Small Ass Computers

[Keg Ops]

Curious to see how many other people bought into the mini PC meme. 

 

What do you have and when did you buy it? What do you use it for?

 

I bought this thing about a month ago on amazon. For the most part I bought it for replacing my aged Chromecast, as a fully functional computer would do more than a streaming stick.

 

Unfortunatly, Windows 10 is a bit much for the Atom Processor & two gigs of ram to handle, so I'm probably going to install Ubuntu on it and get it in better shape. 

[RandoNandoz]

I did, works fine for me, I used it as a replacement for a the use of a school PC.

[Belzebuth]

I'm going to use 4 of them next year for wireless display for refereeing of weightlifting competition.

[yathis]

How the heck does that work?

[HelplmChoking]

I basically did. My YogaBook runs an awful Atom processor and 4GB of RAM. It's extremely slow, but the battery life is nuts and the whole laptop is as thin as an iPad Air.

 

[kaiju_wars]

Sorta...

Got it a few years back.  It's utter shit now, but it's a tiny Android PC.

[Drak3]

Only compute stick I have ever owned was a Chromecast. Worthless piece of shit. Beyond that, never buying anything along the lines of them. They're not viable for what I expect of them, for anything more than a month, which isn't much. Just 720p or 1080p YouTube playback. Matter of fact, you'd have to pay me to take one.

[dcb-z]

36 minutes ago, yathis said:

How the heck does that work?

It plugs into the HDMI port of a monitor or TV and has a few USB ports for peripherals.

[Hiitchy]

I personally thought these things were a little stupid because I couldn't think of a use for it. But I mean, if you're able to put Linux or another lightweight operating system on it and get better performance out of it, then by all means it's pretty neat.

[yathis]

So you could technically have some sort of mini display with a connector on it, and plug that thing in and BAM!!!! you got yourself a pc.

 

What kind of CPU and ram does it have?

[Vacras]

15 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Only compute stick I have ever owned was a Chromecast. Worthless piece of shit. Beyond that, never buying anything along the lines of them. They're not viable for what I expect of them, for anything more than a month, which isn't much. Just 720p or 1080p YouTube playback. Matter of fact, you'd have to pay me to take one.

Why are you so angry at the chromecast? I really like mine and I've had it for years now.

[Tsuki]

i was going to get one, then realized i honestly had no use for it.

got myself a raspberry pi instead

[verytiny]

i love ass computers of any size

[Sithon1]

9 minutes ago, verytiny said:

i love ass computers of any size

Ohh, that's why they're so small. Don't buy a used one.

[Drak3]

3 hours ago, Vacras said:

Why are you so angry at the chromecast?

Connectivty issues, regardless if there is direct line of site of the router, it's literally next to an access point, and any Vizio smart/smartcast TV can outpace it in every regard. Those TVs, from my testing, get hung up too frequently that I won't use those features on the ones I have either. I got an XBOne to handle it, and saying that it handles it hundreds of millions times better than a Chromecast is outright insulting the underwhelming Xbox.

[Vacras]

7 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Connectivty issues, regardless if there is direct line of site of the router, it's literally next to an access point, and any Vizio smart/smartcast TV can outpace it in every regard. Those TVs, from my testing, get hung up too frequently that I won't use those features on the ones I have either. I got an XBOne to handle it, and saying that it handles it hundreds of millions times better than a Chromecast is outright insulting the underwhelming Xbox.

Yeah I get what your problems are, however my chromecast is working perfectly fine even though it's on the other side of my house relative to my router.

For me it was a cheap and easy way of getting YouTube etc. onto my tv (which is to old to have internet functionality), without having to lay a hdmi cable all around my room to connect the tv to my pc.

[Keg Ops]

17 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Connectivty issues, regardless if there is direct line of site of the router, it's literally next to an access point, and any Vizio smart/smartcast TV can outpace it in every regard. Those TVs, from my testing, get hung up too frequently that I won't use those features on the ones I have either. I got an XBOne to handle it, and saying that it handles it hundreds of millions times better than a Chromecast is outright insulting the underwhelming Xbox.

It sounds like you might have had a dud. My Chromecast has sit behind my TV for the past 2-3 years and I didn't have any issues with it. The main reason I upgraded was due to the fact that I was limited to streaming off certain apps, now with my Mini PC I have more options available. 

[Drak3]

26 minutes ago, Kek Ops said:

sounds like you might have had a dud

Every Chromecast I've ever used had those issues, and basically from day one. I've had to set up and test a numbee of the worthless pieces of shit. They're inferior to a cheap, chinese TV with Smartcast, much less a competent system.