My Next Pc

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#1 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Sun 11 Aug 2019, 03:05

Ok I've been using desktops mostly and the one I'm using freezes a lot so I'm thinking of buying a cheap low power fanless PC, I really don't like fans anyways, they are always clogging up, I'm thinking of this one its its like $200 USD its x86 64bit, LPDDR4 8GB Ram, 128 GB SSD, On paper it looks good.

, I normally used portable 2TB usb hard drives, Just looking for something cheap and fast to compile on

ttuuxxx

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3289141 ... b201603_52

nic007 · #2 Post by **nic007** » Sun 11 Aug 2019, 06:58

I don't think I'll ever use anyrhing else than a laptop in future but they are still a bit expensive compared to desktops/boxes.

#3 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Sun 11 Aug 2019, 11:50

nic007 wrote:I don't think I'll ever use anything else than a laptop in future but they are still a bit expensive compared to desktops/boxes.

Never had much luck with laptops, I drink a lot of coffee and ruined a few with liquids, Also they have fans that get dirty and heat-up and are a pain to clean. I liked towers for upgrades/repairs etc, This time around I just wanted something hassle free and cheap to run.
ttuuxxx

bigpup · #4 Post by **bigpup** » Sun 11 Aug 2019, 14:32

That seems to be a good computer for what you need.
Not sure about the processor.

Check the Intel web site and look over the specs for that processor.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... 6-ghz.html

I am only seeing HDMI for hooking a monitor to it.
I assume you have a monitor that can use that.
There are hdmi to vga adapters, that provide the graphics, but not the other features of hdmi.

One thing I have found with very new computers.
Need to be using one of the latest Linux kernels and the latest firmware.
Because this uses the Intel integrated graphics.
You want to be using the latest i915 graphics driver.
Bionicpup64 8.0 has supported them, so far.

8Geee · #5 Post by **8Geee** » Sun 11 Aug 2019, 18:08

Hmmm... not bad, but Gigabyte offers this at Newegg.

Comparable and a bit cheaper. Video is intel UHD-600. The Wifi and ethernet are stated as intel.

EDIT: note the Realtek ALC255 audio. The Internal microphone IS NOT connected to the chip, resulting in NUMEROUS bug reports. None of the "bugs" can be fixed unless the mic is connected to the chip. Warm up your soldering iron

Regards
8Geee

Lobster · #6 Post by **Lobster** » Mon 12 Aug 2019, 04:28

How about the fanless, silent and ultra cheap raspberry pi 4?
... our tiny puppi ARM for RPi 4 needs you ...

We welcome all the ARM compiling and testing know how available to puppykind

In the UK I would get a Punch or Zoostorm
probably cheapest ryzen processor 8gig mem from ebuyer
if going the x86 route. Not sure what is best in Oz ...

... you could get two computers ... woof, woof ...

AMD is cheaper, desktops without OS are cheaper

... the raspberrians are uber geeks ... penguinating their kids ...

https://youtu.be/l9YxTXDiiFY

Puppy all breeds
of awesome

mouldy · #7 Post by **mouldy** » Mon 12 Aug 2019, 08:42

I was kinda looking at the Intel NUC with i5 or i7 for a while, until I got to the price.... which seems a might salty. See I got this cheapness gene in me that just wont let me spend much.....

Then I ran across AOpen MP45-D on Ebay. Its older, kinda early nuc. Oddly I won it for US$20 shipped. Sometimes minimum bids do win. Came with some outdated unsupported windows server software, useless to me.

Apparently most of these sold new bare bone with no processor or RAM. Mine came with Core2Duo 2.53Ghz and 2GB (takes upto 4GB) and I have no reason to up it. Quiet. Have had varous linux on it, Bionicpup64 at moment and it runs great. Most of time its quiet, 22db idle mode, running fanless, but must have fan buried in there somewhere as it will on very rare occassions let out a brief jet engine burst under hard load. Believe me first time it did this about fell off my chair as I had gotten to thinking of it as completely fanless. Extremely rare for the fan to cut in. And hey its older, graphics definitely not anything to write home about though fine as workstation. I however can forgive a lot for a quiet $20 "nuc". LOL, I remember when basic dumb calculator was more than that.

And hey your current computer that freezes, might just need cleaning and heatsink reseated with new thermal goo. Or, might have a wonky stick of RAM??? Just cost bit time to find out. But if you have the "new computer itch" then go for it.

And hey if you want actual faster, really look at something with i5 or i7 processor and modern RAM. Probably generation 3 or newer.

