![]() In two weeks' testing the box crashed several times, sometimes while doing very little, which is frustrating but not necessarily a deal-breaker. Unfortunately I can't say that the Voyo V3 is rock solid. If you like to push your computer then you might pine for a little more RAM, but if that's the case then maybe this isn't the box for you. ![]() The Voyo V3's quad-core Intel Atom power plant and 4GB RAM is fine for day-to-day productivity tasks, making it a viable student PC if you've already got the monitor and other peripherals lying around. Life becomes more complicated if the Pi is also a download box and server. If you like to tinker then you could get similar results running Kodi media player on a cheaper Raspberry Pi, at least with 1080p video, but only if you're prepared to invest the extra time and effort to learn your way around Linux and perhaps get your hands dirty at the command line. Using the Voyo V3 as both a lounge room media player and a central home media server kills two birds with one stone and might make it easier to justify the expense. Using Windows 10 gives you a lot more flexibility and choice than a NAS in terms of download and media server software. Of course you're forgoing a multi-drive NAS' extra RAID data protection and other advanced features which can make a NAS a valuable addition to your home network.Īs a compromise you might configure the Voyo V3 as a download box and media player/server but still rely on a NAS for the data storage heavy lifting. ![]() If you're only interested in media server features you might consider the Voyo V3 a feasible and cost-effective replacement for a media-savvy NAS, although you might need to invest in an external USB drive to boost the storage. In Synology's defence its own DSVideo streaming app can take advantage of the NAS' hardware decoding, and the newer DS216play packs more of a punch, but if you're wedded to Plex then it's worth weighing up your options. Plex can't use hardware acceleration on the Synology network drive either, which means the load falls upon the dual-core Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor accompanied by 1GB of RAM. The same 1080p MKV video chokes when streamed from Plex Media Server running on a Synology DS214play network drive. ![]() Streaming that 1080p MKV video and transcoding it for another device sees the Voyo V3's CPU usage hit 100 per cent, but at least the video still plays smoothly. Unfortunately you can't always take advantage of the hardware decoding, which is where the Voyo V3's general grunt comes in handy.įor example if you're running Plex Media Server on the Voyo V3 to stream video around your home it can't take advantage of the hardware decoding. Disable hardware acceleration and Kodi's CPU usage jumps to 60 per cent for the 1080p video, while playing Ultra HD it blows out past 90 per cent and the video stutters badly. You can see this at work when running Kodi on the Voyo V3 – when GPU hardware acceleration is enabled Kodi's CPU usage sits at around 10 per cent whether you're watching a Full HD 1080p MKV file or an Ultra HD MP4 file. Using the right playback software it hands the video decoding over to the Intel HD graphics chip to take the load off the CPU. Thanks to the Atom's video hardware acceleration the Voyo V3 has the grunt to output up to Ultra HD video at 30fps via the HDMI 1.4 output. ![]() The box also has built-in Bluetooth, giving you the option to keep a compact wireless keyboard with a built-in trackpad on the coffee table. If the Voyo V3 is going to live in your lounge room then you'll want to add a USB infrared receiver, which should work straight out of the box with media player software like Kodi or Plex Home Theatre to offer a slick couch-friendly user interface. This might be fine for everyday computing but if you've got plans to turn the Voyo V3 into a media centre/server then you might want to invest in a USB to Gigabit Ethernet adaptor. Not surprisingly there's no onboard optical drive, but you're also sacrificing an Ethernet port in favour of built-in 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. Unfortunately the USB-C port is only for power, not connecting USB devices, and Voyo throws in an AC power pack along with a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. The Voyo V3 also has you covered when it comes to connectivity, with a USB2.0 port on the side and two USB3.0 ports on the back accompanied by mini-HDMI, audio-out, a microSD card slot and a USB-C port. Australians will obviously pay more once you allow for the exchange rate and shipping. That's enough grunt to handle day-to-day computing tasks, all for around US$200 from a range of online stores including GearBest which supplied our review unit. The Voyo V3 offers plenty of connectivity options including mini-HDMI 1.4 video.ĭespite its amazingly compact design, the Voyo V3 runs a full version of Windows 10 Home 64-bit on a new Intel Atom Cherry Trail X7-Z8700 1.6GHz quad-core processor – accompanied by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of solid state storage rather than flash. ![]()
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