multi-boot support. Download NOOBS from [www.raspberrypi.org/downloads], and extract the contents of the Zip to a FAT32-formatted micro-SD card – there’s no need to mess around flashing raw images. Insert the card into the Pi and boot it, then tick the boxes next to as many operating systems as you’d like to install.

When installation is complete, the next boot will load a menu asking which of the installed operating systems you want to boot. Future boots will display this menu for ten seconds, after which the most recently booted OS will be automatically selected. When installing your OS, however, be aware that not every choice available in NOOBS is yet compatible with the Raspberry Pi 2.

How to Install Snappy Ubuntu Core to Raspberry Pi 2

While it isn’t a distribution for everyday use, Ubuntu Core is being positioned by its creator Canonical as the future of mobile and embedded computing. As a result, it can’t hurt to have a play ahead of time and, if you’re planning on creating and distributing packages for Ubuntu smartphones, Ubuntu Core on a Raspberry Pi offers a cheap way to start experimenting.

1. Download Ubuntu Core 

At the time of writing, Ubuntu Core wasn’t available through the NOOBS installer. As a result, the only way to get it up and running is to manually download the image file. Head to [www.raspberrypi.org/downloads] and download the latest release, which at the time of writing was Ubuntu Core Alpha 02. Note that, as Ubuntu requires at least the ARMv7 architecture, it’s incompatible with the ARMv6 original Raspberry Pi hardware. When the download has completed, extract the image file somewhere convenient.

2. Write image to micro-SD card 

As with Open ELEC, the Ubuntu Core image needs to be written to a micro-SD card, completely wiping any data currently on the card. Connect your card to your PC via a reader, then download Win32 ImageWriter from Google and use it to write the uncompressed image file. Users of Linux, OS X and other Posix-style operating systems can instead use the dd command line to write the image as with the following command, where XXX is the device ID of your SD card:

dd if=pi-snappy.img of=/dev/XXX

3. Update via Snappy

If you’re wondering why Ubuntu Core is often called ‘Snappy’ Ubuntu Core, it’s a reference to its new package manager. While the mainstream Ubuntu distribution uses the apt package manager, just like Raspbian, Ubuntu Core uses Snappy. For embedded use, Snappy has numerous benefits, including the ability to roll back any package to any point in time, but it will take time to get used to it. To make sure your Ubuntu Core installation is fully up to date, insert the micro-SD and plug in a keyboard, display, network cable and power, then log in with the username ‘ubuntu’ and password ‘ubuntu’. Type the following command:

sudo snappy update-versions

If you’re told that there are upgrades available, you can view and install them with:

snappy versions

sudo snappy update packagename

If you receive a certificate error, you’ll need to manually set the date and time on your system:

sudo date -s “Wed Apr 1 09:00:00 GMT 2015”

Naturally, change the date for the actual date and time of when you run the command, in 24-hour format.

4. Install WebDM

While most work on Snappy Core takes place at the command line, you can make your experience a little easier by installing WebDM – a package manager that’s accessible over the Raspberry Pi’s network port. Depending on the current release version and defaults selected, WebDM may or may not already be installed. To check, simply attempt to install it:

sudo snappy install webdm

Once the package has installed, if it wasn’t previously installed, you can verify it’s working by visiting http://raspberryip:4200 on the browser of any machine on the same network as the Pi, replacing ‘raspberryip’ with the Pi’s IP address. If you don’t know its IP address, go back to the terminal and type the following command:

ifconfig | grep inet\ addr

You can browse and install Software packages on this interface, but be aware that Ubuntu Core is in a very early alpha stage, so there isn’t much to see at present.

5. Experiment

As Ubuntu Core is in a very early alpha stage, it needs plenty of people to experiment with developing and using Snappy-packaged applications. The best way to get a handle on doing so is to visit the official tutorial at http:// developer.ubuntu.com/en/snappy, where you can take a tour of the operating system’s various features. You can also learn how to port Ubuntu Core to devices other than the Raspberry Pi 2, build or port existing apps to the Snappy package format, and even participate directly in the development of the open source Ubuntu Core.

