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I was looking for a cheap x86 machine for assembly development and other hackery and I was wondering if such a system exists. The system must meet the following requirements:

  • Under $100 including price of memory.
  • Must not be a compute stick or must be able to run headless.
  • Must be able to run non-custom Linux distributions.
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  • This sbc can never support asmbly development. These people are pointing you to a dead hell road. Get a second hand reconditioned old board if you are in budget.
    – user4488
    Sep 17, 2016 at 18:04

5 Answers 5

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There are several developers working towards this right now! Unfortunately most of these projects are still in the "Crowdfunding" or "Pre-order" stages.

One promising board, the "UP-Board" currently on Pre-Order: http://www.up-board.org/

  • $99
  • 2GB RAM
  • 16GB EMMC memory
  • Intel processor (Compatible with Windows 8.1/10, Unknown if compatible with Linux)

Another promising board, the "Lattepanda" currently still in the Pre-Order stage located here

  • $89
  • 2GB RAM
  • 32GB EMMC memory
  • Intel atom (quad-core) processor (Compatible with Windows 8.1/10, Linux various)

Honorable mentions:

If you are looking for a board that is currently available at your price point and also X86, you are out of luck. However, if you upped your price point by between $50-$100, you'd find some neat boards on Amazon

NOTE: I am involved with the Lattepanda project as a backer, however I do not own or operate it.

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  • I downvoted because of the last bit - it doesn't seem like any of this is currently available, whereas my solution is.
    – Adam Wykes
    Jul 25, 2016 at 19:55
  • The poster is looking for an x86 board that is capable of being used in IOT-like projects, or "Hackery". So while your solution fits the general requirements they're looking for, it does not fit their specific needs.
    – Ulincsys
    Jul 26, 2016 at 20:15
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat.
    – Ulincsys
    Jul 26, 2016 at 20:34
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You can buy used. For example, This - HP DC7800 Ultra Small Form Factor Desktop Computer (Refurbished) - is an extremely cheap x86 platform that does actually have some upgrade potential. It costs $50, but is more powerful than some SBC options and certainly more configurable.

It is the cheapest such machine I am aware of from large suppliers online. You may be able to source considerably better machines locally.

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Atomic Pi, ~$35 on Amazon. Runs an Atom X5 Z3850 CPU (quadcore, with 2GB of RAM, and 16GB SSD), very energy efficient. Good for Linux, not Windows.

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  • It is pretty okay and far more than enough fore Linux. However, most Linux apps want more - firefox, libreoffice would run probably painfully slow. My current laptop has only 3GB, and it is slow (but useable).
    – peterh
    Jul 10, 2020 at 17:04
  • Depends, Lubuntu only uses 150MB for the OS. It uses firefox, and unless you're browsing with 20 tabs, it works quite well! I've ran FF on a Raspberry Pi before, with only 1GB RAM, and that was cutting it short. It doesn't run from a Pi Zero. Libreoffice, I don't use often, but with 2 GB of RAM, you could possibly run Libreoffice calc, writer, and Firefox with about 5 tabs just fine. Speed is also not an issue. My X5 Z8350 runs at 1,68Ghz boost on all cores, which is the right speed for things to just not feel too sluggish. Sure, it's not a 4Ghz CPU, but it works as expected.
    – ProDigit
    Jul 14, 2020 at 2:43
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The cheapest x86 solution is probably going to be based on an RDC chip. See http://www.rdc.com.tw/. The OpenWrt project carried some information on devices that contained these chips: https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/targets/rdc, however it seems lately many designs have been replaced by ARM-based solutions. Here is one x86-based device still for sale that could be hacked:

http://www.frineta.lt/eshop/product.php?id_product=239&id_lang=1

That said, RDC have come up with newer chips that must have found their way into newer SBCs, e.g. EmKore (http://www.rdc.com.tw/?route=home/emk). I presume someone is making SBCs based on those.

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you can buy Atomic pi which will cost you 43$ if you stay in india then you can't get it you have to buy it from us ( amazon.com ) and all the costum duty charges and shipment charge will make around 111$

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Pi-High-Speed-Peripheral/dp/B07N298F2Bpecs: intel processor 2 gb ram
and rest you find out from google 😉

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