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@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@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@eol.ca jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk