I have a Wyse thin client and a Wyse laptop with the AMD G-t56n chip and find they are great for running some virtual machines with Xen server. The USB3 + gigabit ethernet means these make great file servers.
@@stonent I had a Wyse mobile thin client with a C7m CPU. I found that it had pins for an extra USB port, so I soldier a USB port to the pins and got an extra drive on that laptop.
My Windows XP machine is an AMD 5370 (2.2Ghz quad core Jaguar) with a GeForce 720 GDDR5. Everything passively cooled, running from a 60 watts notebook power unit. It's really great and very enjoyable.
George Jibuti Quick update, that trick worked great :D Boiled a bit of water on the oven and placed the plastic cover ontop. The sticker scraper then got rid of it in no time! I'm so happy, thanks for the tip :D
Glad to hear that! this trick can be used to remove some stickers without damagin them sometime, I have used it even on PCB's directly, usually 100 celsius for few seconds is not damagin most of electronic details, but good drying after steam bath is mandatory of course. Looking forward new great videos from your channel!
@@byronfollowell4243 Yes, I used WD-40 as too, but for painted surfaces its not always suitable, but for PCB's its better, because it also cleans PCB as well
I've been using one of these as a pfSense box for several months with no issues on 1 gig symmetrical service. The PCIe slot makes this more than a thin client to me.
6 ปีที่แล้ว +35
Really like these videos where you find some hidden gem on eBay. :)
István Nagy www.ebay.com/itm/Compaq-Presario-4505-Intel-Pentium-MMX-166-32MB-RAM-8GB-HDD-Windows-95-Plus/273567134686?hash=item3fb1df33de%3Ag%3AOLwAAOSwCVtb8fRM&LH_BIN=1
I've always preferred thin clients and smaller quite machines over bigger rigs. Some of them give crappy performance, but you can still find nice units like this that give some good bang for the buck. I'm running an AMD A10 7860k Radeon R7 APU with 16Gigs of ram and it can pretty much do everything I want to do. Obviously this was hold me back if I was a big 4K gamer, but I'm not and it's a great budget solution. There are even better APUs using Vega graphics now.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4CP2AN8895&cm_re=mini_itx_case-_-9SIA4CP2AN8895-_-Product it has a fan, but it's not very loud. It's also not necessarily a thin client, but it's still pretty small. The mobo is an Asrock.
3:19: Did that red security sticker say anywhere that it was approved for processing "secret" information? Those "stickers" usually are on the front of the thin client....🤔 I've used Goo Gone in the past to remove stickers in the past. Do they have that in the UK? 🤔
I never gave thin clients much of a thought before. I think I might grab one and see what I can do with it. It might even be a good candidate for retro console emulation.
This thin client just won me by seeing you playing GRID Autosport with ease. Love that game! And really, the 1030 in its GDDR5 variant isn't too bad either. Maybe also something for me and my lan parties.
Finally someone talks about Netflix and TH-cam playback on thin client. Very good choice for HTPC. Shame Windows doesn't support any launchers for TV usage.
I would be interested in seeing a side by side against an xbox or ps in games. Something small and reflectively simple like this would be perfect for my oldest son to start learning about pc life.
Those two serial ports are useful for attaching things like LCD displays and sensors. If you use this for a router you could have a bandwidth meter on an LCD.
5:39 M.2 sata is the white insertion point on the board to the left of his hand. Mine doesn't have that one. Also, to the left of the m.2 he has used there is a pciexpress slot. It's small so I don't know what that could be used for. This board is amazing. At the end he uses the display port adapter. You can use the hdmi slot on the card if you sand down the inside of the black panel that pops into the bottom. I left my panel off for now and my hdmi cable fits fine without it. 6:21 the torq screw has a slot in the middle of it so I just used a small flathead to unscrew it.
A stand and a sticker placed like that is not going to deter me. Just modify things and heck cover up that ugly prebuilt HP logo too. As for the stand nice to have to save space but in many households it would not be an issue as they don't have devices all over the place like me. Thanks Phil for showing how you upgrade this. As for pricing I can't comment as I have not really shopped around for these and saw someone comment saying this was too expensive. I know with the Candian dollar value and the shipping cost I see for this I am thinking it would be a pass for me most likely but if I have not said it before in the future I will be doing build that are cheaper than I am used to for therapeutic reasons and so just got to shop around more and more for parts. Anyway thanks for the video.
@7:40 it looks like if you cut off the black plastic shroud, you could fit a bigger GPU in there. You might have to cut a hole in external box too. Maybe you could even transplant into an ITX case depending on motherboard standoff screw layout?
Just before the Covid shutdown in the US I got an HP p7 1500z with an APU at goodwill for $6, but it looks like mine has no XP drivers. A shame considering its 4 RAM slots has me believing it is actually dual channel.
Wasn't really listening and thought you said that Microsoft were working on a version of Windows 10 that could run with only 16GB of RAM, and was a bit confused...
Your unit might have been mounted to the back of a monitor so the stand has probably been gone for a long time. The call center I used to work at used to do similar things and some restaurants/retail outlets will also do the same for their point of sale computers.
Yea that's likely the case! Since the video, I managed to get two other models, but complete New In Box! It's nice to have the stands and other accessories :)
Hi Phil.. as usual..this one of your great video so far on small factor pc.. I think you are very good in hardware presentation.. Your english simple and very easy to understand. TH-cam should have more retro hardware reviewer like you..
To get stickers off I use Goo-Gone and a hair dryer with low and high heat settings and a plastic scraper. Depending on the material, rubbing alcohol works well but always test. Always try just hair dryer first, then go for Goo-Gone, etc.
Great little unit for XP gaming. Unfortunately I get noticeable coil whine with both a GT 730 and 520 - annoying because the machine would otherwise be silent. And for anyone curious, I've ruled out the onboard fan as source of noise. On an unrelated note, its a good idea to tear this thing down and repaste the APU - getting around 50C under full load now!
I've been playing around with the non-plus version of this machine, and while I eventually managed to get Windows XP up and running, I did run into a hardware conflict that took me a while to track down. Specifically, the onboard video and onboard ethernet conflict with each other, and I have found no way to change the IRQ of either device. Sometimes the machine boots fine but the network won't grab an IP address, sometimes it locks up before the desktop even shows up, and sometimes it says the network device failed to start (code 10). And this problem only happens after I have the video card drivers installed (so the problem goes away after drivers are installed but if I disable the video card device). Even tested on 2 different machines with 2 different motherboard revisions. I ultimately just disabled the ethernet in the BIOS and installed a small dual-band wifi dongle into one of the internal USB ports and problem solved. Also, my benchmark scores, while still very good for a thin client aren't as good as yours - not sure if it just an XP-specific thing or if there's an actual hardware difference of some kind between the plus and non-plus versions. Tried different video driver versions all to no avail. I did get a modest increase in performance by upgrading the ram from PC8500 to PC12800.
Got a couple T630 and two m.2 sata modules (16gb and 128gb), but unfortunately can't install windows xp. For win 10 and linux, and just office and youtube,they are very capable machines if you find them cheap.
I forget what was the original use of the thin clients since so many people mods them. It's like a dumb terminal? Can I use a old pc like a thin client?
Just picked up one of these and used easy2boot and snappy as you suggested and things are mostly working well, but I was wondering if there's a suitable configuration utility for the integrated graphics to do things like deal with vsync, set scaling for different aspect ratios, etc. Though Snappy identifies the integrated graphics card as an 8400E, I'm having trouble installing the catalyst config utility -- is there a specific version I should be looking for?
T620 with only integrated GFX chipset display 2560x1080 px ? In Poland easy access on auction is only to slim model (not +) with 2 or 4 core processor.
Hi Phil, just stumbled across this cool vid. I have a t620 plus (not doing much). Im keen on more retro games quake 1, apogee games etc. Is there a simple way to put winxp on this device and skip all the hardware mods? Many thanks.
Great video Phil! I've recently got into retro builds and picked up the t620 plus. Your XP install video was very helpful! After using the snappy driver app I'm still left with two unknown PCI devices. I assume one is the sound device as windows reports no audio device. Did you get that installed? Would appreciate the help!
I'm afraid I don't remember the details, the video is now a few years old 😅 All the steps should be shown in the video, that's usually how I produce them.
@@philscomputerlab Hi Phil. In case anyone else might be interested, I found that the sound was detected and installed after I installed service pack 3. Keep up the great work!
Yes, it'll fit, but you will run into power limits. The RX 550 uses a lot more power than the GT 730 and GT 1030 does (at max the GT 1030 uses only 30w, while the RX 550 uses around 40w-50w which doesn't leave a lot left with only a 90w PSU that this system has). With my HP T620 plus and a GT 1030 8GB Ram, an external 1TB HDD, an internal 1TB m.2 SATA SSD my max power usage is around 50w when everything is being stressed. The RX 550 would push you very close to the PSUs 90w which isn't good for the PSU. The PCIe slot has a pretty low power limit as well ( it's far under the 75w that the PCIe spec usually uses) this also only has a 90w PSU. With a dedicated GPU you won't have much power left over for peripherals (with the higher power usage than the GT 1030 you'll have even less power available, if the PCIe power can provide enough power to the RX 550 to run properly). The RX 550 also runs a lot hotter than the GT 1030 does, and this will cause issues with how the cooling setup in this. Being that the PCIe cards partially block the cooling fan, The cover that's used to direct air onto the CPU heatsink will have to be removed for that RX 550 to even fit then you won't have any air flow for the CPU heatsink. But in reality the CPU in this isn't enough to even push a GT 1030, you'll run out of CPU grunt well before you run out of GPU power. The CPU is constantly pegged at 100% in games while the GPU is hovering around the 40-60% usage range, so the CPU in this bottlenecks the GT 1030. I bought this and a GT 1030 to use it as an HTPC and for this use its perfect, the onboard R3 8400 just couldn't cope with TH-cam videos and high bitrate 4k video playback, the GT 1030 solved those issues as the video uses the GT 1030 to decode the video instead of the CPU or built in R3 8400. While it can game, just do not expect much from it, it can emulate pretty decently up to the Dreamcast and it'll do some PSP (but PS2 is out of the question). It'll do American truck sim, it'll play elite dangerous (but you'll get frame drops when around stations, and see single digits when in conflict zones). It'll do older games quite easily so it does make a pretty decent retro game PC.
