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Offline Keoni29

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Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« on: July 28, 2014, 02:24:50 pm »

I recently picked up two thinclients to mess around with. I installed freedos on one of them and it works quite nicely. I installed drivers so I can go online with it. These things can run small linux distro's even with gui. These older thinclients can be bought for a very low price second hand. The older ones have many useful interfaces for hardware hackers such as rs232 serial and printer ports!


This is one of the thinclients I got. The other one is missing the case. I will post a pic of it in a bit.

These things are designed to be low power, so don't expect amazing performance from these.

Specs of the Netvoyager Thin Client LX-1020 :
Cpu: 533MHz x86
Ram: 128MB (can be expanded to 512MB using regular laptop ram)
Harddisk: 128MB compact flash card (I think it will take larger cards too, but this came with it. Dos takes just 6MB, so it's fine)
Has an IDE interface, but did not come with a harddisk.
Max resolution : 1600 x 1200 x 32 - bit colour
Interfaces: 4xUSB, 10/100M ethernet, printer/parallel, rs232 serial
Soundcard and built in speakers
Power :
12V 3.5A (label)
Off : 9W Running : 23W
Dimensions H x W x D (mm) : 173 x 237 x 37

It is expandable with laptop card thingies (no idea what the interface is called)
« Last Edit: July 28, 2014, 02:32:30 pm by Keoni29 »
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Offline Eeems

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2014, 03:08:53 pm »
Quote from: Keoni29 on July 28, 2014, 02:24:50 pm
It is expandable with laptop card thingies (no idea what the interface is called)
PCIe?
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Offline Keoni29

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2014, 03:12:04 pm »
That's probably it. I always forget what it is called.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2014, 02:25:40 am »
So is it kinda like a Raspberry Pi in a way? I wonder how well it would run NES/SNES/Atari/Sega emulators? Because if it's cheap then that could make an interesting "gaming console" in the living room. :P
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Offline Sorunome

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2014, 02:51:13 am »
Now get a server running so that the thin clients don't really have to calculate :P
* Sorunome pokes the LTSP
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Offline Keoni29

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2014, 04:19:43 am »
The one I got is a bit old, but if you van get a newer model and install a lightweight operating system on it I'm sure it can handle emulators just fine. I'm going to try out some emulators on dos myself.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2014, 03:15:39 pm »
Can they overheat or can you leave them running 24/7?
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Offline Keoni29

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2014, 03:53:55 pm »
No idea. I have not tried yet :P
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Offline Sorunome

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2014, 05:10:06 pm »
Thin Clients are supposed to run quietly for 24/7, they are meant for like libraries so that all the heavy computation happens elsewhere so that the library itself is quiet.
And yeah, LTSP is a (IMO easy) way for such a system.
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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2014, 05:23:41 pm »
Aah ok, I was worried because of stories about laptops and Xbox 360 consoles stopping working after 1-2 years when used this much
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Offline Hooloovoo

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2014, 02:18:52 pm »
Quote from: Eeems on July 28, 2014, 03:08:53 pm
Quote from: Keoni29 on July 28, 2014, 02:24:50 pm
It is expandable with laptop card thingies (no idea what the interface is called)
PCIe?
Judging by the age, it is probably PCMCIA, which is from what I've seen more common and accessible on older laptops.
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Offline Keoni29

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2014, 02:53:36 pm »
Ah yes. This is what those cards look like:
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Offline Eeems

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2014, 03:02:10 pm »
I remember those. My dad's old laptop has a wireless card in that format. Annoying things to use. What's nice about them is that they are plug-and-play.
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Offline Streetwalrus

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #13 on: August 02, 2014, 03:36:16 am »
Yeah PCMCIA can do a bunch of stuff. The bus does support PCI and IDE.
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Offline Keoni29

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Re: Thinclients - Tiny x86 computers
« Reply #14 on: August 02, 2014, 03:54:30 am »
Interesting, so in theory I could hook up pc cards. I have seen converters for it.
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