#8 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Wed 14 Aug 2019, 13:25

Lobster wrote:How about the fanless, silent and ultra cheap raspberry pi 4?
... our tiny puppi ARM for RPi 4 needs you ...
We welcome all the ARM compiling and testing know how available to puppykind

In the UK I would get a Punch or Zoostorm
probably cheapest ryzen processor 8gig mem from ebuyer
if going the x86 route. Not sure what is best in Oz ...

... you could get two computers ... woof, woof ...

AMD is cheaper, desktops without OS are cheaper

... the raspberrians are uber geeks ... penguinating their kids ...

https://youtu.be/l9YxTXDiiFY

Puppy all breeds
of awesome

I was thinking of the Pi4 but I've been following reviews and it looks like you need a fan now because it runs hot, I'm really looking for fanless this time round, Plus it has some USB issues, What I'm thinking is that I'll wait 6 months or so and then someone will figure out the how to make it fanless, even if its some sort of water cooling etc, Also I've read where a 8GB version might be in the mix, Now that would be cool.
ttuuxxx

bigpup · #9 Post by **bigpup** » Wed 14 Aug 2019, 14:05

You do understand that a Pi4 is all you get.
There are other things you need to buy to actually use it.
Well, if you have computer stuff laying around, you may already have them.
It is ARM and not x86.

Always issues.
Here is a good review of a Pi4 B
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ra ... ,6193.html

Because the new SoC needs more power, the Raspberry Pi 4 B charges over USB Type-C instead of micro USB. It also requires a power adapter that can deliver at least 3 amps of power and 5 volt.

After we first published this review, we found out that some USB Type-C cables don't work with the Raspberry Pi 4. Those cables that are "electronically marked" will see the Pi 4 as a USB audio device and not provide power. Only USB-C to USB-C cables can be electronically marked and mainly those that are high-speed. If you buy Raspberry Pi's official Pi 4 charger, which comes with a cable, you won't have a problem.

A Pi4 case is needed. A Pi3 case will not work.

A Pi4 kit is the easy way to go.
Comes with the Pi4
Case
Power supply
Usually some cables
And other stuff they want to throw in.

linuxcbon · #10 Post by **linuxcbon** » Fri 16 Aug 2019, 04:26

I like to study PC hardware so maybe I got some ideas for you. For example, you can buy a "normal" PC and then :

1/ for the CPU :
you can buy a fanless CPU cooler :
See https://graphicscardhub.com/passive-cpu-cooler/
They work for most of the CPUs but they are very expensive.
There are only 2 models which are cheap :
Arctic Alpine 11 ($15) for intel processors.
Arctic Alpine AM4 ($10) for AMD processors.

2/ for the video card :
you can use the onboard (motherboard) integrated video card : it has no fan but it's not powerful.
If you need more video power, you can buy a fanless video card : most are not powerful, except the GeForce GT 1030, which is quite good. A good model : Gigabyte GT 1030 Silent Low Profile 2G for around $ 100.

Lobster · #11 Post by **Lobster** » Mon 26 Aug 2019, 04:39

I was thinking of the Pi4 but I've been following reviews and it looks like you need a fan now because it runs hot, I'm really looking for fanless this time round, Plus it has some USB issues, What I'm thinking is that I'll wait 6 months or so and then someone will figure out the how to make it fanless, even if its some sort of water cooling etc, Also I've read where a 8GB version might be in the mix, Now that would be cool.
ttuuxxx

Ah ha, the new fanless cases are here

https://thepihut.com/products/aluminium ... berry-pi-4
The rpi4 is hot BUT through clever design the heat is sunk throughout the board and components

... now that is cool ... and hot ...

Yes 8GB will probably be the next update.

I have a fanless graphic card on my x86, I would prefer a fanless power supply but have found they are expensive

Puppy Linux
The rite to bare ARM

#12 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Wed 28 Aug 2019, 05:44

8Geee wrote:Hmmm... not bad, but Gigabyte offers this at Newegg.

Comparable and a bit cheaper. Video is intel UHD-600. The Wifi and ethernet are stated as intel.

EDIT: note the Realtek ALC255 audio. The Internal microphone IS NOT connected to the chip, resulting in NUMEROUS bug reports. None of the "bugs" can be fixed unless the mic is connected to the chip. Warm up your soldering iron

Regards
8Geee

That's the one I bought and went for a 500gb M.2 SSD and 8GB of DDR4 ram.

Thanks
ttuuxxx

#13 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Wed 28 Aug 2019, 05:58

Lobster wrote:
I was thinking of the Pi4 but I've been following reviews and it looks like you need a fan now because it runs hot, I'm really looking for fanless this time round, Plus it has some USB issues, What I'm thinking is that I'll wait 6 months or so and then someone will figure out the how to make it fanless, even if its some sort of water cooling etc, Also I've read where a 8GB version might be in the mix, Now that would be cool.
ttuuxxx
Ah ha, the new fanless cases are here
https://thepihut.com/products/aluminium ... berry-pi-4
The rpi4 is hot BUT through clever design the heat is sunk throughout the board and components ... now that is cool ... and hot ...

