The little PC that could...

Forums › Desktop computing › The little PC that could...

Reanalyse

300 posts

Ultimate Geek

#303059 13-Jan-2023 18:01

With the stupid cost of SBC and Raspberry Pi's I have been using some very cheap Thin Clients in their place, and thought I would ask if others are doing the same.

The first was a HP T630 at a cost of $60.00 that runs a media server with

The other was a $20.00 Samsung Thin Client Ontario which acts as my Octoprint Server (using Octa-PI software)

What are other using and for what- would love to know

1 | 2

cat
12245 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3020922 13-Jan-2023 18:09

The T630 is simply fantastic value. I’ve still got one in my Proxmox cluster as I’ve found it super reliable for running the important things like PiVPN (WireGuard) as well as my jumphost etc.

A but if a tip with Jellyfin + other “web” apps you have spun up you can use Cloudflare’s Argo tunnel along with Cloudflare Zero Trust to expose these to the internet without having to forward any ports. It’s a secure way of exposing your apps. Zero trust also allows you to secure apps that otherwise may not be very secure. Also this is all free.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Tessie | Tesla | Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

GoodSync

GoodSync. Easily back up and sync your files with GoodSync. Simple and secure file backup and synchronisation software will ensure that your files are never lost (affiliate link).

nedkelly

627 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3021075 13-Jan-2023 19:06

Reanalyse:

With the stupid cost of SBC and Raspberry Pi's I have been using some very cheap Thin Clients in their place, and thought I would ask if others are doing the same.

The first was a HP T630 at a cost of $60.00 that runs a media server with

The other was a $20.00 Samsung Thin Client Ontario which acts as my Octoprint Server (using Octa-PI software)

What are other using and for what- would love to know

What OS are you running on your t630?

Reanalyse

300 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3021076 13-Jan-2023 19:24

nedkelly:

Reanalyse:

With the stupid cost of SBC and Raspberry Pi's I have been using some very cheap Thin Clients in their place, and thought I would ask if others are doing the same.

The first was a HP T630 at a cost of $60.00 that runs a media server with

The other was a $20.00 Samsung Thin Client Ontario which acts as my Octoprint Server (using Octa-PI software)

What are other using and for what- would love to know

What OS are you running on your t630?

OpenMediaVault6- with most of the apps shown being Docker Container managed with Portainer

nedkelly

627 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3021081 13-Jan-2023 19:34

Reanalyse:

OpenMediaVault6- with most of the apps shown being Docker Container managed with Portainer

Love that dashboard showing the systems on the machine.

Reanalyse

300 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3021083 13-Jan-2023 19:39

nedkelly:

Love that dashboard showing the systems on the machine.

Its just Heimdall running in it's own container.

Virtually all the apps (pun intended) if using Portainer are in the App Template list at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ntv-one/portainer/main/template.json

Reanalyse

300 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3021085 13-Jan-2023 19:41

nedkelly:

Love that dashboard showing the systems on the machine.

Its just Heimdall running in it's own container.

Virtually all the apps (pun intended) if using Portainer are in the App Template list at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ntv-one/portainer/main/template.json

nedkelly

627 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3021087 13-Jan-2023 19:55

Reanalyse:

Its just Heimdall running in it's own container.

Virtually all the apps (pun intended) if using Portainer are in the App Template list at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ntv-one/portainer/main/template.json

Awesome, I think I need to start looking at what I can put on my small collection of T640 thin clients, could be fun.

xpd

aka Fast Raccoon !
13022 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3021141 13-Jan-2023 20:42

Not thin clients, but work has a heap of small form HP units starting to be thrown to the side, I've obtained one, thrown an SSD into it and installed Ubuntu server, fantastic as a home server to play with :)

Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770S CPU @ 3.10GHz

I hate seeing PCs going to the recyclers, I tend to hoard them, strip them down for parts for stuff around the house then give away the leftovers.

