Raspberry Pi Replacement? HP T530 Teardown, Linux, and SSD Testing

[@joncalon7508]

Thought I would add in a comment on this. I bought a 1TB 2280 SATA III SSD, and have successfully installed it on the T530, along with Windows 10 Home Edition. Yes, I'm sure some will say I should've gone to some flavour of linux, but one of the apps I need to run on this computer is Windows Only. I might upgrade the RAM from the anemic 4GB, but for now, I'm pleased as punch at pulling a couple of these out of an EWaste collection drive and giving them a second life.

[@sbrazenor2]

I use an old thin client as a music server / stereo system. It's connected to a PS Audio Sprout 100 and a bookshelf speaker set from Klipsch. I have considered replacing that thin client with a Mac Mini (that I already have) and then putting the thin client in another role that's currently being served by a Raspberry Pi.

[@qazwsx000xswzaq]

Even you can't find these thin clients, those Intel N5105 miniPCs can already serve as good Pi 4B replacement unless you need some native GPIO.

[@itsaperfectdork]

I got one of these to use as a toolkit to mess around with windows 11 which runs really good. Dont expect it to perform miracles but for what i need it works. I wanted to use the Raspberry pi for the same thing but it wasnt going as planned. This is replacement and well capable machine for tinkering.

[@GKB-vn3ns]

Thanks for doing these videos I appreciate you effort and sharing your experience Thanks again

[@apalrdsadventures]

Thanks!

[@ikerstges]

Hi! Found your channel yesterday and after watching several videos, I just HAD to sign up! I find your content matching my interest and well presented, keep it UP! Cheers, Igor..

[@apalrdsadventures]

Glad you're enjoying it!

[@shephusted2714]

the great thing about these thin clients is that when you put them in cluster they are easily scalable - you can provision more easily and cheaply when you need more capacity - great for smb sector - you get HA and always spin up vm as stopgap - adding nvme and faster networking is great option - pls do some bench on various cluster configs #lo power #mini server farm

[@petereisch7613]

I slid into a HP t540 for a few more bucks and upped it to 16G. It supports the NVMe in its M.2/2280 slot. (If people are wondering about other system capabilities.)

[@EnjoySynthSounds]

Will the thin clients run Raspberry pios os from a m.2 drive? Or need a physical hd??

[@Felix-ve9hs]

I bought a few HP Thin Clients myself because Raspberry Pis unobtainable, actually I like them a lot

[@apalrdsadventures]

I've been enjoying them too, some of them are actually decently powerful as well

[@markb4071]

Damn you , sir. Your interesting videos and my love of tinkering with stuff. Just ordered a dell wyse 5060, an HP T520 and a 16gb SATA flash module to play about with - could do with a more powerful Raspi ( for running Jellyfin/Pihole ) will scour for T520 and 5060 mod/upgrade vids on your channel :) Cheers

[@apalrdsadventures]

I have a trio of 5060s which are now a Proxmox cluster, so they're doing pretty well for how much I spent on them

[@shephusted2714]

add nvme via usb c and also could make a nice nas or maybe a opnsense fw - you will always want 2 of these for the pihole/nas/opnsense but they may make decent cluster nodes also - pls follow up and try to add 2.5gbe over usb3 too - good content!

[@blevenzon]

Amazing raspi replacement too! For the price

[@apalrdsadventures]

For sure! The CPU is really low end compared to the 5060, but everything else is better (M.2, USB3, ...)

[@blevenzon]

Thanks for posting!

[@ejohnfel]

I have heard about the 3040's from a number of people... I grabbed a few myself (4 to be exact)... yes, people have definitely discovered them. All the other Wyse TC's also seem to be disappearing too. It's sign of the times I suppose. :)

[@apalrdsadventures]

They're a great alternative to SBCs like the Pi

[@mitch387]

I have an HP T530, T630 and T620 (quad core) available to me to use as my third server to achieve consensus for HA Proxmox. I assume any of them will fit the job but wonder if I should be picking the more powerful T630 or T620 over the T530 so it could at least handle some basic services like NPM/monitoring tools... what do you think? Also I am finding it very hard to get comparison videos of performance of the T530 vs the T620/30, and how they might compare to a RPi4. Do you think a dual core T530 is better than a RPi 4b? Sorry for all the questions, love your content!

[@3trex151]

Hi, if wanna run vnc and discord what os gou recommended? Windows 10 hits always 100% usage.. :( Thanks 👍

[@niklasxl]

if only coral tpu's were available :/

[@eyo-game]

I have a t540. I cannot install windows. I need a bios license, because it is not embedded, I can't buy the license and throw it away. I tried windows 10 lstc version with hp thin update but it gives license error. Can you make a video on how to install windows?

Thin clients are getting expensive, the hp prodesk 405 g4 and hp elitedesk 705 mini g4 and g5 looks like the ideal HW for a capable home lab, but please do not over-buy it and inflate the prices, it just got cheap enough to make sense for a home server. HP EliteDesk 805 G8 should get cheaper in a few years.

[@fabfianda]

Great video, does BIOS support virtualization?

[@apalrdsadventures]

There is an option in the BIOS to enable virtualization, I'll have to wait a bit to confirm if it works.

