I mainly use my iPhone or tablet and though I have an old desktop from 15 years ago with Windows 8, I think, sometimes I want a cheap desktop. I’m soured on Apple MacBooks, etc, so that’s out.

I ran across these Intel Compute Sticks on Amazon that basically plug into the HDMI port of a monitor. They come with Win 10 for $329 with an M3 processor, 4Gig RAM, and 32 Gig storage.

I like the idea of a palm sized compute stick for physical security and transportability so that’s why I’m not looking at a cheap desktop - I know I can get an external SSD or whatever.

I know there will be limitations but I won’t be gaming or editing photos. In fact I’ll probably use a bootable Linux OS via the USB 3 port much of the time when I use it.

Am I headed for disappointment going this route? I really haven’t researched desktops much so I don’t know what’s out there in the sub $400 range with an i3 or i5 or whatever.

Thanks for your ideas.

I’m considering getting one next time instead of a laptop. I have portable monitors already. It’s the next form factor in computing. I know you say stick, i’m talking about the small boxes.
You just have to figure what specs you are looking for.

I bought one to use with astronomy software not available for the Mac. I set it up but have hardly used it. It seems to work just fine.
But I bought a cheaper version with an Intel Atom x5 processor. It sells for $126.

Link to Amazon

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I bought one to use with astronomy software not available for the Mac. I set it up but have hardly used it. It seems to work just fine.
But I bought a cheaper version with an Intel Atom x5 processor. It sells for $126.

Link to Amazon

Very tempting at that price. I wish it had 4Gig of RAM though but maybe using the 32 Gig of EMMC memory for swap space it will be faster than if using a regular Hard disk drive for swap space.

If you dont absolutely need the form factor to be as small as the compute stick, then you may want to look into one of the Intel NUC (or the equivalent by Gigabyte or ASRock, MSI, etc).

As it is a slightly larger profile, but offers more flexibility in upgrading storage and ram. Also uses an actual desktop processor. Where as something with a Atom (or AMD equivalent) may not be power enough depending on your needs.

I used one about a year ago.
It worked fine for mundane tasks like surfing the net, email, etc.
For anything complex, I would look elsewhere.

They can be handy albeit a little underwhelming performance-wise.
I have a basic atom-powered one that I use in my garage to feed a receiver with tunes from a DNLA music server that I control from my phone.
Otherwise to use it as a full fledged desktop it is a little lacking, a little slow and would need a sd card for some storage.
It could be handy if to need a super-low-footprint computer though.
If only they could make it POE or battery powered to eliminate the power supply.
If a choice between that and a NUC - I's go NUC if it wasn't intended for high portability.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimineer:

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I bought one to use with astronomy software not available for the Mac. I set it up but have hardly used it. It seems to work just fine.
But I bought a cheaper version with an Intel Atom x5 processor. It sells for $126.

Link to Amazon

Very tempting at that price. I wish it had 4Gig of RAM though but maybe using the 32 Gig of EMMC memory for swap space it will be faster than if using a regular Hard disk drive for swap space.

I bought two of these sticks for Christmas to make two desktop stations for the kids. Mainly for school work, homework assignments. Did 2 sticks, 2 Logitech K400 BT touchpad keyboards, and 2 - 24” tv/monitors with built in DVD players. All in $500. I wanted 2 computers for under $500. This combo met my goal.

They work fine for 2 elementary kids using them for school work, school based apps, school websites, school based game apps, YouTube videos, and general web searching. No issues to date. Kids are enjoying them. They also have iPads to compare to and don’t complain about one being better then the other. No crashing or lagging for now.

I was able to adhere sticks to back side of monitors. And with the BT keyboards we have a no wire looking installation. Very clean look. I haven’t yet but I will be adding 32g memory cards shortly to expand the memory as needed.

For the money I feel they have been a great buy.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
If only they could make it POE or battery powered to eliminate the power supply.

Just for thread information on PoE and small form factor computing:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/poe-hat/

I’m looking at the newer more capable stick now. But at that price point a NUC is becoming an option. I hate when I do this.

We have a half-dozen M3 and M5 versions around the office. We use them on conference room displays as a means for anyone both employee and non-employee to access things. Employees can log in to their VMware virtual machine, and non-employees can do the same, or use the Windows 10 browser to access email, spreadsheets, powerpoint, etc.

They're decent little machines. Some observations:

- They run warm, so adequate cooling is advised
- There is a noticeable difference in performance on the M5 vs the M3.
- Having Windows 10 pre-installed, even though it's Home has been an added bonus. We don't add the machines to our domain since they get handled by guests/customers
- They're fast enough to do extended Netflix/ESPN application or browser viewing
- Even though all of our TVs are 4K we keep them on 1920x1080 resolution and they keep up with everything we throw at them
- The built-in SSD is very slow when it comes to updating major Windows 10 releases. 1703 to 1803 took FOREVER
- The WiFi is solid and seems to stay connected even with extended streaming
- We did a Throw Back Thursday and had Groundhog Day streaming for 8 hours on repeat at 1080 on one and it never had an issue. I don't remember if it was the M3 or the M5
- We keep a Logitech Mouse/Keyboard plugged in to all of them and available on all the conference room tables and they work fantastically as an easy to use and easy to find interface. https://www.logitech.com/en-us...rd-k400-plus?crid=27

We tried the ATOM version and it was terrible. We recycled it within a couple days the processor was so slow.

I hope this helps!

EDIT - For what it's worth, we used to use NUCs too, but the Compute Stick was more versatile for space at the office. I use NUCs at home and stream everything on them. Bitstreaming with HD audio works excellently, and especially on the gen 7 intel core-i verions. I have two of the i3-7000 series and they're wonderful!

Good info Veeper and everyone. Thank you.
These are good solutions so long as you understand the limitations and the positives.
I think I’m going to keep my eye out for a sale on the M5 version and make sure the portability is important enough to go this route. I fret about having to deal with Windows though. Im going to research running Linux on these.

I forgot to add that I took an M3 with us on vacation to South Carolina. It was nice because I could plug it into the massive TV in the rental, put it on the WiFi and stream Netflix, PLEX, and even log into work if an emergency came up

The kids were happy that we could get to Moana on PLEX when we had a rainy afternoon.

I suppose a notebook would have worked as well, but the ComputeStick is just so easy to take along.

quote:

I forgot to add that I took an M3 with us on vacation to South Carolina. It was nice because I could plug it into the massive TV in the rental, put it on the WiFi and stream Netflix, PLEX, and even log into work if an emergency came up

The kids were happy that we could get to Moana on PLEX when we had a rainy afternoon.

I suppose a notebook would have worked as well, but the ComputeStick is just so easy to take along.

Great idea for staying in hotels, no? Streaming on the in-room TV while connected to the hotel's internet?

quote:

Originally posted by Jimineer:
I’m looking at the newer more capable stick now. But at that price point a NUC is becoming an option. I hate when I do this.

I decided to go with a NUC. I’ll need to add some RAM, a storage device, and an OS - likely Linux for a while, maybe longer.

I got the tall version of the NUC with a 7th generation Core i3 to keep the base price under $300. I’ll add either 4 or 8 Gig of RAM and maybe a SSD.

I’m now on a mission to ‘cut the cable’. So I’ll evaluate using this thing (may need a higher end version) for Netflix, Hula, or whatever. I don’t even know where to start but I’ll figure it out, maybe.