Onda M3 barebones mini-PC (socket 1150)?

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Onda...it-LAN-Bluetooth4-0-SATA-HDMI-VGA-362166.html

Looks kind of interesting. Kind like like a Brix and NUC, but better, in that you can supply your own choice of 1150 CPU (65W max). Makes the 4170T a lot more desirable now.

20160310110246322.jpg
 
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Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
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It has almost 4x the footprint of a NUC. Not that this is very large still, but I don't think they're directly comparable products.
 

VirtualLarry

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It has almost 4x the footprint of a NUC. Not that this is very large still, but I don't think they're directly comparable products.

But, it seems to offer a space efficiency over most 1150 mini-ITX boards and slim cases. Much more NUC-like than ITX case sized.

If only I had seen these before buying a couple of J1900 Brix units. Though the Brix units should be lower-power. I kind of like the "snap" of the bigger Core CPUs though. Still searching for my ideal smaller, yet powerful, PC. These (in OP) could have been the one.
 

Blue_Max

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2011
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If the price is right, could be a winner! Hope the cooling is adequate AND quiet!
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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65W CPU in that little thing?

They specify Haswell Celeron and Pentium ..... so 53W (like the G1840 they used). EDIT: They did mention the Core series as well, but keep in mind the power brick is only 65W.

With that mentioned, I am pretty sure most Celerons and Pentiums don't use use the full 53W....maybe 35W or so. (remember HSW Celeron/Pentium doesn't have SMT and AVX/AVX2 like the 54W Haswell Core i3, the clocks are also lower, and the iGPU on the Haswell Celeron/Pentium is half the size of the 54W Core i3 as well)

P.S. Here is a look at the bottom of the computer case showing the fan and vents:

20160310110252263.jpg
 
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VirtualLarry

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P.S. Gearbest has it on sale with G1840/4GB/120GB SSD for $197.99 plus $18.03 shipping:

http://www.*************/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_328433.html

I went to order one, their site is F'ed. Won't let you just sign up, or pay without creating an account using PayPal. You have to wait for an "activation" e-mail. Which, of course, never showed up. Had them re-send it several times. I have all mail go to my inbox, so it's not like it got lost in the junkmail. Although, my e-mail provider is pretty strong against spam, so maybe the activation email never reached me. And of course, on their "helpful" re-send page, they don't mention the address that it is being sent from, so that I could manually whitelist it by putting that address in my address book.

Guess they don't want customers.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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But, it seems to offer a space efficiency over most 1150 mini-ITX boards and slim cases. Much more NUC-like than ITX case sized.

Its thin mini-itx form factor.

Just for comparison sake, here are two thin mini-itx boards:

ECS H81H3-TI2 for $62.99 plus $1.99 shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135384

(One SO-DIMM slot, One Mini-PCIe for Wireless, One mSATA, One SATA 6 Gbps, One SATA 3 Gbps)

13-135-384-TS


ASUS H81T R2.0/CSM for $69.99 plus $2.99 shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132714

(Two SO-DIMM slots, One PCIe for either Wireless or mSATA, One SATA 6 Gbps, One SATA 3 Gbps)

13-132-714-TS


(Both boards have all solid caps like the Onda board)

And here is a thin Mini-ITX case by Silverstone for $54.99 shipped:

(It doesn't include the Power brick or CPU cooler.) NOTE: CPU cooler for this case needs to be 30mm or less in profile.

http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Aluminum-Mini-ITX-Center-PT13B/dp/B00DL4BMMC

41SwYBC05gL.jpg


41xq38wNLOL.jpg
 
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TeknoBug

Platinum Member
Oct 2, 2013
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Intersting small footprint for an 1150 socket, cooling might be a problem. I can see a standard i3 4370 working in that with a little undervolting if BIOS allows (it's only 54W).
 

VirtualLarry

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Well, it finally arrived. I booted it up, without connecting to the network. (Was concerned about Chinese pre-loaded spyware.) Showed Win10 Pro, unactivated. So I plugged in a Linux Mint 18 beta USB stick, and installed that over the pre-installed Windows 10 Pro.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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So this is like a mini portable desktop?

It's technically still a desktop, because it requires plugging in a mouse + keyboard, and a display.

But it's much, much smaller than a typical desktop PC. Hence "mini-PC".

This one in particular, has support for Haswell desktop CPUs, under 65W. So it has desktop performance.

I think it's fairly nice, and the price was OK too. ($197, for case, PSU, cooling, 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM, and a "generic" / Chinese 128GB SSD, pre-configured. The built-in Wifi appears to work in Linux Mint 18 beta, but it doesn't show very many bars. (Less than my Gigabyte J1900 Brix unit, and that unit's Wifi wasn't too great either.)

Edit: Wow, that SSD that they included packs a punch. Too bad that the guy that did the YouTube unboxing review had issues with his. I finally got Win7 64-installed, including the driver for the Wifi. (Go to Gigabyte.com, look up the Win7 64-bit drivers for their H81M-DS2V v1.0 motherboard. Those drivers work for the Onda M3. Realtek GigE LAN and RealTek audio, Intel video, Intel USB3.0.) Then go to RealTek.com.tw and download their RealTek 8188CE wireless drivers for Win7.

