- Joined
- Jan 8, 2015
- Messages
- 87
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro-F12d
- CPU
- i9-9900K
- Graphics
- Radeon VII
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
I'm looking for a quick-and-dirty solution for a computer for our exercise room. The most it'll ever need to do is run Zwift, which yes, is game-like and graphics and stuff, but as games go it's pretty lightweight. It's going to be plugged into the cheapest 1080p monitor I can find; I'm not going to set the graphics at their highest; and I'm fine if the frame rate is as low as 30fps. I don't even need discrete graphics! There's some competitors for Zwift I also may run, but, again, I just need it to function, it doesn't have to look like the latest Tomb Raiders.
Bluetooth and USB are requirements for communicating with the cycling equipment, and Wifi is a requirement because no ethernet in this room and I don't feel like wiring it.
For comparison, my current computer I'm using with Zwift is a hackintosh HP Probook 4540s with an i7-3632QM. It works fine on this. I need something with similar benchmarks for single core but the multicore can probably be worse because this is only ever going to run one thing at a time (Zwift, or streamed video, or maybe an exercise DVD).
I also don't want a giant case if it can be avoided. I also don't want to spend many hours on this. I've done three hackintoshes over the years so I'm not a noob, but I don't want to waste time. I'm hoping to get something in the $200-$300 range though I don't know if that's realistic.
My first thought was just buy a NUC (e.g a NUC8i3beh), but the wifi/bluetooth fixes always seems to be complicated and that's the one thing where I have to have reliability. Buying a NUC and just using Windoze is not completely out of the question, but I wouldn't be here unless I was still hoping to avoid that outcome. Buying a used Mac mini is also not out of the question but so far everything I find is either ancient or overpriced. (Also I am aware that Zwift runs an an Apple TV box which is dirt cheap and handles streaming too, but there are other cycling trainer apps that do not run there that I want to use sometimes so that's off the table.)
[Editing to say... there's a 2012 mac Mini for sale on craigslist for $900. What are these people thinking?????]
Bluetooth and USB are requirements for communicating with the cycling equipment, and Wifi is a requirement because no ethernet in this room and I don't feel like wiring it.
For comparison, my current computer I'm using with Zwift is a hackintosh HP Probook 4540s with an i7-3632QM. It works fine on this. I need something with similar benchmarks for single core but the multicore can probably be worse because this is only ever going to run one thing at a time (Zwift, or streamed video, or maybe an exercise DVD).
I also don't want a giant case if it can be avoided. I also don't want to spend many hours on this. I've done three hackintoshes over the years so I'm not a noob, but I don't want to waste time. I'm hoping to get something in the $200-$300 range though I don't know if that's realistic.
My first thought was just buy a NUC (e.g a NUC8i3beh), but the wifi/bluetooth fixes always seems to be complicated and that's the one thing where I have to have reliability. Buying a NUC and just using Windoze is not completely out of the question, but I wouldn't be here unless I was still hoping to avoid that outcome. Buying a used Mac mini is also not out of the question but so far everything I find is either ancient or overpriced. (Also I am aware that Zwift runs an an Apple TV box which is dirt cheap and handles streaming too, but there are other cycling trainer apps that do not run there that I want to use sometimes so that's off the table.)
[Editing to say... there's a 2012 mac Mini for sale on craigslist for $900. What are these people thinking?????]