Best AMD APU Build - How to take advantage of AMD APU

AMD’s APU technology is perfect for computer shops or offices who want to have PC builds with cheaper hardware and energy-cost without compromising average workloads. This technology allows you to use cheap hardware to handle up to heavy computer processing without the lack of graphics muscle to still carry medium gaming and browsing. These build will be running almost 24 hours and they don’t want to spend more money for overkills. In fact, it also a perfect build for a personal computer which is only used in slight gaming, entertainment, and office/school work. AMD APU is just the right piece for these needs.

I am using an AMD A6-5400K APU, a dual-core processor running at 3.60GHz at full load, with an integrated Radeon HD . I am using this build for writing blogs, watching YouTube, and web browsing. Based on my experience, these are the Real-life Benefits of my AMD APU:

1. It is cheaper.

2. Dual-cores are enough for my personal or encoding/browsing/slight gaming computer.

3. Above 3GHZ only on full load is just enough power if I really need it.

4. Powerful On-chip graphics that could run my games from low to medium settings while taking care of my browsing needs will save me more money and energy than buying an after-market graphics card.

Getting the job done with a powerful graphics and lesser power-consumption compared to my gaming machine, this build is just right for me. You might have a more powerful AMD APU at your disposal right now or planning to build one, here are some tips for you to take advantage of AMD APU technology:

1. Choose dual-core APUs only. If you are on this build, you might be saving money and you don’t want buying more cores with more power consumption.

2. Choose the latest APUs because they have the better graphics. FM2 sockets APUs are better than FM1s. You might want to forget the Ks because they will just increase your TDP.

3. Run on normal mode only where the processor will only run to the labeled speed at full load. You can have this setting on your BIOS. This will save you energy.

4. Still on your BIOS settings, force the APU to use the IGP or Integrated Graphics all the time and choose the maximum shared memory size. In my case, I choose 2GB full which is more enough for me but this is the part that you really want to take advantage. If you want to play modern games and browse modern sites most of the time, 2GB is the best choice. You can also step down to 1GB depending on your needs.

5. For the fourth tip to really work effectively, you need at least 6GB of RAM running at 1600MHz. You can choose bigger memory size and speed until your motherboard supports it. This leads to the suggestion that you also need to have a more advance motherboard or a board with a higher FM2 chipset to support high speed RAM. I am using 8GB of RAM. Actual memory running is 6GB only; the 2GB is shared on my graphics. RAM is cheaper these days than a graphics card, so you better take advantage of it.

6. Use only low resolution monitors. Of course, in this budget bracket you are not aiming for 1080p. While you can do that with your APU, it will increase your load and decrease your headroom. Meanwhile, a 20-inch monitor with 1600x900 resolutions works very well for me.

7. Be sure to download and install AMD Catalyst for your APU to function well.

You have more tips to share? Write a comment below. Thanks.

Chillblast Fusion Falcon Review and Test

This is our review and test of a pre-built desktop system, the Chillblast Fusion Falcon. While it is named after a bird, its chassis is hefty and strong enough to stay on your floor or desk. The Phanteks Enthoo Evolv case is durable and sturdy, but it’s also just 450mm tall and 230mm wide – far smaller than full-sized towers, making the Fusion Falcon a tempting micro-ATX alternative to monster desktop machines without cutting performance.

The star component is a GeForce GTX 980 graphics card. Its 1,126MHz core is overclocked to a beefier 1,178MHz, and it tops out at 1,279MHz – a little higher than the stock GPU. It’s partnered with the gaming CPU of the moment – Intel’s 4GHz Core i7-4790K, which Chillblast has boosted to 4.4GHz. That isn’t the highest overclock we’ve seen, but it should be enough to help the Fusion Falcon ease through most applications.

There’s 16GB of DDR3 RAM clocked at a middling 1,600MHz, and a familiar SSD and hard disk combination: a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo solid state drive and a 2TB Seagate hard drive.

Meanwhile, the Asus Z97M-Plus is a micro-ATX board with a decent feature set. The middle of the black PCB has a spare M.2 socket, and two spare DDR3 memory slots can be used to double the amount of RAM. There are a few SATA ports free too, although you’ll have to move the graphics card to access them, and the ports at the bottom of the board are fiddly to reach.

