NEW HP T640 Thin Client Ryzen R1505G 4GB 16GF - NO KB/MOUSE, NO OS INSTALLED - $109

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
113
46
New York, NY
Just saw this and thought people might be interested. It's currenlty $109 and could be lower with offer.


ebay-HP T640
Ah yes, our friends from laptopsforless out in Long Island, who also sell the 9 dollar AT29M2 fiber cards and up to their usual hijinks here. The same machine (4XR66UC#ABA) are sold sealed/in-box for 179 on Newegg, and if you want the HP keyboard/mouse set, it's an extra 26 USD including shipping.

For some odd reason it does not come with any OS installed - not even HP ThinPro (HP's Ubuntu based thin client OS) - not sure if you have thinpro entitlements then. It makes me wonder if this is a SKU for a large corporate that plans to use them with MS volume licensing. The oddity is that the same SKU was used to describe a machine with 128GB of flash, and a machine with a combo WiFi+BT card. HP's own carepack SKU listings shows the specs with 4G RAM/128G flash but did not mention the WiFi/BT combo card.

Anyways, good little machine for low/medium duty node/HTPC work - 2 sticks of 32GB SODIMMS will get you 64GB of RAM, it will work with both SATA or NVMe SSDs, or the t630/730 fiber NICs/Commell M.2 Gigabit cards. Good little machine for absorbing spare parts, and possible use cases. Now if only we can push @Patrick to buy/review one.
 
Last edited:

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Damn, it is a good deal, except postage costs + Tax to EU. F.ck.
It does not seem that bad to me, for me shipping is approx. $51 for 1 or $86 for 2.
Sure it is not free shipping, but given that they have to ship the product across the pond it certainly could be much worse.

Of course VAT comes on top of this, but again that should be expected no matter what.
 

ealvar

Member
Mar 4, 2013
55
14
8
If one wanted to use the HP Thin client OS, what's the process for installing it on one of these? Alternatively, will these run Windows 10 Pro or Ubuntu 18.x/20.x?

And, finally, I see claims that the M.2 slot supports both SATA & NVME. Can anyone confirm?
 

Dave Corder

Active Member
Dec 21, 2015
291
185
43
41
I've installed Win 10 Pro on a pair of T640 systems for HTPC duty. Went smoothly, like pretty much any other Win 10 install.

The silkscreen on the M.2 slot says "SATA & NVMe" but I've only used SATA devices myself. Last I remember seeing in the thread on these is that no one had tried NVMe yet to confirm.
 

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
113
46
New York, NY
If one wanted to use the HP Thin client OS, what's the process for installing it on one of these? Alternatively, will these run Windows 10 Pro or Ubuntu 18.x/20.x?

And, finally, I see claims that the M.2 slot supports both SATA & NVME. Can anyone confirm?
Eh, HP thinstore or thinstate utility (I forgot what it was called) is what you’ll need to load their intended thin client OS. You just download it, run the utility to make a USB thumb drive containing an installer, then stick it into a machine that you are trying to image in - it should boot off the thumb drive and work. ThinPro should not require a license per-se but I don’t remember if the Linux installer will look for one. The Windows image installer in the USB image will check for a hardware license.
As for Ubuntu and Win10, yes, it should just work. A fun one would be...pfsense.
 
Last edited:

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
113
46
New York, NY
does this not seem like a better deal?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-T730-Thin-Client-M-2-AMD-RX-427BB-8GB-32GB-M-2-SSD-Win-7-P3S25

32GB of ram, windows 7, etc for 20$ more

Edit: missed no A/C adapter....still tho.
that’s 8GB of DDR3 SODIMM, 32GB of Flash, and Win7 enterprise embedded x64. It’s not quite the same as a full Win7 professional license. It does have a PCIe slot for wiring things up, but yeah, it’s definitely an older machine. 2 sticks of 16GB DDR3L RAM alone is worth significantly more than the price of the machine (160-180 USD the last I checked...wow, it’s above 300 USD now?!)
 
Last edited:

csp-guy

Active Member
Jun 26, 2019
372
153
43
Hungary, Budapest
Eh, HP thinstore or thinstate utility (I forgot what it was called) is what you’ll need to load their intended thin client OS. You just download it, run the utility to make a USB thumb drive containing an installer, then stick it into a machine that you are trying to image in - it should boot off the thumb drive and work. ThinPro should not require a license per-se but I don’t remember if the checker will look for one. The Windows images will check for a hardware license.
As for Ubuntu and Win10, yes, it should just work. A fun one would be...pfsense.
I have a t740 wit esxi plus intel card and virtualized pfsense. Perfect. I can saturate the 1Gbit internet speed.
With an USB-c 2.5 GBE adapted this would be fine for pfsense.
 

