(Update 04-25) DFI DT122 (AMD RX-427BB) Industrial ITX T730-a-like; $99 shipped w/ 8GB

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arglebargle

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Exactly, the Antec case is almost identical to the HP T730 case and has built in PSU @ 90 watts, which is also similar.

For those looking to swap out the DFI guts for something quieter, the Antec case looks like a pretty good option.
The only issue with the Antec is the lack of support for a PCIe card. Unless I'm missing something you're limited to the onboard NICs only there.
 

zack$

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The only issue with the Antec is the lack of support for a PCIe card. Unless I'm missing something you're limited to the onboard NICs only there.
You could take out the IO shield and put in a riser. The Antec is: 8.7 x 3.1 x 8.4 and the t730 case: 9.4 x 2.6 x 8.7, that should be more than enough space to fit a pcie card.
 

gigatexal

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If the issue is the PSU a new case and PSU would be something I wouldn’t mind doing but at that point is the 730, the last eBay box similar to this, just better since it’s already quieter?

This would make a nice Linux box too hmm
 

anomaly

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I'm thinking I might grab one (the MB+power brick one, not the full barebone) for an emulation build/living room PC that has an empty case after I moved the innards to a workbench where I needed some decent processing.

How good is the GPU for that purpose? Say, anyone feels like trying a Nintendo 64 emulator on the thing? (the only real gaming I ever did, childhood and all).
 
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zack$

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I'm thinking I might grab one (the MB+power brick one, not the full barebone) for an emulation build/living room PC that has an empty case after I moved the innards to a workbench where I needed some decent processing.

How good is the GPU for that purpose? Say, anyone feels like trying a Nintendo 64 emulator on the thing? (the only real gaming I ever did, childhood and all).
First day I got the HP T730, I loaded forza horizon 4 demo on Windows 10 with 8GB of Ram just to see how it would run...and it wasn't so good.

Howwver, I think it would excel with RemoteFX, steam in-home streaming or the like given the 4x4K capability though.
 

arglebargle

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Remember that this is a ~25-30W SoC. Gaming performane going to be mediocre at best compared to a discreet GPU. Sure, it can render 4 4k desktops but that's basic compositing rather than real time 3d rendering. You might get decent 1300x700 steam streaming out of the APU but I wouldn't count on 60fps steam gaming at any resolution.
 

WANg

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It's on par with a normal 10GbE enterprise switch. It's not a screamer but it's not exactly quiet either, I found it a little annoying to have running in the background in my office but I'm also pretty sensitive to fan noise in a quiet room. I'll try to remember to plug mine in later and measure the dB at idle.

The SoC does support AES acceleration, that's one of the big draws.
Yeah, if noise is a major concern, get an HP t730, which is the same internals on a thin client chassis. You could probably get one for $210 including shipping. If you want cheaper, t620 Plus have the GX420CA (which does AES-NI) + PCIe x4 slot that can do pfsense pretty damned well. @Patrick how about part 2 of that thin client pfsense writeup?
 

WANg

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First day I got the HP T730, I loaded forza horizon 4 demo on Windows 10 with 8GB of Ram just to see how it would run...and it wasn't so good.

Howwver, I think it would excel with RemoteFX, steam in-home streaming or the like given the 4x4K capability though.
Jesus - don't abuse the poor machine like that.
In terms of raw firepower the machine is similar to a laptop with the AMD FX-7600P (which it matches closely in fab, tech and specs, both CPU, GPU and TDP-wise). Here's the NoteBookTech writeup on the Radeon R7s (Kaveri) integrated with the APUs on that machine. Gaming-wise, Overwatch runs "okay", as does Teamfortress 2. Just don't load anything too new - I've seen it run Far Cry 4 at around 20 fps.
Better than Intel embedded, but only discrete class GPU within the class of 2014 (which was when this machine was released). If you plan to seriously game, just buy a refurb nVidia GT1030 with GDDR5 memory - it'll work much better on the older titles and will make med-level graphics on the newer stuff possible.