The backplate has four USB 3 ports, two USB 2 ports and a PS/2 port alongside six audio jacks, but there’s no clearCMOS button or S/PDIF output. The front I/O panel offers up two USB 3 ports and the usual audio jacks, although they all sit towards the bottom of one side panel, which could be awkward to reach, depending on the position of your PC.

Perhaps the biggest compromise with the motherboard is the lack of dual graphics ability: this board doesn’t support NVidia SLI, and its second PCI-E slot only runs at 4x speed. There are no on-board buttons or overclocking features either.

There’s also not much room inside the Phanteks case. The SSD and hard disk are relegated to a small cage beneath the PSU shroud, and there are only two bays – elsewhere, storage is limited to a single 3.5in or two 2.5in drives on the main bracket, and two more SSDs on the rear of the motherboard tray. There’s no optical drive either, and the modular bay can’t be used to add one, as the CPU cooler blocks its panel. That said, with changing storage requirements and falling prices, that’s enough room for most people.

In other departments, the Phanteks chassis is impressive. Its side panels swing open on slick hinges, and its front and top panels pop off easily.

A plastic panel with a dust filter is installed behind the main metal façade and protects the 200mm fan, while the PSU’s cables are hidden behind a thick metal shroud. The latter makes the system look tidy, and Chillblast’s attention to detail is just as tidy around the back, with cables running in neat, straight lines.

Finally, the Fusion Falcon also comes with Chillblast’s five-year warranty, which includes two years of collect and return coverage for parts and labor, and another three years of labor coverage after that.

Performance

Running Battlefield 4 at Ultra quality at 2,560 x 1,440, the Falcon never dropped below a solid 49fps. Crysis 3 is our toughest game, but the Chillblast was up to the task at this resolution with a very respectable minimum of 36fps.

Not surprisingly, the single-GPU Fusion Falcon was less convincing when playing games at 4K though. In Battlefield 4, its minimum frame rate dropped to 22fps, and it went all the way down to 17fps in Crysis 3.

In short, this machine is fantastic for gaming at 2,560 x 1,440, but you’ll need a PC with either two GPUs or a GTX Titan X (check our GTX Titan X Review here) for 4K gaming.

Meanwhile, the overclocked processor helped the Chillblast Fusion Falcon to an overall system score of 119,374 in our RealBench 2014 test. That’s a rapid, and enough to handle high-end work and avoid game bottlenecks.

None of the components proved too hot for the Chillblast with its Corsair H80i cooler and 200mm intake fan either. The processor’s delta T of 55°C is fine, and the highly efficient Maxwell GPU architecture meant that the GPU delta T was just 49°C as well. The Fusion Falcon barely made a noise when idling either, and it wasn’t much louder when tasked with tough games, while drawing a modest 335W from the mains when stress-tested. Considering the power available, this is all quite an achievement.

Conclusion

The GTX 980 has ample pace for gaming at every resolution beneath 4K, the processor is quick and the rest of the specification is reasonable too. It’s well-built, looks good and keeps cool. The micro-ATX form factor doesn’t compromise on performance, but this particular setup does result in a few compromises.

There isn’t a huge amount of upgrade room, for example especially for multi-GPU, and full-sized rigs have more room for extra storage. If the lack of upgrade room isn’t a major concern, though, the Chillblast Falcon Fusion is a sturdy, smart alternative to full-sized desktops, offering loads of power in a surprisingly quiet and small chassis.

VERDICT

Fast, well made and quiet. The Fusion Falcon is a great machine for gaming at 2,560 x 1,440, although its room for expansion is a little limited.

CLOUDY CIRCUITRY SCORE – 88

Overclockers Infin8 Nebula Review and Test

This is our review and test of a pre-built desktop system called Overclockers Infin8 Nebula. The latest system from Overclockers is one of the most powerful we’ve seen, and its cooling system is one of the slickest and most extensive water-cooling rigs we’ve seen for a long time.

Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB, 512GB and 1TB Comparisons and Tests

In a few significant ways, the 850 Pro is the most advanced 2.5in SSD on the market. So far, Samsung remains the only company to sell products based on 3D NAND, where layers of cells are stacked on top of each other, as well as horizontally. Samsung’s own implementation of this idea is called 3D V-NAND.

