What can you do with a $200 mini-PC?

[Pengwuino]

$200 mini-PC GIMME IDEAS!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856176008

LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS! I R WANT.

What can I do with a small cheap computer like this? So far, obviously, turning it into a media center or a NAS seems like a good idea, but I was wondering what kind of 'outside of the box' ideas could I have for this little PC?

DVR?

PUT IT IN MY CAR?!??!

BUILD A NUCLEAR WEAPON FROM IT?!??!

DISCUSS!

 

[IanT]

If it's heavy enough you could use it as a doorstop.

 

[Pengwuino]

If it's heavy enough you could use it as a doorstop.

I'll use YOU as a doorstop.

 

[KingNothing]

I don't think using it as a NAS is a very good idea - it can only fit one 2.5" drive, and 1TB drives of that size are still very rare. Keep in mind if you use it as a media PC, you won't be able to decompress highly compressed media very well at all with a feeble dual-core 1.6Ghz processor.

You could certainly use it as a carputer. If you do make a nuclear weapon, better not use iTunes to do it, because that would be a violation of contract:

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

-iTunes EULA, section g

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I don't think using it as a NAS is a very good idea - it can only fit one 2.5" drive, and 1TB drives of that size are still very rare. Keep in mind if you use it as a media PC, you won't be able to decompress highly compressed media very well at all with a feeble dual-core 1.6Ghz processor.

You could certainly use it as a carputer. If you do make a nuclear weapon, better not use iTunes to do it, because that would be a violation of contract:


-iTunes EULA, section g

lol?

 

[khemist]

Use it to make a smart house, like that made for tv disney movie.

 

[Vanadium 50]

For $250 (what it will cost with drive and memory), you can get a more powerful discontinued laptop from the usual suspects. That's about what I paid for an Athlon P320 based laptop, which is ~2x as fast. It also comes with a DVD drive.

 

[turbo]

For $250 (what it will cost with drive and memory), you can get a more powerful discontinued laptop from the usual suspects. That's about what I paid for an Athlon P320 based laptop, which is ~2x as fast. It also comes with a DVD drive.

Plus, the laptop will come with a keyboard, a mouse or tracking device of some sort, and a monitor.

 

[drizzle]

I don't like thick looking devices.

 

[Pengwuino]

It's a 7" computer!

I've researched the media center and it can (supposedly) play 1080i/p movies so I think it's not that bad. I know I could do better, but I just LOVE the itty bitty size of the pc.

You could certainly use it as a carputer. If you do make a nuclear weapon, better not use iTunes to do it, because that would be a violation of contract:

Yah I've seen this before . As Maddox said, "If I want to manufacture biological weapons with my copy of iTunes, I will, fascists. Ditch this ********. "

Also, a NAS would be doable because these types of PCs seem to always have eSATA ports and plenty of USB ports. What people seem to do is put a SSD in the actual computer and just hook up 2TB HDDs here and there through eSATA and USB.

I want some super cool ideas for something this small, though! I know I could get a more powerful PC here and there, but not all super small and cool like this. COME ON PEOPLE, ACT LIKE CHILDREN ALREADY!

 

[drizzle]

*blank look*... It's thick.

 

[turbo]

*blank look*... It's thick.

It's not just thick. It doesn't have a touch-screen or input capability. I'm not buying one.

 

[micromass]

Oh my god, that pc is so fat! Make sure the other pc's wpn't see it, or they'll make fun of him...

 

[turbo]

Oh my god, that pc is so fat! Make sure the other pc's wpn't see it, or they'll make fun of him...

Does this DRAM stick make me look fat?

 

[Pengwuino]

*blank look*... It's thick.

GROWL! I don't like you anymore drizzle.

 

[Borek]

I've researched the media center and it can (supposedly) play 1080i/p movies

I doubt. I have a dual core whatever 1.7 GHz laptop (nominally 1.3 GHz, but it can be switched to turbo mode) and it doesn't play all 1080p x264 movies. I did some testing - I shot 1080p movies with EOS 7D, repacked them with Avidemux tinkering with compression level & parameters - and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It stops to work at compression levels producing artifacts that I am able to see (and my vision is not as sharp as it used to be).

Sure, a lot depends not only on processor, but also on memory and graphic card so could be in my case bottleneck is somewhere else (although with 4GB and nVidia 512 MB card it is not a particularly weak configuration).

 

[Pengwuino]

I doubt. I have a dual core whatever 1.7 GHz laptop (nominally 1.3 GHz, but it can be switched to turbo mode) and it doesn't play all 1080p x264 movies. I did some testing - I shot 1080p movies with EOS 7D, repacked them with Avidemux tinkering with compression level & parameters - and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It stops to work at compression levels producing artifacts that I am able to see (and my vision is not as sharp as it used to be).

Sure, a lot depends not only on processor, but also on memory and graphic card so could be in my case bottleneck is somewhere else (although with 4GB and nVidia 512 MB card it is not a particularly weak configuration).

While 1.6ghz, even dual core, does sound ridiculous to actually achieve 1080p playback, I can't help but wonder about the feedback. Actually, the majority of the feedback is on the black versions:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856176001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856176002

It sounds like the chipset might be optimized for video decoding. This things so cheap that I actually want to try to get one just to see if it can do what it says. If not, I can imagine it can do 720 easily and that's actually what my TV is.