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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

#81

Post by Animats »

I use Asus 1001PX subnotebooks that way. They're available for about $40 on eBay. You get a keyboard, screen, WiFi, Ethernet, 250GB hard drive, and USB ports. Usually a power adapter, too.

(Only use the real ASUS power adapters; the no-name 3rd party units overheat, don't provide enough power, or in at least one case, catch fire.)

When I get one in, I put in the Xubuntu USB stick and run the memory diagnostic for an hour. If that passes, I wipe the machine completely and install Xubuntu 16.04LTS. Works fine. All the peripherals are supported. (There was some trouble with 14.04 LTS; the infamous "disappearing cursor" bug affected these units, because they had a certain model of Intel graphics processor. But that's fixed.)

I use one with a $30 USB microscope to help with surface mount soldering. Others run antique Teletype machines. One is used as a normal laptop.

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

#82

Post by matheweis »

jalayir wrote: post #48

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

You may want to check out the rapidly growing number of RPi clones... cheaper and often more powerful, besides still having GPIO pins. You can find a nice list of options on the Armbian download page: https://www.armbian.com/download/

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

#83

Post by uzoodoo »

morganvachon wrote: post #22

For anyone who needs it, here's Dell's technical guide: http://www.sayresd.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/PC-Dell-De... There are some Amazon sellers who have put together complete systems running Windows 7 or 10 for around US $100: https://smile.amazon.com/Dell-OptiPlex-FX160-1-6GHz-Windows/... If you're buying one to use as a server this won't matter to you, but if you want a tiny Linux or BSD desktop, you may want…

On page 6 it says:

> Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SP2) in China only

For me, a let-down is that it doesn't have HDMI though.

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

#84

Post by mjrpes »

phaedrus441 wrote: post #5
throwanem wrote: post #3

A somewhat controversial claim, but only until you discover that it's the low-profile home server use case under discussion here. I'd go with a Qotom box for that, but something like this would be about as good and, at the cited prices, a fair bit cheaper - and wouldn't involve the same US Customs import encumbrance that I've found Qotom hardware to entail, besides. But I think it would depend on being able to find u…

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

They make fanless metal body mini computers and come in many variations on aliexpress. I purchased a unit a few months back to run pfsense (free routing software based on freebsd). They normally use intel based motherboard/ethernet ports in 2-4 port configurations, making them good stable platforms. They usually take a few weeks to arrive because they ship from China. They don't have the polish of an apple product or sell under a popular brand name, so they are not well known.

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

#85

Post by cpach »

Animats wrote: post #81

I use Asus 1001PX subnotebooks that way. They're available for about $40 on eBay. You get a keyboard, screen, WiFi, Ethernet, 250GB hard drive, and USB ports. Usually a power adapter, too. (Only use the real ASUS power adapters; the no-name 3rd party units overheat, don't provide enough power, or in at least one case, catch fire.) When I get one in, I put in the Xubuntu USB stick and run the memory diagnostic for an…

Is one hour really enough for the memory test?

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

#86

Post by dang »

Meph504 wrote: post #13

Perhaps it's just me, but I feel I'm seeing more and more thinly veiled advertisement on HN. I mean, almost every claim debatably, is an exaggeration or blatantly false. As CFTM pointed out, the whole thing is a bunch of weak arguments for you to buy some old, out out lease hardware on ebay. Or buy a known good product, spend the extra cash on the accessories you want, and get what you want.

Please don't insinuate this kind of thing on HN unless you have evidence. It degrades the spirit of the community and most of the time is quite inaccurate.

There's a cognitive bias whereby we assume that if something seems wrong to us, nobody else could possibly hold that view in good faith (i.e. they must be astroturfing or shilling). But people hold opposing views in good faith all the time.

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

#87

Post by unlmtd »

ezzaf wrote: post #78

A raspberry pi with external HDD running is about 5W. That's 130 kWh less than a FX160 over an always on year, or $27 at average Australian energy prices. Sure these servers might be handy for some things, but the Pi still has a lot of advantages. For me it's small form factor, low power consumption and GPIO.

That's 5mg per kWh. My models tell me we're going to reach 300mg/kWh- then you'd pay for a RPI every day.

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

#88

Post by unlmtd »

jMyles wrote: post #40

A giant difference between the two, which goes unmentioned here, is that the FX160 runs on AC power at 120 volts. If you have a deployment scenario where you already have 5 volts DC but not 120 volts AC, the pi obviously makes way more sense.

Computers run on DC

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

#89

Post by kayoone »

jMyles wrote: post #40

A giant difference between the two, which goes unmentioned here, is that the FX160 runs on AC power at 120 volts. If you have a deployment scenario where you already have 5 volts DC but not 120 volts AC, the pi obviously makes way more sense.

This usecase is more about running it as a homeserver, where i guess that limitation is not that important. Of course there are a lot of usecases where the Pi is the better choice.
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