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB, 500GB and 1TB Comparison and Tests

Samsung’s SSD 850 Evo uses 3D V-NAND, the firm’s proprietary technology for vertically arranging flash memory cells. We’ve explained the advantages of V-NAND in the 850 Pro review on p52, and it clear that it adds considerably to the cost of SSD production. The 850 Evo aims for a lower price than the 850 Pro, but its prices aren’t the lowest around. The Crucial BX100 and OCZ Arc 100 are both more affordable, as is the Kingston SSDNow V300.

Intel SSD 730 240GB and 480GB Comparison and Tests

In the early days of SSDs, Intel was one of the biggest players, mostly thanks to the X-25M, which offered a significant step up in quality from a lot of other solid state products at the time. Since then, the company has retreated a little and, like many other brands, often relies on thirdparty SandForce controllers. Intel has a strong focus on expensive enterprise-level SSDs, of course, but it still has an interest in the consumer market, and the Intel name alone still carries a lot of weight.

SanDisk Ultra II 240GB Review and Test

While SanDisk’s Extreme Pro range (see opposite) aims for the top end of the market, it’s cheaper Ultra II series caters for the mid-level segment. All SSD manufacturers seem to be employing a similar strategy for their cheaper drives: shave off a few features, along with some performance via cut-down controllers that are cheaper to build, enabling them to cut a great deal off pricing.

Plextor M6 Pro 256GB and 512GB; SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB Comparison and Tests

The Plextor M6 Pro and SanDisk Extreme Pro occupy the same space in this Labs, as they share the same controller, Marvell’s 88SS9187. They differ in the types of NAND used, though, along with the features on offer, with both firms offering their own tweaks and proprietary additions. The Extreme Pro uses SanDisk’s own 19nm 2-bit NAND, with Plextor instead opting for A19nm Toshiba MLC NAND as used in the OCZ Arc 100.

What are M.2 SSDs? Do you need to buy them?

You could be forgiven for not knowing a great deal about M.2, since the term and the technology have only been around a short while. Originally known as NGFF, or nextgeneration form factor, M.2 is a 67-pin connector that’s intended to replace the growing plethora of different standards for connecting storage devices and other peripherals to a motherboard. It’s included on some Z97 and X99 motherboards, and it’s starting to show up in a growing number of laptops too.

Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB Review and Test

The Kingston SSDNow V300 has been on the market longer than any of the other SSDs on test, being released back in 2013 and based on SandForce’s aging SF-2281 controller. It’s joined by Toshiba 19nm MLC NAND chips, which are built on 64Gb packages, while the warranty is pegged at three years, which is typical of entry-level SSDs.

Crucial BX100 250GB, 500GB and 1TB Comparison and Tests

Following on from the roaring MX100, Crucial’s new strategy is to split its low-priced SSD range in two. The more advanced MX200 has hardware-based encryption, a power-loss protection circuit and SLC caching for some impressive endurance figures, at a slightly higher price than its predecessor does, while the BX100 drops these features and retains the MX100’s great value.

Crucial MX200 250GB, 500GB and 1TB Comparison and Tests

Crucial’s MX100 made a big impact when it launched in 2014, as it performed brilliantly while also being affordable. A few additions have since been made to its successor, the MX200, which have pushed up the price slightly, as the BX100 now occupies the role of Crucial’s most budget-friendly SSD range. The 128GB capacity has been dropped and a 1TB version added. It uses the same Marvell 88SS9189 controller and 16nm Micron MLC NAND as before, though, and retains most of the extra features such as hardware-accelerated AES 256-bit hardware encryption.

HyperX Cloud II Review and Test

The only visible difference between Cloud II and the original Cloud is that the former’s cup arms have a red anodized finish rather than the black of the latter.

As such, the Cloud II retains the sturdy black leather headband, large circumaural ear cups and comfortable, leatherette-covered, memory foam-filled ear pads that made the Cloud a pleasure to wear during long gaming sessions. Inside the large 53mm, drivers are still present too, as is the detachable microphone. Even the bundle of extras remains the same, with a handy airplane adaptor, carry bag and an extra pair of microfiber-covered ear pads included in the box.

