This 10-Year-Old Mini PC SURPRISED Me!

[@Purizer]

You remind me a lot of old youtube where tech enthusiasts would use their imagination to innovate and inspire future techies. Now working in the tech field videos like this are a rare find. It's people like you that ignite the sparks of creativity in people and bring out their inner child. Great editing and video if I'm lucky enough to have a child we will watch videos like this together and build cool projects. Thank you so much.

[@Chris-rm1pn]

I remember reading an old reddit post about somebody soldering the pci-e connector to that unpopulated slot and getting it working, so if you feel adventurous enough here's a challenge for you

[@e1woqf]

@@skyde72 +2 😎

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

@@e1woqf +3

[@jesmasco]

Proprietary connector and raiser.

[@kostas8969]

You'd better buy a FUJITSU FUTRO S920 instead

[@tommydadogz]

that was me lol

[@e1woqf]

I've lately bought a thin client and a mini PC, both second hand and former business machines, and found tinkering with them is a lot of fun. They are different from the usual consumer hardware and very well built. There is still plenty of documentation available for about 10 year old machines and both of them have some potential. Well spent money.

[@HardwareHaven]

That is awesome!

[@PCman50]

I'm running Home Assistant home automation software on my t620. On another t620 I'm running as a home media server. Hosting 4tb of music and movies that has the power to stream to all my home devices. It's Powerful AMD quad core CPU typically draws only 9 Watts. So perfect for a system that runs 24/7.

[@VincentThePhotog]

The editing == perfection. Love the pacing, inclusion of mistakes, etc.

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks! That means a lot honestly. This one took a lot of effort haha. Also the amateur developer in me appreciates the == lol

[@arielaco]

I bought a t620 back in 2020 for just $39 and it's running flawlessly with Win 10 LTSC 2021 (on the original 16Gb msata) working as file server and video player with a couple of disk enclosures, docks and external hard disk's (about 40Tb total). I'm thinking about switching to OMV but I have a bunch of more capable tinypcs or spare notebooks to do that. It handles very well a hundred or more Microsoft edge tabs and 200+ torrents in background, nice video.

[@HardwareHaven]

You can always use it as a backup if you switch. And thanks!

[@hoeewiee]

I too had a few of these T620 thin clients (the quad core AMD GX-415GA variants) and they're absolutely fun to tinker with! Bought each for €25 three years ago. I upgraded mine with an 1TB 2.5" SSD for storage, 256GB 2280 M.2 SATA SSD for boot, extra 4GB DDR3L 1600 stick for 8GB total, and an Intel AC 8260 mPCIe WiFi adapter. Just a couple of notes. The PCIe slot always seems to be unpopulated on the non plus model. However, some T620 models also don't have a populated mSATA slot. The M.2 and mPCIe where present on all my systems. There's dedicated mounting space for 2.5" drives. However, you need to make the mounting brackets yourself. My 2.5" HDD for storage is mounted here, and connected with the mSATA port using an mSATA to SATA board. I also noticed there was an unpopulated fan header right below the HSENSE header (your hole :) ). Front view of the PCB, top to bottom: (HSENSE port) - Fan GND - Fan 5V - (Fan Sense) - (Fan Control). I soldered a screw terminal block (2.54 mm pitch) to feed 5V and ground to my mechanical 2.5" HDD from this unpopulated header. There should be enough juice left with the standard HP 65W power brick. This mod can be done non-janky professional looking if done right. Like you said, the M.2 port only works with SATA interface storage devices. Mine came originally with 16 GB of storage in the mSATA port, so the M.2 port was unused. The port does support regular 2280 sized SSD's, but the M.2 standoff to mount the SSD was missing. The screw holes for the M.2 standoff are not your regular M.2 standoff screw size. I had to use a tap to widen the screw hole for a third party M.2 standoff. Can't remember the tap size. The T620 is able to boot from this M.2 slot. I stole the exact same 4GB SODIMM DDR3L 1600 memory module from another T620 to upgrade my T620 to 8GBs of RAM. I also had some Kingston 4GB SODIMM DDR3 1200 modules lying around for the now RAMless T620. The manual said the T620 only supports DDR3L low voltage, but my normal Kingston DDR3 modules worked absolutely fine (verified with memtest). I ran the above upgrades on an headless installation of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server with the latest available BIOS (L40 v02.19). With powertop --auto-tune it used 5.7W when idle on a clean installation. Later I added an Intel AC 8260 mPCIe WiFi adapter to my T620 using the mPCIe slot, and converted the system from a headless server to a media system running LibreElec / KODI. The system was responsive with no framedrops whatsoever for 1080p content. Regarding the WiFi adapter, the T620 also has dedicated space for wiring 2 WiFi antenna's between the metal cage and outer plastic shell. I did not measure the power consumption when I did the WiFi upgrade and switched from headless to LibreElec.

