Dell Inspiron Micro Desktop €149 @ DELL Ireland

Mahogany Gaspipe

SickBoy wrote: »

Just wondering what everyone is planning on using their unit for?
I've installed OpenELEC on mine and it's perfect, no noise, no lag and streams flawlessly from my NAS.
No need for extra memory or swapping out SSD. Happy out!

Well I find myself having to google many of the acronyms in this thread so I don't think my use of the unit will be exciting as other buyers!

I hope, with a RAM and storage upgrade, that the unit connected to my IPS monitor will make a satisfactory desktop. Bit of browsing, bit of MS Office work, bit of YT streaming nothing to taxing.

I'm also excited as its my first sort of a upgrade\modify computer project.

long_b

Inevitable question - how does it handle minecraft? With mods?

54and56

long_b wrote: »

Inevitable question - how does it handle minecraft? With mods?

My daughter has only tried it for a few minutes but not with any mods installed. Worked fine but an issue with the mouse behaviour. I've it hooked up to a wireless Logitech K400 combined keyboard and trackpad mouse which isn't ideal.

I've also noticed that with Minecraft open and a few Chrome tabs open and the device left on if I come back to it after a few hours I get a low memory warning and on pressing OK it seems to close Minecraft. I'm still on Win 8.1 (haven't received the Win 10 upgrade yet) so I'm not too worried but if it remains a problem I guess I'll have to upgrade the RAM which isn't a biggie apparently.

mossym

has anyone managed to update this to windows 10 without changing out the HD?

marcbrophy

mossym wrote: »

has anyone managed to update this to windows 10 without changing out the HD?

I did, but boy oh boy did it ever take a lot of time and effort

ablelocks

marcbrophy wrote: »

I did, but boy oh boy did it ever take a lot of time and effort

any chance of a step by step guide? sound:D

BeepBeep67

mossym wrote: »

has anyone managed to update this to windows 10 without changing out the HD?

Yep just connected an external HD and it went smoothly enough (takes a few minutes for the upgrade path to recognize the HD though), although quite lengthy.
Running well on Win10 connected to the bedroom TV, have a cable arriving to connect to a spare analogue monitor (hopefully), otherwise I'll swap out with one that has a HDMI input.

GvidoR

Why has nobody posted any pics yet? I was hoping someone would, since I probably won't be buying it. :P

mossym

cheers guys. ordered. was going to order another android tv box, mainly as a kodi/netflix box, this will add a bit more flexibility for not much more

dricko_lim

For some reason I did not get charged for it...

The funds came out of my account but now the transaction has disappeared with my acccount credited again.

And yes I already got it in the post!

Happy Friday

marcbrophy

ablelocks wrote: »

any chance of a step by step guide? sound:D

I'll try and help, but there was so much trial and error, my mind is already erasing the memory because of how traumatic it was

I tried numerous times to get Win 10 install to work off the HD, but was no go. You'll be best off to use a usb stick.

Download the 64 bit Media Creation Tool from below:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=616447

Start up the tool, already having a usb stick (think it's 8gb min) ready in the computer and select the 2nd option to create a bootable usb. Once you're finished here, you'll have a bootable Win 10 installer that you can keep and use on other PC's if you want.

Next, refresh Win 8.1 on your PC. (deletes everything, and starts again)
Settings > Change PC Settings > Update and Recovery > Recovery. Click on Remove everything and re-install windows. At some point here, you'll be presented with an option that says your keeping your pc or selling your pc. choose the keeping one as the pc warns that the other option could take hours!

Your PC will be back to the way it was when you first turned it on.
Go through setup, picking use recommended settings on that screen and then once you connect to web (wireless or lan), click not now in the bottom left when it asks you about upgrading to Win 10.

As soon as you get into the desktop, bring up the file explorer and go into your usb, which is probably still in the pc as you don't need to remove it at any stage, and click on setup.exe
Allow the UAC access and then win 10 setup will begin.

During the setup, there's a couple of things to keep in mind to minimise the space the installer will need. When it asks about updates, click on not a now, it'll do this after windows is installed then. Also, if you can, don't copy over any personal files. Althouh you should have none as the PC was just refreshed.

Continue through the setup process, a bit is done in windows 8.1 but once it restarts, the rest is done outside windows and you should not get any more lack of space errors!

Once it's finished, you should boot up into your new Win 10 install

Most of that is just in my head, so I hope I haven't forgotten anything!

SickBoy

If you're struggling with disk space to do the windows 10 upgrade try this
Open a command prompt with administrator privileges
type powercfg /h off
This will turn off hibernation and free up at least 2gb of diskspace (if you upgraded the memory to 4 or 8gb then this will free up similar amounts of diskspace..)

jamesbondings

is this a suitable comp for light office work? bro in law has set up a new business and would need excel and word hooked up to a printer. literally thats pretty much all he will need for now?

perhaps in time if he grows he may need more

strongback

I need a device to stream TV and videos and not much else.

I was looking at an Android Box or the new Apple TV as I already have an iPad.

If someone had a minute could you let me know what the Dell's advantages are over an Android Box or Apple TV?

I can see the advantages of having a Windows device but are there any other considerations?

cathy427

Leaving this machine as it is without adding anything is it capable of

- running windows 10 (current machine that is years old runs it so not going back to older system)

- basic home pc work like internet and word/excel. (no gaming)

Or is just really a streaming machine?

CantGetNoSleep

strongback wrote: »

I need a device to stream TV and videos and not much else.

I was looking at an Android Box or the new Apple TV as I already have an iPad.

If someone had a minute could you let me know what the Dell's advantages are over an Android Box or Apple TV?

I can see the advantages of having a Windows device but are there any other considerations?

