Well not really a PC, but for £16 might be worth a punt:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16316439
Although better to push the boat out and go for the £22 version with network connector. Interesting choice of names, Model A and Model B.
Iffy - next time you think about getting a new mouse for your Mac, just think, you could get a whole new PC instead :)
|
|
Could it be a revolution ? Hope Raspberry isn't a premonition - proves we're still good for something in this country.
|
>> Could it be a revolution ?
No.
I could point you to countless "ultra cheap", " built for the third world" "bringing technology to the third world masses" projects.
All have been carp, all have failed.
|
>> I could point you to countless "ultra cheap"
Have any been available in this country before? Might find a niche market here.
|
|
Nah its useless. Given that anyone who wants to tinker with an OS, can buy a PC second hand complete with loads more memory, cpu, horsepower and a hard disk for less, in fact people are throwing more powerful stuff on the tip, why would you buy one?
|
>> why would you buy one?
You're probably right of course, but I reckon there'll be at least a few who'll be curious to see what they can do with it. Wonder how many they need to sell though?
|
|
You might think it would have a place as an embedded controller, but you are in that game, and seen plenty of existing one small board implementations running linux I am sure.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 23 Dec 11 at 18:55
|
|
The size could be a massive bonus :). That said I am throwing out a P4 press cot next week was given me to for some teaching I have been doing it, but its useless as a PC.
|
>> The size could be a massive bonus :). That said I am throwing out a
>> P4 press cot next week was given me to for some teaching I have been
>> doing it, but its useless as a PC.
Its not even that small, what do you think is running in your mobile phone?
|
|
Smaller than that Prescott I have to get rid of it. To me the challenge would be that its not an x86 platform. But then I am not a computer scientist and by the time I was playing with the 8-bits I was 11 years old. No fun in electronics or computers any more :(
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 24 Dec 11 at 00:04
|
>> I am throwing out a P4 press cot next week was given me to for some teaching I have been doing it, but its useless as a PC.
I've got a P4 3.4GHz Prescott, 2GB RAM and Geforce 6600 giving great service running Windows 7 Home Premium????
|
|
They make great room heaters too. 70 odd watts for the CPU alone I think.
|
>> You might think it would have a place as an embedded controller, but you are
>> in that game, and seen plenty of existing one small board implementations running linux I
>> am sure.
Nah - it's mostly been no OS (including current femtocell stuff), or home grown.
|
>> >> I could point you to countless "ultra cheap"
>>
>> Have any been available in this country before? Might find a niche market here.
>>
ISTR the Asus EEeeeeee started being marketed as a child's toy (maybe end of 2007?).
Then the computer press realised it was a proper job, they became difficult to find, and the price went up.
A quick google turns this up (which is probably what I've half remembered)
www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/133848/asus-eee-pc-701
|
|
Not quite a childs toy, was hard to find because they didn't ship many in and those that were were taken up by geeks because it was Linux. Wasn't until it was loaded with windows, that it took off as a netbook.
|
I've still got a Prescott based P4 3.6GHz PC with XP and 3Gb RAM. It has a nvidia Geforce GTS250 in it and it will play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. Not in DirectX10 mode because XP does not support that. But still very playable at high details and 1280x1024 (the resolution of the old 19" LCD monitor).
This cheap computer is not up to much really IMO.
|
The 3Ghz+ Prescotts were one thing, but the thing I have is slower than that, it has 256MB of RAM, a no HD, a dead PSU, it really isn't worth spending a penny on.
A £35 1155 Sandybridge Celeron murders any Prescott and by the time you've upgraded the RAM would be cheaper.
|
>> The 3Ghz+ Prescotts were one thing.
I didn't pay anything for it 2 years ago when a faulty RAM module meant a friend was ditching it to the dump - hence it has 2GB of Kingston HyperX - my only extravagance for it. A good room heater, as has been mentioned, which is why the P4's was going nowhere by the time of the 3.4 - 3.6 Ghz machines. The nice thing is when it dies you don't feel the same as in the days of splashing out £1,000+ on a PC.
|
>> going nowhere by the time of the 3.4 - 3.6 Ghz machines
Up to 3.6GHz they tended to run hot but okay. The extreme version at 3.8GHz was a step too far and tended to get thermally throttled so rarely ran at that speed.
The design had issues but was designed very extremely high clock speeds so efficiency per clock was never a design goal. But they never got to those clock speeds. For example the ALU ran at double clock speed.
Fast forward to now and we are again at those speeds with multiple cores. All possible because of smaller process size and clock gating. If a CPU core is not needed now it is totally off... back in Athlon and Pentium 4 days that was not the case.
So I do wonder if some design ideas from the Pentium 4 could come back. And I say some. A lot were wrong architecturally.
|
I've got a 3GHz Prescott still doing sterling service in my media centre PC. Sports 2GB RAM, 2TB storage, elderly 512MB GeForce graphics card. Runs XP and MediaPortal quite happily, and plays back 720P BluRay without jerkiness or noticeable frame drop.
