There is a new single-board computer in town: Odroid HC1.
https://magazine.odr...and-odroid-mc1/
I'm searching for a relatively cheap computer than can replace a heavier Intel i7 machine and still deliver similar processing power. Might have finally found it.
This odroid has 8 CPU cores, which are not yet a full match but are still fast enough for most tasks. What I've liked particularly on this model was the option to add a small hard-drive in addition to the mini-SD card.
I've added a 1Tb hdd, plus the charger and case. The total price for this setup was 133 EUR. It is possible to lower the price by ordering directly from the Korean website for 49 USD and then adding a drive with less storage.
Setting up the operating system is relatively painless. Basically download one of the Ubuntu images that they have available onto the mini-SD card using the Etcher.io tool and then boot it up: https://wiki.odroid....ntu_4.9/minimal
The only way of interacting with the computer is through remote SSH. So it needs to be connected to a network LAN. The default network name is "odroid" so it is possible to ping the machine to see when it is alive.
After the ping is positive, just get inside the machine using "ssh root@odroid". The root password isn't 1234, it is "odroid".
You still need to setup the HDD, there is a good webpage for this at
https://www.digitalo...evices-in-linux
Basically:
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/data sudo mount -o defaults /dev/sda1 /mnt/data sudo nano /etc/fstab
Type on last line:
LABEL=datapartition /mnt/data ext4 defaults 0 2
From there forward you have a normal computer to install and run software.
Have fun!