Low Cost x86 mini PCs

T

trizc

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I love this list, especially with Ethernet. They seem perfect for Plex Home Theater. My Raspberry Pi does the trick, but.... it ain't exactly what I'd call fast. (and once you throw in the SD card / case / charger / everything else, it's within $30 of most of these)
 
Don't forget the HP Stream Mini:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2015/2015CES/StreamMiniDesktop.pdf

$180 for a complete 2GBram/32GB storage/SD/4USB 3.0/GigE PC with 1.4 GHz real Haswell Celeron (much faster than Baytrail), plus unlike most of these cheap PCs it has upgradable memory and M.2 internal storage. Should be available within the month, as you can already buy it's bigger (and more expensive) brother The Pavilion Mini here:

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...Name=HPPavilionMini&catalogId=10051&langId=-1
 
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Gearbest has a code for the Pipo X7 $90 shipped so I bit on it. Mainly got it to try out the steam game streaming, hopefully it will run fine on it. If not, I'll end up just using this for media streaming instead of the PS3. Still have issues with certain files even within same formats. Early reviews look promising for smooth 1080p playback though
 
HP Stream Mini is now available for purchase, and comes with a copy of Windows
 
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Fenris_Ulf said:
Most (all?) of these Chinese boxes come without Windows COAs. Fine if using Linux, but otherwise you may not have a legit copy, especially at that price point.

A way around this is:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/437499/TW801_Tablet_-_Black
It has Win 8.1, USB 3, Bluetooth, and mini HDMI connector. It also works well as a tablet.
Click to expand...

it's windows 8 bing, there is no COA as far as I'm aware... bought my mom a cheap windows 8.1 tablet at best buy and it also had no COA...
 
 
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I just bought a couple of used Dell Venu 8 Pros for under $300. Win 8.1 but no office... tablets still have warranty left on them and they were both practically new 1 had 2 charge cycles on the battery and the other had 1.

Non quality Chinese tablets are not known to live a long time.... and the Windows 8.1 install on the Dell Tablets are legit...


Intel will be releasing a USB stick Baytrail PC later this year for roughly $150. http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
 
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defaultluser said:
HP Stream Mini is now available for purchase, and comes with a copy of Windows
Click to expand...

I have been trying one out for a few weeks now. I have been running a home built Q6600 based PC for years now as a media center PC running windows 7 and a Ceton InviniTV cable card tuner. It has been a work horse, but It is a bit heavy on the power usage.

I ordered one of the HP Stream Mini's to play around with. $179 is a great price for a little computer.

32GB of storage is tight, but I picked up a Seagate "portable" USB 3.0 4TB hard drive. It's small and gets its power from the USB 3 port.

2GB is a bit low, so I picked up an extra 4GB of RAM, bringing it to 6GB. It's really easy to install. It is a surprisingly easy to work with machine on the inside.

For my testing, I have configured 3 of my 4 Ceton tuners (on my existing media center) to work as Network based tuners and configured the Stream to use them in Windows Media Center. It has been working like a champ. I have been recording/watching up to 3 HD programs at a time, and using an X-Box 360 as an extender with no issues. I'm quite impressed with it.

I have metered the power usage. With the 4TB external drive attached, and recording 3 shows at once it has averaged between 12 and 16 watts of power. It idles at about 7 watts. A massive power savings over my existing PC.

I have just purchased an HDHomerun Prime (3 Tuners) and I plan to move the cable card to that device and shut down the old machine.

There is a bit of bad news though. Since it is Windows 8.1 with Bing, I couldn't add Media Center to it. It isn't available as an add on to that version of Windows 8.1. I had to buy the Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro Pack upgrade for $95 at Amazon. This upgrade, at least, included Media Center.

If the Dual Core Celeron isn't quite enough power, there is also the Pavilion mini.
http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...Name=HPPavilionMini&catalogId=10051&langId=-1

It is the same form factor but comes with a 500GB HD instead of a 32GB SSD, 4GB of RAM and a Pentium 3558U for $315. There is also an i3 version with 4GB and 1TB of storage for $450. The Celeron was much better than I expected though. It ran my desktop apps quite well and I even streamed games to it from Steam.

Overall, I'm a huge fan of these little machines. They are great HTPC's or cheap desktops. 4 USB 3 ports, Display Port, HDMI (supports multi-monitor), Wifi and Bluetooth built in.
 
griffinhart said:
I have been trying one out for a few weeks now. I have been running a home built Q6600 based PC for years now as a media center PC running windows 7 and a Ceton InviniTV cable card tuner. It has been a work horse, but It is a bit heavy on the power usage.

