What's an all-around quad or octa-core that made approval?

American politics aside, my crystal ball says it's time to make those orders, but maybe Black Friday is worth waiting for, but I might buy lots of something I don't need.

What I have in mind is a micro desktop replacement, with HDMI out to a monitor. 2GB RAM, SATA II interface at least, USB backup interface, and not too much more, maybe known Linux graphics acceleration. Really anything beyond a unicore should suffice.

Just a non-gaming box that does basic web, plays music at the same time, runs videos, LibreOffice, and the awesome screensavers only available in Linux.

I'm a bit scared and fear lean times could happen, and two little devices like that would ease my fears.
So it's various hard drives and two special boxes in my near future, knock on wood.

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> I'm a bit scared and fear lean times could
> happen, and two little devices like that would
> ease my fears.

Hunker down. Stock market future is down big time. A harbinger? But this forum is free, and Linux is free :))

-bodhi
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Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

@joey - look at the beelink i posted about as a hackable android box - seems to meet most of your criteria. the only dev board devices with anything beyond sata I, are incredibly expensive.

@Bodhi - cant be as bad as the Brexit vote fallout was for us brits.....

Righteous brothers: were it not for SPDIF-out for audio I'd borrow the $30 and get one from 3-days away in the States. A Dell monitor soundbar that accepts SPDIF would be perfect (as I have two lonely Dell monitors here).

What would you guys do for audio? Or, is there such thing as an HDMI pass through adapter with wires protruding to let audio out?

-update- wow!

Selection of audio/ pass through/ SPDIF can be saved after reboot.

It looks like their own Android software update can do this, but any word on Armbian?
And does anyone else want to try ever-so-gently converting this box? Times are lean but I could go one bt at a time, and even if SD card were of any benefit, save my pennies for a SanDisk ExtremePro card to run OS off of.

Yeah with audio-out, this ought to be the perfect light desktop and light home web server.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2016 09:27PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey: I don't know if this Z68 Smart TV Box PC RK3368 Octa Core 64bit 2G/16GB 5G Bluetooth XBMC Android 5.1 is a scam or not, but I did placed an order for 1 unit.

As with the audio, I currently use this audio/video cable to connect my S905 4-core system to my old analog TV set. If you have a Set Top Box, perhaps you can use this HDMI Male to 5 RCA RGB Audio Video AV Component Cable for 480p/720p/1080P/1080i (pass through no conversion).

Gravelrash Wrote:

>
> @Bodhi - cant be as bad as the Brexit vote fallout
> was for us brits.....

Are you sure now? :))

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

@bodhi - you have a point :))

Gents, based on Habibie's current TV box, what do you think of this?

Quadcore 64-bit CPU and pentacore GPU - no SATA (that I can see) but Gigabit might make up for quick grabs from elsewhere in the LAN

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> Gents, based on Habibie's current TV box, what do you think of this?
>
Joey: For that budget, you might as well shoot for an octa-core TV Box, i.e. CS918 Android 5.1 Smart TV BOX KODI XBMC Octa Core WIFI 4K 3D Media Fully Loaded, KM5 Android TV Box - Android 6.0, 4Kx2K, Amlogic S912 Octa Core CPU, Kodi 17.0, etc.

Joey: GeekBuying has this T95Z Plus Amlogic S912 Android 6.0 2G/16G TV BOX 2.4G+5G Dual Band WIFI Gigabit LAN Bluetooth KODI LED Display US $58.99 (no remote control) + Free S/H (probably from China). The least expensive T95Z Plus Octa Core Android 6.0 Smart TV BOX KODI 16.1 FUlly Loaded 4K Movies 3D is US $58.87 (includes a remote control) + FREE ePacket delivery from China.

OK that'll do Habibie, thank you kindly. Super cool. The CS918 Android 5.1 and KM5 Android TV Box are the ones I can't look away from. The latter with AC wireless would get along with three USB wirelesses and one AC router here.

Definitely I plan on getting the Beelink X2 and putting Debian on it, maybe switch between server and desktop. As the pennies allow. Or don't.

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> OK that'll do Habibie, thank you kindly. Super
> cool. The
> CS918 Android 5.1 and KM5 Android TV Box are the ones I can't look away from. The latter with AC wireless would get along with three USB wirelesses and one AC router here.
>
If you heavily depend on an AC WiFi connection, then it is a good choice. Otherwise, I would stay away from it mainly because it only has 1/8 GB RAM/internal eMMC storage, let alone the RJ45 only supports 10/100 Mbps. The T95Z Plus has 2/16 GB RAM/internal eMMC storage with 10/100/1000 Mbps RJ-45 port, sans AC WiFi.

> Definitely I plan on getting the Beelink X2 and putting Debian on it, maybe switch between server and desktop. As the pennies allow. Or don't.
>
I think this is a 32-bit system with 1/8 GB RAM/internal eMMC storage with 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 port.

Only the Beelink X2 runs Debian though right?

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> Only the Beelink X2 runs Debian though right?
>
I thought Armbian now also supports a 64-bit ARM.

Oh man, good call on the AC specs - I forgot, AC wireless is said to be so fragmented it can exceed regular specs easily.

