Arris SB8200 and Motorola MB8600

[appleseed]

Arris SB8200, 32 channel DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem
Motorola MB8600, 32 channel DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem (Zoom, purchased right to license the name 'Motorola')

"Arris has equipped the SB8200 with a Broadcom BCM3390 chipset (a much needed change from the SB6190’s Intel Puma 6 chipset), 3 GB of RAM, 128MiB S34ML01G200TFV00 Spansion flash memory NAND and 16 MiB Macronix MX25L12805D SPI NAND flash memory."
https://www.mbreviews.com/arris-sb8200-review/

"Zoom has equipped the Motorola MB8600 with a Broadcom BCM3390ZRKFSBG chipset (2 X FPE G48506MN LAN transformers), 512 MB of RAM (Nanya NT5CC128M16IP-DI) and 128 MB of NAND storage memory (Micron)."
https://www.mbreviews.com/motorola-mb8600-review/



Teardown of the Arris SB8200:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31268505-

Teardown of the Zoom Motorola MB8600:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31481822- and
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r3...-DOCSIS-3-1-Modem-Arrives-This-Month~start=90


They both have the Broadcom chipset, BCM3390.

I am trying to understand why the Arris is hot and the Zoom (Motorola MB8600) is cool. Some places I've read the Arris runs hot including Amazon. Not saying it's detrimental, just want to understand the design philosophy differences (and how they relate to cost, efficiency, noise, etc..).
https://www.google.com/search?q=SB8200+hot

thanks

 

[coxhaus]

I can tell you my SB8200 runs hot. But it works well. I have not tried Motorola MB8600.

PS
I read your link on the MB8600 modem. Are you having trouble accessing your status page?
I have always like Motorola products. I bought my SB8200 when they first came out over 6 months ago.

 

[appleseed]

I wondered if it's because the SB 8200 has 3 GB of RAM vs 512 MB in the other, but that wouldn't make sense - heat from RAM is minimal in this application, I can only guess. That particular design choice has me wondering if it took an overclocked CPU to keep up with 3 GB of RAM vs 512 MB.

But then I wonder why they chose 3 GB of RAM vs 512 MB at a time when some are trying to mitigate Buffer Bloat on the internet, so it must be fast RAM.

 

[Internet Man]

The build quality and cooling design of the Arris SB8200 is much better than the Motorola MB8600 as shown in the teardowns that you linked. The SB8200 has a heatsink with many fins that is bolted to the board and uses thermal compound while the MB8600 seems to just use push pins to hold a small piece of bent aluminum against the CPU possibly with no thermal interface material. The SB8200 has a heatsink on the RAM while the MB8600 doesn't and the SB8200's heatsink touches other metal parts which help move heat away from the CPU.

I am trying to understand why the Arris is hot and the Zoom (Motorola MB8600) is cool.

I don't know what source claims definitively that one is hot an another is cool but maybe someone just felt more heat on the Arris model because it is better at moving heat away from the CPU out of the case where it can more easily be observed. Did someone actually run both modems simultaneously with a temperature probe connected directly to the CPU under the heatsink?

 

[appleseed]

I read your link on the MB8600 modem. Are you having trouble accessing your status page?

nah I'm in the market for one or the other, the hyperlink just happens to land on that post and I don't know why

coming from SB 6190. been with Arris since SB 6121, SB 6141. Motorola looks nicer and lower cost (by $20 MSRP) and wondering why

 

[coxhaus]

When I bought my SB8200 modem back when they first came out Amazon had big discounts. I think I paid $118. Probably because a lot of people were returning them because they only worked in old Time Warner areas.

 

[appleseed]

The SB8200 has a heatsink with many fins that is bolted to the board and uses thermal compound while the MB8600 seems to just use push pins to hold a small piece of bent aluminum against the CPU possibly with no thermal interface material. The SB8200 has a heatsink on the RAM while the MB8600 doesn't and the SB8200's heatsink touches other metal parts which help move heat away from the CPU.

..but maybe someone just felt more heat on the Arris model because it is better at moving heat away from the CPU out of the case where it can more easily be observed.

solid advice. ordered the SB8200