Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick • Hacker News Board

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#61

Post by Someone1234 » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

mirimir wrote: post #21

I wonder if any hosting providers are offering such micro PCs, or planning to. They would be a great alternative to VPS, arguably with better security. I've seen some Raspberry Pi hosting, but its USB NIC is too slow. I'll update this if I find anything.

If the price point gets too low, the IPv4 address might become the bottleneck. Bandwidth is cheap, power is cheap for a device like this, and the space could be very low. So you might get close enough to the sun to hit the IPv4 cost limit.

Keep in mind you can buy a much more powerful machine than this from Amazon or Microsoft for around $10 all in (yes, running Windows). So they'd have to be looking around $5 and IPv4 addresses can cost $1.5-2/each.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#62

Post by lorenzhs » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:21 PM UTC

artmageddon wrote: post #58

lorenzhs wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's 8 times the price of a Chromecast (if you include the keyboard and mouse). For me, a Chromecast is very close to the perfect device, as my iPad lives in the living room most of the time and allows me to conveniently control the Chromecast, without any keyboards or mice lying around. While it's not as powerful or flexible as your setup, I prefer its convenience. It does everything I need it to (Netflix, You…

The only problem I've had with the Chromecast is that the wifi connection feels a little finnicky at times, and maybe I'm just not using it right, but if you can't actually get it on the internet, it doesn't do much for you. That said, I still really like it.

The main problem for me is that it's 2.4GHz only. As lots of people live in the inner cities in Europe, where lots of flats are in close proximity, that spectrum is extremely crowded even in residential areas. I guess that's much less of an issue in the suburbs though.

For me, the 2.4 GHz spectrum is only usable during "off-peak" hours, or extremely close to the router (the Chromecast is <1m from the router, so it's fine). But since I use 5 GHz for everything else, I muddle through with surprisingly few issues :)

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#63

Post by rilut » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

gbl08ma wrote: post #19

I own a Windows tablet (Voyo A1 Mini) with exactly the same CPU and amount of memory and storage, which I have been using as 7" keyboard-less laptop replacement, so I thought it would be interesting to share my opinion. The CPU is fast enough for moderate web browsing, using Office, playing videos and music, etc. In other words, the casual tasks of an "average user". Of course, it wasn't made to compile software or r…

Thanks. Can it play a 720p H.265 video?

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#64

Post by morganvachon » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 4:25 PM UTC

robogimp wrote: post #47

morganvachon wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here to say this. No thanks, Lenovo, I can get the same performance and form factor directly from Intel with no "added value" spyware, and I can even get it with Linux preinstalled if I want.

Also lenovo general build quality is pretty crappy. Source: I own one and wish I didn't.

Their business line is decent, I had a ThinkCentre machine a while back that was rock solid. Their consumer line is not nearly as polished, and with the spyware stuff from last year I now won't even touch their business hardware, which arguably wasn't affected. I moved our company from Lenovo to Dell and HP for any new workstations, specifically because of the loss of trust. It's not even about the possibility of an infection as I always re-image any new machine we get immediately, it's more about the principle, and my boss agreed.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#65

Post by johnchristopher » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 4:32 PM UTC

How would the Baytrail Z3735F CPU that it is equipped with compare with a 6 year-old ATOM n280 ?

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#66

Post by WorldWideWayne » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 4:48 PM UTC

lorenzhs wrote: post #54

WorldWideWayne wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, nothing really portable - we have a couple of Zotac ZBOX "nano PCs" ( http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-ZBOX-CI320NANO-U-W2-nano-Plus-Wi... ) and the others are an old laptop (Dell XPS L502X) and an old Shuttle SH67H3 barebones PC. Each site except the laptop also has a Logitech K400/r wireless keyboard/touchpad which is great except when it occasionally loses signal.

But that's 8 times the price of a Chromecast (if you include the keyboard and mouse). For me, a Chromecast is very close to the perfect device, as my iPad lives in the living room most of the time and allows me to conveniently control the Chromecast, without any keyboards or mice lying around. While it's not as powerful or flexible as your setup, I prefer its convenience. It does everything I need it to (Netflix, You…

Absolutely. (Unless you count the cost of the iPad or other devices that's required to run the Chromecast.) The Zotac box is actually ~16 times more expensive than a Chromecast, but unfortunately I just can't do whatever I want with a Chromecast and I'm totally willing to pay to get what I want.

I don't think there is more inherent convenience in the iPad -> Chromecast setup. My $20 wireless keyboard is actually more convenient in my opinion because it's a dedicated input control that's ready to go as soon as I pick it up. With a smart device, I have to setup a whole other device with apps that are compatible with Chromecast and when we're picking stuff to watch we don't have to huddle around a tablet or phone - we just look at what's on the TV.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#67

Post by mindslight » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

thrillgore wrote: post #31

It looks like a product not particularly solving any solution. The Chromecast solves a problem. This does not.

Yeah, Google's problem of how to spread their proprietary locked down experience to televisions.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#68

Post by dublinben » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

ianlevesque wrote: post #18

teekert wrote: post #15

Too bad it makes me have to move my flat tv 10 cm of the wall. An HDMI connector at an angle would have been nice (or I could buy an extension HDMI cable of course.).

Yeah for that reason the Apple TV or Fire TV form factor is better.

The HDMI stick form factor works for the majority of TVs which have their ports facing to the side.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#69

Post by mirimir » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 5:20 PM UTC

lorenzhs wrote: post #51

revelation wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OVH offers dedicated servers using Intel Atom N2180 processors, which have a proper NIC (but no SSD).

They do! See http://www.kimsufi.com/ (which belongs to OVH). The SSD box is terrible value though. I have a KS-1 for ~6€/month (incl VAT) and while it isn't a particularly fast machine, it fulfils all my server needs. It's also incredibly cheap for a dedicated server.

Thanks. Very cool!

That was my point, by the way. Dedicated micro servers could be priced like VPS, but be more secure.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#70

Post by emsy » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 6:51 PM UTC

teekert wrote: post #15

Too bad it makes me have to move my flat tv 10 cm of the wall. An HDMI connector at an angle would have been nice (or I could buy an extension HDMI cable of course.).

Many flatscreens nowadays have ports that are facing to the sides, so those people would've had a problem with an angled connector. I'd rather have power over HDMI to get rid of that annoying powercord to the stick :)