Phil ive just picked up one of these at a good price. Did you have to change the bracket on your GT730 to get it to fit the GPU slot? On my Palit GT730 version it doesnt fit correctly the HDMI port is partly cut off (like in your video at 7:58) or were you using the DVI port instead?
which exact gt 1030 model did you use in this video? Can´t find much details on which cards come with the half sized PCI bracket to fit in this machine. Also is the airflow still enough when using a 1030? Seems like it´s slightly thicker than the 730 Got a t620 plus and a ssd, installed win10 pro and will plan using it as a media client or even emulation box but 4k60 on my TV would also be nice to have so my GT 730 isn´t powerful enough :D However i´m quite impressed by this thinclient, it´s quite useable while my t610 plus struggles with almost eveything and i´ll probably sell it since i´ve got the better one now.
window whether you strip the crap out of it or not i wouidn't use less than 2TB it.. If I saw this in the wild local typically used as a eftpos terminal
Thanks for the review, nice job. I've been looking for a long time for an Ms-dos compatible small unit such as a thin client. Sadly I haven't been able to find a compatible one. Do you have any advice?
hi phil, have you ever tried hp t730 thin client? t730 got a ryzen based apu and a dedicated pcie slot, which might be a smart choice for pre-win7 era gaming.
@@philscomputerlab not as cheap , I've seen 1400 yuan /200usd offer in taobao several weeks ago, sadly not in stock anymore. Most common price is around 3300 yuan / 485usd these days. 🤔
Phil great review im using this for XP is there anyway to slow down the noisy fan in the power option theres a thermal option but the cpu fun fan speed states n/a and cannot be changed :( Also for XP shoukd the multi processor option be enabled or disabled?
I purchased one of these T620 Plus earlier this year. I have an Nvidia 1030 gt low profile card I'd like to use, but the heatsink takes up 2 slots. Maybe I can put a smaller heatsink on the video card and just use the case fan for cooling. I want to set this up in my basement to play PS2 emulator games.
I guess there is a lot of PS2 games that don't require much emulator power to run fine. I always struggled with getting MGS 3 to run smooth even with much more powerful hardware than this thin client.
Wonder how much power you can get from the PCI-E slot, they make single slot RX550s. If your willing to chop off a dvi port you could use a RX 560 or a 1050 ti.
I don't suppose the motherboard could be replaced with a mini ITX, could it? Obviously the i/o shield would need some work to be replaced and some parts patched over with sheet metal, but updating it to Ryzen APUs would make for a fun challenge.
it can with limitations, the CPU cooling will be one of them, and then it cant fit a decent GPU. and you will have to find an external or a pico PSU. and then you will have to find ram that wont interfere with cooling or case height. best just to buy a mini ITX case (which will be cheaper as well).
nice little box, would love to see benches compared to a core2 or similar in overall performance as that would be what it would run against realistically; price at least over here is a bit high(can buy a laptop at about the same) but still a nice package
a core 2 quad has more performance everywhere (in both single core and multi core) but not by much, and the core 2 duo has better single core performance (by a far margin) but only slightly worse multi core than the GX-420 has. just go by this www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-AMD-GX-420CA-SOC-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8600/1038vs2121vs957
I've got one of these with 8GB RAM, 128GB m.2, Windows 10 Pro 64bit and unfortunately an old Zotac 8400 GS 512mb that's only registering 256mb. Thought about upgrading the GPU so my daughter can use to play Minecraft (if possible). What would be a good cheap GPU that will handle it? I can't do a 1030 at the moment.
yes they would, but cooling would be a huge issue, as most cooling solutions are too big, or are not good enough to to cool a CPU in such a small space. the other issue is no room to put a video card in it (unless you only want to use a GT 1030). its cheaper and more logical just to buy a mini ITX case
Does anyone know what the max wattage for the pcie slot is on that little box? I want to put the low profile Yeston rx 560 in there but the tdp of that card is like 50 watts.