[@KierenAmero]

My biggest problem, one that shows that the passage of time is often cruel, is I couldn't for the life of me figure out how 2005-2007-era hardware had USB 3.0 slots on the front, because it completely threw me for a loop 😂. Loved the video, regardless of the fact I am essentially an irrelevant old man at this point (even though I'm 30).

[@HardwareHaven]

Well, I guess we can be irrelevant old men together lol

[@ChuncleMonkSki]

Get off my lawn... -Irrelevant, 37 lol

[@dinozaurpickupline4221]

Mine was fake

[@davefarley4318]

I have children your age. I am 60

[@vng]

I have a T630 with a slightly newer CPU (AMD GX-420GI) and was using it as my main PC for accessing VMs located around the house. It is amazing what these thin clients can do.

[@unrealbot3027]

What base OS did you run on that?

[@vng]

@@unrealbot3027 Linux Mint; when I installed it (quite a while back), the older version of the installer back then used an older kernel which did not support the integrated GPU so I had to boot the installer in compatibility mode to install. But I think the newer kernels now should be able to work with the iGPU so the installer should run just fine as it is.

[@skyde72]

Excellent video, I have the same computer at home, running a few proxmox lxc containers and a kvm vm. Works like a charm, better than I expected for 5 dollars.

[@SHO1989]

Excellent video, as always. I can afford newer and more expensive hardware yet I always gravitate back to old hardware to see if it can do the job on the cheap. Hence, Hardware Haven. Always interesting and I enjoy the old hardware finding a second life.

[@Hazmatguy117]

It also keeps the old stuff from ending up in a landfill

[@XxTWMLxX]

The sticky outside is likely the rubberized "soft touch" finish that is applied to the plastic shell breaking down after being 10 years old. My elitebook had this and was so sticky I could slap it and pick it up like a glue board.

[@tomsvideosofrandomcrap6223]

There’s another thin client from HP called the T820 Flexible Thin Client, which fun fact, is actually just a rebadged HP EliteDesk 800 G1 USDT

[@HardwareHaven]

Oh interesting… I’ll have to look into that

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Hardware Haven's video quality never surprises me. Because its always top notch!

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks! I’m tryin’ haha

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

​@@HardwareHaven I think this machine would be a bangin VPN server.

[@dukeseb]

Yea I agree. It’s different from others. I really enjoy the flow of it

[@eclipsemn8806]

I have a gotten quite a few of these from an e-waste bin and I love these things. They run windows 10 just fine (as in okay) and I even have one running pi-hole! I have two which I installed wifi cards in and ran the antennas to be outside the case. Great video so far! I'm a quarter of the way through and just wanted to share this quick. I've spent quite some time tinkering with these so it's good to see others do so as well!

[@markianclark9645]

eclipsemn....the eWaste supplier i get mine from is everyones eBay...i paid a similar price to Hardware Haven for the t620 i'm using for this KZbin and surfing at the moment...it's a bit laggy and unresponsive but it runs Win10 if you're patient...i previously bought and tinkered with the t520...but that is hopelessly slow...scrapped it...that thin client case will come in useful though...i have a plan for an ITX motherboard in it...

[@lastmagmarian9116]

I'm pretty sure that sandisk drive is slc and so practically immortal.

[@Hazmatguy117]

I can’t believe you had the patience to install windows 10 on it haha love your stuff. You’re a down to earth tinkerer like me, thanks for sharing your experience and inspiring/teaching others. You never know what kind of impact you really have until someone tells you.

[@HardwareHaven]

Well you don’t have any idea how much kind words like that mean to me ❤️ Thanks!

