| From: Stewart Russell via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | I just got one of these, for $100 as recommended. It's rather nice (apart | from the whole Windows thing), but ... no wifi! I didn't think a computer | could exist that didn't have wifi! So it's making do with an ancient | realtek USB dongle I used to use on first-gen Raspberry Pis. I've seen | faster dialup. | | Anyway, $100 for an 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, 3-ish GHz multi-core 64-bit | computer is not bad.
There's a wealth of choice, cheap. But yeah, you can be surprised at what's missing. My most recent purchase was of a Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s Gen 2 through ebay. This is a Small Form Factor machine. It was used as some kind of remote desktoppy thing (the HDD had a little Linux installation with a proprietary layer on top). I was surprised that they hadn't wiped it. My real surprise came when I tried to add an NVMe drive. There's a socket but you need to get a mechanical appliance to support the darned thing. They are $13.51 from Lenovo but they don't actually have any and might never again have them (who can tell). For more money I can get them from China (without the heat-sink part). <https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/p/accessories-and-software/thinkcentre-and-thinkstation/thinkcentre-and-thinkstation-hard-drives/4xf1c39743> Other proprietary boxes require optional extra-cost sleds for HDDs. (the M93p doesn't play this game). About WiFi cards: I recently bought, but have not installed, an M.2 WiFi 6e card (plus antennae) for about $25 from AliExpress. Based on an Intel ax210. Funny how that's about a quarter of the price of your whole computer. <https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003140166366.html> Currently the following PCI card, containing an AX210 module, is $25.92. Apparently you can dis-assemble it and take out an m.2 card: <https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004959613888.html> Note: AliExpress listings are terrible for bait-and-switch. Make sure to select the right "color". Less deceptive: do note the shipping price. --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
