mustang guy Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 We noticed that tablet PC's are being sold pretty cheaply on Ebay, so we think we might buy one to use as the player for the giant jukebox I have been working on. There are so many choices, and I have not kept up on all this stuff, but I do know many of you have, and I am hoping you can help me with some advice. The only thing it will do is play music which is stored on it through the headphone jack to some RCA inputs of a small mixer. I don't think we are talking FLAC music, just MP3's. I figure 16GB would be plenty and better if it had SD expandability. I think wifi is a must, because we want to be able to remote control the thing from 30-40' away. Other than that, really nothing I can think of. Budget? Well.... as little as possible, while still being a good steward of other's money. I've seen them on Ebay for as little as $50 shipped, and on up. What I see in that price range is a lot of broken screens, for parts, and no-name el-cheapo's. I gotta think one can be had for $100 or less shipped... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Can't you use an old PC and control it from an Android? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Yes. The problem has to do with real estate in the jukebox, not to mention power demands. I can't get my hands on a small case to save my life. All anybody seems to have are medium towers. I have a 9mm 50GB SSD with Win7 on it, but nothing to stick it in. I have 3 complete computers, and they are all mid towers, heavy, and power hungry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The History Kid Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Might see if you can find one of the old Compaq towers and piece together your own unit. Shouldn't be too expensive for what you need to do, and I bet you could find the casing for a couple of dollars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 No towers. Need something compact and low power. BTW, I have several OOS mid-towers. They are all in working condition, just not being used by anybody. Old XP, Win2K, even a few 98 machines I bet. I really don't know what all I have socked away in storage. I do, however, not have any really small ones, except some thin net stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The History Kid Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) Positive on the no towers part? If I recall correctly these were barely 6" tall. Otherwise I'd assume you'd be going the route of a laptop like format. ETA: There are also some really slick looking mini computers that are expandable that are no bigger than a router - I want to say Lenovo makes them. Edited October 2, 2014 by IbizaFlame Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasDom Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) If you can find one, The Dell Zino may be ideal. I use one as my HTPC. Wireless, HDMI, Toslink, headphone jack, IR remote,BR drive and multiple USB ports in a very small footprint (8x8x3.5) Edited October 2, 2014 by Tasdom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Positive on the no towers part? If I recall correctly these were barely 6" tall. Otherwise I'd assume you'd be going the route of a laptop like format. ETA: There are also some really slick looking mini computers that are expandable that are no bigger than a router - I want to say Lenovo makes them. Not sure what you mean when you say a tower is 6" tall. A full tower is about 24" tall, a mid is tower is about 18" tall, a micro is about a foot tall, and a mini tower is even taller than 6". As for a mini, I am on a $0 budget. We spent the budget already. If you can find one, The Dell Zino may be ideal. I use one as my HTPC. Wireless, HDMI, Toslink, headphone jack, IR remote,BR drive and multiple USB ports in a very small footprint (8x8x3.5) dell_inspiron_zino_410_hd (2).jpg I'm going to look into that. It would work perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasDom Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Positive on the no towers part? If I recall correctly these were barely 6" tall. Otherwise I'd assume you'd be going the route of a laptop like format. ETA: There are also some really slick looking mini computers that are expandable that are no bigger than a router - I want to say Lenovo makes them. Not sure what you mean when you say a tower is 6" tall. A full tower is about 24" tall, a mid is tower is about 18" tall, a micro is about a foot tall, and a mini tower is even taller than 6". As for a mini, I am on a $0 budget. We spent the budget already. If you can find one, The Dell Zino may be ideal. I use one as my HTPC. Wireless, HDMI, Toslink, headphone jack, IR remote,BR drive and multiple USB ports in a very small footprint (8x8x3.5) dell_inspiron_zino_410_hd (2).jpg I'm going to look into that. It would work perfectly. There's a few on the bay and some shells if you wanna diy http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=dell+zino&_frs=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 craigslist and get a 15" laptop, around me they pop up all the time around 100 not sure about remote control though I have been using a craigslist vaio for a couple years now as my music server...................Cool Project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) I stumbled upon a couple of the terms used for small cases. SFF "Small Form Factor" and USFF "Ultra Small Form Factor" That definitely helps in searching. IbizaFlame, I found those Lenovos Here's one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-M57-USFF-Desktop-2-2-GHz-C2D-2-GB-RAM-NO-HDD-NO-O-S-/171418927095?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item27e95d3ff7&autorefresh=true, and another one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-M58-USFF-Desktop-2-93-GHz-Core-2-Duo-2-GB-RAM-NO-O-S-NO-HDD-/151395552220?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item233fe0cbdc HP and Dell also have offerings in the SFF / USFF sizes. For the money, that is where I am leaning. The Zino's are just too expensive. I am curious about power adapters for these small computers. They are not 120V. Also, they don't come with any cords, etc. Does anybody have any help on that? Edited October 2, 2014 by mustang guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Some of them just take a 12v brick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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