My strange computer set-up

[Luftwaffles]

Spoiler

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This is my current desktop, in all its blurred glory.

Now, I know what you are thinking: "That doesn't look very computer-like" and that's because it's not. You could look all around this picture and I guarantee that you won't find any CPU, monitor or any other pieces of hardware (bar the obvious keyboard and mouse) that are normally associated with a computer set up.

For those who don't know, I need to explain something first: I live in Argentina and the prices of everything (but particularly imports such as technology) strongly depend on what mood the US dollar is in and its relation with our national currency, the Peso. That's normally pretty hard to swallow, but recent, global events have triggered all prices so badly, computers have remained on the reach of a selected few... effectively coming full circle.

When my last --budget-- one bit the dust, I simply couldn't replace it and that's how I ended up with this seven-piece monstrosity you are staring at here. I'm extremely pleased with it, though! So, let's tour the components from left to right, shall we?

The scrappy little phone on the far left is a Samsung Galaxy J1 Mini Prime. I got it stupidly cheap because the screen has been cracked beyond any hope (and there's simply no precision tapping to be done there), but it has one feature that made me seek out this particular model and spend my hard-earned money on it: It can read 64 GB SD Cards! You guys wouldn't believe how many Android devices refuse to go beyond 32 GBs, so this was a huge extra for me! Its writing and reading speeds are blazing fast as well, and the battery life I found to be on the long side. This phone I use as a glorified file manager and it accomplishes its mission with commendable efficiency.

The orange tablet next to it is an Aero 7: Kids. I also got it very cheap because of its "for kids" status, but all those kiddie features are just aesthetical and not too hard to disable. This tablet is a raging beast under the hood as well, which was a very nice surprise.

Not only does it also read 64 GB SD Cards, but it's also compatible with pretty much anything I have thrown on it. On the interest of not overtaxing any system I currently own, I made this one my "media" tablet, so its mission is to play music and videos from the aforementioned card and also to run DOS games through a DOS emulator and other games through a variety of emulators, from NES to Nintendo DS. It's also my E-book reader. Again, very pleased with it and provided extremely good value for the asked price.

The only thing I didn't like about it is that it came packaged with the lamest, most counter-intuitive excuse for a file manager I had ever seen, but it's nothing that installing ES File Explorer wasn't able to solve. Again, very pleased.

What I was NOT pleased with, however, was the black tablet to the right of it.

I paid full price for it just a couple of months ago and it's SUPPOSED to be my most powerful devise, running Android 7, but this "Tablet-PC" by Zira came handcuffed and blindfolded.

Not only did it adamantly refused to work with most of my trusted apps, but it also skipped functions on those that it did allow in. The aforementioned ES File Explorer, for example, found itself unable to do its "Share" function, because something deep on the code of the tablet forbade it from doing local file exchanges. That would be pretty awful in and on itself, but it gets worse! The tablet literally came with no virtual keyboard of its own, expecting you to talk your way through all its apps... and it, again, refused to allow any third-party on-screen keyboards in. Only the appropriately-named "Simple Keyboard" was permitted to work (and the tablet still tries to pull some fast ones on it).

I'd sell this one without much regret if it wasn't for the fact that it actually works really well with a great little app called "Tablet Remote", which allows an Android device to remotely control another one. This is useful when one of the other tablets is running low on battery while in the middle of watching, reading or playing something (and the remote also doubles as a gaming pad).

All of that is secondary, however, to the main piece of this miss-matched ensemble: the blue tablet on the middle of the picture.

This one I got for free, because the previous owner dropped it one day (smashing both the frontal AND rear cameras in the process) rendering its touchscreen capabilities completely useless, as it only registers gestures made on the lower right corner of the screen... yeah.

But I actually really love this one because this CX9011 is a complete beast and it came jam-packed with features I was longing to have.

The first thing I love about this one is that it has a Mini-HDMI-to-HDMI port, so I can broadcast the screen onto any LCD or Smart TV of my choosing on a variety of resolutions (although, I keep it on default). It's also fully compatible with the generic wireless (albeit not Bluetooth) set of keyboard and mice I paired with it. I gave it some thought and I came to the conclusion that the advantages of getting a Bluetooth keyboard would be lost if I had this tablet with HDMI output, WiFI and Bluetooth on. It'd be a battery-draining mess and it'd also bottleneck the connections in a very bad way.