Anyways, that SSD, has a CDM of 548MB/sec seq. read, 198MB/sec seq. write, 250MB/sec 4K QD32 read, 114MB/sec 4K QD32 write. That's a higher 4K QD32 read score than my SM951 128GB PCI-E 3.0 x4 AHCI M.2 SSD! (By a hair.)

It's a Reeinno ST120GB S3S3.

Edit: It does a Malwarebytes scan, on a freshly installed and updated Windows 7 64-bit, in 1:25. That's PCI-E SSD territory. VERY impressive. Off to ebay, to see if some china sellers sell this drive.
 
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you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
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This is basically a cheap mac mini (at least in size). My biggest complaint is no display port. It has hdmi but doesn't say which version (1.1 ? 1.2 ?). (commenting on other thread) of course linux (and windows 7) runs on it fine it is haswell. For the price I think i tis pretty darn good. The only thing close i've seen is msi i3 nuc when they are on sail at fry (somewhere between 170 and 210).
 

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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This is basically a cheap mac mini (at least in size). My biggest complaint is no display port. It has hdmi but doesn't say which version (1.1 ? 1.2 ?). (commenting on other thread) of course linux (and windows 7) runs on it fine it is haswell. For the price I think i tis pretty darn good. The only thing close i've seen is msi i3 nuc when they are on sail at fry (somewhere between 170 and 210).


Could this be a Hackintosh?
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
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No. As someone said above it is itx-thin which is a standard form factor (not sure they have itx-thin mb with skylake or haswell refresh). It is for fan-less systems (not sure if this one is fanless - the idea is that the cpu uses the case as a very large heat sink.

Could this be a Hackintosh?
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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No. As someone said above it is itx-thin which is a standard form factor (not sure they have itx-thin mb with skylake or haswell refresh). It is for fan-less systems (not sure if this one is fanless - the idea is that the cpu uses the case as a very large heat sink.

This unit has a pseudo laptop-style CPU cooler. It's fairly effective, for the low overall TDP desktop processor that it ships with. Though, I probably wouldn't even attempt to put a quad-core in, unless it was one of the 35W "T" varieties.

Anyways, I set my Mom up with this unit, she was relatively ecstatic. Mostly at the small form-factor and looks. (Previous PC was a slim micro-ATX desktop case with integrated custom PSU. Though it was aluminum, and looked pretty snazzy too.)

Old system had 16GB of RAM and an Intel SATAII SSD. New system is .2Ghz faster, and only has 4GB RAM and a SATA6G 120GB SSD (stock configuration of Onda M3 mini-PC Complete).
 

Iluminatus23

Junior Member
Jun 25, 2016
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Hello!
Does anyone have problems with the standby mode? I can only enter the S1 Standby Mode. Within this the fan runs an the power consumption is about 10W...
I made a fresh install but all the drivers are up to date.
Thanks for your help!
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,227
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I just got through diagnosing a dead Onda M3 mini-PC.

It stopped working just after a month or so.

I tried buying a 12V 6A PSU unit off of ebay for $8. (Was for LED lights, but specs matched the original, except this one was 6A instead of 5.35A.)

I did have it running on the second PSU.

But when it got turned off last time, it just never turned back on. (The problem I was having, with the original PSU too, which is why I bought the backup PSU unit.)

So I took it apart.

I tried unplugged the SATA SSD.

I removed the wireless card.

I swapped out the G1840 for a G1820 I had in another working rig.

I swapped out the 4GB Kingston SO-DIMM DDR3 with a GSKill 8GB DDR3L SO-DIMM.

No dice, no power-on.

I tried unplugging the power switch cable, and shorting it with a screwdriver.

I tried shorting the "JCMOS" jumper with a screwdriver.

NOTHING. DEAD.

So I guess that the board died, and I need a new one.

Anyone know where I can find just an Onda M3 board alone, no chassis or guts? Preferably for $40 or less? It appears to just be a semi-standard thin mini-ITX, but the metal chassis and the cooler and the headers for the power switch are in exact places, so I don't think I can put any thin mini-ITX board in. Would prefer the original Onda M3 board. Thanks.

Edit: Oh, the last time it was running, the entire metal chassis was nearly hot, for some reason. I'm guessing that the fan assy failed somehow. Not quite sure. That could explain the board not working, if it cooked itself.
 
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cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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So I guess that the board died, and I need a new one.

Anyone know where I can find just an Onda M3 board alone, no chassis or guts? Preferably for $40 or less? It appears to just be a semi-standard thin mini-ITX, but the metal chassis and the cooler and the headers for the power switch are in exact places, so I don't think I can put any thin mini-ITX board in. Would prefer the original Onda M3 board. Thanks.

I would return it to GearBest.

They have a one year warranty on purchases.

P.S. Even though it is in China and the shipping will be expensive I still think the cost would be about same as a new board purchased outside the Warranty.