[GTALUG] Shopping for barebone PC

Mon Apr 17 21:27:06 EDT 2017

Evan

I have had positive experience with both Zotac and Gigabyte. I bought both
"opportunistically" from Canada Computers meaning I waited and picked them
up at deeply discounted prices as they were end-of-line being replaced with
next generation processor models.

------
Zotac
-------
The Zotac is a dual core AMD A4 that came with 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB
hard drive - exact model is ZBOXNANO-AQ01-PLUS. I replaced the 4 GB RAM
stick reasonably quickly with an 8 GB stick which made a significant
performance improvement. I ran it for about a year (most of 2016) with 64
bit PC Linux running the KDE desktop as both a workstation and SAMBA
server. I accessed my i5 Windows laptop from it using rdesktop. This
particular box has a large number of USB ports which was handy. It was a
great machine but, in the end, was a little under powered for my purposes
so at the end of last year, I replaced the hard drive with a Samsung 850
EVO a 250 GB SSD, installed Windows 10 Home on it and gave it to my mother
to replace her aging Windows 7 core 2 duo desktop. I have to say it
performs surprisingly well running Windows 10.  A couple of points about
the Zotac:

I inadvertently disabled the video card and thought I had damaged it. I
then discovered that there is a small reset button on the motherboard which
resets the firmware so this is useful to keep in mind as I suspect Zotac
does this on other models.

The build quality is average for a piece of consumer electronics made in
the far east. The case material is not great; I easily stripped the thread
of one of the hard drive mounting screws so subsequently treated it with
kid gloves whenever removing the bottom panel to get at the RAM and hard
drive.

The firmware user interface was easy to work with. You can choose legacy
BIOS, Windows 7 UEFI or Windows 8.x and beyond UEFI.

You cannot really use the analog mic input as it picks up a substantial
amount of noise. I purchased a USB Blue Ball mic instead which works well.

My costs was $215 including HST which is about as good as it gets. I think
the original list price was over $300. I don't think it would have been
good value at the original list price.

-----------
Gigabtye
-----------
The Gigabyte box is a 5th generation dual core i3 and came bare bones so no
RAM and no hard drive or SSD which is what I wanted. I immediately
installed a Crucial MX-200 250 GB SSD and two 8 GB sticks of RAM for a
total of 16 GB. I dual boots Windows 10 Professional and PC Linux running
the KDE desktop. The firmware is set to legacy BIOS and I have enabled Opal
2 drive locking using sedutil - https://github.com/Drive-Trust-Alliance. I
am very happy with this system. It is very fast fast, particularly when
running PC Linux. A couple of points:

Exact model: GB-BXi3-5010 -
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5324#ov

The build quality is superior to the Zotac. The case appears to be made
from a much higher quality metal. I have one complaint and that is that two
of the four USB 3 ports are a little bit too large in the height dimension
meaning that I have experienced a connection problem once or twice with an
external USB 3 drive.

I find the firmware user interface a little less user friendly than the
Zotac but I am probably nit picking.

The analog mic input is clean unlike the Zotac but there is one caveat:
Windows 10 does not seem to configure the mic audio gain properly and so
noise might be a problem. It works perfectly under Linux and I suspect it
will work fine under Windows 7.

My cost was $294 including HST. I believe the original pre-tax list price
was $385 approximately. I also saw this model at the NCIX store on Yonge
just north of Eglinton in January I believe for something like $260. Once
again, if you are patient, you can pick these bare bones computers up at a
significant discount when they are being replaced with the next generation
processor models as they are high volume products.

Linux distros seem to install out-of-the-box so to speak. I had to do a
little bit of work installing Windows 10 but that was probably because both
of these boxes predated Win10. They each came with drivers for Win8.1.

Some time back before I had purchased these boxes, a Canada Computers store
salesman commented that the Intel NUCs are probably the highest quality
units but, of course, they are also the most expensive.

Hope my long winded input helps!

Nigel

On Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 7:42 PM, Howard Gibson via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> Evan,
>
>    I picked up an Acer Extensa from Canada Computes for around $350.  It
> sits on the shelf behind my TV. It works fine as an email, web browsing and
> YouTube and Netflix platform.  It appears to be a laptop board enclosed in
> a box, with a laptop style power supply, but no battery.  It came with a
> keyboard, but no mouse or monitor.
>
>    It has Windows installed on it.  The only problem I have had installing
> Linux (Fedora_24) is getting the Windows to dual boot.  I have not figured
> this out yet.
>
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:54:32 -0400
> Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
>
> > Hi there.
> >
> > I will probably be shopping for a new barebone PC system in the neatr
> > future. I'm looking for recommendations for both a barebones model and
> the
> > best CPU for it.
> >
> > Intended OS is Linux Mint, Main uses are for browsing (Chromium), Samba
> > client and video conversion using Handbrake. Most files will be on a
> > server, in fact the new system could get by with just a minimal-sized
> SSD.
> >
> > Also appreciated is a link to anywhere that would tell me, at any given
> > moment, the current state/generation of Intel processors to help the
> > shopping process.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --
> > Evan Leibovitch
> > Toronto, Canada
> >
> > Em: evan at telly dot org
> > Sk: evanleibovitch
> > Tw: el56
>
>
> --
> Howard Gibson
> hgibson at eol.ca
> jhowardgibson at gmail.com
> http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
> ---
> Talk Mailing List
> talk at gtalug.org
> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gtalug.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20170417/47318b35/attachment.html>