And you've got me convinced, those T95Z are modern works of art. But past the $50 price point it would have to be like the OrangePi Plus with SATA II. Which is quadcore, but past $50 my pennies are best spent on either a CPU/Mobo combo or hard drives.

I'll get some sleep - full moon out, supermoon even and I find myself antsy many times until it starts declining.

As far as 64-bit though, I fail to see how it helps if the RAM isn't 3GB or especially after 4GB.

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And you've got me convinced, those T95Z are modern
> works of art. But past the $50 price point it
> would have to be like the OrangePi Plus with SATA
> II. Which is quadcore, but past $50 my pennies are
> best spent on either a CPU/Mobo combo or hard
> drives.
>
Sometimes, eBay has T95Z Plus under US $50. BTW, I forgot to mention a KM5 Android TV Box does not support Bluetooth v4 that most Android TV Boxes offer for free.

> I'll get some sleep - full moon out, supermoon
> even and I find myself antsy many times until it
> starts declining.
>
> As far as 64-bit though, I fail to see how it
> helps if the RAM isn't 3GB or especially after
> 4GB.
>
AFAICT, 2 GB RAM is plenty for a 64-bit ARM system. So far, this 3GB/16GB H96 Pro Octa Core Android 6.0 TV Box Set-top 2.4G/5.8G is the only 3 GB Android TV Box I could find.

Joey: I don't know if either this New Smart TV BOX Amlogic S905 Quad Core Android 5.1 4K HD Kodi 16.0 Keyboard US $13.30 or this QBOX 2GB/16GB Amlogic S905 Mali-450 Android 5.1 Smart TV BOX Dual WIFI Mini PC US $14.78 is a scam or a legit offer. The later is a 2/16 GB RAM/internal eMMC storage. There are more S905 offers here.

Whenever placing an order like that, I always send an e-mail (obtained from PayPal transaction) to the seller letting him/her know of the order. This way, if the eBay account has been hacked to offer such a scam, the real seller will immediately contact eBay to shut it down and eBay will also notify any buyers to cancel the transaction.

I just placed an order for this QBOX 2GB/16GB Amlogic S905 Mali-450 Android 5.1 Smart TV BOX Dual WIFI Mini PC US $14.78 + Free S/H from Forsyth, MO. Let's see if it is a scam or a legit offer.

Maybe someday when I'm dealing with dollars and not so much cents I can take a chance with a Chinese order, but little computers - will drive me mad in the mail for a month!

Yeah Habibie, nice selection of possibilities you mention. My $27 is slipping away but I'll hold on to as much as possible and penny my way higher. I've got a few Logitech wireless devices so that's cool I only need one USB port and that nails mouse and keyboard.

Cross some fingers for me and between now and Black Friday I hope to report a breakthrough and then whine I need a SPDIF converter LOL (they're $5 @ China n/p)

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-= Cloud 9 =-

habibie Wrote:
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> I just placed an order for this QBOX 2GB/16GB Amlogic S905 Mali-450 Android 5.1 Smart TV BOX Dual WIFI Mini PC US $14.78 + Free S/H from Forsyth, MO. Let's see if it is a scam or a legit offer.
>
As it turned out, this offer was a scam.

JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cross some fingers for me and between now and
> Black Friday I hope to report a breakthrough and
> then whine I need a SPDIF converter LOL (they're
> $5 @ China n/p)
>
If I may ask, what kind of SPDIF converter are you looking for and what are you going to use it with?

Joey: Only today (11/14/16), AliExpress has this Android 6.0 Smart TV Box Amlogic S905X Quad Core WiFi 4K x 2K HD HDMI 2.0 Kodi 2G/16G Set Top Box US $33.99 (or 1/8 GB US $25.64) + FREE S/H.

habibie Wrote:
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> If I may ask, what kind of SPDIF converter are you
> looking for and what are you going to use it with?

Regardless how long this takes, at least two of the devices may as well be taped to the back of two monitors here. I'd like to add Soundbars, which are those speakers Dell makes that clip to the bottom of most of their monitors. They're real cheap, many times $10 apiece inc shipping. Some of these devices are SPDIF-only so it might be necessary. Some of them run on USB power so that's not too intrusive.

Add two more devices in the near future, one as a present for my mom so she can have a TV box and maybe even leave it on Android, and an all-around for me, maybe replace the Thin Client.

Oh, the SPDIF, here's an example of a device I have that allows SPDIF, whether optical or coaxial. They never made proper Linux drivers for the unit but I can mix if I can have a SPDIF out. If I'm away from the unit then I still have to hear what's going on. For the $5 price at least it's 24/96, although I have many 24/192kHz and that requires using the Fireface or other higher quality D/A.

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Joey: I don't know if this 3GB/16GB H96 Pro Amlogic S912 Octa Core Android 6.0 TV Box Set-top Box 2.4G/5.8G US $19.36 + $0.39 Economy Shipping from outside US = $19.75 is a scam or legit offer. Regardless, I did place an order for 1 unit. As always, I contacted to let the seller know of the order through his/her e-mail address provided by PayPal. This way, unless his/her e-mail also got hacked, s/he will know what to do if his/her eBay account did get hacked to offer such a scam.