Long posts

I have wanted to break away from my standard desktop PC and start using a thin client as my daily driver at home. The reason for this is two-fold. I want to change my relationship with my computers by reducing the use in general and tailoring my hardware to a more keyboard-driven, less gaming-capable setup. I also want to move to a smaller form factor computer for room environmental purposes. Fanless, small, low-power are all things I've been interested in since the days of https://www.silentpcreview.com.

Since I use Linux Mint, and Mint has partnered with Compulab to produce a Mint Edition of their computers, I took a look at their devices.

The Fitlet2 is their most recent fanless, miniature computer. They have a more recent version that is a full-on computer, with much more heft and cost. The Fitlet2 is a few years old.

For $270, I bought these components:

Fitlet2 (Celeron J3455 quad-core) $178

I chose the Celeron version because it benchmarks higher generally than the more expensive Atom versions, and at this small a form factor, I expect I want everything I can get. It's only 10 watts TDP, and the power supply is only for 15 watts overall.

Their wiki has more helpful information on the Fitlet2 specifications, and links to their forums and other helpful areas: http://fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fitlet2.

Hynix RAM (8GB DDR3L 204pin) $30

Cross my fingers hope this is compatible. It's not on the list. It is the low-power 1.35v, and brand and latency I saw on the compatibility list.

Single 16GB sticks of DDR3L are very expensive, and I decided the $95 difference may not be worth it in such a low-compute-capable system. We'll see!

KingSpec SSD (2242 M2, 256GB) $42

My current SSD's size, and should be fine.

Samsung MicroSD card (128GB) $20

Linux Mint has a backup service that I haven't been using but looks wonderful, and I can just leave the SD card in the Fitlet2.

My biggest concern will be the RAM not being compatible. Otherwise, I expect it to go well. I'll have to use a monitor I normally don't use, because my current monitor is only DVI and VGA, and this requires HDMI or DisplayPort.

I'll use MATE as my desktop environment, since I'm familiar with it and it is on the low-end of resource consumption.

I'll post another entry when I've gotten the system in my hands.