Cheapest Barebones PC

J

Jason Lavoie

Junior
Jan 13, 2011
459
0
16
Ottawa
I'm looking for the cheapest PC (including OS) that can run the usual DSP programming softwares
none of these programs seem to need a lot of horsepower or ram or HDD space so I'm thinking I can get away with a pretty minimal system.
Small SSDs seem to be pretty cheap now. or is there a PC than can run the OS off of an SD card that would do?

Mostly I'm planning to leave these behind at installed systems so that we can provide remote assistance, but I figure this is a pretty generic request so I posted it here

There are tons of cheap laptops out there now but they all seem to have done away with hardwired ethernet ports. Plus I figure a small box is less likely to get stolen or repurposed than a laptop.
and the cheapest Dell micro PCs have way more resources than we need

Any ideas?

Jason
 
Re: Cheapest Barebones PC

Jason Lavoie said:
I'm looking for the cheapest PC (including OS) that can run the usual DSP programming softwares
none of these programs seem to need a lot of horsepower or ram or HDD space so I'm thinking I can get away with a pretty minimal system.
Small SSDs seem to be pretty cheap now. or is there a PC than can run the OS off of an SD card that would do?

Mostly I'm planning to leave these behind at installed systems so that we can provide remote assistance, but I figure this is a pretty generic request so I posted it here

There are tons of cheap laptops out there now but they all seem to have done away with hardwired ethernet ports. Plus I figure a small box is less likely to get stolen or repurposed than a laptop.
and the cheapest Dell micro PCs have way more resources than we need

Any ideas?

Jason
Click to expand...

One of intel's NUC's ? http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-comparison.html
 
Re: Cheapest Barebones PC

I would also recommend looking at the Gigabyte Brix system. Get yourself something with an i3 (or i5), 8gb of laptop ram, and a msata 128 gig ssd and you will be in a great place. You can build one for around 350. Add ~100 for a windows licence and you are set.
 
Re: Cheapest Barebones PC

HP makes a PC called Stream Book. More than enough power for what you want. Also if there are still some around, the HP Stream Mini is what I am using on a few systems. One is even choking down some video.
 
Re: Cheapest Barebones PC

Another thing to consider would be a computer with Two NICs or simply add a second NIC with a USB dongle. The second NIC would be connected to the Internet all the time for remote troubleshooting. The first NIC is connected to the sound system network.... What other ports would you need?


Sent from my iPhone
 
Re: Cheapest Barebones PC

david sturzenbecher said:
another thing to consider would be a computer with two nics or simply add a second nic with a usb dongle. The second nic would be connected to the internet all the time for remote troubleshooting. The first nic is connected to the sound system network.... What other ports would you need?


Sent from my iphone
Click to expand...

rs232/455?
 
Re: Cheapest Barebones PC

Tim McCulloch said:
Yup.. Keystoke errors on the NumPad. RS232/422. Had forgotten 485.
Click to expand...

A good solution to adding serial ports to a computer that doesn't have it is to use a networked serial server.

Some of the great products that are out there include the MOXA NPort series and the Global Cache iTach series.

You also need to install some serial port redirection software on your computer. This allows you to set up virtual serial ports on your PC. Then when the software on your computer sends messages to those virtual serial ports, it gets packed up and shipped out via Ethernet to the serial port server on the network. These systems work really well and it is really handy to be able to access different serial devices from anywhere on the network.
 
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