Spacecadet's Dumb Mini PC ideas thread.

GRM forum isn't really the place for this.. but.. there are some other uber nerds out there among this group.

For a few years the only PC I owned was a low rent PC stick. it was a backup to my ability to do MS office stuff at work at the dealership.

Fast forward to today, that PC stick was just basically a way to play youtube videos and interact with the web without using my chromecast
 on my TV.


I have my uber desktop PC for doing my major day to day stuff, but it is NOT what you might call portable.

i brought it up with my to IL on my covid-cation from TX and my dad and I tried to put a Windows 10 64 bit install on it and it ...died..

so my dad sent over the specs for a PC stick similar to the one he has.. $140..

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Z8350-Windows-Computer-Support/dp/B07MB9TC33/ref=pd_ybh_a_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D0RMKT9HCZ2R58EW0E4D

not bad but not great price..

i've been on a kick lately watching videos about micro PC's and there's a couple options.. but i recently was browsing the internet and saw a Lenovo enterprise solution that's VERY small. Not as small as the PC stick.. But it's small for a desktop. 7 inches by 7 inches by less than 2 inches thick..

but they're not Cheap. a few hundred bucks.. so that killed that idea..

until i was browsing amazon this evening... and I found This little guy!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075FHNZC8/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Lenovo M92P a older version of what i had seen online.. but with decent clock speeds and 8gb of ram..

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-tiny/m92p/

but it looks like it should be a lot more powerful than the PC stick and it's suposed to run very quiet according to the reviews i read online.

Here's a comparison of the CPU in the unit vs the one in the PC stick.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=93361,65703

Snagged for $160 with tax.. lets give it a try!

should be able to run games and it gives me an option for a much more portable PC when i am traveling.

Interesting.  I like the idea, but am not quite computer literate enough to know what I need.  I start WFH next week, doing pretty heavy CAD work, but remoted in to the work PC that can handle it.  The plan was to repurpose my iracing rig for a while, but I bet something like this would be sufficient.  After all, I really just need something that will run a browser, if I understand this correctly.  The little guy you found might work great and save me from having to shuffle the big PC around.

In reply to RedGT :

if you've got an amazon account.. i'd say try it and then if it doesn't work, immediately return it. they've got a 90 day return window on these.. that's part of why i'm taking the plunge on it..

BUT i've also been doing more digging.

the next gen M92P is also not much more.. i canot tell you one way or the other which is superior for their relative prices..

but they also sell the M93P barebones without a CPU and without a drive.. so.. if you're able to follow some simple videos on youtube and you have a little know how on how to install a operating system.. you can also build one..

this guy has a few videos about the M93P he loves.. here's a video showing him doing  CPU upgrade.

Ordered the m92p with the 240gb ssd, should be here Monday.  

In reply to RedGT :

Well you're going to beat me then.. so I'm curious what you think of yours.  

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/39vLzN
 

put together a simple APU based build on PC Part Picker just as a reference on cost.

it's significantly larger in size than what we're working with on the M92p Mini's

Servethehome.com has a story going called tinyminimicro, or something like that about the small form factor computers.  Like the M93p, but from multiple vendors.  Compared to the NUC form factor PCs, or those PCs on a stick, the small form factors really have a huge bang for their buck.  There may even be some with first gen Ryzen G/Athlon G APUs that would have better gfx than the built in Intel chips. 
 

I would definitely look at the small form factor PCs over a stick.  The stick you mentioned has an Intel Atom cpu.  For a chrome book it would be passable.  For a desktop, it's a pass.  

In reply to Wxdude10 - Mike :

https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimicro-home-lab-revolution/

found the project. yes, this is exactly what we're talking about. he's talking some newer stuff than I am.. but yes.. these little guys have some serious upside.

I'm thinking my final deployment of this unit will be as a media player for my TV as well as a retro game emulator.

the unit I bought has a APU in it with Intel integrated graphics. so i'm hoping it will be able to handle a little bit of retro gaming.

 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

If you are talking 2d legacy games, then the Intel graphics would be ok.  But any bit of 3D and it chokes real fast.  You can do some emulators, within reason from a gfx perspective.  
 

But the value in those systems is really high.

In reply to Wxdude10 - Mike :

i ran an N64 emulator years ago on a PC stick but it wasn't perfect. it should do great on this. It has 8gb of RAM, so with how ram heavy browsers are getting it will be nice to have some overhead in that dept. and these have an upgrade path with the DDR3 SODIMM slots. i found a pair of corsair 8gb sticks for $50 last night.. not cheap.. but also not awful..

Well, it showed up.  Windows install was ready to go.  The 240 gb ssd has 200 gb of free space with just windows, chrome, and remote desktop software installed.  3.2ghz 4-core i5 and 8gb is pleeeeenty of power for browsing, email and remote-ing.  Appropriately quick and silent because SSD.

Seems painless and worth the price.  Only evidence of refurb is a busted rubber foot on the case.

Heck it even included a (really cheap, but still) wired keyboard and mouse AND a Tenda W311M wifi dongle.

Exact unit I bought, because it was the cheapest with a SSD and 8+gb:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VMW9D6/

Anything you want to know?

In reply to RedGT :

So when I called out the name,  I failed to mention Mini... 

So mine arrived today. 

The M92p Mini.. 

Mine has a few scuffs on the front of the case.. otherwise great condition. 

I did get lucky.. these didn't have WiFi cards as standard... But mine has WiFi so that's a bonus.. downside.. it's older.. so it can't find the faster wifi in the house.. either from range or something else.. 

The form factor is 7"x7"x1.75" 

Not including the antennas. 

I've got it getting a few updates right now.. but overall it's running quick. Boot times are slow because it runs off a HDD.. but overall it's not bad.. 

I didn't really clarify but yes i got the non mini m93p because it had an optical drive and was a few bucks less than the same spec m92p mini.  It will likely get repurposed to the 'living room pc' if/when corona stops bring a PITA, and we keep a cd drive in that cabinet for playing 'old' movies.

What would one of these mini PC's get you that a RPi 4 wouldn't other than Windows OS?

In reply to shagles :

in my own view? stupid simplicity, i don't shop on the space where a raspi makes sense for me. I am using this to replace a PC stick i had before broke it

the unit i have here is using an older 3rd Gen i5 processor and came with 8gb of DDR3 RAM as equipped as well as the 500gb HDD.

buying a barebones M93P mini would allow access to 4th or 5th gen intel processors and the ability ot build it the  way you want.

 

Got it. That's a pretty decent bump in specs too.

In reply to shagles :

yeah, it's an older processor, but it's actually an APU.
it's a dual core 4 thread unit with a 2.9 Ghz base clock and turbo speeds up to 3.6 Ghz.

the integrated Intel HD graphics 2500 specs aren't amazing.. but they're the best i saw in an APU on these mini pc's

 

What's the bungie cord for?

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

cheap insurance the TV doesn't get knocked over by me or a pet.

shagles said:

What would one of these mini PC's get you that a RPi 4 wouldn't other than Windows OS?

• Far higher Speed in general.
• 1150 Coffee Lake/Ivy Lake socket means large numbers of processors can be sourced and used.
• RAM can be expanded.
• Disk drives/storage aren't limited to SSD cards; even a SSD Drive that still runs off of IDE will have faster read/write speeds, M.2 even faster.

For $150 at that size it's great, though I totes agree that it honestly might even be too much for what he's doing lmao, I've got a small workstation PC that I stol-WAS GIFTED and I still haven't the foggiest of what I'll do with it.