Microcenter has Intel Compute Stick (Win8.1 version)

[dark zero]

dude, overclock that e2180. I bought mine for $87 and overclocked that 2.0ghz to 3.4ghz, best deal ever

The issue might be the RAM... go up to 4 Gb and becomes a monster.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What the h*ll is a compute stick?

 

[VirtualLarry]

What the h*ll is a compute stick?

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but compute sticks may help me do my taxes."

 

[cbn]

The issue might be the RAM... go up to 4 Gb and becomes a monster.

E2180 works well with 2GB when using that SSD.

Now if I had the original 80GB 3.5" HDD in there, the disk swap (when the 2GB RAM was used up) would be noticeable.

 

[cbn]

Looking at the following Compute stick Roadmap, I see the Broxton and Core M sticks will have MHL (this means the stick will no longer need micro usb for power).

With that mentioned, I wonder if we will also see some laptop chassis (without conventional motherboard and CPU) that could flush mount one of these MHL equipped sticks. (ie, have an internal connection so the attached compute stick is not conspicuous).

 

[sm625]

Now Cedar City does sound interesting. I dont suppose that will be $129. Knowing intel, the price will conspicuously balloon up to $499 with the inclusion of a Core M.

 

[dark zero]

If AMD could try a shot with Mullins... The only thing I found was the Fitlet who can trash any Bay Trail in a normal day and even compete Brasswell due the heavy CPU nerf.

 

[cbn]

Now Cedar City does sound interesting. I dont suppose that will be $129. Knowing intel, the price will conspicuously balloon up to $499 with the inclusion of a Core M.

Maybe Intel comes out with a 2C/2T version of Core M for the low end?

....Would be interesting to see how that does coupled to a low cost M.2 SSD (perhaps using an upcoming DRAM less controller --> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37470777&postcount=25 , http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37476310&postcount=27 )

 

[Man I Suck]

What in the world are these?? The pictures don't show any other ports, so do you have to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse?? How do you interface with it?

 

[cbn]

What in the world are these?? The pictures don't show any other ports, so do you have to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse?? How do you interface with it?

 

[dahorns]

If AMD could try a shot with Mullins... The only thing I found was the Fitlet who can trash any Bay Trail in a normal day and even compete Brasswell due the heavy CPU nerf.

Uh, this is based on what?

 

[Man I Suck]

OHHhhhhhh, okay. I didn't see those first time around.

I wonder how easy it is to wiggle cords and have this thing fall out of the HDMI port on the display. :hmm:

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just picked up a pair of MeegoPad T02 Compute Sticks.

Ubuntu version, 2GB DDR3L, 32GB eMMC.

Hopefully, I can put Linux Mint on them instead, I prefer it to Ubuntu.

Edit: http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Meeg...2G-802-11b-g-n-Bluetooth-4-0-HDMI-345772.html

For new account signups, they give you a 5% off sitewide coupon in your e-mail. So that saved me a few bucks, enough to afford 3-5 day shipping, rather than 15-30 day shipping.

 

[jhu]

http://www.microcenter.com/product/447594/Z3735F_Compute_Stick_133GHz

Limit one per "household".

Thinking this might be a nice replacement for my G1610 ITX HTPC.

Edit: It seems Newegg has it too. I kept checking the mini-PCs / barebones section, no wonder I couldn't find it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=intel_compute_stick-_-83-800-004-_-Product

Seems like Intel is still artificially crippling their Atom platform. While they proudly tout the CPU as 64-bit, they ship them with a 32-bit UEFI and OS.

More like Microsoft is crippling the hardware. The Linux kernel has had mixed mode support since March 2014 (added by Intel) allowing 64-bit kernel to boot on 32-bit EFI firmware.

I can confirm this works since my ASUS EeeBook X205TA has the same Atom Z3735F CPU in it, has 32-bit UEFI, and now runs 64-bit Debian 8.1.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Hopefully, I can put Linux Mint on them instead, I prefer it to Ubuntu.

You, my dad, and everyone else I've talked to about this recently.

In all seriousness, do let us know how it goes. They're pretty cute!

 

[therealnickdanger]

The Achilles heel of these micro-PCs is that they can't do 60fps video without dropping excessive numbers of frames. 720p60 sometimes works, but forget about 1080p60. No live streams of games are possible. HD Silverlight (Amazon Prime) drops frames. Netflix SuperHD (1080p) drops frames. 4K? LOL

If Intel can get a robust decoding engine crammed into one of these things (and also all the different tablets and other devices that run off the same hardware), then I think they could really crush it.

 

[cbn]

Hopefully, I can put Linux Mint on them instead, I prefer it to Ubuntu.

You, my dad, and everyone else I've talked to about this recently.

In all seriousness, do let us know how it goes. They're pretty cute!

+ 1 (add me to that list as well)

P.S. Would also be interested to hear your opinion on how well the H.264 decode is working in Linux Mint 17.2 (Valve is selling the Steam Link for $49, but I bet sticks like this (probably with 16gb NAND) drop down in price to nearly match that eventually).

 

[Rakehellion]

Can you install Mac OS on one of these?

 

[cbn]

The Achilles heel of these micro-PCs is that they can't do 60fps video without dropping excessive numbers of frames. 720p60 sometimes works, but forget about 1080p60. No live streams of games are possible. HD Silverlight (Amazon Prime) drops frames. Netflix SuperHD (1080p) drops frames. 4K? LOL

For streaming steam games, I had a good experience with Sempron 2650 (using Nvidia GT 730 GDDR5 for H.264 decode) over Gigabit Ethernet:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37326303&postcount=20

(Sempron 2650 has H.264 decode, but I couldn't get it to work in Linux 17.1...most likely due to some kind of driver (or OS handling the driver) problem. This is why I used the Nvidia card)