I support this tablet with a Kingston 32 GB SD Card and, coupled with its rather massive 8 GBs of internal storage, it truly is the ideal machine, with a very respectable battery life per charge and a lot of neat little features to play around with. This is my main devise I use and the one I browse the internet with.

To the right of it is the final piece of the Frankenstein monster: the white phone at the edge of the picture.

This one... ugh. It's not a bad phone at all, but its battery life leaves a lot to be desired and it can be gone real quick if you are not paying attention. So yeah... not ideal, but it does the one thing I ask of it and it does it well: it's a brilliant hotspot for its own mobile data, which can then be caught by the CX and used as a direct WiFi connection. It's super neat in that regard! And my only complain is that if, again, you are not keeping an eye on its battery levels, the hotspot might drain it completely and shut off the devise without warning, effectively yanking you offline.

Other than that, though... pleased!

As for the screen... it's a 32'' Hitachi Smart TV I got on a massive discount last holidays. It does what it's asked of it, so I guess I can't complain

Spoiler

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Anyway... that's my rig xD

[Kade Rivok]

I'm rather impressed with this; you put a TON of work into getting all that set up.  Nicely done man!

[Matthias720]

A commendable setup, for sure. You used what you had and made it work. I can relate.

[Kade Rivok]

I'm curious, what does a decent rig cost over there right now?

[Luftwaffles]

Thank you both

I'm curious, what does a decent rig cost over there right now?

Glad you ask! It strongly depends on what you want and are looking for... you can get away with getting a second-hand All-In-One (bar keyboard and mouse) for around 10k (not terrible), but I also saw a non-descript Samsung laptop for sale the other day and it was tagged as costing $79k (three times what I earn... yeeesh).

[shisteer of nothing much]

Very well done indeed, Luft!

[Luftwaffles]

Thank you

[Cornflower MM]

. . . That's seriously impressive - Wow. That's super creative and fiddling with all that couldn't have been easy.

[Luftwaffles]

. . . That's seriously impressive - Wow. That's super creative and fiddling with all that couldn't have been easy.

To be honest, some bits made me wanna bash my head against the wall.

Pairing errors, apps suddenly stopping working, devices sharing files painfully slowly for no reason, etc... it's been a challenge.

[The Skarzs]

O_O

Your ingenuity is impressive. Well done.

. . . I . . . am constantly more and more grateful to be living in the United States.

[Luftwaffles]

O_O

Your ingenuity is impressive. Well done.

. . . I . . . am constantly more and more grateful to be living in the United States.

Danke, good sir

I bet that knowing that, if something says it costs four dollars, it is nice to know it actually costs four dollars

32 GB SD Card in December: $890.

32 GB SD Card in May: $1300.

-.-!

[The Shadow of Korriban]

The creative mind finds the solution, and the persevering heart makes the solution work.  Nice job, Waffles!

[One-Eye the wildcat]

O_O

Your ingenuity is impressive. Well done.

. . . I . . . am constantly more and more grateful to be living in the United States.

Danke, good sir

I bet that knowing that, if something says it costs four dollars, it is nice to know it actually costs four dollars

32 GB SD Card in December: $890.

32 GB SD Card in May: $1300.

-.-!

... And I thought a GPU fluctuating 50$ was a lot.

[Jukka the Sling]

This is amazing!  Definitely the most creative use of phones/tablets I've ever seen!  It stinks that you can't get a real computer right now, though.  I hope the price hike ends soon!

[Luftwaffles]

The creative mind finds the solution, and the persevering heart makes the solution work.  Nice job, Waffles!

Awww, Danke

... And I thought a GPU fluctuating 50$ was a lot.

I'm scared to even think what the price will be when I inevitably end up buying more cards (currently have fourteen, plus five sticks and it's just not enough).

This is amazing!  Definitely the most creative use of phones/tablets I've ever seen!  It stinks that you can't get a real computer right now, though.  I hope the price hike ends soon!

Thanks

To be honest, I miss very little of my Windows PC experience... Android is massively powerful and I have seen tools available for it that I once thought impossible to produce (and hey, I heard it is possible to get Windows 98 or so installed on Android!).