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
113
46
New York, NY
Fine. I guess that if I am handing out the t640 Kool-aid I should take a sip from the bucket myself. Alright, time to look at this machine from the perspective of a Windows HTPC, a Debian Linux machine, an ESXi hypervisor and a pfsense box. Keep in mind that the Ryzen R1505G benches around the same as the i3-8145U in the Lenovo m90n IoT box @Patrick reviewed - just like the m90n, this is also a passively cooled device (yes, part 3 will include hysteresis testing to see how the heatsink vents the machine off). The beauty here? A pair of RAM slots. Yes, that’s good for 64GB in total, just like it’s big sister the t740.

Folks - I bring to you GHETTOMINIMICRO. Everything you want to know about the HP t640 thin client...and then some.

So, first up - how much did I pay?

102 USD Best offer, around 10 for NYS Taxes and 14 in shipping, roughly 126 in total - received it UPS overnight from Nassau County to NYC. Here is Peugeot the Systems cat examining the box. She was not impressed. That’s okay. She’s not impressed since it’s not made out of tuna.

6D563BC8-2265-408A-8D2B-527655E62B75.jpeg

What comes in the box? Thin client, small HP 5.5x2.5 19v center positive lead (HP slim blue tip barrel) power brick, octagonal stand, documentation CD, and some Nassau County air (Go Islanders....?)...

1F4584A7-C26C-48DE-83A7-90D0A86A729B.jpeg

That power brick looks familiar?

HP uses the same power brick in their t420 zero clients. It’s also used in some HP Chromebooks.

How does the t640 compare to its big sister the t740?

The same octagonal stand, roughly 3mm smaller in each dimension, about 1L smaller, and roughly the same as my 2011 MacMini. The main differentiator is that the t740 has a PCIe3 x8 slot, a V1756B (much more powerful) and dual M2 storage slots.


33EFE3D6-CED4-4DA0-9DC9-4F749F2F3AD1.jpeg

What’s in the option port?

In this model (4XR66UC#ABA) - it’s a serial port. The back 2 USB ports closest to the NIC are USB2 while the ones next to the 3 Displayports are USB 3.1. Note: USB-C up front and it’s not PD.

6C84A463-04DF-4419-BA57-85B06148DA63.jpeg

What’s in the M2 AE port?

Something unexpectedly good - an Intel AX200NGW Wifi6+BT card with dual antennas. Oh, and in case you are wondering, that’s the AT29M2 fiber card off the t630/730. Yes it fits and functions just fine.

97D29FD6-5339-4391-B522-697FD1851F8B.jpeg

What’s under the RAM cage?

A single DDR4-3200 4GB stick. Quickly replaced with a pair of 32GB DIMMs (DDR4-2666 CL18) for testing.

A76B6ADA-8BCB-4041-9960-5DBEEED97025.jpeg

Does it work?

Hells yeah.

36373771-F87C-4EA9-9D7B-806CDC075815.jpeg


Does it really work off that 30W Ravpower USB-PD power bank and a USB-PD-to-HP-slim-barrel adapter?

Yes, but the machine will power down unexpectedly on high draw situations. 30w is not sufficient for the machine on high draw applications like *cough* gaming.

D0425198-EB29-4E87-848F-57B37912D109.jpeg

Would a 96w MacBook Pro 16 PD brick work?

Nope - it’ll still run into power issues. Stick to the default power brick.

Windows casual gaming, video playback/encoding and power consumption?
Next installment.
 

Attachments

Last edited:

ealvar

Member
Mar 4, 2013
55
14
8
@WANg you are a true gem. Thanks for all the work you put into researching these HP ThinClients. Really enjoy your posts and have read almost all of them. Kudos!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JediAcolyte

staph

New Member
Jun 20, 2017
11
3
3
39
@WANg it seems to be rated for 2400 ram but you’ve tested it with 2600 - any noticeable issues?

Have you tried stress testing the ram in the system?

I’m curious if 64GB of 2600 is contributing to the unexpected power downs...even a couple watts more than rated is nearly 10% of the total power draw...
 

patrick80

New Member
Jan 23, 2021
8
1
3
@WANg I just got mine a few minutes ago. I paid $102+shipping. I took some photos to show off my rs232 card and wifi card, but I see you beat me to it. Both were an unexpected bonus. I appreciate all your posts about these machines.