Yet Another MiniPC thread

Baxteen

Baxteen

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ok so I know there is a thread like this every now and then, so why is this one different? well I am weird that is why.

So currently at home we have a miniPC. but its old, and Dying. CPU fan is missing some blades and all such fun things.

I want to replace it. the Boss has said the max we can spend is R4k.
I think that is plenty.
I got all exited did a bunch of research and realised that for what we want the ASUS VM 42 is the best option.
I found one on takealot

I ordered it, it arrived and it failed. right out of the box seemed like n bios on the box.
Start the process of returning it to Takealot, everything fell apart there, they really really let me down. there was much screaming and shouting and helo peter posts and facebook arguments. eventually I got the refund. now I am just waiting for the money to reflect in my bank account.

Enough about that though.
I now nee a new plan. I will not do business wiht Takealot anymore, this issue was the last straw. so don't give me an option on the site.

Why is the VM 42 perfect for my needs? well it comes with this clever thing called Vivo DuelBay.
this allows you to put 2 2.5inc drives in the device at the same time. I have an SSD I want to put my OS on, and then I have an old 2TB 25 inch drive from an external that fell and the case broke. the drive is still fine and working.


So I want a miniPC that can take 2 SATA AND has decent video output.

I honestly thought the VM42 was my best option. but all the other sites offering it cannot get me the Duel Bay (takealot cant either)

Primary uses will be streaming media from the drive, running Kodi, some torrents and a small amount of browsing.

I have no issue building something myself, but I have not found a decent combo that offers the same quality and size for the same price. but that might be my lack of hardware knowledge.
 
looks like both only have one SATA port.
My 2TB drive is full, and I want to put the Os on the SSD. so I need 2 SATA ports.

this is why I went for the VM2 over the NUC first time around
 
honest opinion...you're boxing yourself into a corner with trying to include storage in your media player. If you have a PC or laptop at home, try use the 2Tb drive in there or as an external drive that a Plex server on the laptop \ PC can expose to your media players. Then you can get a simple media player for your TV for alot less cash. Another bonus is that your media is available when you're on the potty :)

Baxteen said:
25 inch drive
Click to expand...
Nothing mini about that! :p
 
Neoprod said:
honest opinion...you're boxing yourself into a corner with trying to include storage in your media player. If you have a PC or laptop at home, try use the 2Tb drive in there or as an external drive that a Plex server on the laptop \ PC can expose to your media players. Then you can get a simple media player for your TV for alot less cash. Another bonus is that your media is available when you're on the potty :)


Nothing mini about that! :p
Click to expand...

shot for spotting the missing period :D

the 2TB was a usb 3 external that did not need power. cat attacked the cable while it was on the counter and it dropped. case broke, cant connect to the USB anymore.
to open it all up I killed the casecompletely. I got to the drive inside and tested it on the current miniPC. it still spins. my brother plugged it into his PC and all the data is still there.

we have one Laptop at home so that wont work as it already has a drive.

the otehr option was to set up a file sharing device somewhere, and get something really small to stream media and download. but 99% of what we watch is streamed. so why bother?

I just want one thing to turn on when the boss wants to watch something. if its youtube, streaming via Kodi or something we have on drive, I want less cables and clutter by the TV.
 
Why don't you just buy an enclosure for the 2TB hdd and use it as an external HDD? Costs about R250 for one of these USB 3.0 enclosures.
 
henry1103 said:
Why don't you just buy an enclosure for the 2TB hdd and use it as an external HDD? Costs about R250 for one of these USB 3.0 enclosures.
Click to expand...

if I dont find something that can support 2 SATA drives I will just have to do that.

my reason for not doing that is because I want to neaten things up. fewer cables and thngs lying around. one box, power cable and HDMI cable. that is it.
 
left field suggestion...going the opposite of mini :)

I have one of these lying around at home...

FusionBlack430_F.jpg

it's an Antec Fusion Remote Black...yours for the low price of shipping from Jhb to wherever you are.

You can probably pick up a motherboard, cpu and PSU for R2.5K or so (basic Intel G3260, H81 mobo, 450W PSU) - I'll throw in 8Gb of memory I'm not using because I upgraded earlier this year. It's the complete opposite of what you were looking to do (go small) but the bigger case gives you a lot more flexibility and looks pretty good in a TV display unit. PC hardware also means you can do pretty much anything really rather than being forced into an ecosystem i.e. you can use Android or Windows or Openelec.

I had Kodi (XBMC back then) on it with a few platter drives + an SSD and then later on, Plex with the storage moved to my study. The Roku now uses the files served from the study.
 
I ended up going for this one.
http://www.dionwired.co.za/desktops/acer-intel-celeron-revo.html

it was the first choice but I could not find stock o it anywhere when I wanted to place the order.
it ships wiht a 2tb hard drive and has 3 SATA ports.
the drive bays are plug and play so I could plug the other drive in and it picked up the drive immediately.

it was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but the device is really good, I am happy with the choice. the keyboard and mouse is handy and the remote works well.

I already have Kodi set up, and soon (when I have time...) I will move the OS over to an SSD I have lying around, with the 3TB of space I now have I think I will be sorted for a while.
 
I've had a few enquiries about the case...the first person to ask is getting it, sorry I didn't update here.
 
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