Hi All, another nice review phil, I was going to ask why there was no GT1030 in the original machine along with the graphs of the integrated video and the 730GT, but then i remembered that there are no drivers for XP for GT1030 Regarding the mother board revisions I copied the following from his updated ebay advert, but as you mentioned he has not opened up the machines and cataloged the internals on the sale The "JAMESTOWN" motherboard will have either a MSATA or M.2 flash drive. It has both the MSATA & M.2 connections. The T620 Rev.B only has the M.2 drive option It must be 2018 as Phils Computer Lab with retro recommends a min 16G HDD SSD - hahaha I thought i was doing well when i removed the 2 x 400meg IDE Connors from my Pentium 100 and run a 4Gig Compact flash memory setup Cheers George
@@philscomputerlab thanks so much. Someone is selling this computer near me for £30. I see this video was made so sometime ago, would you recommend it for that price
can you put pcie sata card inside and connect 4 2.5 hdd for example to use it as a NAS server? Or any other thin client or mini pc that can accept 2 2.5 hdd?
late response but want to help. Yes you can, you can even get an adapter for msata to sata, or Mini PCI-E to sata, and 3d print a part to add 2 hard drives to the hp t620
Good to know that it's still compatible with XP, I might get one when they get cheaper. Currently I'm trying out a Futro S900. it's not going quite as smoothly as I thought it would. E.g. I can't get any output from PCI graphic cards. Fortunately, my unit came with the riser for the proprietary PCI-E x2 slot, so I'll be getting a cheap card for that and see if that makes a difference. Have only tried some live Linux distros yet because I don't have a drive with enough space. Some of the distros couldn't find the audio. The 1GB msata ssd that came with it was kinda hard to remove, I thought for a moment I damaged the port. I hope the Futro won't make any trouble with the new one I'll eventually put in there.
For some reason, I really like thin clients, and Phil has the best thin client videos!
No reason not to, they seem to have sufficient go for 95% of what people need them for. Gaming being the exception.
Indeed made me grab my 2 Acer veritons out of my closet
I have a Wyse thin client and a Wyse laptop with the AMD G-t56n chip and find they are great for running some virtual machines with Xen server. The USB3 + gigabit ethernet means these make great file servers.
@@stonent I had a Wyse mobile thin client with a C7m CPU. I found that it had pins for an extra USB port, so I soldier a USB port to the pins and got an extra drive on that laptop.
To me thin clients are only fun if they are fanless. No reason to have a noisy fan which will get clogged with dust in a thin client.
My Windows XP machine is an AMD 5370 (2.2Ghz quad core Jaguar) with a GeForce 720 GDDR5. Everything passively cooled, running from a 60 watts notebook power unit. It's really great and very enjoyable.
The GeForce is a waste of electricity lol
oiSnowy Even better if you jack in a SSD and dual boot XP/7 on one drive.
I use that gpu too
@@si4632 what are you talking about? the card consumes like 45 watts maximum and not only that. it is very good for a retro gaming pc
@@therealstupidwaffle you can buy a hd 8570 off ebay for £10 and it will be five times faster🤣
Hello Phil, about the sticker, hold it over hot water steam (from the kettle for example) and it will be softened and much easier to remove
George Jibuti Quick update, that trick worked great :D Boiled a bit of water on the oven and placed the plastic cover ontop. The sticker scraper then got rid of it in no time! I'm so happy, thanks for the tip :D
You could just put it in a dishwasher.
Glad to hear that! this trick can be used to remove some stickers without damagin them sometime, I have used it even on PCB's directly, usually 100 celsius for few seconds is not damagin most of electronic details, but good drying after steam bath is mandatory of course. Looking forward new great videos from your channel!
I've also had a lot of luck with WD-40. It really helps with breaking down the adhesive and getting it to release.
@@byronfollowell4243 Yes, I used WD-40 as too, but for painted surfaces its not always suitable, but for PCB's its better, because it also cleans PCB as well
Love these videos! Thanks Phil!
Please show GT 730 vs GT 1030. :)
I've been using one of these as a pfSense box for several months with no issues on 1 gig symmetrical service. The PCIe slot makes this more than a thin client to me.
Really like these videos where you find some hidden gem on eBay. :)
István Nagy www.ebay.com/itm/Compaq-Presario-4505-Intel-Pentium-MMX-166-32MB-RAM-8GB-HDD-Windows-95-Plus/273567134686?hash=item3fb1df33de%3Ag%3AOLwAAOSwCVtb8fRM&LH_BIN=1
1:14 "thinkpad t620"
I've always preferred thin clients and smaller quite machines over bigger rigs. Some of them give crappy performance, but you can still find nice units like this that give some good bang for the buck. I'm running an AMD A10 7860k Radeon R7 APU with 16Gigs of ram and it can pretty much do everything I want to do. Obviously this was hold me back if I was a big 4K gamer, but I'm not and it's a great budget solution. There are even better APUs using Vega graphics now.
Wow powerful machine. What's the case you're using there?
Thanks.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4CP2AN8895&cm_re=mini_itx_case-_-9SIA4CP2AN8895-_-Product
it has a fan, but it's not very loud. It's also not necessarily a thin client, but it's still pretty small. The mobo is an Asrock.
I'm still rocking my A8-7600 APU.
This is an incredibly slick thin client.
It makes a great pfSense router... have been using it for a year now and it’s awesome. Greet review!
Really good performance-price ratio! Even importing it to where i live actually!
3:19: Did that red security sticker say anywhere that it was approved for processing "secret" information? Those "stickers" usually are on the front of the thin client....🤔
I've used Goo Gone in the past to remove stickers in the past. Do they have that in the UK? 🤔
Yea I think it was some sort of security sticker!
