Between my Single-Board Computer, mini-pcs, and Network-Attached Storage rigs, I’ve got quite a few budget-friendly devices in my arsenal. Having tinkered with them for the last couple of months,I’ve realized that even the most inexpensive hardware can be used for everything from daily tasks to containerized workloads. Capable of running Linux and Android apps, Chromebooks also fall under this category, and the same holds true for their lesser-known Chromebox siblings.
I recently went around checking the prices of Chromeboxes during my doomscrolling sessions,and truth be told,they’re a lot more expensive than I thought – especially when you start looking at devices created by popular laptop manufacturers. So, I tried repurposing one of my inexpensive x86 SBCs into a makeshift Chromebox, and it went better than I expected.
## Choosing the right device for the experiment
### I ditched ChromeOS Flex, though
The first order of business was to pick the right machine for the task. Most of the Chromebox mini-PCs in the $100-300 range I found online were powered by Celeron processors, meaning I couldn’t pick the Arm-based Raspberry Pi 5 and had to go with an x86 SBC for the experiment. Luckily, I had a few options to choose from.I initially wanted to go with the ZimaBoard 2 and its N150 CPU, though its $200 price tag made it seem a little too expensive for a Chromebox. The LattePanda Mu was my second option, and it would’ve brought some extra functionality to the setup thanks to its PCIe slot, though I wanted to go for something even cheaper.
That brought me to the Radxa X4an N100 SBC that I consider the true Raspberry Pi killer. The model I’ve got has 8GB RAM with a price tag of $85, making it even cheaper than the typical N4500 and Celeron 7305 systems you’ll find in this price range.For the storage drive…
FydeOS on the Intel N100: A Lightweight OS That Unleashes Hidden Potential
Credit where it’s due, Intel’s N100 processor is surprisingly great at normal tasks, and it can even handle the bloated mess that’s Windows 11 without turning everything into a slideshow. However, FydeOS’ lightweight nature and optimized apps make the overall system feel extremely responsive even under considerable loads.
YouTube videos, for example, run at 4K60FPS without a single frame drop… with as many as 50 Chromium tabs running in the background! FydeOS also includes a Web Store featuring Google web apps alongside some popular services.I tried using Figma, VS Code, Sketchbook, and Trello, and as you’d expect from web apps, they were extremely responsive. So, I had to look into other ways to tax my system…
Linux apps run without any performance hiccups
FydeOS, like its ChromeOS rivals, can run Linux applications inside a virtual machine, including those with full-on GUIs. I started things off with the usual suite of productivity apps, with LibreOffice, Krita, and GIMP performing without performance hiccups even when I ran them together. Text editors like Emacs and Vim were smooth as butter,
Kdenlive worked decently well, but I wouldn’t recommend using this setup to edit 4K footage. As I wanted to go a
Remember how I said ChromeOS Flex devices can’t use Android apps? well, fydeos lets you configure an Android subsystem, and you can easily deploy it inside the settings. If you’re tired of the Google ecosystem, you can ditch the Play Store entirely and use FydeOS’ Web Store to install the essential Android applications. Or, you can arm your device with the Play Store, use it to install F-droid and Aurora, and switch to alternative marketplaces for your Android apps.
That said, x86 machines like the Radxa X4 require more tweaks than a Raspberry Pi machine to enable this facility. Luckily, enabling developer mode (the one on FydeOS, not the Android instance) and disabling rootfs are fairly simple, and you can set up the typical Gapps suite without any issues.
afterwards,I tried installing slack,Duolingo,Snapchat,Asana,Todoist,and a couple of other communication services that I have on my daily driver,and I had zero issues using them inside the Android instance. Just to spice things up a bit,I ran some casual 2D games like Vampire Survivors though I was really interested in checking out the performance of my DIY chromebox with an emulator. Luckily, this weird setup also works well with titles on PPSSPP, with the device managing to run Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Persona 3 Portable, and God of War: Ghost of Sparta at solid frame rates.
Turns out, you don’t need to spend a lot on a Chromebox.