Raspberry Pi - Cheapest Home Theatre PC Solution

The Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It’s a miniature ARM-based PC which can be used like a desktop PC. The Foundation's goal is to offer two versions, priced at US$ 25 and US$ 35.

The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU and 256MB RAM. It uses an SD card for booting and long-term storage. Raspberry Pi runs on Linux & possibly Android (someone is working on the porting). There is a Debian-based OS known as Raspbian which is optimized for this board.

You can get this board from Element14 for RM125.

Turn your LCD/LED TV into a Computer

3 years ago, I setup a desktop as a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) that was connected to my LCD TV. Then I could watch movies, view photos and surf Internet through the big screen. I still remember it cost me around RM1200 for the HTPC.

With the rapid increasing popularity of ARM processors and Android OS, now there are a few mini PCs that are as small as USB thumbdrive, namely:

• Cotton Candy by FXI, priced at USD 199
• mini PC-MK802 by Rikomagic, priced at USD76 (free shipping)

From as low as RM235, you can turn your LCD TV into a computer! This is the best solution for people who wish to add extra features to their LCD TV with minimum cost. You can even run Ubuntu Linux from it.

Let's take a look at the spec of the mini PC-MK802:

• Operating System: Android 4.0
• Processor: Allwinner A10 1.5GHz Cotex-A8
• Memory: 1GB DDR RAM
• Storage: 4GB NAND Flash (1GB used by system)
• External storage: USB and microSD of up to 32GB
• Graphics: Mali 400MP GPU
• HDMI and USB connections
• Apps included: Google Play, Google Mail, Google Maps, Youtube, Youku, PPS.TV Tablet Version, PPTV, Browser, Flash Player, QQ Messenger, Angry Bird Space and more