[@nadca2]

there's a stripped down version of windows for thin clients. Windows 10 IoT or Windows Embedded Standard 7

[@dinozaurpickupline4221]

Windows 10 1511? How to restore the windows store on that one

[@dinozaurpickupline4221]

@@nadca2 can that be used on 4gb ram hybrid tab & support full browsing experience

[@handspiker1994]

I wonder how well it would work as a Kodi front-end for Emby/Jellyfin/Plex with a stripped down distro like LibreELEC. Kind of closer to the thin-client role the machine was built for. Discovered your content during the LTT shutdown, I've really been enjoying the videos!

[@drakkon_sol]

Well This model seems to have only VGA and DP output, so unless one is hooking up a 3.5mm audio jack to it I'm not sure how it would make a viable kodibox, but I DO like where your head is at, bcz I think along those lines as well.

[@handspiker1994]

@@drakkon_sol DP to HDMI cables will carry audio. I believe up to 5.1 surround.

[@SuperiorToiletTissue]

​@@Kaleb-lf8kfDP does carry audio.

[@hoeewiee]

LibreElec works fine on my quad core 8 GB T620 model using DP -> DP to HDMI. No framedrops in Kodi using mainly h.264 1080p content (main profile). And yes, there's audio coming from that DP port.

[@paulhorn24]

DisplayPort can deliver Audio.

[@Fred2-123]

These are great as a file server and a media server (with minidlna). Also useful as a dedicated torrenting box. I have a t620 running minidlna, with a WD Easystore 14GB drive for the media files. Crazy, $200 for the disk and $35 for theT620.

[@DreamPhreak]

15:27 Yes exactly! Tinkerer's paradise indeed. I got mine for $16 and yeah there are better working options out there that might work perfectly right out of the box, but where's the fun in that? I love the fun of soldering and tinkering with stuff, its way more satisfying that way when you fix something yourself. People need to lower their expectations and not expect something this cheap to be powerful.

[@jetryder]

Extra stick of ram would have made this a different video.

[@chelonianegghead274]

Great video, I have several of these things due to RPi's being expensive with the chip shortage and they're really cool. Fun fact actually, if you do some digging you can find mini PCI-E NIC's that can occupy the screwholes where the VGA or serial connector normally screws in.

[@unrealbot3027]

Can you suggest some Gigabit NIC capable of fitting into that mini PCIe slot?

[@stephanelem822]

I'm also fan of second hand boards.Thanks to point that one. For boards with only one Ethernet port, you can use the concept lollipop router by creating Vlan interfaces and then to route between these VLan interfaces. Unfortunately, you mandatory need a switch that supports VLAN that will carry the real native Ethernet ports of your lollipop router. Switches with VLan support are not so expensive and sometimes really useful, even for small config.

[@TechNick3D]

I deployed a bunch of these in a mill about 8 years ago. They came with Win7RE, which is probably what windows 10 IoT is now. It worked incredibly well.

[@nadca2]

Same, 8 years too oddly. Set up one of them with Windows Embedded 8/8.1 Industry as a label printing PC to label them all. Performed very well at that function

[@ksenyxths]

I use a T620 for everyday tasks like browsing, reading, and watching videos. I've upgraded it with a 128GB SSD and 12GB of RAM, and the system runs smoothly for basic tasks. In fact, I'm writing this comment on my T620 right now, immediately after watching your video. I even have another one in my basement as part of my home lab. This system is highly recommended for simple tasks or for running lightweight server applications using Docker, MQTT, and even a Dockerized Asterisk PBX! The power consumption is indeed an average of 7 watts!

[@ocsrc]

The thin clients are really nice for limited space mobile applications. For an RV where you want to have a PC in addition to a laptop and you don't have much space and you want to use the existing TV instead of needing another screen in the RV.

[@gabscar1]

I have one of these as my homeserver. It is more than up to the job.

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

Same here, except mine is the quad core version

[@dtaggartofRTD]

I'm running a Voron 2.4 off one of these, running minimized ubuntu server off a slightly larger ssd. It's powerful enough to push gcode to 4 printers simultaneously as well, so for my print cluster at least, they're certainly an adequate solution. Way cheaper and more available than a pi too. As long as you don't need GPIO or a front end, it makes a pretty fair pi replacement. These used machines tend to be grubby, so it's worth cleaning all the accessible external surfaces.

[@froggo5000]

i listened to this while doing homework, it definitely helps me focus, just the sheer chill the comes from him helps alot

[@JessicaFEREM]

I would love to see you turning a laptop that is either barely functional as a laptop or useless as a laptop into a server. Thats what i did and its a great way to save money on making a server out of basically e-waste.