I never gave thin clients much of a thought before. I think I might grab one and see what I can do with it. It might even be a good candidate for retro console emulation.
That way of installing a graphics card in this thin client is done in a very clever way, can barely notice its there with the cooler back in place
This thin client just won me by seeing you playing GRID Autosport with ease.
Love that game!
And really, the 1030 in its GDDR5 variant isn't too bad either.
Maybe also something for me and my lan parties.
Finally someone talks about Netflix and TH-cam playback on thin client. Very good choice for HTPC. Shame Windows doesn't support any launchers for TV usage.
I would be interested in seeing a side by side against an xbox or ps in games. Something small and reflectively simple like this would be perfect for my oldest son to start learning about pc life.
I bought one of that just to use as a firewall (pfsense) for my parent's internet connection.
dual lan ? or with usb to lan ?
Those two serial ports are useful for attaching things like LCD displays and sensors. If you use this for a router you could have a bandwidth meter on an LCD.
5:39 M.2 sata is the white insertion point on the board to the left of his hand. Mine doesn't have that one. Also, to the left of the m.2 he has used there is a pciexpress slot. It's small so I don't know what that could be used for. This board is amazing. At the end he uses the display port adapter. You can use the hdmi slot on the card if you sand down the inside of the black panel that pops into the bottom. I left my panel off for now and my hdmi cable fits fine without it.
6:21 the torq screw has a slot in the middle of it so I just used a small flathead to unscrew it.
amazing board indeed. I can't believe I got an entire refurbished PC for $40
Phill, congratulations on 50,000 subscribers! :)
Thanks!
Yes congrats Phil well deserved
I love these thin clients. With the addition of a 4 port network card, I have one running as a pfSense box, it makes a perfect router appliance.
Nice one Phil, I always enjoy your videos.
A stand and a sticker placed like that is not going to deter me. Just modify things and heck cover up that ugly prebuilt HP logo too. As for the stand nice to have to save space but in many households it would not be an issue as they don't have devices all over the place like me. Thanks Phil for showing how you upgrade this. As for pricing I can't comment as I have not really shopped around for these and saw someone comment saying this was too expensive. I know with the Candian dollar value and the shipping cost I see for this I am thinking it would be a pass for me most likely but if I have not said it before in the future I will be doing build that are cheaper than I am used to for therapeutic reasons and so just got to shop around more and more for parts. Anyway thanks for the video.
@7:40 it looks like if you cut off the black plastic shroud, you could fit a bigger GPU in there. You might have to cut a hole in external box too. Maybe you could even transplant into an ITX case depending on motherboard standoff screw layout?
I did not even know this existed. Maxed out it looks like a better deal than the Steam Machine. Thanks for the video!
These little boxes make really great firewalls too.
Yup I've seen quite a few videos on that.
For stickers use a hairdryer, it will soften the glue and they come right off.
Just before the Covid shutdown in the US I got an HP p7 1500z with an APU at goodwill for $6, but it looks like mine has no XP drivers. A shame considering its 4 RAM slots has me believing it is actually dual channel.
Wasn't really listening and thought you said that Microsoft were working on a version of Windows 10 that could run with only 16GB of RAM, and was a bit confused...
Your unit might have been mounted to the back of a monitor so the stand has probably been gone for a long time.
The call center I used to work at used to do similar things and some restaurants/retail outlets will also do the same for their point of sale computers.
Yea that's likely the case! Since the video, I managed to get two other models, but complete New In Box! It's nice to have the stands and other accessories :)
Hi Phil..
as usual..this one of your great video so far on small factor pc..
I think you are very good in hardware presentation..
Your english simple and very easy to understand.
TH-cam should have more retro hardware reviewer like you..
To get stickers off I use Goo-Gone and a hair dryer with low and high heat settings and a plastic scraper. Depending on the material, rubbing alcohol works well but always test. Always try just hair dryer first, then go for Goo-Gone, etc.
where do you find recommendations about those devices?
Can you make a video on the socket 423?
No I went with 478 instead!
perfect for a pfsense box.... :D
and Does it run Crysis?
It does :)
Great!
Did you not watch the video?
Unfortunately some got permanent brain damage after Crysis relise
A classic
Windows XP had drivers for the APU? Wow.
Time to go to lunch... I mean... no, time to watch Phils computer lab!!
Try out SteamOS
Great little unit for XP gaming. Unfortunately I get noticeable coil whine with both a GT 730 and 520 - annoying because the machine would otherwise be silent. And for anyone curious, I've ruled out the onboard fan as source of noise. On an unrelated note, its a good idea to tear this thing down and repaste the APU - getting around 50C under full load now!
Super fancy little box!
