# Recommendation for small computer



## balanga (Jul 26, 2018)

Can anyone suggest what sort of computer to buy which is very small and can accept a PCIe card? It doesn't need to be new.


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## rigoletto@ (Jul 26, 2018)

Get a Mini-ITX board and some tiny case, or some of those mini computers/cases with a VESA adapter ( if the idea is to hide it behind the monitor ).

The point is how small and why?


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## balanga (Jul 26, 2018)

I want to have  TV server and having had experience with a USB DVB-S2 receiver it wasn't particularly satisfactory so I'm thinking of getting a PCIe adapter instead, so need somewhere to install it


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## rigoletto@ (Jul 26, 2018)

If you will use it for something like KODI, you can get one of those ARM things ( like Raspi ) that have nice graphics for this purpose. I am just not aware of what is the situation for 4K stuff.


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## balanga (Jul 26, 2018)

I want to run Tvheadend on it.


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## alexseitsinger (Jul 26, 2018)

What you want is the smallest form factor to suit your needs. These boxes are good to run as server too, because of theirlow heat production,efficient power consumption. As suggested above a small form factor is Mini-ITX, but there are others that are even smaller. They might not suit your needs though, so be sure to look that up.


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## diizzy (Jul 26, 2018)

Intel NUC, Gigabyte Brix, Asus Vivomini, Acer Revo, Zotac Zbox
Quite a few models already include WIFI otherwise there's usually a free slot for PCIe cards usually intended for WIFI.


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## vermaden (Jul 27, 2018)

balanga said:


> Can anyone suggest what sort of computer to buy which is very small and can accept a PCIe card? It doesn't need to be new.



Sure:
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/06/07/silent-fanless-freebsd-desktop-server/


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## rigoletto@ (Jul 27, 2018)

If you do not use your TV 'ON WALL' but on its pedestal ( and so you have the TV VESA receptacle free ) the case with VESA adapter is still valid. You would just need an adapter to a bigger VESA size. 

But to have a discrete GPU you need to look for a case with support for a daughter card.

Otherwise, you can also look in HERE for good looking ( read discreete ), ( apparently ) well made, and actually cheap cases.


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## diizzy (Jul 27, 2018)

USB is probably going to be much easier with webcamd stuff


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## balanga (Jul 27, 2018)

diizzy said:


> USB is probably going to be much easier with webcamd stuff



I have a USB stick which I finally managed to get working under FreeBSD, but it simply won't pick up certain frequencies which I want. My very cheap Satellite STB has no problem picking  them up. If I could get webcamd working on the STB I'd be quite happy.

I don't know if the USB stick is faulty or if there is a fault with the scanning software but it simply does not pick 10719MHz among others.


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## Deleted member 55181 (Jul 27, 2018)

Rapsberry


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## rigoletto@ (Aug 10, 2018)

Cryorig TAKU.


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