[@brajanubgan88]

When it comes to emulation on those old thin client's make sure you disable the borders, they're surprisingly heavy for basically a jpg image

[@FlashPan73]

A bit more expensive, but look at the HP T730 thin client. Comes with a x8 PCIE slot - I have 1 running Kodi using a GT1030, another as a backup pfsense with a 4 port nic and another as a NAS using a 4 port NGFF Sata SSD PCIE x1 card

[@marcogenovesi8570]

pfsense is using an old (relatively speaking) FreeBSD base so they don't include the newer drivers. It's not that they hate Realtek they also have issues with newer Intel NICs too because they don't have the newer drivers. The realtek NIC in this device is ancient so of course they have the drivers included. OpnSense is using a up-to-date FreeBSD base so they get drivers much sooner than pfsense. If something does not work in pfsense it will probably work in opnsense

[@virusbcn6472]

Pfsense 2.7 use FreeBSD v14 ;-)

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@virusbcn6472 yeah and in a month it will not have the same drivers as Opnsense. That's what happens when you do only one release per year

[@vortex69pt]

I have a HP T630, with the next gen of AMD GX processor, quad core, hardware x265 decoding, DDR4, dual channel, 2x m.2 SATA slots, pretty nice actually for, I think, about 50€ I paid for it. But when it comes to those cheap, older, easy to find GX thin-clients my favorite is the Fujitsu Futro S920, a bit larger in size but: AMD GX 415-GA (same gen as the T620), 1x mSATA, 1x SATA port and a PCI-E x16 (x4) slot. I like them so much I have 3 of them, at 30 euros each (shipping included) I couldn't pass them up (they usually sell closer to 60€).

[@cborisa]

I have Fujitsu 920 on AMD 415 - very similar system (closer to T620plus model though due to Pcie slot) Until recently it was my main Pfsense router handling two gigabit WANs and a network with 6 VLANs and about 40 clients. And it didn't break any sweat.

[@JeremyLeePotocki]

On the AMD G series (as well as those E series too) it's best to use not the current X86 version, but the one built for Intel Atoms & other very old CPUs (the one that has not seen a update in ages). That build is a 32-bit version that'll do well for that processor but it is limited on what you can emulate.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah, it actually came with a license for Win7 embedded that I was tempted to try. Only so much I can squeeze into a video though lol

[@jadenerickson3397]

@@HardwareHavenI ran mine on Win7 for a hot minute, it actually didn't run that bad compared to contemporary hardware. Currently I have a debloated Windows 10 install running GIS imagery processing server (mosaic and processing aerial and Lidar imagery). It ain't the fastest, but definitely gets the job done.

[@AC3handle]

is there a place to get atom win7 OS? I have an aspireOne, and installed win7 on it, and it keeps crashing when viewing some pictures.

[@scorchedearth1451]

My latest PC was around 25 years old before I dumped it into the trash. I bought it used 15 years ago, and ran Linux Mint on it. I expect PC's to last at least 10 years. Now I have a I5 HP mini PC. I'll keep it till it falls apart.

[@WoodUCreate]

You sure did a lot with that old TC. We've used them at my company (HPs TCs) for about 15 years or so. In fact, I believe we still have one or two of the originals running to this day. They basically just connect to the network and run a Remote desktop so the user can experience decent speeds. Low Heat, not fans means they don't get dirty in the flour filled plant, can't be hacked or modified, and relatively cheap compared to the workstation PCs we still buy.

[@johnstancliff7328]

I have a Wyse 7020 and absolutely love it! I upgraded mine to 8 GB DDR3 ram, and was able to put in 2 Sata to NGFF adapters with 2 512GB SSD's I damned thing supports W10 and runs MP3 and AVI file flawlessly.... the thing replaced a HP laptop and I use it all the time! Also, W10 needs 8GB of memory to run properly...

[@awesomearizona-dino]

These types of pc's were selling for much more $ last year, now they finally reasonable prices.

[@KennethFinnegan]

I've deployed more than 20 of these with 2TB M.2 SSDs as Linux mirrors as part of a project we're calling "Micro Mirrors" so if you download an Ubuntu ISO in the US, there's even odds it came from one of these T620s!

