Mini PC for SDRs & Streaming

Mboy00

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Hi All,

I am looking for a few "affordable" options for a mini-pc to stream audio gained from SDR through SDR Trunk. If anyone has any recommendations, that would be awesome! Thanks!
 

N9JIG

Sheriff
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I also use a couple different NUC's, you can find them used for a decent price here and there. I have seen the i5 ones for under $100 used. New ones go from about $500 and up. You can buy them fully configured or ala cart. My "big NUC" came bare-bones and I added RAM and an SSD. I installed these, then installed Windows in less than an hour. If you buy a used one you can easily upgrade the RAM and storage, add WiFi (if not included) for not a lot of money.

The higher end one I have (Hades Canyon) has 3 USB (2 A and a C) on the front panel and 6 on the rear (4 A and 2 C) for a total of 9.

The smaller ones have 4, 2 A's on the front and 2 more on the rear.

All that said, USB Hubs work fine. I have had no issues using multiple hubs and up to 30 radios thru a single USB cable from the radio rack to the computer. The only issue is that you will have to configure the Comm Ports (most radios use serial via USB) and when you plug a cable into a different USB port on either the hub or computer the Comm Port often changes. I always had to document what radio (or rather USB cable if it contained the USB-Serial adapter within it) went into what USB port.
 

StoliRaz

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Dell Optiplex micros. I just picked one up used for under $60. I5, SSD, 4GB ram, running W11 with AC adapter included. They're great little computers
 

iMONITOR

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lenovo ThinkCentre M92p Tiny Mini Business Desktop Computer, Intel Core i5-3470T up to 3.6Ghz, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Intel HD Graphics, VGA, USB 3.0, Windows 10 Professional (Renewed) $97.50

View attachment 134748

Forgot to mention this even has a DB9 RS-232 Serial Port, very desireable for many of us in the radio hobby or profession! (y)
 

thesoundman

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Mar 23, 2008
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Dell Optiplex micros. I just picked one up used for under $60. I5, SSD, 4GB ram, running W11 with AC adapter included. They're great little computers

Which generation i5? I could probably estimate by what you paid but…

Been playing around with idea of upgrading my old 396T to SDS100 and/or getting an SDR setup. I’ve looked at optiplex micros just not sure how new is new enough.
 

KMG54

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Same with the Lenovo think pads, pint sized and have a mean punch. 6th gens with SSD and 8 gigs of memory can be had for about $150. Plus you can use them as a everyday PC also. I have six here that I use for various reasons.
 

KMG54

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Plus most come with a imbedded windows 10 pro license.
 

KMG54

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Beef them up with a M.2 drive, add memory and still activated.
 

KMG54

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I have a couple upgraded let me know if interested.
 

kd1sq

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Just a suggestion, but if you want a really inexpensive little computer to run 24/7 and sit on a shelf somewhere, try looking at the HP T610/620/630 clients. You can get them for under $50 (I got one for $25) on eBay and they're quite respectable fanless and silent little boxes with the ability to run Windows or Linux easily. Upgrades to them cost very little money as well.

I have two of them, one runs as a Sypserver with the HF Discovery+ attached to it, the other I experiment with using DragonOS and a RTL-SDR brand dongle. For economy's sake both are Linux (free) setups but Windows 10 runs very nicely on them if you so desire and want to get on the paid OS treadmill.
 

vagrant

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I have been using an HP 800 G2 for several years with an SDRPlay. It handles the 10 MHz spread fine while other programs are running. I forget the specs, but it probably has 8 or 16 GB of RAM and the SSD of course.
 
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