Ok, there is a device that has an ethernet port and USB ports, and some have a graphics card, but I don’t believe they have a CPU, hard drive, or any ram. It’s meant to be a remote extension of a PC.
I purchased a keyboard that I could spill water on or get soaking wet and would like to set up one of these things in the basement.
Been out of the tech world way to long. Heads filled with scientific names and marine chemistry now.
Link?
lol, try Googling for a “link”. If that is a general name for what I’m looking for I think I need something a little more specific.
Everything has a processor, cell phones, Ipads, and obviously computers. Some computers have SSD’s (solid state drives) which is one of the newer things out. The way storage memory is nowadays they figured they don’t need drives with moving parts anymore, but no processor? I doubt that was what you saw, maybe an external SATA drive is what you saw?
Your description is like someone asking for a coral ID only saying it has branches lol.
Oh I also thought you found something and was sharing it and I was asking for a link to it.
Wasn’t a SATA drive, just having a mental block and can’t figure out what the thing is called. There is plenty of good reasons to use a device like this, for one it’s very small. Secondly they were less then $200 if I remember right. If you have a quad core processor and several gigs of ram, and several terabytes of hard drive space on a tower in the house somewhere then it’s cheaper to get an extension then rebuild it.
The only thing I can think of is a netbook, I believe its basically a very small SSD for an OS, CPU, network capability and graphics… It was basically what Ipad took and perfected. Mobile net without all the extra computing.
There are a few ways to go about this, yes there are PC terminals / Thin Clients but you can just get a throw away PC and remote the main PC a lot easier, I think what you are thinking about are KVM switches, but would not really be idea as to get one that supports networking and dual monitors they get costly.
I just need a single monitor. I do have some old PCs and considered that route, but space is a real concern, so was hoping to get something a bit smaller. Thanks for the input. I’ll look around again soon.
well if you really want the KVM solution these are the cheapest I’ve found for what you are asking for
http://www.vpi.us/cat5.html
I would think a used laptop would be a good option maybe ?
Errr, yeah. Looking like a stretch. Certainly saves space, but not that much. I would want a couple of USB as well and don’t see that. Was hoping by now they would have come down in price and they certainly haven’t.
I think I’ll look into maybe moding one of my old original Xboxes. May take a couple hours to get it running, but should have all I’ll need. Can get it pretty slim as well if I leave out the DVD drive and swap out the bulk hard drive for a slim lap top one.
Why not just get a laptop from Best Buy? Toshiba sells one for about $330.
I would say what you’re describing would be a “thin client” Jon, which is basically a super scaled down computer, in which its main function is to connect to another computer and display that to you.