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Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

thesizzle.com.au

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Re: Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

#61
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the first I've heard of Qotom, can you elaborate?

They make/sell "industrial" fanless Intel boxes. I got one of these[1] for a router, and it's worked well so far. No moving parts with an SSD. [1] https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KX9OU58

I have a similar one, but it gives up two NICs for an HDMI port - not ideal, but it was much cheaper at the time, and I have no need for a DMZ and no shortage of switches. It makes an excellent pfSense box!

Re: Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

#64

Another option is just to use an old laptop. This is what I tend to do for media servers, TV computers, and the like. People give away or throw away perfectly usable machines all the time.

form factor is a bit annoying, I do this with an old thinkpad and I'm thinking about finding one with a broken LCD to remove the screen assembly altogether and put the base onto a book shelf.

Re: Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

#65
post #48

The hackability of the GPIO pins is what keeps me going back to Raspberry Pi.

No way to have a GPIO daughter board ?

I've seen USB GPIO breakouts, but not very cheaply, and I suspect driver support might be an issue. Certainly controlling GPIOs via /sys is extremely convenient! Between that and the built-in Ethernet interface, I suspect a Raspberry Pi makes a better GPIO interface for a PC than almost anything else on the market.

Re: Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

#66

Another option is just to use an old laptop. This is what I tend to do for media servers, TV computers, and the like. People give away or throw away perfectly usable machines all the time.

form factor is a bit annoying, I do this with an old thinkpad and I'm thinking about finding one with a broken LCD to remove the screen assembly altogether and put the base onto a book shelf.

Why not run it closed?

Re: Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

form factor is a bit annoying, I do this with an old thinkpad and I'm thinking about finding one with a broken LCD to remove the screen assembly altogether and put the base onto a book shelf.

Why not run it closed?

Still a waste of space IMO.

Re: Consider a Dell Optiplex FX160 Instead of a Raspberry Pi

#68
post #37

My main usages with RPi 3 includes: - SSH tunnel from outside when I concern about security / privacy - Media box (Kodi runs pretty well) - Running daemons (DDNS updates, torrent, etc) - Running some nodejs scripts RPi 3 does these very well, why bother with a more power-consuming box? Not to metion RPi 3 has WiFi builtin (I know it's slow, but good enough for my usage)

I tried to use mine as a media box, but as the article notes, rpi can't power an hdd over usb. And I am too lazy to get a powered usb hub and arrange a power cord for that too.

I used a NAS for storage, works fine for me.
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