Basic computer to run a promo screen

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nate

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Topic # 151167 15-Aug-2014 23:45

I have a old shuttle box that runs a promo screen in my cafe. The promo screen is just a webpage that is loaded in Chrome in full screen mode. That's all this machine does.

Looking at replacing it with an Intel NUC or similar - any suggestions?

Yabanize

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Reply # 1109373 16-Aug-2014 01:02

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Raspberry pi?

sampler

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Reply # 1109393 16-Aug-2014 08:00

Nate!,

NUC's in general just work (and work well). They have little if no sound at all (fan noise etc, and are available with Wireless, 4 gig of ram and a 30 gig SSD (mSATA) for under $350. Slap your fav version of Linux on it, set it up to auto run chrome etc and away you go.

As much as I would normally be interested in cheaper options that required more geeking and thoughts, using a NUC would effectively become a set and forget item. Perfect for the intended location (must pop in and grab a salad again).

Cheers

Lee

hellonearthisman

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Reply # 1109395 16-Aug-2014 08:10

Raspberry Pi, small size, quiet, low power and cheap.

Dynamic

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Reply # 1109397 16-Aug-2014 08:24

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Ingram have an NUC which is a fanless single core Atom. I bought one for this exact purpose. VGA and HDMI outputs. Cost next to nothing. 'Standard' NUCs have a fan to wear out.

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Stu

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Reply # 1109400 16-Aug-2014 08:43

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Pretty sure the Raspberry Pi would do the job fine. In saying that, I think the single core Atom NUC as mentioned above would do it better.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

CYaBro

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Reply # 1109403 16-Aug-2014 09:08

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Gigabyte also have fanless brix unit with a dual core celeron if you want something a bit more powerful than an atom.
It has VGA and hdmi outputs.

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jonb

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Reply # 1109413 16-Aug-2014 09:39

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People have had good experiences with the Chinese NUCs in this thread www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=50&topicid=147440 .
You could also try a tablet with a hdmi out, maybe a Dell Venue 8 from Trade Me.

toyonut

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Reply # 1109440 16-Aug-2014 11:36

+1 for a NUC. Small cheap and have vesa mounting kits too. Sure the Pi would too, but I just feel the NUC is a bit more versatile.

*EDIT*
Just remembered, chromeboxes.
http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=WKSHDT2706976&name=HP-ChromeBox-G1-Intel-Celeron-2955U-1.4-GHz-4GB-16
Cheap, and pretty much all they do is run Chrome.
A NUC is nearly as cheap though.
http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=WKSPB3005&name=PB-3005-Intel-NUC-Ultra-Compact-PC-Intel-Celeron-N

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

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HowickDota

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Reply # 1109442 16-Aug-2014 11:44

My vote is for the raspberry pi, save yourself some money if it's only going to be doing this one basic task.

Dynamic

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Reply # 1109447 16-Aug-2014 12:02

A Windows-based PC is a no-brainer to have auto-starting with the desired function and can be easily VNC'd into from another terminal if required. The Pi might take a bit of head scratching or research.

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freitasm

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Reply # 1109448 16-Aug-2014 12:11

nate: I have a old shuttle box that runs a promo screen in my cafe. The promo screen is just a webpage that is loaded in Chrome in full screen mode. That's all this machine does.

Looking at replacing it with an Intel NUC or similar - any suggestions?

Get the Gigabyte BRIX, 4GB RAM and a mSATA SSD 64GB from Amazon. Cheaper than the NUC and fast. I use as HTPC (with a larger SSD) and David Cole got one this week for his.

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raytaylor

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Reply # 1109625 16-Aug-2014 19:38

jonb: People have had good experiences with the Chinese NUCs in this thread www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=50&topicid=147440 .
You could also try a tablet with a hdmi out, maybe a Dell Venue 8 from Trade Me.

I ended up using three of those little chinese units - bought them off trademe, swapped out the hard drives for SSD's and installed windows 7.
We use one as our DNS server, one as the backup DNS and one as a shared file server / dumping ground.
Am even thinking of moving our email server over to one.

They are really good.

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richms

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Reply # 1109633 16-Aug-2014 19:50

Can be risky getting things out of china like that. I have bought an ITX motherboard in the past that had a duplicate mac address and was missing heaps of capacitors, because it was a "third shift" production run.

Richard rich.ms

TwoSeven

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Reply # 1109636 16-Aug-2014 20:10

I think the device you may be looking for is a Wireless Advertising Display (or even a wired one).

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richms

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Reply # 1109639 16-Aug-2014 20:15

Wireless advertising players tend to just run thru a remotely administered slideshow of stills and video, not have a functioning web browser on them. When I looked at one to do a rates board at work, they were totally unable to pull in data from elsewhere so I would have had to make something render things to images and stick them into a network share for the player to display from. We just fullscreen an excel spreadsheet because that was the easiest way to get something usable quickly, but I will be re-doing it via HTML sometime soon.

Richard rich.ms