Considering that I game on an 11" MacBook Air (PCSX2, PPSSPP for console emulation on those long subway rides home) and I didn't exactly buy it just for gaming, I was more than okay with it. I really should try to see if I can get it to do AMD Eyefinity (multi-monitor) gaming in Unreal Tournament 2004 or Battlefield 2 - pretty sure the GPU is up to that task.
 
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WANg

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I'm thinking I might grab one (the MB+power brick one, not the full barebone) for an emulation build/living room PC that has an empty case after I moved the innards to a workbench where I needed some decent processing.

How good is the GPU for that purpose? Say, anyone feels like trying a Nintendo 64 emulator on the thing? (the only real gaming I ever did, childhood and all).
You'll be fine. I run Perfect Dark N64 on 720p on a Haswell i5 MacBook Air via Mupen64Plus (similar CPU perf, weaker GPU), and that runs at 100% native speed - the APU is more than enough for those emulation jobs.
I can tell you that Wipeout Pulse/Pure on PPSSPP works great on it, and I am fairly sure that Dolphin (the gamecube/Wii emulator) will work fine as well.
 
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WANg

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If the issue is the PSU a new case and PSU would be something I wouldn’t mind doing but at that point is the 730, the last eBay box similar to this, just better since it’s already quieter?

This would make a nice Linux box too hmm
Yeah, I think @arglebargle @BLinux and I had that long discussion about the potentials of this SoC (RX427BB) on the HP t620/t730 threads. The t620 plus (GX420CA) is a great little box for pfsense if you want to set-it-and-forget-it, while the t730 is the more powerful, but more power consuming cousin that can be seen as a super-NUC, useful both for light homelab hypervisor duties (ESXi or Proxmox) and as an HTPC (yes, Linux will be superb on it. Both @arglebargle and I ran Proxmox 5 on it, and it was a great little machine). The DFI could be a cheaper alternative to the t730, provided that you have spare RAM and SSD lying around, but you'll have to live with the noise and no IOMMU support in the BIOS (which excludes SRIOV and HSA architecture support - this is supported in the t730 as a feature). In all honesty, when you have to spend that much money to get similar results to a t730...might as well just buy a t730. The t730s will be sold with RAM (usually 8GB), a small SSD (32GB) and entitlements for Win10 embedded/IoT, and there are eBay sellers letting them go for 200 USD + shipping.

That being said, I wouldn't buy too many of them - HP is due for a refresh on their thin clients, and when it does, the prices on the t730 will come down even more. DFI also sell Ryzen based industrial PCs, which depending on where you are...could be a better value-prop. Let us not forget that $200 can also get you a refurb HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF, similar in specs but comes with an Intel Haswell CPU, 4 RAM slots, and a PCIe slot. In certain cases that would be a better deal.
 
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arglebargle

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Has anyone measured the power consumption with everything plugged in?
I was averaging ~24-27W idle with most 10Gb cards installed, 16GB ram and a 180GB SSD. This is under Proxmox with the cpufreq package installed to allow the CPU to clock down when idle.

There's a significant power savings when running these completely headless with the DP cable unplugged but I had issues cold booting without a display. I haven't played with mine in a couple of weeks so I don't know the specifics.
 

WANg

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I was averaging ~24-27W idle with most 10Gb cards installed, 16GB ram and a 180GB SSD. This is under Proxmox with the cpufreq package installed to allow the CPU to clock down when idle.

There's a significant power savings when running these completely headless with the DP cable unplugged but I had issues cold booting without a display. I haven't played with mine in a couple of weeks so I don't know the specifics.
No significant power consumption differences between the DFI and the t730?
 

arglebargle

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No significant power consumption differences between the DFI and the t730?
I'll double-check tonight, i don't remember there being any but the DFI machine arrived at the same time as my E3 box so I don't know if I recorded power draw for it in my notes.

Edit: ah, I don't have full height brackets for a lot of these NICs so I procrastinated a bunch of the data collection. I'll pop one of my 10Gb Mellanox cards in and check.


~5W difference, roughly.
 
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arglebargle

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