I've been playing around with the non-plus version of this machine, and while I eventually managed to get Windows XP up and running, I did run into a hardware conflict that took me a while to track down. Specifically, the onboard video and onboard ethernet conflict with each other, and I have found no way to change the IRQ of either device. Sometimes the machine boots fine but the network won't grab an IP address, sometimes it locks up before the desktop even shows up, and sometimes it says the network device failed to start (code 10). And this problem only happens after I have the video card drivers installed (so the problem goes away after drivers are installed but if I disable the video card device). Even tested on 2 different machines with 2 different motherboard revisions. I ultimately just disabled the ethernet in the BIOS and installed a small dual-band wifi dongle into one of the internal USB ports and problem solved. Also, my benchmark scores, while still very good for a thin client aren't as good as yours - not sure if it just an XP-specific thing or if there's an actual hardware difference of some kind between the plus and non-plus versions. Tried different video driver versions all to no avail. I did get a modest increase in performance by upgrading the ram from PC8500 to PC12800.
maybe a bit late; but.. the ram wasn't correctly placed or i did saw wrong??
I have two these running as pfSense routers and they are awesome as such.
Seems like a really good alternative to using an entry level pc or laptop as a home media/ web machine
Yea it's perfect for that!
Got a couple T630 and two m.2 sata modules (16gb and 128gb), but unfortunately can't install windows xp. For win 10 and linux, and just office and youtube,they are very capable machines if you find them cheap.
I forget what was the original use of the thin clients since so many people mods them. It's like a dumb terminal? Can I use a old pc like a thin client?
A thin client that supports graphics cards? Awesome!
Just picked up one of these and used easy2boot and snappy as you suggested and things are mostly working well, but I was wondering if there's a suitable configuration utility for the integrated graphics to do things like deal with vsync, set scaling for different aspect ratios, etc. Though Snappy identifies the integrated graphics card as an 8400E, I'm having trouble installing the catalyst config utility -- is there a specific version I should be looking for?
I realised I don't recall seeing a negative one of these kinds of vids from ya. Ya likes all the computers~ :)
T620 with only integrated GFX chipset display 2560x1080 px ? In Poland easy access on auction is only to slim model (not +) with 2 or 4 core processor.
Hi Phil, just stumbled across this cool vid. I have a t620 plus (not doing much). Im keen on more retro games quake 1, apogee games etc. Is there a simple way to put winxp on this device and skip all the hardware mods? Many thanks.
Not quite sure what you're asking? But yes it is compatible with XP, just a bit fiddly with finding all the drivers :)
@@philscomputerlab thanks for the reply Phil. Much appreciated.
Great video Phil! I've recently got into retro builds and picked up the t620 plus. Your XP install video was very helpful! After using the snappy driver app I'm still left with two unknown PCI devices. I assume one is the sound device as windows reports no audio device. Did you get that installed? Would appreciate the help!
I'm afraid I don't remember the details, the video is now a few years old 😅 All the steps should be shown in the video, that's usually how I produce them.
@@philscomputerlab Much appreciated! I took the easy way out and used a usb portable soundbar!
@@philscomputerlab Hi Phil. In case anyone else might be interested, I found that the sound was detected and installed after I installed service pack 3. Keep up the great work!
@@robotanv Interesting! Good to know :)
I've removed stubborn stickers with WD-40, might be worth a try. Use Isopropyl alcohol afterwards
is it possible to put an yeston RX 550 low profile?
bruh thats exactly waht i was coming here to say
Yes, it'll fit, but you will run into power limits. The RX 550 uses a lot more power than the GT 730 and GT 1030 does (at max the GT 1030 uses only 30w, while the RX 550 uses around 40w-50w which doesn't leave a lot left with only a 90w PSU that this system has). With my HP T620 plus and a GT 1030 8GB Ram, an external 1TB HDD, an internal 1TB m.2 SATA SSD my max power usage is around 50w when everything is being stressed. The RX 550 would push you very close to the PSUs 90w which isn't good for the PSU.
The PCIe slot has a pretty low power limit as well ( it's far under the 75w that the PCIe spec usually uses) this also only has a 90w PSU.
With a dedicated GPU you won't have much power left over for peripherals (with the higher power usage than the GT 1030 you'll have even less power available, if the PCIe power can provide enough power to the RX 550 to run properly). The RX 550 also runs a lot hotter than the GT 1030 does, and this will cause issues with how the cooling setup in this. Being that the PCIe cards partially block the cooling fan, The cover that's used to direct air onto the CPU heatsink will have to be removed for that RX 550 to even fit then you won't have any air flow for the CPU heatsink.
But in reality the CPU in this isn't enough to even push a GT 1030, you'll run out of CPU grunt well before you run out of GPU power. The CPU is constantly pegged at 100% in games while the GPU is hovering around the 40-60% usage range, so the CPU in this bottlenecks the GT 1030.
I bought this and a GT 1030 to use it as an HTPC and for this use its perfect, the onboard R3 8400 just couldn't cope with TH-cam videos and high bitrate 4k video playback, the GT 1030 solved those issues as the video uses the GT 1030 to decode the video instead of the CPU or built in R3 8400.
While it can game, just do not expect much from it, it can emulate pretty decently up to the Dreamcast and it'll do some PSP (but PS2 is out of the question). It'll do American truck sim, it'll play elite dangerous (but you'll get frame drops when around stations, and see single digits when in conflict zones). It'll do older games quite easily so it does make a pretty decent retro game PC.