[@NicoVans16]

Hello! Thanks for the video. I just got my hands on a T540, do you think that what you've discovered can be applied to the T540 too?

[@apalrdsadventures]

The T540 is slightly different - it's a Ryzen based CPU, and it has an NVMe-only slot instead of SATA-only. Otherwise fairly similar, just more modern and updated.

[@jeremiahgutierrez7697]

I have hp t530 at home, Can I possibly install windows operating system?

[@give_me_my_nick_back]

I think there is one think it can do but pi can't nor any pi clone below 300€ - it has real pci-e so perhhaps it could be converted into a 5g router for less than 100€ total, whereas the cheapest ready made 5g routers are something about 350€ but then it would need some adapters to gor from wifi slot to modem so perhaps it would be better to find some chromebook with hackable bios and dedicated 4g slots and antennas already build in

[@W1ldTangent]

Guilty... bought a handful of 3040s for work because I've given up on getting a slice of Pi ever again.

[@apalrdsadventures]

I managed to get 1 Pi in the past year, and was even thinking about buying a Pi400 back when they were available to make Pi 4 videos with

[@anug4246]

Will this be able to handle Plex or any other video streaming in 4k?

[@guydurand6270]

What's the model of the keyboard you are using? Does it have a "proper" ctrl key on the right side?

[@apalrdsadventures]

It's this one - amzn.to/3AzqL6L - it doesn't have a right ctrl key at all. It's also 5+ years old, and no longer made. I also have a Logitech K830 www.logitech.com/en-us/products/keyboards/k830-illuminated-tv-wireless.920-007182.html which does have a right ctrl key. But I actually use it from my couch, so it doesn't come out for videos much.

[@kiwicooking6377]

Will a 2.5inch HDD fit in this to be used as a home NAS? Is there a way? Thanks for your video.

[@altar840]

99% - no: no SATA slot, no mounting, no space at the very end- it is pretty slim . In Wyse only much larger ZxxD had a hdd mounting option...

[@MagicJF]

Any idea if this could run home assistant os under a proxmox virtual machine? I am considering it for a second house

[@apalrdsadventures]

The T530 isn't a bad CPU, it should be able to run Proxmox + HA although it will be really tight on memory. HA alone it's plenty powerful.

[@paulmaxson55]

How are you getting the HP's display onto your laptop? I've been looking for a good way to do that for a while!

[@apalrdsadventures]

It's just a USB HDMI video capture device, with a DP to HDMI cable

[@paulmaxson55]

@@apalrdsadventures Thank you!!

[@jimdauphin1538]

I just got my t530, and in the bios, i dont see a choice to make it boot from usb drive. It has an ssd, and boots into windows, but is not an admin account, so im stuck. Any ideas for getting it to boot from usb?

[@apalrdsadventures]

For me, under Storage -> Boot Order, I have options for 'USB Hard Drive' (that's usually what USB flashdrives show up as) and I can change the order there. There's also the option to disable individual USB ports entirely under the Security tab, so the specific port could be disabled.

[@jimdauphin1538]

@@apalrdsadventures thanks so much.

[@gino3286]

Hi thank you for the very valuable video I have one myself The 1080p videos on KZbin don't run fluid with some stop for reloading I have installed a 256GB M2 SATA Win 10 and updated video drivers I wonder if with Ubuntu the video performance could improve I am afraid not The embedded video card must be pretty low end

[@apalrdsadventures]

It's definitely low end. It's not designed to really *run* anything, just display a remote desktop session over the network

[@gino3286]

@@apalrdsadventures hi thank you very much for your kind and precious advice I am having trouble also with the resolution that changes by itself I was hoping to have found a viable platform for a little media center to replace an android TV box I will try again and see with Ubuntu this time Thanks again and kind regards Gino

[@sevagjb]

is it possible to install octoprint on the ssd and boot as raspi? i install it on the m.2 but it not boot , yes i change the bios setting is i'm missing something or what?

[@apalrdsadventures]

Octoprint? Yes, I'd go for Ubuntu Server or Debian, install it from USB onto the SSD, and then follow the Octoprint install guide for Linux (or use this script - github.com/paukstelis/octoprint_install ) Boot as a raspi? No, it's not a raspberry pi. It needs an operating system compiled for x86-64, not ARM.

[@sevagjb]

@@apalrdsadventures thanks i will do so

[@sevagjb]

@@apalrdsadventures by the way i installed HA as i saw it from your guide, worked like charm

[@tablatronix]

Anyone ever get 10gbp on these , I have seen rare SFP dongles for the wyse chipsets, but not sure if anyone got it working

[@Photonicpainter]

Great NAS server

[@vng]

The T630 has a slightly faster processor but no USB-C port.

[@laijoseph4839]

T630 not support Nvme ssd..........

[@Iinustechtips]

This or the Dell wyze?

[@apalrdsadventures]

Depends on which dell and what you're doing with it. This is great if you want the M.2 slot and more USB3, but the 5060 has a better CPU, and the 3040 is physically a lot smaller.

[@NetBandit70]

How do you pronounce your channel name?

[@apalrdsadventures]

apple-ard is roughly how I say it

[@onkelfabs6408]

$30 ? You have to pay €100 over here.