Yes 8GB will probably be the next update.

I have a fanless graphic card on my x86, I would prefer a fanless power supply but have found they are expensive

Puppy Linux
The rite to bare ARM

In about 3-6 months after they come out with the next update revision of the Pi 4, I'll look into buying one, I do want a Pi dedicated for my stereo with a 32 bit DAC

, Most aluminum fanless cases right now don't support the height of another board attached to it. Plus I want the 8GB version

ttuuxxx

LateAdopter · #14 Post by **LateAdopter** » Wed 28 Aug 2019, 08:55

Hello ttuuxxx

One feature of the Intel quad core SoC is poor single threaded performance.

I'm using a Celeron N3150 mini-itx board with 19V DC input.

While MPV works well on it, VLC won't because it puts too much into one thread which chokes at 100%

I think the single thread performance also affects the speed XZ decompression when loading Puppy.

You can see the the j4205 here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... Hz&id=2877

It's better than my N3150 . I had a Athlon II X2 240 which had double the performance, until last month when the motherboard broke. I'm planning to replace it with an Athlon 200ge or a Pentium g5420. Both are 2 core, 4 thread chips which have four times the single thread performance compared with the N3150.

#15 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Wed 28 Aug 2019, 16:06

LateAdopter wrote:Hello ttuuxxx

One feature of the Intel quad core SoC is poor single threaded performance.

I'm using a Celeron N3150 mini-itx board with 19V DC input.

While MPV works well on it, VLC won't because it puts too much into one thread which chokes at 100%

I think the single thread performance also affects the speed XZ decompression when loading Puppy.

You can see the the j4205 here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... Hz&id=2877

It's better than my N3150 . I had a Athlon II X2 240 which had double the performance, until last month when the motherboard broke. I'm planning to replace it with an Athlon 200ge or a Pentium g5420. Both are 2 core, 4 thread chips which have four times the single thread performance compared with the N3150.

Thats the wrong CPU this is the right one , Its a bit better

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... Hz&id=3159 but really anything is better than the one I have now, By specs my tower PC should be awesome but from day one its been terrible!. it crashes when I have about 280mb cache. everyday . This new pc won't.
ttuuxxx

tallboy · #16 Post by **tallboy** » Wed 28 Aug 2019, 20:54

From what comments I have read over the years, there are always some issues when it comes to Puppy on some laptops. I have a mini-PC myself, an AsRock Vision 3D 156b, and from what info I have found, most internal components were originally designed for laptops. I don't know if it means much, but it may be a thing to consider when buying.

#17 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Fri 30 Aug 2019, 03:54

Newegg already delivered the 500gb M.2 SSD, The PC will be here by next Tuesday, But the 8GB Memory is coming from China, Man I wished I would of read where the parts are coming from, I would of paid a couple extra bucks and had it delivered from local sources, So that's what I did, lol I just ordered an addition 4GB of memory from a local supplier 2-5 days delivery

, So I guess this little beast will have 12 GB of memory.
ttuuxxx

#18 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Mon 02 Sep 2019, 20:14

Ok getting pretty excited now, The new PC comes in Tomorrow and looking forward to it, feels like Christmas

ttuuxxx

#19 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Tue 03 Sep 2019, 22:38

Ok well it came in, Boy its small

, Had to mess around with the systems setup a bit, but managed to boot with it, Well Facebook is a lot faster scrolling, I'm enjoying it

, I also at the same time loaded up netflix and started watching a Star Trek episode with zero delay, even when I fast forward or rewind, So I figured lets see, I'll play Netflix on FF and then fire up a 1.4GB movie on Gnome MPV and have them both playing at the same time, It worked flawlessly , I could hear both shows and was able to move fast forward without any lag, Its early days but right now I have zero issues with it under load, For around $400 Canadian total for a new PC with 12GB of ram, and a crazy fast 500GB SSD that runs on like 18W of power compared to slow sluggish tower, Its a no brainer.

#20 Post by **ttuuxxx** » Tue 03 Sep 2019, 22:58

Ok its my first time with a M.2 SSD drive, i moved the 1.4gb movie from a portable usb drive to the SSD, which took about 20 seconds, then I copied the same move to another partition on the SSD , Took about 3 seconds or 3 mississippi's lol , I think its about time to start building a new pup and break this puppy in.
ttuuxxx

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