Other thing I hate, is seeing thin clients being sold as "arcade emulators" for $200+ on TradeMe when you know full well the unit only cost them probably $60 and everything else was free.....

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree - kiwiblast.co.nz - Lego and more

Support Kiwi music! The People Black Smoke Trigger Like A Storm Devilskin

NZ GEEKS Discord______________________________

Tinkerisk

3065 posts

Uber Geek

#3021150 13-Jan-2023 21:19

What can I say? I have always been a fan of x86 Celeron/Pentium CPU thin clients. 🙂

- NET: FTTH, OPNsense, 10G backbone, GWN APs, ipPBX
- SRV: HA server cluster, 0.1PB storage capacity on premise
- IoT: thread, zigbee, tasmota, BidCoS, LoRa, WX suite, IR
- 3D: two 3D printers, 3D scanner, CNC router, laser cutter

allan

1893 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3021177 14-Jan-2023 08:48

There are quite regular listings of HP T630s on Trademe - usually for around the $70-$80 mark.

roobarb

570 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3021191 14-Jan-2023 11:25

While not cheap it does count as little. I have an M5 Intel Compute Stick, it used to run Windows 10 Pro but now runs Ubuntu 22.04. The magic incantation is GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="intel_idle.max_cstate=1"

ubuntu-22.04-on-stk2mv64cc

K8Toledo

846 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3021316 14-Jan-2023 15:45

xpd:

Not thin clients, but work has a heap of small form HP units starting to be thrown to the side, I've obtained one, thrown an SSD into it and installed Ubuntu server, fantastic as a home server to play with :)

Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770S CPU @ 3.10GHz

I hate seeing PCs going to the recyclers, I tend to hoard them, strip them down for parts for stuff around the house then give away the leftovers.

Other thing I hate, is seeing thin clients being sold as "arcade emulators" for $200+ on TradeMe when you know full well the unit only cost them probably $60 and everything else was free.....

"Without competition there is no incentive for innovation".

Yeah I know what you mean...planned/forced obsolescence bugs me too. Also TM sharks. ;)

Decomm'd HP machines can be picked up dirt cheap on TM, almost too cheap really.

Here an Elitedesk G1 4th gen- just $50!!

Prefer an i7? Only $80!!

Both perfectly good machines, still relevant thanks to years of Intel market dominance & anti competitive practices.

MaxineN

Max
1290 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

One NZ

Subscriber

#3021323 14-Jan-2023 15:59

michaelmurfy: The T630 is simply fantastic value. I’ve still got one in my Proxmox cluster as I’ve found it super reliable for running the important things like PiVPN (WireGuard) as well as my jumphost etc.

A but if a tip with Jellyfin + other “web” apps you have spun up you can use Cloudflare’s Argo tunnel along with Cloudflare Zero Trust to expose these to the internet without having to forward any ports. It’s a secure way of exposing your apps. Zero trust also allows you to secure apps that otherwise may not be very secure. Also this is all free.

They really are fun machines.

I just wish there was a plus version of the T630, like there was with it's older brother the T620.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

Opinions are my own. They don't represent my employer.

tim0001

210 posts

Master Geek

#3021480 15-Jan-2023 10:29

Tried OPNsense on my T630 for a week. Was looking at installing another Ethernet port (something like this extra NIC), but decided to stick with my Mikrotik router. Has anyone here done the port mod?

My T630 now just has some typical software
HA, Graphana, Influx
Mosquetto MQTT
Portainer
Tailscale subnet router (turned on if I need remote access to my network)

Anyone have a recommendation for really really simple NAS software that I could add?

Mehrts

857 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3021485 15-Jan-2023 10:41

tim0001:

Anyone have a recommendation for really really simple NAS software that I could add?

Openmediavault is a pretty lightweight NAS option. I used to run it on a Raspberry Pi with a couple of USB drives before I stepped up into some beefier hardware and ran TrueNAS.

Thinking about buying a Tesla? Feel free to use my referral link to get a few good perks when you order!

1 | 2