Small Bedroom Office

Lovely Bloke

Hello.

I'm just looking for some advice.

I am currently getting a box room turned into a small office/spare bedroom hybrid. Getting the bedrooms wired for network in the process, and I plan on sticking a desktop computer in there, which will have very occasional use - for small tasks like printing documents such as flight tickets, streaming the odd thing from the internet/netflix etc, or from nerwork storage.

I don't have the means to spend a fortune, so was looking at getting a cheap, older desktop from Adverts (something in the 50-100 range), and just whacking Mint onto it.

Would it be worth it, do you think? I already use an old laptop, sans screen, connected to my main TV for online content like 4OD, Netflix, BBC etc - so I know about the set up and I also use Mint on that laptop, and also my main Laptop too.

Or should I just save fifty quid a month for a few months and get a more expensive machine?

Saganist

AFAIK Netflix doesnt yet work with Linux.

I think there might have been a "workaround" to get it to run but I've not tried it.

Lovely Bloke

Saganist wrote: »

AFAIK Netflix doesnt yet work with Linux.

I think there might have been a "workaround" to get it to run but I've not tried it.

Yep, there's a workaround.

But still, I'll be able to see my network storage, and use other streaming like BBC, ITV, RTE etc.

syklops

TheNinthGate wrote: »

Yep, there's a workaround.

But still, I'll be able to see my network storage, and use other streaming like BBC, ITV, RTE etc.

Theoretically yes, but Flash support on Linux has always been poor. I've been plagued with problems on the RTE player since the last flash update. This is why I am frustrated with the current state of play with so called internet TV and why in 2013 I am still relying on bit torrent. Hopefully the switch to HTML5 will change all this.

Khannie

I don't get what you're going to get from this desktop that you can't get from the existing (main) laptop.

Lovely Bloke

Khannie wrote: »

I don't get what you're going to get from this desktop that you can't get from the existing (main) laptop.

Permanent fitting for one thing.

Another thing is that the wireless signal from the new UPC router is abysmal in all rooms other than the room it's in, and with the bedrooms upstairs being wired for network, I want a machine in there permanently connected to the network, via ethernet.

And thirdly - why not? :pac: I'm a bit of a nerd, so the more computers the better.

Khannie

I'm still a bit lost now....what's preventing you from bringing the laptop upstairs and plugging it into the wired network?

Take the money you would have spent on a desktop and buy yourself a nice SSD. You can thank me in five years when your laptop is still screaming along. Alternatively use the money to buy the important person in your life a nice gift. You can thank me for that one the next morning. :pac:

I dunno...it just seems .... unnecessary.

Lovely Bloke

Boom! Already have an SSD in the lappy - 256gb Samsung 840 - not too shabby I think you'll agree.

Maybe I will rethink it - perhaps I'll just purchase a large monitor for the room instead.

LiamOSullivan

Could always buy a server... I've seen a few of those floating about in your price range, and I imagine a low range Dell server would put out for a few years more than a cheap laptop of bottom-of-the-line adverts desktop.

Khannie

TNG: Yeah, that would be what I would do to achieve best bang for buck.

On the server - I wouldn't put a server in a house myself. While they're generally rock solid, they're noisy yokes.

d31b0y

You should get a Raspberry Pi! I love my Pi. It runs as my server 24 / 7. Not a peep out of it.

Current uptime: 14:56:54 up 13 days, 2:39

d31b0y

OSI wrote: »

Nothing you buy for €50-100 is going to have enough ummpphh to run the likes of 4oD, BBC iPlayer or Netflix.

Actually the Pi has had some progress with all that (I know I harp on about the Pi a lot but everyone should have one). Here's what I turned up with a quick google

http://djb31st.co.uk/blog/catch-up-tv-on-raspberry-pi-raspbmc-bbc-iplayer/

d31b0y

Did you adapt early and get a 256MB model or did you get the redesigned 512MB model? I am really tempted to buy another just to get the 512MB model but I am moving house shortly and don't have any new projects for my original.

syklops

d31b0y wrote: »

Did you adapt early and get a 256MB model or did you get the redesigned 512MB model? I am really tempted to buy another just to get the 512MB model but I am moving house shortly and don't have any new projects for my original.

Get the new one and sell the old one. Im using a Pi for a work project and I love working with it. I'd take your old one off your hands so long as you're not trying to make a profit on it

I had a new idea this evening for protecting my mothers hens which needs a Pi and an arduino.

Id love to do an XBMC setup with a Pi too.