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the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:41 am
by AArdvark
Based on Flack's idea of using a Raspberry Pi as a main PC ( this was some years ago) and seeing as the PS3 mod is cool but slow and small hard drive space-wise, I decided to upgrade over the holiday. Funny, cause it used to be a two year cycle that I'd upgrade the graphics, the case, or just the whole thing. Used to be bigger is better, but now everything is downsized, square footage on the desk and quiet are the goals.
Back in the day I had this nice big tower with three or four drives in it and a plethora of fans to keep it cool. it sounded loud and took up too much space. Then it got to be smaller is gooder. I did the PS3 case mod and that was nice but..... Now it's time for.....
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:24 pm
by AArdvark
Comes with a bracket to mount on the back of the monitor.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:26 pm
by AArdvark
Also comes with Windows 10 pre-installed. Guess what's going to happen to that
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 1:40 pm
by AArdvark
This is one reason why I'm putting Linux on there, they want me to put Microsoft in my will
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 8:55 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
Ahhhahahah
Vark's not on Twitter, but that is something that needs to be tweeted. "Leave everything to us." Holy shit they really have no idea what their idiotic installation display messages will look like out of context.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 3:59 am
by AArdvark
I found it rather sinister. They are obviously out of touch with their public image.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:14 pm
by AArdvark
Linux Mint doesnt have sound working. I found a few things to try, workarounds. A lot of sudo alt get stuff. It ended up breaking my os. I'm struggling with this stuff and would rather it not fight me, but it is. More details in a bit
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:11 pm
by Jizaboz
Perhaps try "lubuntu"? (Ubuntu Light)
That's what I ended up putting on an ancient Toshiba with a crappy AMD dual core CPU and it works well!
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 1:08 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
AArdvark wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:14 pm
Linux Mint doesnt have sound working. I found a few things to try, workarounds. A lot of sudo alt get stuff. It ended up breaking my os. I'm struggling with this stuff and would rather it not fight me, but it is. More details in a bit
I really wanted to run Mint but gave up. I've had regular old boring Ubuntu on for about six months now and through multiple Steam upgrades it has been fine.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:13 pm
by AArdvark
I got it. It was just a matter of messing around with the different versions of mint. I put in the less hardware intensive version and everything works fine. I kind of like messing around with Lubuntu and Mate to see what works better for me. That's half the fun of getting a new PC.
THE
LUG WRENCH
DUAL WIELDING
AARDVARK
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:47 pm
by Flack
I have an old Acer netbook I bought in (looking up old blog post) 2009. It's 32 bit only and pretty underpowered. I installed Lubuntu on it and other than obvious speed issues (due to hardware, not the OS), it runs pretty good.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:17 pm
by AArdvark
I toyed around with puppy linux on my old old laptop and it ran ok. It was just a little too stripped down to be really useful. Pretty cool the whole os can run entirely in ram
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 6:52 pm
by AArdvark
Question for those in the know: Does a Raspberry Pi have a physical button for on/off?
I need a computer that has a real on switch, something that I can hotwire into my Magnavox.
Thanks in advance
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 7:30 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
None of mine do, so I have gotten the USB power connector that has the switch on its own -
https://www.pishop.us/product/usb-cable ... tch/?gQT=1
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 4:51 am
by Tdarcos
AArdvark wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:41 am
now everything is downsized, square footage on the desk and quiet are the goals... had this nice big tower... plethora of fans to keep it cool. it sounded loud
I remember one computer I had, when I started it for the first time, the fan came on, as usual, ran for about five seconds, then quit. Dead silence, so I think the computer is broken, but it's still running. It didn't need the fan unless it was running a heavy processor load. I think it was when they started putting temperature sensors in PCs. It was a little weird having a silent computer then, now, we expect it.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 5:13 am
by AArdvark
Huh. I might look into that.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:29 am
by Flack
AArdvark wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:17 pm
I toyed around with puppy linux on my old old laptop and it ran ok. It was just a little too stripped down to be really useful. Pretty cool the whole os can run entirely in ram
They don't. Like ICJ said, they sell USB power adapters with physical switches inline that'll work.
Here's an interesting alternative. I recently found my old Belkin wall adapter that can be turned off and on with a phone app (or also scheduled). I wanted to buy another one but instead went with a four-pack of Govee adapters. I got a four-pack of them from Amazon for $30. You just plug them into an electrical outlet and then plug something into it. If you have Alexa you can control them that way or just use the phone app. You could use one of those and control the Pi thattaway, or maybe (haven't tried this) even plug in a power strip and turn the whole thing off and on with the press of a button on the phone.
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 1:53 pm
by AArdvark
Another Pi question:
On a desktop PC, pressing the power button while the machine is on can make the computer go into shutdown. Is there a way to do this with a Pi?
Re: the new mini PC
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2025 10:05 am
by Casual Observer
Flack wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:29 am
AArdvark wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:17 pm
I toyed around with puppy linux on my old old laptop and it ran ok. It was just a little too stripped down to be really useful. Pretty cool the whole os can run entirely in ram
They don't. Like ICJ said, they sell USB power adapters with physical switches inline that'll work.
Here's an interesting alternative. I recently found my old Belkin wall adapter that can be turned off and on with a phone app (or also scheduled). I wanted to buy another one but instead went with a four-pack of Govee adapters. I got a four-pack of them from Amazon for $30. You just plug them into an electrical outlet and then plug something into it. If you have Alexa you can control them that way or just use the phone app. You could use one of those and control the Pi thattaway, or maybe (haven't tried this) even plug in a power strip and turn the whole thing off and on with the press of a button on the phone.
Why can't GPT turn stuff on and off yet?