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stevebrtx

Jun 18, 2010, 2:52 PM

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Recommendation on pint size PC

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Christmas came early again this year and Santa poked a Dell Inspirion Zino 400HD PC in my sock. So the last week has been spent working with Windows 7 and getting all the "look & feel" back to my classic style and getting the weather station etc. moved over to the new box which is only 8X8x3.5" so a nice size and even better, only a 26 watt sacrifice to the CFE.

So far, I'm very pleased with the new box and I recommend it for anyone wanting to upgrade. Now, that being said, locally it's around $9,000p (which is silly high) compared to $320USD, or about $4KMXD delivered NOB (and hauled by mule) so, be aware and treat your traveling friends like royalty.
http://www.chapalaweather.net

Peter

Jun 18, 2010, 3:08 PM

Post #2 of 6 (1867 views)

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Re: [stevebrtx] Recommendation on pint size PC

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Last Xmas I got a little Acer Aspire One about the same size. I liked it really well although it was small and did not ahave a DVD drive. For that reason the system back-up in a file in the utilities.

After time it failed to boot and there was no way to restore the system. I took it to a nearby computer shop and asked them to reboot it with an external drive and see if we could access the restore utility. He told me to come back in a couple hours and he would look at it. When I returned he said he had loaded a new operating system. That worked fine, although the screen size was different and I had to readjust to be able to read full pages. But after some time it seemed the operating system was running out of its 30-day time period to register the system.

I ended up giving the Acer to a friend who takes it to the same shop to have reloaded a new OS every thirty days. I bought a full-size Compaq laptop to replace it.

stevebrtx

Jun 18, 2010, 3:49 PM

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Re: [Peter] Recommendation on pint size PC

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Interesting on the Acer, I had considered that also, as the weather station runs 24/7 I was looking for the minimal "box", but the opportunity came up to have the owner of the place I rent to bring me the Dell and I consider it providence.

Just a funny side note, when I lived and worked in TX back in the 80's I sold a records management system to the State of Texas Archives division. I ordered the system and Dell (based in Austin) said there was an 8 week delay, I called them and told them it would be a shame if I had to fill the order with a Gateway system (South Dakota based at the time) instead of a Texas based system, especially to a Texas State Agency - the rep said, one moment please and put me on hold, came back a few minutes later and said "good news, we've had a cancellation and your system will ship tomorrow" - don't know who didn't get theirs, but the State got their system - I do miss the good old days at times.
http://www.chapalaweather.net

Rolly

Jun 18, 2010, 3:52 PM

Post #4 of 6 (1857 views)

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Re: [stevebrtx] Recommendation on pint size PC

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Steve, I am not acquitted with your Dell box, but I have had some experience with other minies. Some (all?) of them have over heating problems. I suggest you invest in a little fan kit that acts as a cradle for the computer and provides additional cooling.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on Jun 18, 2010, 3:53 PM)

Peter

Jun 18, 2010, 4:07 PM

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Re: [stevebrtx] Recommendation on pint size PC

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Let me add that my Acer cost about $3,000mx at Chedraui around last Xmas and there were only a couple units at that price. Since then I have only seen these running around $4,500 at Bodega Aurrera to around $7,000mx at Sanborns.

stevebrtx

Jun 18, 2010, 4:36 PM

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Re: [Rolly] Recommendation on pint size PC

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Always good advise on the cooling Rolly, too often people try to stuff the small ones into small spaces. For the last 4 years the weather station has run on an HP 7500 slimline, which is a small chassis, with zero problems, now it retires to a less demanding work load.

PS: both the HP and the Dell have fans, but they need room to exhaust.
http://www.chapalaweather.net

(This post was edited by stevebrtx on Jun 18, 2010, 4:38 PM)