My t620 plus can't switch at gpu HD 8490 ( PCIE ), how to fix that ? bios settings ?
Use thinner, it dissolve plastic really well, should work great on the sticker.
Yes. yes more talking Phils! If you see her, tell her I do care what she's been
doing; she can come home, yes questions, yes speeches. this pc updates
??????
I see this is a REV A board. You have the M.2 occupied by the SanDisk 16GB. Is the other mPCIe port that says mSATA on it the same port ?
What I'm afraid of here is the temperatures, @11:30 with the CPU usage around 70% it gets +/- 82-83 degrees, that's a lot.
Phil ive just picked up one of these at a good price. Did you have to change the bracket on your GT730 to get it to fit the GPU slot? On my Palit GT730 version it doesnt fit correctly the HDMI port is partly cut off (like in your video at 7:58) or were you using the DVI port instead?
It needs to be low profile!
@@philscomputerlab The one im using is a low profile card the same Palet model you used at 05:38 in your T610 plus video.
Not sure, I don't remember having any issues.
@@philscomputerlab No worries changed the bracket works great.
which exact gt 1030 model did you use in this video?
Can´t find much details on which cards come with the half sized PCI bracket to fit in this machine.
Also is the airflow still enough when using a 1030? Seems like it´s slightly thicker than the 730
Got a t620 plus and a ssd, installed win10 pro and will plan using it as a media client or even emulation box but 4k60 on my TV would also be nice to have so my GT 730 isn´t powerful enough :D
However i´m quite impressed by this thinclient, it´s quite useable while my t610 plus struggles with almost eveything and i´ll probably sell it since i´ve got the better one now.
Most cards come with the bracket, but they advertise this poorly. Check with the shop before you buy! My model is from Gigabyte.
@@philscomputerlab thanks for the info!
window whether you strip the crap out of it or not i wouidn't use less than 2TB it..
If I saw this in the wild local typically used as a eftpos terminal
Nice video. Nice client. Very good description about video accerelation. Uvd, h264...
Looks like a good device to install Lakka on for some good ol' emulation.
Yes absolutely. Haven't heard of Lakka in ages, I last used it with an Orange Pi.
Though I love my ＴＨＩＣＣ clients, it's amazing to see how capable these machines are!
something powerpc, or have we reached the point where arm based android desktops are becoming worthy of a tinker?
How would this thing do with emulation? Just found one on Craigslist, and I'm a sucker for super small machines. Love my NUC.
Thanks for the review, nice job. I've been looking for a long time for an Ms-dos compatible small unit such as a thin client. Sadly I haven't been able to find a compatible one. Do you have any advice?
The sticker, have you used oil and rub it away?
hi phil, have you ever tried hp t730 thin client? t730 got a ryzen based apu and a dedicated pcie slot, which might be a smart choice for pre-win7 era gaming.
No I haven't! Seeing it's Ryzen, it's likely not going to be that cheap I guess?
@@philscomputerlab not as cheap , I've seen 1400 yuan /200usd offer in taobao several weeks ago, sadly not in stock anymore. Most common price is around 3300 yuan / 485usd these days. 🤔
Phil great review im using this for XP is there anyway to slow down the noisy fan in the power option theres a thermal option but the cpu fun fan speed states n/a and cannot be changed :( Also for XP shoukd the multi processor option be enabled or disabled?
cool video! just wondering how is the 4K video playback capability of this thin pc? I'm trying to find a thin pc size htpc for my Dad,thx!
It depends on the content and codec. If the GPU can decode it, then it should be fine. But if it needs the CPU, then it won't be smooth.
I purchased one of these T620 Plus earlier this year. I have an Nvidia 1030 gt low profile card I'd like to use, but the heatsink takes up 2 slots. Maybe I can put a smaller heatsink on the video card and just use the case fan for cooling. I want to set this up in my basement to play PS2 emulator games.
I guess there is a lot of PS2 games that don't require much emulator power to run fine. I always struggled with getting MGS 3 to run smooth even with much more powerful hardware than this thin client.
Trade your dual-slot 1030 for a single-slot one... problem solved.
you can forget Ps2 emulation, even 4GHz sandy bridge struggles in some titles
Sell the thinclient and GT1030 and buy a life supply of actual PS2s (ideally the moddable fat ones... HD Loader, Free McBoot etc.) lol
Trade it for a single slot card of buy some extrusion heatsink from aliexpress or a local eletronics store and cut to size and drill so holes
Nice video. Do you have any experience with the low profile RX 550 in the sff HP machines?
Nope.
Art of Server’s youtube channel confirmed that this unit will run with 32gb of RAM. Go check it out guys! Great review by the way!
hello can you pls tell me what ssd and ram upgrade i can put in thath thin client t620? want to upgrade my ram and ssd also
Wonder how much power you can get from the PCI-E slot, they make single slot RX550s. If your willing to chop off a dvi port you could use a RX 560 or a 1050 ti.
