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I just bought this little guy. The intent is to use it for emulation of old console games (mostly Atari and Sega), and perhaps some music/photo storage. I'll be connecting it to a 55" 1080p TV in the man room.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6856173128

I've got some RAM laying around that will fit it, and I think an old 2.5" 250gb SATA. That should about cover it. Has anyone had any experience loading an OS onto one of these things? With no optical drive, I know I'll have to configure a USB setup. Any tips/tricks? I could do it the easy way, and buy a new Windows 10 license. Or, I could do it the hard way, and use an old Windows 7 license and slipstream in the USB 3.0 drivers. The cheap part of me says go option 2, the sane part of me says option 1. Thoughts?

Vrock wrote:

I just bought this little guy. The intent is to use it for emulation of old console games (mostly Atari and Sega), and perhaps some music/photo storage. I'll be connecting it to a 55" 1080p TV in the man room.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6856173128

I've got some RAM laying around that will fit it, and I think an old 2.5" 250gb SATA. That should about cover it. Has anyone had any experience loading an OS onto one of these things? With no optical drive, I know I'll have to configure a USB setup. Any tips/tricks? I could do it the easy way, and buy a new Windows 10 license. Or, I could do it the hard way, and use an old Windows 7 license and slipstream in the USB 3.0 drivers. The cheap part of me says go option 2, the sane part of me says option 1. Thoughts?

This little box just screams for Linux! May I reccomend Manjaro Linux?
www.manjaro.org

I've never been interested in Linux, thanks.

How much is your time worth?

Driver support seems to be present for both versions of Windows.

It depends. If I could find a copy of Windows 10 for under $75, I'd go with it.

If the bios has an option to disable USB3 you might not even need to bother with the slipstream.  If the zbox behaves anything like the NUC, then installing an OS from a USB drive is usually pretty straightforward.

Install Windows 7, then upgrade to 10 for free (this is still possible).

Anton Kochubey wrote:

Install Windows 7, then upgrade to 10 for free (this is still possible).

I thought this went away in July?

Redocbew wrote:

If the bios has an option to disable USB3 you might not even need to bother with the slipstream.  If the zbox behaves anything like the NUC, then installing an OS from a USB drive is usually pretty straightforward.

There's a legacy bios setting, but there's also a couple of USB 2.0 slots. Interesting.

I have the previous version, it's a fun toy and works great as an occasional Terraria server. Look ma, no moving parts!

As far as installation, wouldn't a $25 USB optical drive do the job? IIRC I used a regular 5.25" drive and one of those USB to SATA/IDE/everything adapters because that's what I had handy, but a decent USB drive would be a good investment since laptops are starting to drop the drive too. I've been wanting one myself, but I desire lots of glorious metal and all the stuff I've seen is cheap and flimsy.

Vrock wrote:

I've never been interested in Linux, thanks.

I have a similar system for old games hardware wise but for NES and SNES.
However I discovered http://www.lakka.tv/

Now that might be the first Linux distribution that interests me. Hmm.

Fonbu wrote:

Vrock wrote:

I've never been interested in Linux, thanks.

I have a similar system for old games hardware wise but for NES and SNES.
However I discovered http://www.lakka.tv/

I wonder how well this will work with the Steam Controller?

Vrock wrote:

Now that might be the first Linux distribution that interests me. Hmm.

Struck out on the NES Classic too?

Captain Ned wrote:

Vrock wrote:

Now that might be the first Linux distribution that interests me. Hmm.

Struck out on the NES Classic too?

I think everybody did! Nintendo only made six of them, it seems.

Honestly I find myself revisiting many Atari 2600 games more than NES or even Genesis. I have a couple of the Atari flashback machines, but they're kinda janky, and composite video on a 55" TV looks awful. I also have various versions of these games on PS3 and PS4 disc, but it's not the same thing without an Atari controller. Stella, on the other hand, emulates near perfectly and with razor sharp digital video goodness, and I can plug a real 2600 controller into a USB adapter and have it work on the computer no problem.

If I were to burrow behind the TV at my Dad's house, I would eventually discover the 2600 and the joystick controllers I remember from my youth. We never throw anything away; it has to be there somewhere.

Vrock wrote:

Anton Kochubey wrote:

Install Windows 7, then upgrade to 10 for free (this is still possible).

I thought this went away in July?

There still is a way, fully legal in terms of law, and questionably legal in terms of morals. Done officially, no cracks/activators/whatever third party software. Google it if you're interested.

The box is up and running. Windows 7 installation was a bit of a pain, as I initially had no keyboard and mouse support and the installation program and couldn't proceed. But once I slipstreamed in the USB 3.0 drivers from Intel, everything went fine. Now to update to Windows 10, and then do a fresh windows 10 install.