They're not show-stoppers compared to Western tech, but they could still be good workstations.
  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    631·
    6 months ago

    This is some really expensive hardware for a processor that’s a couple generations behind in performance.

    Also, I’m surprised these can be shipped to the US. I thought this tech was sanctioned or something related to it, or perhaps, it might soon be.

    EDIT: Ah, looks like it’s legal to purchase even as an entry on the US Entity List, but I am not a lawyer.

    • Kualk@lemm.eeEnglish
      171·
      6 months ago

      A couple generations don’t mean much anymore.

      Performance gains have been slow.

      I’d rather understand where exactly is its performance in comparison to AMD and Intel.

      Then I can make a call if it is worth it.

      After all there’s plenty of Raspberry Pi level performance and people are happy with it as long as price is right.

    • exanimeEnglish
      73·
      6 months ago

      Less than $400 for mobo, cpu and fan is not expensive even if it’s a couple of gens behind

      • Rinox@feddit.itEnglish
        71·
        6 months ago

        I mean, it’s a 4 core MIPS CPU, tops out at 2.5GHz and apparently compares to an i3 10100F, which is pretty much “reheated Skylake”. This with native code.

        It can translate x86 and ARM code in theory, but I can imagine the performance degradation. You can buy this if you want, I know I won’t

        • eleitl@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          If it runs Linux no need to translate anything. It’s been a while since I ran Unix on a MIPS CPU but it should just work.

          • Rinox@feddit.itEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            Not every app on Linux is compiled for MIPS, or am I wrong? I mean, technically Windows 8 RT could run natively on ARM without problems, except you couldn’t run any apps, which made the whole thing 100% useless.

            Unless every app can run natively, you’ll always have to run some sort of translation layer, either in software, hardware or both. That layer will have native performance.

            • eleitl@lemm.eeEnglish
              3·
              6 months ago

              In a Linux distribution for a particular architecture all code is compiled to the underlying CPU architecture. Packages can also be built from source.

              Proprietary software is different since it doesn’t give you the freedom to build things from scratch. There are emulators, of course, but they all fundamentally suck.

              • rottingleaf@lemmy.zipEnglish
                3·
                6 months ago

                In a Linux distribution for a particular architecture all code is compiled to the underlying CPU architecture. Packages can also be built from source.

                Not all code is written portable. Say, many things won’t compile or won’t work under PPC64.

                MIPS64 is not a very common architecture today. We know XOrg, FVWM and Emacs will probably work, so I expect this thing to be usable for many things. But not just as good as Linux on amd64.

      • zalgotext@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        I can get an AMD 7800X3D, a b650 mobo, and 32Gb of DDR5 RAM for $500 right now in a bundle from my local Microcenter. I bought that exact bundle for like $425 a few months ago when I rebuilt my gaming PC because they happened to have some other sale running that stacked with the bundle price. Gimme a modern x64 processor and DDR5 RAM I know will feasibly last me like 10 years for a few extra bucks any day.

      • eleitl@lemm.eeEnglish
        33·
        6 months ago

        I would buy it. No US fed backdoors, just Chinese ones, and I’m not in China.

        • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
          21·
          6 months ago

          You know, it’s sort of an interesting thought. If China uses my PC as part of some bot net that would suck, but that’s probably the worst that would happen. In the US though, the three letter agencies could “disappear” me. Not that I’m worth disappearing, but… I highly doubt China would send agents after me unless I visited and I don’t really plan on it.

  • fuzzywombat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    375·
    6 months ago

    This is not a good deal. First of all I highly doubt this mobo and CPU will be Windows 11 compatible so you’re out of luck there. For $373 you can find an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and mobo combo deal that will vastly outperform this Chinese CPU. Also AMD’s AM5 platform is DDR5 while this Chinese CPU and mobo combo is DDR4. $373 is a ridiculously non competitive price.

      • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
        11·
        6 months ago

        Me 😢

        I have a critical work app that will not run in wine or with proton.

        I’ve even contacted the devs and they suggested trying to run the android version on Linux, but it doesn’t work either.

        • realbadat@programming.devEnglish
          7·
          6 months ago

          I have several for work that will likely never work in Linux.

          So those have a nice little VM they sit on, which has been stripped bare of the nonsense. Remote desktop access enabled, and I can do what I need whenever.

          • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            That’s pretty interesting, but it’s a meeting software. So I’m regularly sharing my screen and sharing files. So I need to be in the os. I’ll just key checking it every time a roster counts out for proton or the app I use.

            • JTskulk@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              That’s crazy, most meeting software I’ve seen is cross platform and have web clients.

              • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                6 months ago

                I know, it’s exactly how I feel about the situation.

                They are going to release a new version with monetization soon. Maybe that will be a big .0 release and maybe there will be a Linux version.

              • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                6 months ago

                To share the bigger picture, I’m using this app 99% of my working hours. So it doesn’t make sense to do it this way.

                I’d be better off just working out of the vm but due to performance loss and dealing with passing through usb I just use windows.

                Although, outside of work I use Linux.

            • realbadat@programming.devEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              Ah, admittedly I avoid that problem entirely, I have an MTR, a ZR, etc running on devices here (hardware/software testing stuff), so I don’t need to run meetings on my desktop often.

              Edit: Just to note, I’ve done USB passthrough with VMs that were ZR builds and such, so that can be done. But I think if your sharing from there it can get messy (USB video capture and such as your sharing method, so on).

      • Neato@ttrpg.networkEnglish
        103·
        6 months ago

        The majority of businesses and a lot of consumers. 46% of steam users. Few years it’ll be the majority.

      • Weslee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        6 months ago

        I do, I’ve been trying to get off it and onto Bazzite but I tried to do a test run by installing it on my laptop before my pc and the boot loader won’t pick up the usb 😔

        I don’t feel comfortable doing it on my pc without first seeing it work, so it seems I’m stuck on windows

    • exanimeEnglish
      114·
      6 months ago

      This is not a good deal. First of all I highly doubt this mobo and CPU will be Windows 11 compatible so you’re out of luck there.

      That’s a feature lol

      For $373 you can find an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and mobo combo deal that will vastly outperform this Chinese CPU

      Really? I’m actually asking because I don’t think you can get the amd combo you mentioned at that price. Also, we’d need to confirm the specs and performance. So far it would be just speculation

    • Kualk@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      Give us some links for combo of motherboard, CPU and fan. I assume it needs a fan.

    • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      6 months ago

      You shouldn’t compare retail prices with deals. Go compare it to AMD MSRP.

    • AlleroEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      I think what people here miss out is that it’s not meant to immediately become a retail choice.

      First, some specific industries might be interested, then others, then, maybe, common consumers.

      • fuzzywombat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        This Chinese CPU and mobo is not meant to compete against Intel or AMD based system. This 4 core CPU is probably comparable to 2019 Intel or AMD CPU at best. This CPU meant for two markets, domestic Chinese consumers and Chinese government. The west sees China as emerging threat so they’ve been blocking lot of chip manufacturing tech and high end GPUs used for AI. The Chinese government wants to be less dependent on western technology and build their own domestic CPU. Also Chinese government may be paranoid about Intel IME and AMD ST spying on them so this CPU would alleviate that worry. Clearly it’s not meant to be sold in mass to western consumers. If I had to guess actual competitive price of this CPU and mobo combo is around $150 at the most.

  • Kualk@lemm.eeEnglish
    222·
    6 months ago

    A few years from now we may be seeing US tariffs on these just like EVs today.

    China is developing fast and it took US trade war seriously.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      History with project TRON shows that it’s more likely that importing those will just become illegal.

      • breakingcups@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        6 months ago

        It is. Originally they were a MIPS-like, then they licensed it and became MIPS-compatible, then they extended it into their own instruction set.

    • Toes♀@ani.socialEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      I’m having a hard time finding a bullet point list of all it’s features.

      Some articles are telling me it’s a match for Haswell others are telling me it has AVX2. None of them seem that reliable. Do you happen to know?

        • Toes♀@ani.socialEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          The article explicitly says it supports x86. So I’m trying to understand to what extent?

          • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            6 months ago

            Ah ok. Well, I guess it’s just a slow emulation, but we won’t know for sure until someone runs some benchmarks.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1513·
    6 months ago

    Why would anyone want this? Maybe they are forcing Chinese nationals to buy them and inflate their popularity as a product for Papa CCP.