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These little boards are neat products but I think they tend to compare poorly to used “normal computers.” If you want a Zimaboard system with 8GB of RAM, you’r
by dangus 3y ago
These little boards are neat products but I think they tend to compare poorly to used “normal computers.”
If you want a Zimaboard system with 8GB of RAM, you’re looking at 200 bucks. You have to get the mid-range one just to get 4 cores.
I bought a used 2012 quad core Mac mini which also has 2 SATA slots for about half that price. It idles at 13W according to Apple, and the person who sold it to me already had it upgraded to 16GB of RAM.
This is a machine with the “Apple tax,” i.e., a higher resale value than a PC.
You can jump on eBay and have a blast with “HP EliteDesk” as your search term.
I have to admit, though, a PCIe slot on a system this small is nice to have.
- Medox 3y agoMy compromise between pre-built Thin Clients and SBC's was building my own Mini ITX PC. The 17x17cm form factor has just enough connectivity for the size, even PCIe. The 2018 build came in at ~250$: Asrock J4105-ITX [1] + mini ITX case (with pico power supply included) + 2x4GB DDR4 + 128GB SSD. Runs ClearLinux and works perfectly 5 years later. The 2024 Mini ITX build will probably feature an Intel N100, like the Asus Prime N100I-D D4-CSM [2] at around 120$ for the board itself, but I'm still looking into options. [1] https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J4105-ITX/ https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J4105-ITX/ [2] https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/csm/prime-n100i-d-d4-csm/ https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/cs...
- dangus 3y agoThis was really my first thought and preference since I’m interested mini-ITX as it is. There are a lot of really cool ITX cases out there these days. The cost is higher, but you could probably bring it way down with used components. The Zimaboard isn’t using new generation hardware anyway.