I ordered one of the HP Stream Mini's to play around with. $179 is a great price for a little computer.

32GB of storage is tight, but I picked up a Seagate "portable" USB 3.0 4TB hard drive. It's small and gets its power from the USB 3 port.

2GB is a bit low, so I picked up an extra 4GB of RAM, bringing it to 6GB. It's really easy to install. It is a surprisingly easy to work with machine on the inside.

For my testing, I have configured 3 of my 4 Ceton tuners (on my existing media center) to work as Network based tuners and configured the Stream to use them in Windows Media Center. It has been working like a champ. I have been recording/watching up to 3 HD programs at a time, and using an X-Box 360 as an extender with no issues. I'm quite impressed with it.

I have metered the power usage. With the 4TB external drive attached, and recording 3 shows at once it has averaged between 12 and 16 watts of power. It idles at about 7 watts. A massive power savings over my existing PC.

I have just purchased an HDHomerun Prime (3 Tuners) and I plan to move the cable card to that device and shut down the old machine.

There is a bit of bad news though. Since it is Windows 8.1 with Bing, I couldn't add Media Center to it. It isn't available as an add on to that version of Windows 8.1. I had to buy the Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro Pack upgrade for $95 at Amazon. This upgrade, at least, included Media Center.

If the Dual Core Celeron isn't quite enough power, there is also the Pavilion mini.
http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...Name=HPPavilionMini&catalogId=10051&langId=-1

It is the same form factor but comes with a 500GB HD instead of a 32GB SSD, 4GB of RAM and a Pentium 3558U for $315. There is also an i3 version with 4GB and 1TB of storage for $450. The Celeron was much better than I expected though. It ran my desktop apps quite well and I even streamed games to it from Steam.

Overall, I'm a huge fan of these little machines. They are great HTPC's or cheap desktops. 4 USB 3 ports, Display Port, HDMI (supports multi-monitor), Wifi and Bluetooth built in.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it's every bit as good as advertised. I'm going to recommend one to a friend who has been looking for a cheap HTPC (not WMC, just a place to view web and Youtube).
 
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I just finished setting up the HDHomerun Prime w/cablecard and I am using the HP Stream Mini with it. It's working like a champ.
 
griffinhart said:
I just finished setting up the HDHomerun Prime w/cablecard and I am using the HP Stream Mini with it. It's working like a champ.
Click to expand...

What are you using for recording software? Win Media center? Mythtv? Just curious as i'm in the market for a new recording PC and the little Stream Mini caught my eye in the past.
 
FnordMan said:
What are you using for recording software? Win Media center? Mythtv? Just curious as i'm in the market for a new recording PC and the little Stream Mini caught my eye in the past.
Click to expand...
Media Center. I have been running it as my sole Media Center PC for a week now. I haven't had any issues. It has been working quite well actually. I'm very pleased with it so far.
 
Any mini pc under $200 than can play 1080p h.265 videos? I was looking at the hp stream mini but not sure if it can play it. I had a liva mini pc and it struggled with 720p h.265 encodes.

Is my best option to build an AM1 setup?
 
smelly said:
Any mini pc under $200 than can play 1080p h.265 videos? I was looking at the hp stream mini but not sure if it can play it. I had a liva mini pc and it struggled with 720p h.265 encodes.

Is my best option to build an AM1 setup?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, Kabini also doesn't have support for h.265 in hardware. AM1 is a dead-end, since it likely doesn't have enough hardware to decode 1080p, and won't be getting an upgrade anytime soon. You might have enough extra power from the two extra cores, but remember that Jaguar is in the same class as Bay Trail in terms of per-core performance.

http://us.hardware.info/reviews/560...d-gpus-h265-aka-hevc-no-hardware-decoding-yet

The only integrated graphics that does is Broadwell, and you're going to have to pay a little more for the latest-and-greatest. They should eventually appear in cheaper systems, possibly including the Cherry Trail Atom that's due out later this year.
 
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smelly said:
Any mini pc under $200 than can play 1080p h.265 videos? I was looking at the hp stream mini but not sure if it can play it. I had a liva mini pc and it struggled with 720p h.265 encodes.

Is my best option to build an AM1 setup?
Click to expand...

I know your looking for x86, but wanted to note ARM has solutions for h.265:
Search for: 1080p h.265 octacore
 
I actually edited my post above. I asked about arm processors and h.265 hardware decoding. I removed it though as it seems as the software I use (jriver media center) does not currently support ARM Linux h.265 decoding.

I'll take a look and see what's out there.
 
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