Utterly, utterly worthless, but not even close to useless. A much better bet than a £16 new box.
|
One of the kids PC's is my old P4 630 HT workstation, with 2GB memory it still holds its own.
|
...Iffy - next time you think about getting a new mouse for your Mac, just think, you could get a whole new PC instead :)...
A Magic Mouse is £50 - £16 is £2 more than I paid for a charger and four rechargeable batteries.
|
Update: www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16424990
Might pay £22 - not sure about £3000 :)
Report says the company has a mailing list of 50,000 which would indicate a reasonable level of interest.
|
Another update: now on general sale
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17190918
"Massive demand for the computer has caused the website of one supplier, Leeds-based Premier Farnell, to crash under the weight of heavy traffic."
|
|
And of course Premier Farnell's Element 14 is what became of Acorn :-)
|
I had a look at the tech specs and operating manual for this.
Quote
The following are more or less essential:
• Prepared Operating System SD Card
• USB keyboard
• Display (with HDMI, DVI, Composite or SCART input)
• Power Supply
• Cables
Highly suggested extras include:
• USB mouse
• Internet connectivity - a USB WiFi adaptor (Model A/B) or a LAN cable (Model B)
• Powered USB Hub
• Case
and our "£15" quid basic Raspberry Pi board is now expected to ship at £25. Its not quite the bargain it makes itself out to be, a second hand computer running a proper linux would be cheaper and better. It doesent even have an on board backed up clock, you have to enter the time and date each time you boot it. As far as the OS goes, you have to have pretty good linux skills to prepare the boot OS on SD card, or buy an SD card complete with OS on it.
Far from using it to "learn" you need very skills to get it working in the first place.
< Posted with Internet Explorer V9.0.8112.1642 update version 9.0.5 (KB2647516) Windows 7 32 bit -no problems >
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 29 Feb 12 at 17:51
|
|
Got a couple of minutes on the BBC1 10pm news, just before the French presidential elections.
|
About the intel prescott series, doesnt history repeats itself seems to me amd released their own prescott, bulldozer, the new cpu need to run at high clock speed, and still clock for clock slower, than the intel sandybridge, its a shame they fudge the design, maybe not competetive in single threaded software,, but competitive in multi threaded software that is written to take advantage of bulldozer shared modules.
Too bad if amd made a compelling competitive cpu intel will have to reduce prices or make a more faster cpu both a win win for the consumer.
|
|
sajid - has that got anything to do with the discussion? Don't mind thread drift; just want to make sure I'm not missing something :)
|
mentioning pentium 4 led me to remark that amd got its own pentium 4 bulldozer hope that clarfies things :)
|
|
Ah yes, I can see now up the thread - apologies. Just threw me a bit :)
|
www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=820
I'm tempted by one of these... unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what to make with it. Might be added to the rainy day box complete with the Arduino and ten metres of RGB led ribbon. :-)
|
BBC video of reporter being given a 'demo' of the Pi by a schoolgirl:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17853763
Despite the drawbacks (including being electrocuted?) I do find it quite tempting, although I suspect I wouldn't be allowed to have one...
Raspberry have been putting up tutorials on youtube as well:
tinyurl.com/78zj6mm
Last edited by: Focus on Fri 27 Apr 12 at 12:25
|
Well contrary to some predictions (see above) it's now "the most popular British computer yet made" :)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35667990
|
|
I have a Mark II Pi board bought a little over a year ago and sitting so far unused... First project will be a night vision security camera as that's what I have all the bits for, but I expect that to soon be taken apart and something more interesting to emerge...
|
>> I have a Mark II Pi board bought a little over a year ago and
>> sitting so far unused...
As I suspect most of them are.
|
>As I suspect most of them are.
I have a Pi B+
I've added infra red sensors, ultrasonic distance sensors and stepper motors to it to control an airgun platform to shoot grey squirrels.
Needs some fine tuning but I'll get there.
|
>> >As I suspect most of them are.
>>
>> I have a Pi B+
>>
>> I've added infra red sensors, ultrasonic distance sensors and stepper motors to it to control
>> an airgun platform to shoot grey squirrels.
>>
>> Needs some fine tuning but I'll get there.
You live in basingstoke, and you are worried about squirrels?
|
|
Wonder if I can use one to control an anti drone system over the grounds here...?
|
>> Wonder if I can use one to control an anti drone system over the grounds
>> here...?
You need a bald eagle
www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/02/02/dutch-police-may-use-eagles-to-prey-on-drones.html
|
You're so "yesterday" Dave.
What he needs is one of these................
www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704324304575306541506554802
|
>> What he needs is one of these................
"This bird can do what a real bird can do," boasts Mr. Musters.
Poo?
|
>You live in basingstoke, and you are worried about squirrels?
Economic migrants from Surrey.
|
Needs some fine tuning...
Were those the postman's exact words?
|
New cheap PC - R.P.
