Just for you VirtualLarry. Make sure you get the Core M versions and not the Atom versions. I might pick one up myself.
The 4GB DDR3 and 64GB eMMC aren't bad specs at all, and assuming that it doesn't throttle itself down to nothing while being used, like the MeegoPad T02 does, then possibly I will get one. I'm more interested in the Pipo X6S right now. For around $200, it has 4GB / 64GB eMMC, an Atom X5, AND a SATA port. Assuming that it's true SATA, and not a USB to SATA embedded adapter or something stupid, then you could conceivably boot Windows 7 64-bit on it. (Assuming that being CHT, the UEFI is 64-bit.) Maybe put Linux on the eMMC, or leave Windows 10 on it. All for $200, less than the price of these new Core M Compute Sticks.
That's what I was wondering about. Darn, if they're using a USB bridge. Win7 won't boot off of that.The cherry trail soc doesn't have SATA as it's designed for phones and tablets so they are most likely using a USB to SATA bridge chip.
That being said the Pipo X6S did look interesting as a possible pfsense box but since they don't mention what make the LAN ports are it's safe to assume it won't be Intel. With all that being said it almost seems like Pipo should of used a Braswell platform instead for the X6S.
So how do you install the OS? Would you boot the SD card or a USB thumb drive? Maybe connect a USB CD ROM drive like a Netbook?
I would put Windows 7 on one of these myself. Right now I have a Netbook that runs PhoneTray, a Filezilla server and Teamspeak server with storage on a SD card for Filezilla.
Well, since both the Skylake 100-series chipset, as well as the newest Atom SoCs, aren't supported by Windows 7 for their xHCI controllers, I was planning on putting an SSD into my Skylake system, installing Windows 7 and the xHCI controller driver, and then putting it back into the Pipo and installing the rest of the drivers. (Pre-load them on the SSD.)
When the SSD is in the Skylake rig, you can pre-load the xHCI drivers, by booting off of a Linux Mint 17.3 USB stick (formatted using Rufus, booting using UEFI). Then use the internet connection / ethernet port, to download the xHCI drivers onto the SSD, then boot Win7 back up and install them, before moving the SSD over to the Pipo.
At least, I think that should work.
So how do you install the OS? Would you boot the SD card or a USB thumb drive? Maybe connect a USB CD ROM drive like a Netbook?
I would put Windows 7 on one of these myself. Right now I have a Netbook that runs PhoneTray, a Filezilla server and Teamspeak server with storage on a SD card for Filezilla.
RTFA
$400 for a tiny $15 piece of silicon plus $20 worth of RAM and $10 worth of dirt cheap eMMC storage. O....K... that sounds like a hell of a deal.