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Check out this $35 PC!?!?!
knave:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on March 14, 2012, 03:18:41 am ---.... if you are too cheap to have both a desktop and laptop and need a laptop then you use a laptop.... otherwise, you should get a desktop.
--- End quote ---
Howard, that's an overly simplistic generalization. The truth is that most people can get by with one or the other. Most of the time I don't need the portability of my laptop. but since buying it I have pretty much stopped using my desktops (yes plural). Before buying the laptop I didn't know that I would enjoy sitting on the couch with the PC, or in bed, or going to the coffee shop. But I do now. Desktops are great but in addition to usage need there is preference.
Also, Rasberry Pi is a beginning. If it takes off it opens the door for a similar form factor with better and better specs. I imagine those dual core 1ghz chips that are in all the tablets now will be a good affordable candidate in the future...who knows, but they have to start somewhere.
Gray_Area:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on March 13, 2012, 07:28:37 pm ---
Really? Because I can get a machine with those specs for around 50-70 bucks. Dealnews has a refurbished hp/dell p4 every couple months for around 75-80 bucks. It's slightly cheaper at best.
--- End quote ---
I find these locally for fifty bucks ($50) or less. Just picked up one the other day without a SATA drive (as I had some to put in it) for $25.
Samstag:
--- Quote from: Gray_Area on March 18, 2012, 02:02:18 am ---
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on March 13, 2012, 07:28:37 pm ---
Really? Because I can get a machine with those specs for around 50-70 bucks. Dealnews has a refurbished hp/dell p4 every couple months for around 75-80 bucks. It's slightly cheaper at best.
--- End quote ---
I find these locally for fifty bucks ($50) or less. Just picked up one the other day without a SATA drive (as I had some to put in it) for $25.
--- End quote ---
A $50 PC will cost another $50 per year in electricity with moderate use (5-6 hours per day). You can run a Pi 24/7 for around $3 per year.
Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: Samstag on March 18, 2012, 11:59:09 am ---
--- Quote from: Gray_Area on March 18, 2012, 02:02:18 am ---
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on March 13, 2012, 07:28:37 pm ---
Really? Because I can get a machine with those specs for around 50-70 bucks. Dealnews has a refurbished hp/dell p4 every couple months for around 75-80 bucks. It's slightly cheaper at best.
--- End quote ---
I find these locally for fifty bucks ($50) or less. Just picked up one the other day without a SATA drive (as I had some to put in it) for $25.
--- End quote ---
A $50 PC will cost another $50 per year in electricity with moderate use (5-6 hours per day). You can run a Pi 24/7 for around $3 per year.
--- End quote ---
If you are playing your mame cab 5-6 hours a day every day then you have a problem. Besides, a mame cab is going to need a power supply for the coin lights, marquee lights, potentially a powered usb hub for a keyboard encoder and the monitor. The pc is only a fraction of the energy costs of running a cab. Let's not grasp at straws shall we?
Regardless, pcs don't actually take up that much power, their accessories do. A 300 watt power supply can power up to 300 watts of stuff, it doesn't always draw that much. Remove the harddrives in favor of a usb/sd stick, unplug any optical drives and don't use a hw/accelerated video card and you'll find that a pc doesn't draw that much more power than the pi. Of course remove all of that stuff and your speedy p4 will have the same crappy performance as well. Performance requires power consumption unfortunately.
I think people are getting a little defensive over this device. When it was first announced I was super excited, but that was several years ago. Now you can buy a tablet with the exact same specs minus the i/o pins (which admittedly are cool) and with the added benefit of having a nice touchscreen. The price of tablets are coming down dramatically as well. You can get one with similar specs for under 100 bucks now.
So until some really well written software comes out for it and people get to play with it a little I just don't see it as worth the purchase. I did when I initially heard that they had finally went on sale, but then I went back and looked at the specs... eh, I dunno, it might be great for highly specalized projects, but I don't think it's going to be very useful for mame. I mean I couldn't even see it as useful for a "dumb" internet terminal. Even the net has gone so hi-tech what with advanced scripting, flash and ect that the computer running it needs to be fairly beefy to get the full experience of many websites.
There are certainly applications for it though. It seems a perfect fit as a pc integrated into a cnc machine for example, due to it's solid state nature and the fact that it's so tiny.
ark_ader:
I'm thinking it would be great for an internet relay station, for those with rural broadband issues.
Something like this but smaller.
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