[@HardwareHaven]

Woah! Super cool

[@eriolo]

i think you should be able to get a lot more performance if you weren't skipped the ram upgrade, or just switch to 2 sticks to get the dual channel going.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah hindsight is 20/20... appreciate the input!

[@OverTallman]

That CPU only supports single channel memory though (in fact all AMD "wild cat" APUs do). Still more RAM doesn't hurt, 4GB RAM just doesn't cut it for general computing in 2023.

[@JamesJazzz]

I’ve had the same machine for a whole year now, using it as my go-to Home Assistant server, and it’s been great.

[@ThePiprian]

I have an older version of this! I believe it's the t510. I tried running a minecraft server on it and it surprisingly worked without problems. I did not expect that at all, especially considering the CPU is not from Intel or AMD, but from Via, a company I have never before heard of.

[@HardwareHaven]

Wow, that's shocking

[@rickytorres9089]

That is interesting, I am very curious into this. Could you go into details about how you got it to work so well? Did you do any configurations? Just a pure vanilla setup? etc?

[@rickytorres9089]

@@HardwareHaven It's really is, Minecraft demands ridiculous single threading, even if assumed earlier versions or such.

[@VK6NK]

Much love for the Mini Schnauzer! I have two of my own, and they turned me into a dog person.

[@gadgelt]

This is not meant to be used as a local workstation. We use this one to access our Citrix virtual machine, so just the right machine to stream monters specs virtual machines.

[@vng]

For better graphics performance, you made need to use the kernel parameter radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 to use the amdgpu driver with GCN2.0 support.

[@Kaniggel_]

This little mini pc is just so beautiful

[@zarkeh3013]

Solder in a PCI-e 4x slot and give it a try! I did andit worked though not enough space for an nvme adapter ... and the UEFI firmware would need the nvme driver. still, I too had a lotta fun with a T620!

[@NetScalerTrainer]

Thin clients were meant to work with citrix desktop, where all the processing is done on a server, and the thin client just provides connectivity and screen/kvm

[@robbiejameskut5826]

I have the same one. 8gb ram, OG 16gb ssd. I used Tinywin to make a win 10 install in order to fit it all. Then I used the 2 internal usb for PC Storage and it works like magic. Despite windows taking up the whole of the m.2 card, it actually runs buttery smooth and feels like a joy. I don't know why yours is lagging, I suspect you were using windows drivers for the GPU part of the APU. Once I installed the right Radeon drivers it can even game in dolphin at locked 60fps. I also to do some light wieght coding, steam streaming, home vpn, and recording surveillance, Was a fun tinker project with many great uses!! Best of all ! No Noise!!

[@adamsfusion]

This is very tangential to the video, so apologies around that. One of my big hobbies is emulator development. It's not uncommon for a system like the NES or SNES to be difficult to emulate in software compared to say the N64 or PlayStation. To put it in abstract terms, NES/SNES/Gen/etc. games talk directly to the hardware and have very specific timing and quirk requirements, while games for the N64/PS/etc. upward feature an OS that the game code talks to. For the most part (insert asterisk), the emulator only needs to convert the instructions and API calls to your native platform, and there's a lot of leeway in timing. It's why we didn't have a "perfect" NES/SNES emulator until after 2000 while UltraHLE and Bleem! were able to emulate N64 and PlayStation games with high fidelity even in 1999. If you tried a PlayStation emulator on here, such as Beetle/Mednafen or Duckstation, you'll probably get near native performance, whereas SNES emulation might be stuttery no matter your core choice.

[@crimsonkarma13]

love these videos, they may be pointless but are insightful. sure a decade old PC cant do many things but it still has uses other than ewaste

[@FSK1138]

5:30 i might get a dead unit just for that heat sink !!😎

[@WeirdSkeleton]

I’m getting it for the beefy heatsink just so I can see how far I can overclock

[@littlewillie65]

I have the T610 Plus -- having that real PCIe slot is really convenient - although there's no SSD slots on it (unless you want to include the IDE plug for a flash module), it does have SATA connectors for a 2.5 inch drive (sadly, mine didn't have the carrier, so I had to jerry rig something with popsicle sticks). The CPU's Passmark score is the slowest of any of the pcs or laptops currently in my collection (including the old Mac Mini) - but with an R5 240 in the PCIe slot, the overall score puts it ahead of the Core2Duo based machines.

