Does anyone have a good guideline for computing requirements? I'm not planning to stream like with PleX or anything, I just want something I can stick on the back of my projector and forget about except for when I want to watch something or download something.
Requirements
- Small form factor
- Low power draw
- Enough SSD space for ~6 movies
- Storage expandable by external flash device
- Wi-Fi (my modem can't be moved closer)
- Bluetooth AND 3.5 mm for audio out
Something like the Nvidia Shield would be perfect but its too hard to download things onto it directly. Ideally, I wouldn't have to have a personal computer other than this device. Currently, I plug my laptop in and stream, but my streaming sites no longer work well and it does not have the storage for me to download movies.
Since I am not trying to use this as a home server to stream off of, I shouldn't need a lot of computing power for transcoding or parallel sessions or nothing like that.
AS mentioned in the title, my budget is around $150 (not including external storage). Any more than that, and it's not worth upgrading from my laptop.
The 1 liter size offerings by HP, Dell, or Lenovo (all secondhand) are nice for this. 8th gen Intel options will be $120-$160 on eBay depending on if you need to upgrade them from base (usually 8 GB RAM and 256 or 512 GB nvme). If you get the 35 W editions (usually those with *T processors) you'll have something that also runs nice and cool.
The lines to look at:
If you look at the same gen of processor they're virtually identical in most ways that matter. They do each have their own slight advantages over one another though. HP ones tend to have more storage expansion, are easier to open, and have better build quality (imo). Lenovo ones often have a funky little pcie slot that needs a riser to use, but it's the only one with this option. Dell ones are the most common and will have the most examples for teardown and maintenance. Dell ones will likely have the best firmware support.
They all work great with Linux, too. If you're downloading stuff, you'll want to make sure your download client can only access the internet via a VPN, which is easier to do with Linux via docker containers or a virtual machine.
Oh and for WiFi and Bluetooth: I believe all of the 8th gen+ options have an M.2 slot for a wifi+BT card and little antennas you can attach to it. You'll want to verify this for any specific model you're interested in. I bought and then returned several of these a while ago and ones from eBay would sometimes randomly come with a card. Intel ones cost about $15 on ebay. You can also use USB ones but they're usually less effective. Some ebay sellers will include a USB wifi+bt dongle with your order.