How to Make a Video Game from Scratch 2015 version

This month, we have decided to have a go at making a video game for ourselves, and relate our experiences. We’re starting with no prior experience in game development, and no clue what we’re going to make, so the chances of us creating the next Minecraft are unlikely. But the point isn’t to create a masterpiece. Rather, it’s to show that today’s game-making software, combined with an abundance of helpful instructions online, mean that anybody can have a try.

Which the best operating system for your RaspberryPi 2?

Raspbian

The obvious choice for a general-purpose operating system, Raspbian was the first OS to receive support for the Raspberry Pi 2, and in a very clever manner. Rather than branching into two builds, Raspbian detects whether it’s running on the original ARMv6 BCM2835 or new ARMv7 BCM2836 and loads an appropriate kernel; everything in user-space, meanwhile, uses ARMv6 code.

How to build Raspberry Pi 2 Media Streamer using OpenELEC

One of the most common tasks for a housebound Raspberry Pi is to act as a media streamer, and that’s a job that the new Raspberry Pi 2, with its more powerful quad-core processor, can do with aplomb. Using the latest OpenELEC build, there’s no hint of the lag that plagued the user interface on the original Pi, and installing it is a breeze.

How to build a Raspberry Pi 2 File Server using Raspbian

While the strange configuration of its USB and network ports – which share a single USB 2 channel to the system-on-chip (SoC) – may limit the performance of the Raspberry Pi 2 when acting as a file server, its low cost and minuscule power draw mean it’s still a good choice for anyone who doesn’t need high-speed throughput.

How to use Apple Watch with iPhone

The first wearable gadget from Apple beams messages, Facebook updates and simplified apps to our wrists, eliminating the all-too-common need to take out our Apple devices to constantly check notifications. The Watch and the iPhone are intimately connected and should be considered as one system together. There are more than a dozen ways to interact with the Watch, from receiving glanceable notifications, to feeling ‘taptic’ feedback, to summoning Siri, according to WatchKit documentation for developers.

How to make professional Keynote Presentations

1. Control your presentations with your iPhone.

When Steve Jobs did his famous keynote addresses, he didn’t crouch over his laptop and advance slides by clicking the trackpad. He strode confidently about the stage, using a remote control to move things along. Now, not only can you do the same thing with an iPhone in your pocket (or an iPad or iPod touch), but it’s actually an even richer experience. All you have to do is open the Keynote app on your iOS device, and then tap the remote icon in the menu bar. Now you can see the current and next slide, or the next/ current slide plus your presenter notes so you don’t freeze up on stage, and you can draw on the screen with different coloured markers and even use a virtual laser pointer.

Why do you need to buy the newest MacBook?

Launched by Apple CEO Tim Cook in March, the new MacBook builds upon years of learning about miniaturisation during iPad and iPhone development to deliver the thinnest and lightest MacBook yet. “Can you even see it? Can you even feel it?” joked Cook. But not everyone is happy with the decision to equip the system with just one port (USB-C) to handle power, peripherals and external displays.

SteelSeries Apex M800 Review and Test

The keyboard market is saturated with Cherry MX switches, and we’re seeing more companies move away from them in a bid to offer something different. SteelSeries is one such company, and its Apex M800 is fitted with a brand-new switch, the QS1. SteelSeries claims the M800 is the fastest available mechanical keyboard, and it offers per-key RGB backlighting and reprogramming for every key. 

MSI GT80 2QE Titan Review and Test

MSI’s GT80 is the first laptop w mechanical keyboard, and there’s no quibbling with its pedigree thanks to Cherry MX Brown switches and SteelSeries design. The keyboard and touchpad have been hauled forwards to the front edge, with the touchpad on the right – a design change that helps the GT80 to mimic a more conventional desktop setup. 

Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL Review and Test

Phanteks makes some excellent full towers, but has only more recently turned to small form factors, although the confusingly named Mini XL is hardly small, with dimensions more akin to a large midtower. What this space offers you, however, isn’t only heaps of water-cooling support, but also the ability to house a second, full mini-ITX system inside with the purchase of a £23 upgrade kit.