[@zloboslav_]

I clicked on the title and the whole video I waited with bated breath to see where you get SHOCKED and when I saw you soldering the power button I even started squinting in fear, but at the end I was relieved that you're safe and there was no shock whatsoever, even if that was mildly disappointing. Good video though. :)

[@HardwareHaven]

I might try to revise it to be a little less “baity”. Glad you enjoyed it though and thanks for the feedback!

[@JaapGinder]

I have two HP machines, a 260 G2 DM and a 260 G1 DM. Although the names are almost equal, they are not the same, not even close. But the nice thing is, they run Windows 10 flawless (well, after inserting more memory in the G1 (6 Gb). The G2 had already 8 Gb. The nice thing is that I recognize a lot in your video. The machines weren's that dirty when I got them, for instance. But networking etc. Nice was that the G2 already had an SSD, while the G1 had an HD, which I changed to an SSD. It really did speed it up! So yeah, I agree on what you tell at the end is that playing around with those machines is just fun. I use them both for things I need to do outside my normal working environment. And that brings fun. Whenever it is testing an old piece of hardware (and get it working) or an old version of some software, to help other people.

[@spillsndebris]

I have one of these just sitting waiting to be tinkered with again. It was my main Linux machine for ages to copy images and format drives. Definitely cool. Would like to have the T620 Plus to tinker on too. Edit: Wow! the T620 Plus has really gone up in price over the past 3 or 4 years since I last looked at buying one.

[@vinsan98]

Hey, I'd love to see you dive into the world of mini PCs powered by the Intel Alder lake N100 processor, especially from brands like Gmktec and Beelink. Your tech reviews are always on point, and it would be awesome to get your take on these compact yet powerful devices. Keep up the great work. 👍

[@voltare2amstereo]

Gave a similar geode based unit to my local organisation with monitor and input equipment for staff use to pull up docs. Cost next to nothing and is ok to use. W10, wifi, and actually capable with office 2010 starter

[@LBCAndrew]

For Pi-Hole, all you need is a Raspberry Pi Zero. A Pi 4B is enough to run any console emulator up to and including PS1 games. Anything beyond that needs much more horsepower. The new Pi 5 should improve on things but i haven't used one yet.

[@AgressiveHouse]

Just bought myself this one, thanks for the idea! In my location it costed me $33 with a PSU which I fried accidentally (touched metal case with my metal table). I had to buy another PSU (original HP 65W) for just $5 + 4Gb RAM for just $3. Now it has 8Gb RAM, and that totals $42 including shipment. I installed the mini-PCI wifi and sticked two antennas outside of the case with a sticky tape. Convenienty, wires can be passed through the case holes. I plan using the OPNSense and make it a TOR wifi access point: connect to it and your traffic is torred :). I guess it's also going to be a nice web-server on the tor network, maybe I'll have to run the bhyve VM for hosting on opnsense..

[@dabyd64]

Get the T630, got one for $57 with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Quad 2GHz, Gbit, USB 3.0, additional m2 slot, it's a great deal.

[@davidkamaunu7887]

I have found that when there is an M2 slot; older&simpler PCs will be SATA SSD compatible. That is a limitation imposed by the chipset. Some vendors will have jumpers that can change from SATA to PCIE modes in the M2 slot. Also simple/older PCs will be M2 SATA SSD by default with AHCI support for system booting.

[@benjaming7219]

I have just picked up a t620 plus to run as a 10gbps 4 port switch and an add in for a wifi module. It's a bargain way to run a high end router which is a dream to me.

[@DigitalDiabloUK]

I'm thinking with that expandibily, it might make a really good RV router/nas - with a wifi card, LTE card, and storage, with limited power draw.

[@markaphillips14]

I love all the “older” pc projects. It’s actually attainable for the average joe

[@Artemis_WR]

i think you might want to take a look at the dell wyse 3040, it always got me curious, as it has a quad core atom inside. is also pretty cheap, and runs on 5v

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah I’ve been meaning to get one. I’m surprised I haven’t with how many I see being sold locally for stupid cheap

[@TimberWolfeVids]

I have a similar one that runs my hobby laser out in the garage. Runs the software flawlessly and with it costing $20, if it craps out from being out in the garage, no big deal. $20 I would invest all over again.

[@dmb85x]

Got 3x t620's for 8€ each (16gb m2, 4gb ram, without ac adapters). Pretty nice machine for Windows XP gaming!

