OT: Creative chromebox uses?

[Coronita]

So I got a chromebox from Google I/O, and I’m tempted to do the same thing I did last year when they handed out Chromebooks… Ebay the thing.

Only problem is, I think at most I’d get maybe $300 for it, because apparently a lot of people are doing the same thing….It’s not really not worth the hassle for me to ebay the sucker, pay the ebay fees, bay the paypal fees, then deal with someone on the receiving end that will probably inevitably complain about how it can’t run windows or something stupid like that. In the end, it would probably net me 2 tanks of gas for my gas-guzzling truck…

So….. Does any of you geeks have any suggestions on what I should do with this paperweight? I’m thinking maybe of finding folks/groups that can hack this and possibly run either Ubuntu or Window or Android and use it as a media player in room. But that’s what the nexus Q is doing, so kinda pointless.

Kinda want to do something quick, because computers depreciate even worse than cars.

The spec on the box isn’t *that* bad…

*Intel® Core™ i5 2450M processor
*4 GB RAM
*HDD: 16 GB SSD
*Built-in dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
*Gigabit ethernet
*6 USB 2.0 ports
*2x DisplayPort++ Output (compatible with HDMI, DVI, VGA)
*DVI-I single link output (compatible with VGA)
*Kensington™ key lock compatible
*Bluetooth 3.0™ compatible

The only two things that are kinda sucky..the small hard drive and it’s Bluetooth 3.0, not 4.0…

[mike92104]

You could give it to me.

[spdrun]

Apart from the sh!tty SSD, it look like a decent all-round PC. Buy/beg/steal a bigger 2.5″ drive, upgrade, and run whatever you like on it.

[creechrr]

What kind of sound capability does it have?

1. Install real OS and use as a desktop
b. Run Plex and assign it HTPC duty
III. Sell Nexus Q
Four: Profit.

How about a review of the Nexus Q?

[Coronita]

[quote=creechrr]What kind of sound capability does it have?

1. Install real OS and use as a desktop
b. Run Plex and assign it HTPC duty
III. Sell Nexus Q
Four: Profit.

How about a review of the Nexus Q?[/quote]

I’m too busy trying to root it right now and get it to connect and run games with a HID keyboard/mouse. Will let you know afterwards.

[Coronita]

nexus q is rooted and cracked… got a bunch of hardware working on it too.

My initiation impression is the concept is good. I’m hoping for some upgrades. I think the NFC integration has a lot of opportunities for future features. The transfer from tablet/phone to player is good, but needs some be more smooth and seemless.

I like how it basically is an android device, so it’s very easy to work with…It’s good for bedroom and satellite use. Audiophiles probably will think it’s an interesting toy.

I’m not sure if I would pay $299 for it though. Personally, I’m cheap though. From a hacker perspective, I think it’s probably more fun to work on then a traditional phone or tablet. Having a limited user interface makes very interesting challenges.

[ucodegen]

[quote=flu]
I’m too busy trying to root it right now and get it to connect and run games with a HID keyboard/mouse. Will let you know afterwards.[/quote] I was going to suggest seeing of one of the memory resident (ie Knoppix) runs off of it (since Intel based processor). It would depend upon the prom being able to boot off of USB. From your mention of ‘rooting’ sounds like Google tried some of the same ‘lock-down’ stuff that is done with phones.

[Coronita]

Finally got around to hacking this….
1 hour later, got ubuntu 12.04 running on it and able to visit my favorite blog….
🙂

[img_assist|nid=16441|title=hacked!|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=400|height=300]

Performance is reasonable.
Biggest problem is the hard drive SSD is 16gb only, which makes it pretty unusable to do anything more than use it as a terminal.

I’m going to pull the drive and put in a regular 2.5 to see how well it works.
I’m not going to spend money on an SSD because the SSD would cost more than this $299 computer. ($250 if you buy it on ebay).

FLU’s next hat trick will be getting virtualbox installed and seeing how well a virtualized Windoze 7 or Vista runs inside…..

It seems to use the same type of memory my mac mini does, and I’m going to be going from 8->16gb so I think I’ll take the 8gb and stick it in this box to see too.

[equalizer]

The Crucial M4 SSDs are only about $70 for 60Gb, but it sounds like people are having tough time getting new SSD to work.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/chromebook-central/uxCaSDGQElU

[mike92104]

I put one of these in my macbook:

I also picked up one of these (a mac version actually):

http://www.avermedia-usa.com/avertv/product/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=431

and turned an old broken macbook pro someone gave me into an HD DVR

[anxvariety]

I don’t think anyone wants to buy it, if they did they sounds like they’d be better off going to eBay. You could try pawning it here in a different thread.

[Coronita]

Bump.. Ok.. I got some time to muck around with this thing.

*I managed to get Ubuntu 12.04 running on it.
*After mucking around with the kernel, I managed to get Virtual Box running on it.
*With Virtual Box, I’m able to get Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 32 bit version to run on it.

* I’m not able to get hardware acceleration (vt-x) to work on it….

* Consequently, I’m not able to get Windows 8 (32 or 64 bit) nor any prior version of Windows 64 bit to run with depends on vt-x….

At anyway rate, I have no use for this machine. Was hoping to turn this into a kid computer, but then having a 6-7 year deal with Ubuntu + VirtualBox to get to Windows so she can run her apps is probably too much…

So…..

Anyone got an older MacMini interested in a trade? Something with a Core 2 Duo with 2GB of ram or more????

🙂

[Author]

Posts