Windows Mini PC the size of Chromecast

Avalon · 8 Nov 2014 at 22:12

I like this, first thought is getting rid of the under powered Pi for media stuff, add a FLIRC via extension in that full size USB slot and it's basically replaces my HTPC with a much lower power requirement and unseen box. For media usage this could be as good as a nuc.

*edit* Right, going to take the plunge on a 2/32 rather than 2/16, I don't plan on on running a full win install, but it's £6.41 more which seems like a safer bet long term. Anyone want to split the DHL shipping rather than wait up to 4 weeks on top of the 20 day processing time?

Caged · 9 Nov 2014 at 00:31

I'm going to wait for the rest of the OEM world to pick up on the idea and make something supported

manic111 · 9 Nov 2014 at 09:31

Steam streaming?!

Avalon · 9 Nov 2014 at 10:57

Caged said:
I'm going to wait for the rest of the OEM world to pick up on the idea and make something supported

In the same way we're swimming in NUC alternatives after years of waiting for everyone else to pick up from Intel's spec? The only other option is a Brix which isn't really that great in comparison and took ages to get to market.

Caged · 9 Nov 2014 at 12:42

Avalon said:
In the same way we're swimming in NUC alternatives after years of waiting for everyone else to pick up from Intel's spec? The only other option is a Brix which isn't really that great in comparison and took ages to get to market.

There's a world of difference between a Chinese OEM selling stuff on Alibaba, and Intel.

meandu229 · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:32

Avalon said:
I like this, first thought is getting rid of the under powered Pi for media stuff, add a FLIRC via extension in that full size USB slot and it's basically replaces my HTPC with a much lower power requirement and unseen box. For media usage this could be as good as a nuc.

*edit* Right, going to take the plunge on a 2/32 rather than 2/16, I don't plan on on running a full win install, but it's £6.41 more which seems like a safer bet long term. Anyone want to split the DHL shipping rather than wait up to 4 weeks on top of the 20 day processing time?

Ive sent you a trust I might be interested depending how much it will be. Love one to replace my pi in bedroom might get a 2nd if it turns out to be good enough to replace my N54L as a xbmc box.

Avalon · 10 Nov 2014 at 12:18

Caged said:
There's a world of difference between a Chinese OEM selling stuff on Alibaba, and Intel.

Very true, intel build quality/warranty is generally top end, but is usually feature limited from an enthusiast pov, the larger partners have generally avoided the format which is a shame as it's a natural net-top/SFF replacement so I hoped we'd see the likes of the Acer Revo's/Shuttle/Zotac's delivering options by now.

meandu229 said:
Ive sent you a trust I might be interested depending how much it will be. Love one to replace my pi in bedroom might get a 2nd if it turns out to be good enough to replace my N54L as a xbmc box.

I'll pick it up tonight but i'm not looking to make anything out of it, just get quicker delivery

The import duty/VAT thing worries me despite what the site suggests so i'll do a bit of reading up on that as if it does get hit then a NUC would be a better buy.

meandu229 · 10 Nov 2014 at 12:40

Avalon said:
I'll pick it up tonight but i'm not looking to make anything out of it, just get quicker delivery The import duty/VAT thing worries me despite what the site suggests so i'll do a bit of reading up on that as if it does get hit then a NUC would be a better buy.

There is 15% off tomorrow
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sell-Mini-PC-with-both-Android-Windows-8-system/32223626046.html
Which would work out at ~£75 for the 32gb version each shipped via DHL. Although Im not sure how customs charges work and stuff if you read about it let me know.

AMDPower · 10 Nov 2014 at 12:45

I'll pick it up tonight but i'm not looking to make anything out of it, just get quicker delivery The import duty/VAT thing worries me despite what the site suggests so i'll do a bit of reading up on that as if it does get hit then a NUC would be a better buy.

at £90 delivered including cheap delivery and customs charge just too high price for me to jump. Basically they have removed the battery and LCD screen but almost charging the same price as a tablet almost with the same specification.

There is 15% off tomorrow
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sell-...223626046.html
Which would work out at ~£75 for the 32gb version each shipped via DHL. Although Im not sure how customs charges work and stuff if you read about it let me know.

if they class this as computing product or laptop or tablet pc then you are only looking at the 20% vat on the product and nothing else, there is no import duty on laptops . Anything over £36 gets charged import duty and VAT. These are just generalisation I have put down but that it the ballpark. It gets complicated when you want to import personal effects.
The asia dealers are usually very accommodating to value of their products declared for shipping, although illegal I will leave the judgement of morality to yourselves.

randal · 10 Nov 2014 at 12:51

Don't forget the £8 handling fee Royal Fail leverage on everything that goes through HMRC.

Glaucus · 10 Nov 2014 at 13:48

Looks great, just need w8 to get a few more htpc apps. Sky & amazon prime I'm looking at you

AthlonXP1800 · 10 Nov 2014 at 22:36

Avalon said:
I'll pick it up tonight but i'm not looking to make anything out of it, just get quicker delivery The import duty/VAT thing worries me despite what the site suggests so i'll do a bit of reading up on that as if it does get hit then a NUC would be a better buy.

Nope you wont find NUC a better buy than tiny Intel Mini PC stick which cost around £81 excluded delivery. Found a very similar spec bigger NUC box with Celeron N2820 but slower than Atom Z3735G accorded to mobile benchmarks, 2GB RAM and 32GB SSD cost £189 excluded delivery, not exactly cheap but cost over twice the price.

