Cheap barebone

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Jump to Latest
E

Eldam

Banned
2012-09-13 12:25 am
France
If one needs more ressources than a Pi like plateform :

For Windows user : GIGABYTE - Desktop PC - Mini-PC Barebone - GB-BXBT-2807 (rev. 1.0) :

it's cheap if you look at the spec : here 115 euros with taxes. It's Sata ready, no fan. Need 12V 2.5A max : well suited for a little motorbike LiPoFe battery for a DRC/active system/streamer unit !

Odroid C2 is not totally fixed yet !

..... Any thoughts ?
 
Soldermizer

Soldermizer

Member
2012-02-10 5:11 am
Tamper, FL, USA
I'm happy with my Pipo X9 (they have like 4 models now, similar); the X9 is ~ $150 US delivered. + keyboard + mouse + "real" hard drive or SSD (comes with 32 GB EMMC). The only thing I don't like about these Intel Bay Trail (?) PCs is the very odd EMMC: you are forced to use UEFI (boot) and my old disk management and backup software doesn't work :( But what's not to like? 12 V dc powered, no fan, etc.
 
B

Ben Mah

Member
Paid Member
2012-05-18 6:36 pm
Vancouver
Another cheap box is the HP Chromebox with Intel Celeron 2955U, 2GB DDR3, 16GB EMMC SSD for US $120 or so brand new on ebay.

It can be hacked so that you can load an operating system of your choice - instructions can be found on the net.

I have one playing music, with Debian and MPD. It oversamples using SOX with no problem - 44.1kHz to 176.4kHz with approximately 13% cpu usage.

I am very happy with it. If only it has I2S out.
 
C

CharlieLaub

Member
2007-03-13 2:49 am
Michigan
audio.claub.net
Not sure what level of computing power you need... but I built a couple of systems based on an Asrock motherboard with a J1900 CPU onboard, including a passive heatsink. The motherboard uses an external a laptop "brick" power supply, so no fans anywhere, and it has onboard 7.1ch audio (ALC892) with analog outputs on the rear panel. I built the system (mobo, CPU, PS, memory, and HDD) for under $200.

That motherboard is discontinued, but Asrock just came out with something similar using the J3160 CPU, which I believe has slightly better performance than the J1900 but I have not yet seen it for sale. If you don't need DC power input you can still get an Asrock Q1900 mobo at Newegg (in the USA) for about $60. Yes, that includes the J1900 CPU! Just add a pico PS and you are good to go. These Baytrail systems have very low power needs - I think you can run a system with a single HDD with as little as a 36W supply! This means you can leave them powered up all the time.

I believe that these CPUs only have a few times more computing power than a Raspberry Pi. If your needs are modest, the R-Pi is plenty for IIR crossovers, audio playback, etc. There is not really a need to move up to an i5 level processor unless you need to process video, too.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Top Bottom