[@Rab1dGAMER]

I have a HP T610 that I use for a NAS server running drives off USB3 and with the 2 internal SATA connections, and must say it's actually amazing

[@amosgiture]

These old thin clients can make very good low power remote access nodes for tailscale subnet routers/exit nodes.

[@HardwareHaven]

True, I should’ve checked that out. It’s hard to think of everything and also get a video produced haha

[@1omerfaruk]

I'm using two t520 in my home. One for home assistant and other for frigate. These systems are not meant for Windows but for my usage it's more than enough. And I bought them for only 40 usd. Considering rpi prices I think it is a bargain.

[@arthurrump]

I love these machines. I got a stack of the quad-core version for €20 each a few years back. One is now running Home Assistant and I tinkered another into a four bay NAS (currently using both USB3.0 and a dual SATA miniPCIe card, but a quad SATA card is on the way). Mine came without the mSATA port, but I might try to solder one on to get a mirrored boot SSD on the NAS. I'd love to get the unpopulated PCIe slot working as well, but my AliExpress fu hasn't been sufficient yet to find a PCIe x4 header for that. At the price I got them, these are just perfect for such tinkering, which I'd not dare to do on any new or purpose-bought hardware.

[@michaelhenderson5098]

I have one with 8gb ram and 256gb SSD. It has Linux Mint and runs Octoprint to control 2 3dprinters. :) I just bought another one for $34 that came with 8gb and 128GB SSD and power supply. :) A little bigger than a Raspberry pi but more powerful.

[@bradwicks5438]

It would be ideal headless for a single task workload. I use an older mini PC for streaming a police scanner, RDPing is great for admining these when used headless.

[@davidg5898]

I have a 2009 eeePC 1005HA that's also similarly CPU bound (Intel Atom N280, 32-bit). It's kind of funny to see a system that doesn't get any performance boost in Windows by swapping in an SSD. It can run a lightweight Linux distro OK-ish (getting harder and harder to find current 32-bit distros of Linux, even!). For modern usage, it's basically only good as an IOT-type device.

[@pedrogomes8839]

I've one running 24/7 under tumbleweed as my media nas with usb drives, it also runs my monitoring stack with prometheus, loki and a light Elk stack for Sensei plugin, it works flawless, I could migrate to any other devices I have running but it does the job so well and I know it's on my prod section for years without missing a beat so until then let it work, power is low enough

[@JTBivens]

loved this. Perfect for older emulation boxes.

[@drakkon_sol]

This is the quality content I came to enjoy. Reminds me of when you started this channel. Keep doing what you do, bcz it is engaging and entertaining content.

[@HardwareHaven]

Believe it or not, this is the stuff that takes the longest time to make lol. Hopefully now I’ll have more time to do videos like these

[@seditt5146]

A Retro-Emulator similar to that is imperative for anyone who has young kids or grandkids. Stick it in a play room with some old Playstation 2 controllers or whatever and instantly your day can become a breeze without stressing young kids using various internet based things like KZbin, Tiktoc or any other scum of the Earth products when it comes to childrens content.

[@ivanmaglica264]

This is a great machine for what it is meant for, a thin client! Plug two monitors in it and remote into a powerful Proxmox VM next room running real stuff.

[@John-jc3ty]

"this 10 year old PC" me: looks at my 10 year old main pc...

[@HardwareHaven]

I bet it still runs like a champ too!

[@jensputzlocher8345]

my daily runner is actually 14 years old and still running (over the years I have replaced the core 2 duo processor with a core 2 quad, replaced the hdd with an ssd, quadrupled the memory and added a slightly better graphics card. But the rest is still original..)

[@crimsonkarma13]

i also had a 8 year old I been using till a year ago, some old acer aspire with an intel pentium. i just gave it to my mom since all she does on a PC is browse the web

[@jbcola74]

the most powerfull fanless i found was the t640, with an amd r1505 , i like fanless as they act like a dust accumulator, perfect for a 10y home automation project

[@lettmons]

Interesting, I have a 8 year old zotac zbox mini barebone pc with a dual core mobile haswell celeron and it absolutely makes sense in 2023 because it handles windows 10, browsers and standard software just fine although I have no use for it anymore and it sits on my shelf as a spare pc.

