HP's new toy (or your future disposable Ryzen embedded box for 2021/2022)

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WANg

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Jun 10, 2018
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Well, it looks like HP once again accidentally leaked the spec sheet and the disassembly part-out for their new t540 thin client.

This is a fairly interesting beastie as it's meant to be the cheap-but-cheerful (read: no soldered RAM/storage component) version of the t640. One RAM slot instead of 2 (up to 32GB of DDR4 SODIMM), Ryzen embedded R1305G instead of the R1505G (probably a 7-10% performance delta, so CPU-wise a bit better than the J5005 and closer to an i7-7600U), but looks to be M.2 storage and wireless NIC.

The t640 is already available used for between 160 and 200 USD. If the sales pattern from the t520/530 series continue, secondary market versions of the t540 (once it shows up there after 6-9 months of general availability) can end up being your cheap (< 100 USD) Ryzen embedded box for homelab projects for 2021 or 2022 - maybe as an HTPC box, a low duty retrogaming machine, or as a cheaper, "more ghetto" TinyMiniMicro box.
 
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Dave Corder

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I would love to know what version of HDMI the HDMI Option Card supports (i.e., can it do 4K HDR?). And also how to get my hands on that Option Card by itself...
 

WANg

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Found one of these on ebay last night for $100. Stock didn't last very long.

Eh, that's a bit odd. It's a 8/128/Windows model (implying a more premium model) but yet the "ABA" model number is not given. It also states that there are no warranties on the machine (which is odd since they typically have HP's 3 year depot-only base warranty baked in - although that verbiage looks like boilerplate from all their auctions). The fact that they are selling one at the firesale price of 100 (which is lower than the 180 on a base model listing and close to the t530s that they do have) shows that they want to get rid of it ASAP.
 

BackBlast

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Oct 20, 2021
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This is a fairly interesting beastie as it's meant to be the cheap-but-cheerful (read: no soldered RAM/storage component) version of the t640. One RAM slot instead of 2 (up to 32GB of DDR4 SODIMM), Ryzen embedded R1305G instead of the R1505G (probably a 7-10% performance delta, so CPU-wise a bit better than the J5005 and closer to an i7-7600U), but looks to be M.2 storage and wireless NIC.
The CPU comparison appears to be inaccurate here. I've had some experience with it now, and while the spec says the R1305G can boost to 2.8Ghz, it doesn't in the T540. At least I never see it above 1.5Ghz. I would assume because of the thermal setting.

It's a pretty respectable little machine, but the CPU performance delta between a R1305G @ 8W and R1505G @ 15W is going to be significantly more than 10%.
 

WANg

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The CPU comparison appears to be inaccurate here. I've had some experience with it now, and while the spec says the R1305G can boost to 2.8Ghz, it doesn't in the T540. At least I never see it above 1.5Ghz. I would assume because of the thermal setting.

It's a pretty respectable little machine, but the CPU performance delta between a R1305G @ 8W and R1505G @ 15W is going to be significantly more than 10%.
That was written back in October 2020, and it was based on an estimate - however, it still holds up as a worst-case analysis.
The R1505G has an issue with heat dissipation on the t640 - if you manage to load the cores up for an extended period of time, the passive heatsinks don't wick away heat all that well. The t640 only features a single metal plate connected to the underside with a heat pipe, and it needs a well ventilated room with air movement, assuming that the machine is placed on the octagonal stand (which serves to create an air gap so cool air can enter from the bottom and exit to the top). The rest of the plastic chassis doesn't really help.

During thermal hysteresis/stress-ng testing (stress-ng -c 6 -m 2g) and in comparison to both the Moderro IEP4660 and the Dell Wyse 5070, the t640 constantly ran about 10 degrees F higher than the rest and thermal throttling will decrease its performance - which happened about 10 minutes into a 20 minute stress test run. The recovery time depends on how fast the SoC cools back to below 60 C.

If the CPU is barely loaded/with intermittent usage the performance delta between the R1305/Athlon Silver 3050e and the R1505G/Athlon 300U is about 15-18%. If it's heavily loaded/thermally throttled, it's 7-10%. The heat sink on the t540 is a bit oversized for the job which gives it a slight edge in thermal management.

You can conceivably bring the performance back up on the t640 side by using a USB powered CPU fan on the bottom of the chassis (the side with the 2 screw holes barely visible) to blow the hot air upwards towards the heat-pipe/heat-sink up top, but for most use cases, that's not really something people will do.
 
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