AthlonXP1800 · 10 Nov 2014 at 22:52

meandu229 said:
There is 15% off tomorrow
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sell-Mini-PC-with-both-Android-Windows-8-system/32223626046.html
Which would work out at ~£75 for the 32gb version each shipped via DHL. Although Im not sure how customs charges work and stuff if you read about it let me know.

Oh that interesting. I will keep on eye on that, will order it Wed morning.

Not really sure where you get £75 for 32GB from or has price been drop? It would cost £69.54 after 15% or £12.27 discount then added £20.19 for DHL delivery and total would be £89.73.

I been lookup custom duty and found out this type of item do not need to pay 3.5% custom duty so it will only need to pay 20% VAT. If item gone through custom and will charge me £17.94 for VAT so total would be £107.67.

http://www.dutycalculator.com/hs-lookup/338357/hs-tariff-code-for-mini-pc-dongle/

Hopefully I could be very lucky if custom determind not charged me for VAT but pay only £89.73. Happened many times but unlucky once with 1 VAT charged slapped on me.

AMDPower · 10 Nov 2014 at 23:38

AthlonXP1800 said:
Nope you wont find NUC a better buy than tiny Intel Mini PC stick which cost around £81 excluded delivery. Found a very similar spec bigger NUC box with Celeron N2820 but slower than Atom Z3735G accorded to mobile benchmarks, 2GB RAM and 32GB SSD cost £189 excluded delivery, not exactly cheap but cost over twice the price.

on the same chinese website you can find intel 3217u based NUCs for £117.99 last time i looked. A much better buy thats for sure.

AthlonXP1800 · 11 Nov 2014 at 20:14

AMDPower said:
on the same chinese website you can find intel 3217u based NUCs for £117.99 last time i looked. A much better buy thats for sure.

Ah found it, guessed you not read the description that the item is barebone as it did not included RAM, SSD or HDD. That why it is cheap barebone 3217U NUC, add £31 DHL delivery then total would cost £178.78 with imported VAT but in the end you will need to add around £40 with 1 2GB stick around £15 and £25 for 32GB SSD, grand total would be £218.78.

Also found same barebone model but different seller charge £96.74 sound bargain deal but when look deeper into delivery charge, they charge insanely £80.26 DHL shipping. Looked further to cheapest one £95.39 a piece but the image picture has 2 CPUs mentioned in it, Core i3 3217U and Intel 1037U but no DHL delivery, seller choose Chinese EMS for 5-10 days delivery. Sound very dodgy to me.

AthlonXP1800 · 11 Nov 2014 at 20:53

Oh crap!!!

I ordered 1 for £83.48 and filled in my address detail then went to payment detail to fill detail but my card was declined 3 times.

It seemed my bank added Aliexpress.com to blacklist probably due to recently Aliexpress security breached which hackers stole millions of accounts as well as scams and frauds risks.

Oh dear 11 hours left until discounts expired, probably will be too late to call bank's fraud department to let me through to order it like last time bank blocked my John Lewis's ipod touch 5G order years ago. God I wished Aliexpress have paypal which will be much easier to use.

Caged · 11 Nov 2014 at 21:01

Presumably you could combine something like that dirt cheap HP tablet with the MS Wireless Display Adapter that's coming out here soon and have the same sort of thing except with a huge touch-screen as the remote control and a warranty for not a huge amount more cash.

gradyhawks · 12 Nov 2014 at 10:26

My brother lives in China, going to look at him ordering a one, testing it, and if it works me bringing a few back after I see him in January.

Anyone here got one yet? Has the same specs as my old tablet, which could easily play games (old school 2D ones) and browse the web. Combined with a bluetooth dongle these would be brilliant for the TV.

AthlonXP1800 · 12 Nov 2014 at 18:55

Caged said:
Presumably you could combine something like that dirt cheap HP tablet with the MS Wireless Display Adapter that's coming out here soon and have the same sort of thing except with a huge touch-screen as the remote control and a warranty for not a huge amount more cash.

MS Wireless Display Adapter use Miracast to mirroring display. I got EZcast stick bought from ebay for £10 back in February, it was amazed dongle that supported everything Widi, miracast, DLNA and Airplay. It worked great mirrored Galaxy S3 and S5 screen, Airplay worked great mirrored ipod touch 5G had great time play games and browse internet on large HDTV. But it has some teeth issues with streaming movies from Galaxy S3, S5 and ipod touch 5G, sometime been experienced some buffer and lags issue. Had horrible issue with mirrored from laptop, probably need lots of bandwidth.

Was noticed on EZcast website that next generation EZcast Pro was launched in October which doubled CPU, DDR3 and Wifi performance than last generation EZcast plus added new features like spilt screen, 1080p 60fps, dual output, MHL 2.0, AirView and conference control.

I was kept eye on EZCast Pro clones dongles on ebay but nothing came up for weeks, now found it on Amazon UK, EZcast Pro is based on reference Tronsmart T2000 cost £32.99. Think I will wait a while see what Google will offer with Chromecast 2.

AthlonXP1800 · 12 Nov 2014 at 18:59

gradyhawks said:
My brother lives in China, going to look at him ordering a one, testing it, and if it works me bringing a few back after I see him in January.

Anyone here got one yet? Has the same specs as my old tablet, which could easily play games (old school 2D ones) and browse the web. Combined with a bluetooth dongle these would be brilliant for the TV.

You probably don't need Bluetooth dongle as Windows Mini PC dongle already have Bluetooth 4.0 build in accorded to spec.