I bought a Topton GM1 Industrial Mini PC for my HomeLab. It is aimed at running Slackware Linux but I wanted to have a quick look at how well BSD OSes support it out-of-the-box.
↫ Joel Carnat
That’s really all there’s to this story. I just really, really love tiny industrial and office computers and thin clients, and every time I see another one for sale I really have to stop myself from buying one I have absolutely no use for. There’s just something about how these little guys are built that speaks to me – they’re different than regular PCs, but only marginally so, making them fun to play around with, getting drivers for everything, seeing if Linux and BSD have any issues with it, and so on.
They’re also often fanless, which is a major boon. The Dell thin client I wrote about last week has been run through a gauntlet of operating systems to see just how capable it is, and I’m surprise by just how much you can do even with a pedestrian Pentium Silver. For now it’s running Fedora GNOME to get an idea how the most default of default Linux environments performs and feels – so I can include it in future articles about it – but I think I’m going to set it up as a retrogaming console using Batocera.
Industrial, office, and thin client computers are just fun to play around with, and they’re incredibly cheap when buying used. If things like a Raspberry Pi are hard to get, backordered, or overpriced due to demand outstripping supply, it’s definitely a good idea to see if you can find some cast-off thin client or whatever for your project instead.
Amazon shows ~$650USD.
Unless you really have an purpose for it recycle something you own (e.g. old laptop) and prototype, then once you’re ready to commit pull the trigger on the more expensive item.
Just get a used HP or Fujitsu Siemens thin client from eBay.
I like these types of computers too, but I’m not sure I would call this one an industrial PC. I’m even struggling to find a proper data sheet for download at their product page. Has it been certified in any way? Does it at least have some IP rating? All that’s there are some pictures with some light information. At the very least, the page should state the operating and storage environmental conditions for the PC.
I could have missed it, but I think many manufacturers call their product industrial PC when it’s not really (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_PC#Construction_and_features).
And right below in the description they call it a ‘Gaming Mini Computer’, for which it doesn’t appear to be particularly well-suited either. Shotgun marketing?
Cathode Ray Dude has a great YouTube series all about Little Guys.
One of my favourite YouTubers, and that series is so much fun.
Nice