If you are ever worried about low power through a PCIe slot, the GT 1030 is the fix... only a 30watt TDP.
I don't suppose the motherboard could be replaced with a mini ITX, could it? Obviously the i/o shield would need some work to be replaced and some parts patched over with sheet metal, but updating it to Ryzen APUs would make for a fun challenge.
it can with limitations, the CPU cooling will be one of them, and then it cant fit a decent GPU. and you will have to find an external or a pico PSU. and then you will have to find ram that wont interfere with cooling or case height. best just to buy a mini ITX case (which will be cheaper as well).
11:21 4 gigs of video memory? Don't you mean system ram?
Spray paint the sticker. I'd sand it off and spray it black.
Hi Phil. Great video. I was considering one of these. Would an RX 550 low profile work in this machine?
I was thinking of the one from yeston.
To mish power usage, would go bon
nice little box, would love to see benches compared to a core2 or similar in overall performance as that would be what it would run against realistically; price at least over here is a bit high(can buy a laptop at about the same) but still a nice package
a core 2 quad has more performance everywhere (in both single core and multi core) but not by much, and the core 2 duo has better single core performance (by a far margin) but only slightly worse multi core than the GX-420 has.
just go by this www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-AMD-GX-420CA-SOC-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8600/1038vs2121vs957
I've got one of these with 8GB RAM, 128GB m.2, Windows 10 Pro 64bit and unfortunately an old Zotac 8400 GS 512mb that's only registering 256mb. Thought about upgrading the GPU so my daughter can use to play Minecraft (if possible). What would be a good cheap GPU that will handle it? I can't do a 1030 at the moment.
Would a mini itx motherboard fit into this case?I want to build one maybe a hp thin client t5720...
yes they would, but cooling would be a huge issue, as most cooling solutions are too big, or are not good enough to to cool a CPU in such a small space. the other issue is no room to put a video card in it (unless you only want to use a GT 1030). its cheaper and more logical just to buy a mini ITX case
did someone try to plug in Dell OEM RX 550 4gb ddr5 on this mini PC ? and how the performance ?
This thing really goes well with Winxp and Win7, so far everything I have thrown at it works well from those eras
Yes for me its the best thin client Phil has reviewed.
And windows10
Can you test more modern games on this thin client please
The machine isn't suitable for modern games to be honest.
@@philscomputerlab FORTNITE?
The benchmarks says GT 730, but in the video you show that you put a 1030 in there?
I haven't watched the video in a while but right at the start I can see two graphics cards.
Ah yes, thank you, somehow missed that part
Do these come with the PCI connector for the GT 1030 pre installed?
E-bay make my happy
Does anyone know what the max wattage for the pcie slot is on that little box? I want to put the low profile Yeston rx 560 in there but the tdp of that card is like 50 watts.
Hi All, another nice review phil,
I was going to ask why there was no GT1030 in the original machine along with the graphs of the integrated video and the 730GT, but then i remembered that there are no drivers for XP for GT1030
Regarding the mother board revisions I copied the following from his updated ebay advert, but as you mentioned he has not opened up the machines and cataloged the internals on the sale
The "JAMESTOWN" motherboard will have either a
MSATA or M.2 flash drive. It has both the MSATA & M.2 connections. The T620 Rev.B only has
the M.2 drive option
It must be 2018 as Phils Computer Lab with retro recommends a min 16G HDD SSD - hahaha
I thought i was doing well when i removed the 2 x 400meg IDE Connors from my Pentium 100 and run a 4Gig Compact flash memory setup
Cheers
George
Does the computer have to be connected through ethernet
Would you be able to fit a Geforce 1030 in there?
10:44
Great video - Would a Radeon R5 430 2GB low profile fit
Yes should work fine!
@@philscomputerlab thanks so much. Someone is selling this computer near me for £30. I see this video was made so sometime ago, would you recommend it for that price
@@The_Creative_Workshop Up to you to decide that!
can you put pcie sata card inside and connect 4 2.5 hdd for example to use it as a NAS server? Or any other thin client or mini pc that can accept 2 2.5 hdd?
late response but want to help. Yes you can, you can even get an adapter for msata to sata, or Mini PCI-E to sata, and 3d print a part to add 2 hard drives to the hp t620
Good to know that it's still compatible with XP, I might get one when they get cheaper. Currently I'm trying out a Futro S900. it's not going quite as smoothly as I thought it would. E.g. I can't get any output from PCI graphic cards. Fortunately, my unit came with the riser for the proprietary PCI-E x2 slot, so I'll be getting a cheap card for that and see if that makes a difference. Have only tried some live Linux distros yet because I don't have a drive with enough space. Some of the distros couldn't find the audio. The 1GB msata ssd that came with it was kinda hard to remove, I thought for a moment I damaged the port. I hope the Futro won't make any trouble with the new one I'll eventually put in there.
I'd love to take a look at some Fujitsu Siemens machine, but they are mostly to be found in Europe and shipping is often the killer.
Soaking the sticker with alcohol might take it off, or you could use a heat gun.