Apple TV restricts you to using Apple's ecosystem. Android boxes are more flexible but hardware wise the Dell will be much more reliable. The Chinese Android boxes can have issues, particularly with power supplies

beauf

cathy427 wrote: »

Leaving this machine as it is without adding anything is it capable of

- running windows 10 (current machine that is years old runs it so not going back to older system)

- basic home pc work like internet and word/excel. (no gaming)

Or is just really a streaming machine?

Depends what you are doing.

Its scores just below my 9yr dual core old laptop in terms of CPU power. But uses about a third of the electricity. My old laptop has SSD in it and I find it fine for all office tasks, and web browsing. My laptop has a decent gfx card which helps a lot with browsing and media and light minecraft. Don't how the Intel GFX HD in this Dell compares. Probably similar.

strongback

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Apple TV restricts you to using Apple's ecosystem. Android boxes are more flexible but hardware wise the Dell will be much more reliable. The Chinese Android boxes can have issues, particularly with power supplies

Thanks for the response.

In terms of an iPad I can play any video I can download with practically any file extension using the Azul app.

For TV streaming it would just be Filmon, RTE Player, Netflix etc.

I am just wary of the Dell because of the specs and all the talk of fairly expensive ram and hard drive upgrades. It almost seems that buying Dell's more expensive Inspiron 3000 mini tower would become a better alternative but then the price is a good bit higher at €379 than an Android Box or Apple TV.

mossym

strongback wrote: »

Thanks for the response.

In terms of an iPad I can play any video I can download with practically any file extension using the Azul app.

For TV streaming it would just be Filmon, RTE Player, Netflix etc.

I am just wary of the Dell because of the specs and all the talk of fairly expensive ram and hard drive upgrades. It almost seems that buying Dell's more expensive Inspiron 3000 mini tower would become a better alternative but then the price is a good bit higher at €379 than an Android Box or Apple TV.

if your ipad does everything you want, jsut get an apple tv and go with that.

this probably only makes sense if you want access to things not available on ios

foggy_lad

jamesbondings wrote: »

is this a suitable comp for light office work? bro in law has set up a new business and would need excel and word hooked up to a printer. literally thats pretty much all he will need for now?

perhaps in time if he grows he may need more

He might be better off looking on adverts for a good ex business desktop or laptop.

strongback

mossym wrote: »

if your ipad does everything you want, jsut get an apple tv and go with that.

this probably only makes sense if you want access to things not available on ios

Thanks for that, I was sort of thinking along the same lines.

Hard to pass up a bargain though. It's not like I don't have two laptops and a desktop already.

Mahogany Gaspipe

styron wrote: »

Pretty sure that 4GB Skill module as standard 1.5V won't be compatible - the spec is low voltage: 1600MHz DDR3L. The Crucial Selector indicates it's 1.35V

Does anyone have an idea of a suitable storage upgrade?

After reading that atxgeek tear-down I am confused on the difference between PCIe vs. SATA connections. The installed drive is a 42mm M.2 card which are associated with PCIe and therefore the upgraded card should be likewise, correct?!

Also, do I need speakers? I will be connecting to a speakerless monitor.

jamesbondings

foggy_lad wrote: »

He might be better off looking on adverts for a good ex business desktop or laptop.

sh1te its that poor like? cool... thanks for your reply mate

dawidnowak2005

After good few days of problems caused bad upgrade from 8 to 10 Windows I'm finally all sorted. I made clean installation from usb flash drive of Windows 10 but my system didn't activate probably coz I didn't activate Windows 8 when got dell, so make sure you activate Windows 8 before starting upgrade to 10. I call Microsoft and after 40min of call they took control of pc and put new key and activated my Windows 10. Thanks all who helps me on thread:-) great little computer thanks OP

degsie

New thread created for non-BA posts like help on modding and usage etc. Lets keep this thread for BA stuff only please.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057495868

Mahogany Gaspipe

degsie wrote: »

New thread created for non-BA posts like help on modding and usage etc. Lets keep this thread for BA stuff only please.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057495868

Is it okay to copy over my last posting to the new thread?

degsie

Mahogany Gaspipe wrote: »

Is it okay to copy over my last posting to the new thread?

Why not

Seapoint

dawidnowak2005 wrote: »

After good few days of problems caused bad upgrade from 8 to 10 Windows I'm finally all sorted. I made clean installation from usb flash drive of Windows 10 but my system didn't activate probably coz I didn't activate Windows 8 when got dell, so make sure you activate Windows 8 before starting upgrade to 10. I call Microsoft and after 40min of call they took control of pc and put new key and activated my Windows 10. Thanks all who helps me on thread:-) great little computer thanks OP

Iwon't say I told you so......

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=97044068&postcount=222

Here's the steps. Connect your Windows 7 or Windows 8 unit to the internet and make sure it's activated. Then that actual Windows unit is registered with Microsoft's licencing / upgrade server.

dawidnowak2005

Seapoint wrote: »

Iwon't say I told you so......

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=97044068&postcount=222

Here's the steps. Connect your Windows 7 or Windows 8 unit to the internet and make sure it's activated. Then that actual Windows unit is registered with Microsoft's licencing / upgrade server.

Hehe you did but it was already when my upgrade went wrong and I'm stuck in "reversing your windows to previes version " so I didn't have another option to go for clean install and I was asking what to do if have no key:-) anyway all sorted and working perfect now;-)

Curb Your Enthusiasm

dricko_lim wrote: »

For some reason I did not get charged for it...

The funds came out of my account but now the transaction has disappeared with my acccount credited again.

And yes I already got it in the post!

Happy Friday

Dell do that.

It will be recharged in a few days.