HP T730 8GB RAM 32GB Storage Thin Client

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WANg

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Jun 10, 2018
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New listing up starting at $100. This one isn't an amazing deal, it's missing the power adapter (~$23) and shipping is $25, but the seller might be willing to deal if you contact them directly.

HP T730 Thin Client 8GB RAM, 2.7 GHz (No SSD AC Adapter or Accessories) Working | eBay
An M.2 SSD is at least 20 bucks, and the power adapter is ~15 USD (you'll need at least a 65w HP Elite laptop PSU to power it) - you'll still need a stand if you want to mount it without overheating. A good idea if you support a large HP shop and have the parts laying around...otherwise...nah.
 

fossxplorer

Active Member
Mar 17, 2016
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Probably gonna go even lower in the near future as these are being sold for IMO ridiculous prices.
Things are moving in the embedded market and Ryzen and EPYC APUs will hopefully more of in the market during 2019.
E.g ASRock MiniDesk 300 looks very interesting for ~$400 for a "full" system, more future proof with 2xM.2 and SATA. Double performance as well.
I wouldn't consider these anymore really.
 

arglebargle

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Jul 15, 2018
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E.g ASRock MiniDesk 300 looks very interesting for ~$400 for a "full" system, more future proof with 2xM.2 and SATA. Double performance as well.
I wouldn't consider these anymore really.
Eh.

That ASRock suffers from the same problem every other USFF machine has, sure you can attach NVMe storage to it but you don't have any network bandwith with which to exploit it

To attach 10GbE to that ASRock you're going to either need to buy a PCIe -> USB3 enclosure (ugh. just. ugh.) or you're going to need a riser cable to get PCIe 4x out of the case and into the aforementioned enclosure. Wake me up when the new Ryzen APU thin clients with a standard PCIe slot drop.
 
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SwanRonson

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Sep 27, 2018
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Probably gonna go even lower in the near future as these are being sold for IMO ridiculous prices.
Things are moving in the embedded market and Ryzen and EPYC APUs will hopefully more of in the market during 2019.
E.g ASRock MiniDesk 300 looks very interesting for ~$400 for a "full" system, more future proof with 2xM.2 and SATA. Double performance as well.
I wouldn't consider these anymore really.
without PCI-E those are fairly bad deals no matter the purpose.

no PCI-E = no >gigabit networking capability, which makes for a bad VM host (as I understand it)

no PCI-E also means you are limited to whatever Ryzen APUs come on down the line. I'd much rather invest in something slightly bigger with the capability of running a dedicated GPU down the line as budget allows, rather than pigeonhole myself into whatever marginal improvement Zen 2 offers.

If you wanna play games on the cheap, buy a Nintendo Switch.
 

nthu9280

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Feb 3, 2016
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San Antonio, TX
It saw this listing too. It being an auction and the seller has 0 feedback so I ignored it. The usual listings are still around $180. Have not been actively looking for these either. Hopefully qty of these hit the market soon and drive the prices down. At the moment, I think DFI units ~$100 makes a better value compared to these.
 

e97

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Jun 3, 2015
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For future reference:

ebay:
2019-05-06 ~ $159 = $139 + $20 s/h

retail:
2019-05-06 ~ $266 + ? shipping
 
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Geran

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Oct 25, 2016
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Anyone on a gigabit line running pfsense and IPS/IDS? If so, what speeds are you getting?

Trying to decide between getting this for a pfsense router or getting a USG Pro and building a Security Onion box to handle all the ips/ids.
 

mb300sd

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Aug 1, 2016
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Anyone know of the M2 slot is PCIe 2.0 or 3.0? PCIe 3.0 x2 should drive 10GbE with an adapter and external enclosure.
 

WANg

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Jun 10, 2018
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Anyone know of the M2 slot is PCIe 2.0 or 3.0? PCIe 3.0 x2 should drive 10GbE with an adapter and external enclosure.
It's PCIe 2.0 x1 - even if it is 3.0 I wouldn't go there.

Most performant 10GbE cards (i.e. SolarFlare/Mellanox/Intel i540-T1) tends to be power-hungry - a Solarflare 5-series card has a draw of about 6 watts idle. I would not push past 4-5 watts on an M.2 Key-E slot. They were only meant for gigabit applications (802.11ac or ad). When you have to Frankenstein up solutions up like that, it's time to get a different box.
 
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cromo

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Jun 6, 2019
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I just bought a brand new unit that unfortunately does not have WiFi antennas. Does anyone have any idea how to retrofit it? Can't find any information about it anywhere.
 
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cromo

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Jun 6, 2019
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Take a look at the t730 end-of-life disassembly instructions, page 19 - it should give you an idea what to look for/what to do. Not every t730 have integrated antennas for the optional Wifi cards (although the disassembly guide might have let you to believe that it does)
Thank you for that. Installing them is definitely not worth the effort of disassembling pretty much everything. Hard to believe HP would save cost on wires like that.
 

WANg

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Jun 10, 2018
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Well, it's not really that hard - there should be a hook on either side of the client (really the top and bottom edge) - all you need to do is sticky-pad one end, hang it on the hook on the other end and then run the Hirose UF.L connectors back to the WiFi card. When I migrate to the t740 (should arrive Mid-October) I plan to reuse the t730 as a home arcade machine - I'll demonstrate how to cleanly retrofit the antennas back into the chassis.
 
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cromo

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Jun 6, 2019
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Well, it's not really that hard - there should be a hook on either side of the client (really the top and bottom edge) - all you need to do is sticky-pad one end, hang it on the hook on the other end and then run the Hirose UF.L connectors back to the WiFi card.
Any idea where to get them? I searched on eBay but all I see is RP-SMA extension cables.
I also wonder if I could simply drill two holes for RP-SMA connectors in that small backplate piece that covers the fiber output. It's pretty tight there but they should fit.

When I migrate to the t740 (should arrive Mid-October) I plan to reuse the t730 as a home arcade machine - I'll demonstrate how to cleanly retrofit the antennas back into the chassis.
Do you know the t740 pricing yet? Are you gonna get it straight from HP?