Time for a New PC.

[airwavelistener]

Storm took out the motherboard in the PC I was using,so now I need to find something else. Been looking at the SFF Optiplex line the HP 800 G3 mini series and Lenovo M920q. Just wanted to see what else I should consider. SFF or Minis are ok since I won't be mobile,no need for a laptop.

 

[PDXh0b0]

I got renewed on amazon and it has been working great, running 6 dongles with sdrtrunk, sdr# with airspy and various decoders, dsdplusfastlane with 2 dongles... no struggle...42% cpu 20% ram 12% gpu

 

[saioke]

Yeah those old Optiplexes can be found on ebay for $60-80 and they're fairly decent. Most of them don't seem to come with storage, or they come with a normal hdd. But I would personally throw in a cheap $30-40 2.5 SSD. I wouldn't get anything older than a 4th gen I5 though.

 

[KD0FEO]

I'm using an OptiPlex 3080 Micro with an NVMe SSD and works like a champ, probably overkill but it's small and efficient.

 

[vagrant]

I’m still using an HP 800 G2 mini with an SDRPlay. No problems when viewing 10 MHz of spectrum. If the G2 died I would purchase a G3.

 

[jblackst]

I'm running a (used) Dell OptiPlex 7050 Micro form factor, i5-6500T 2.5GHz, 16 GB memory, 250 GB SSD. All this machine does is run UniTrunker (with 7 or 8 open system windows) and SDRTrunk (monitoring 5 busy trunked system sites). It has 10 SDRs on a powered USB hub, plus keyboard, mouse, and WiFi on USB. I've noticed it runs 9 SDRs very reliably, but if I add a 10th one, it starts to get flaky. Of course, CPU is running 100%, memory 55%, SSD 1%, GPU 3%. Maybe I've outgrown this little machine?

For SDR work, I'm definitely a fan of these secondhand Dell OptiPlex units. I think I gave $120 on Amazon for this one, including the WiFi dongle, keyboard, and mouse.

 

[airwavelistener]

I'm running a (used) Dell OptiPlex 7050 Micro form factor, i5-6500T 2.5GHz, 16 GB memory, 250 GB SSD. All this machine does is run UniTrunker (with 7 or 8 open system windows) and SDRTrunk (monitoring 5 busy trunked system sites). It has 10 SDRs on a powered USB hub, plus keyboard, mouse, and WiFi on USB. I've noticed it runs 9 SDRs very reliably, but if I add a 10th one, it starts to get flaky. Of course, CPU is running 100%, memory 55%, SSD 1%, GPU 3%. Maybe I've outgrown this little machine?

For SDR work, I'm definitely a fan of these secondhand Dell OptiPlex units. I think I gave $120 on Amazon for this one, including the WiFi dongle, keyboard, and mouse.

What powered USB hub are you using? I will be using 4 SDRs at the most,so this setup would be fine.

 

[jblackst]

What powered USB hub are you using? I will be using 4 SDRs at the most,so this setup would be fine.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012DZ4VFO

All the common SDRs will fit side by side in this, except the Nooelec RTL-SDR SMART v5. They are a tad too boxy to fit side by side, and you have to skip a port.

 

[boatbod]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012DZ4VFO

All the common SDRs will fit side by side in this, except the Nooelec RTL-SDR SMART v5. They are a tad too boxy to fit side by side, and you have to skip a port.

In my experience, I'd suggest running your sdr dongles with a shorty USB extension. Doing that solves the problem of having multiple "hot sticks" immediately adjacent to each other, and takes the stress off the physical usb port, reducing the likelihood of connector breakage.

 

[Alan531]

Don't over look BeeLink and their mini-PCs, these are wonderful units.

 

[merlin]

I just bought a couple HP t730 thin client, 16 Gb ram, 250 GB SSD. Setting one up exclusively for SDRs.
Under $100, can't really go wrong.

 

[C_615]

Don't over look BeeLink and their mini-PCs, these are wonderful units.

I couldn’t agree more. I have three of them (running Ubuntu) dedicated to SDR activities.

 

[airwavelistener]

I couldn’t agree more. I have three of them (running Ubuntu) dedicated to SDR activities.

Which Model?

 

[airwavelistener]

Don't over look BeeLink and their mini-PCs, these are wonderful units.

Any particular model?

 

[Hit_Factor]

I'm using an OptiPlex 3080 Micro with an NVMe SSD and works like a champ, probably overkill but it's small and efficient.

View attachment 187966

8 gigs of ram is not efficient. A small silicon injection would really help that system.

 

[JimmyJet727]

Yes at the recommendation of @PDXh0b0 I got one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BJDFZRF?th=1

Serious bang for the buck. Not quite the small form factor of the BeeLink but small enough and less expensive. 32GB plus it has DVD-R/W and a few other extras. I pulled the SSD with Windows, bought another SSD from Amazon ($30), and Installed Linux. So if I ever need Windows in the future I can just swap the SSD's.

 

[airwavelistener]

Yes at the recommendation of @PDXh0b0 I got one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BJDFZRF?th=1

Serious bang for the buck. Not quite the small form factor of the BeeLink but small enough and less expensive. 32GB plus it has DVD-R/W and a few other extras. I pulled the SSD with Windows, bought another SSD from Amazon ($30), and Installed Linux. So if I ever need Windows in the future I can just swap the SSD's.

Yeah,I have a guy selling one local,just waiting on a reply from him.

 

[wtp]

don't forget to spend some time getting a good surge protector/battery backup.

 

[airwavelistener]

don't forget to spend some time getting a good surge protector/battery backup.

Yep,got that taken care of.

 

[K7MFC]

I got renewed on amazon and it has been working great...
View attachment 187938

+1 on these refurbished Optiplexes. Solid hardware options and good prices with these things; the used market is flooded with 'em. I've purchased several over the years and used them for radio stuff, HTPCs, home servers, and MIDI workstations.