[@carloslemus2712]

With moonlight it should work perfectly, parsec depends a lot on the client's hardware while moonlight depends mostly on the stability of the internet connection. Even my old fat PS4 with Linux can move it on any distribution.

[@HardwareHaven]

I need to look back into moonlight. It’s been a minute

[@Imnotimportant555]

I have 2 HP T620's. I have a T620 which is running my Active Directory Domain Controller and a T620 Plus which is running my pfSense Router.

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

What do you do for a second lan port? Or is it router on a stick

[@Imnotimportant555]

@@rexsceleratorum1632 oh i installed an intel 2 port gigabit nic. The plus model has a pci x16 slot.

[@FaithyJo]

That thermal paste application was perfect!

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks :)

[@DistrosProjects]

I used to have a bunch of T620 Pluses that I got from a business clearout. I used to use one to browse the web and watch KZbin back when I was first getting into Linux, but its 16GB SSD and the fact I didn't know much about Linux at the time meant it was not very usable. I ended up recycling all of them years ago unfortunately.

[@HardwareHaven]

Oh fun. That was a sweet deal!

[@movax20h]

For the price it is a great deal. For small and very power efficient boxes, I do recomment PC Engines APU2 (with various variants including APU4). It has similar CPU, 4 core, has AES, 3-4 NICs, 3 mini PCIe for Wifi or storage, 4GB of RAM, serial ports, and nice case. They run super cool, passively cooled, and are crazy at idle and full Prices are not super low (once you also include storage, case and PSU), but still affordable. I have like 15 of them for a mini cluster. There are also some GPIO pins, and SATA connector, so it could also be made for other purposes, if you find a good case for them. Also, after about 10 years of production, they are EoL (AMD is stopping production of this very old embeded CPU after very long run), but still worth checking out and grabbing. I use them for small tasks, like routing 1Gbps, NTP server, DNS server, DHCP server (plus a backup of each of them). monitoring server, or backup modem+LTE connection for accessing rack remotely in emergency. I could easily run everything on one of them, even run VMs on them or on a bigger box, but decide to separate each task, as this makes my life way easier, isolates failures, and I can play with more network cables in a rack :D Cost wise it is not optimal, but power wise they are great. If you do not need more than 1 Ethernet port, then going with Rasberry Pi 5, is going to be a better deal tho now (more CPU power, has a GPU, normal video out, USB 3.0, and cheaper). EDIT: I just checked they website shop, and it is gone. All models are out of stock. Not coming back for normal channel. They might still have about 100-200 boards, to server some of their big clients as a replacement in case they break, or if they were already backordered, but you cannot buy new ones.

[@samuellopez-je9nw]

its like Rat Rodding just with some choice vintage mini pcs.... My favorite hobby

[@JohnSandlin-e3j]

I have a T620 hiding under my desk. It plays internet radio. But I did put a larger M2 SSD and installed LUBUNTU on it.

[@minstrel.design]

For anyone looking for a solution like this I'd highly recommend Dell Wyse 5070. It's much better in pretty much every way than many other similar HP terminals.

[@DcnHoward]

Thank you, I enjoyed watching this video.

[@minigpracing3068]

The 4 core 420 cpu isnt horrible with Debian, I have a T630 that I use for Xen Orchestra with my XCP-NG system. Still not a wonderful user experience when connected locally and user web to look something up. The T730 might be better, but prices are getting up into the range of Amazon miniPC with N100 or N5105 processors.

[@haydenc2742]

Interesting...I saw a HP T620 PLUS with dual gig ethernet..but it was $140~ Either way pretty cool old hardware! Keep em coming!!!!

[@froid_san]

I have the t620 plus, and at 6-8w it's an upgrade from my raspberry pi 4b for hosting a 3 WordPress website, home assistant, Samba and jellyfin.

[@LoganE01]

There for a while you could find the quad core models for about 30 bucks. I personally feel like its well worth it with a lightweight linix OS... Not to mention someone could probably set them up for a older/lighter gaming server.

[@zandermcnabb7779]

You should see the PC I just built, and my previous build, I have an old Second Gen i3 with an R9 370. That thing lasted me a full year, now I used an old retired school district Lenovo M720T paired with a 1660 Lenovo mini Thin Client PCs are also really good for this, I almost got one the same size as your HP, but I found something better

[@szwiecifon]

I have one of these, have my whole homebrew smart home system hosted on it.