Gaming on a Scientific Data Computer 

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You know its rough when the 3ds ran Half-life better.

The "let me give you some background" *fade into white for 1 second* and it cutting back to you going "I have no idea" was such a good bit and its at the start of the video. Sets up how good this video will be.

Oh hey, a Trimble! I used to do some IT work for a small engineering firm, and their land survey department had a lot of Trimble equipment. I hated having to work with them. They're literally only made to manage GPS location points stored in .csv text files, so there's no need for performance of any kind. This is a fancier one than I've seen, having a full-blown OS. Most I've seen run some version of Windows CE. The model you have isn't familiar to me, but the fact that is was so hard to open was likely due to the fact that they're built to be used outdoors in the field while surveying property lines and elevations and such. That would also explain why the spec's are so low, as theses devices are usually entirely passively cooled, without a single fan or vent, since it's meant to be weatherproof/waterproof to some degree, as well as drop resistant (so mechanical drives are a no-no). That's also likely why the I/O connections were all on a separate piece from the rest of the thing, so that water or dirt can get into a USB port without getting into the main device.

There's something about people messing around with older tech (or weaker hardware) to get it to do things that it was never meant to do just amazing.

I'm gonna name my first kid Trimble Yuma in honor of this thing

steamdeck at home

disabling the steam overlay AND the avatars animations in the chat/profile section is a HUGE boost on a machine like that.

He really just stole a science computer to play half life. This is the stuff I watch. And I love it.

i like the READ THIS NOW file on the desktop and how after the update there was a second one named THIS ONE TOO just to get fully ignored by bringus haha

Love the use of the windows 7 log in noise from censoring.

This man is the alternative universe dankpods

That "haan" when the installation went from 1 to 0 was golden. Love you Bringus, keep doing you.

This dude boutta find out what the quadratic formula for Mario world is

still way better than the school computers

I'm so, so happy this showed up in my recommended. What a stupid concept. Your channel is incredible. Please do more of this.

Why did I think this was a Dankpods video

The thing looks like that Tablet that Tails uses in some of the 3D Sonic games.

Fun fact: Trimble are the current owners of the CAD software SketchUp.

I think the reason the keyboard driver takes time to install, and anew for every different port you plug the same device into, is because Windows is trying to locate a driver from online when it has a perfectly good driver available to use. I think I ended up turning off online driver searches on Windows 7.

I always say that any pc can be a gaming pc with the right tools and games, i was wrong

is this fancier dank pods?

That was one of the smoothest sponsorship transitions I've ever seen, hats off to you Sir Bringus

Hello Bringus Studios! Cool video! I thought as an Intel Atom enthusiast and collector I would offer some advice on how to improve performance on hardware like this, given my extensive experience with Atom-based machines: 1. Atoms from this generation will generally take a 200mhz boost via FSB overvolting, which I highly recommend you do. 200Mhz doesn't sound like a lot, but going from 1.6Ghz to 1.8Ghz is substantial and can give you more FPS in games especially. 2. For OS, I highly recommend Linux Mint 19.3 XFCE 32-Bit. It's up-to-date (they just ended support in April of this year), very lightweight (in my experience it runs better than XP on hardware of this vintage), and is fully-compatible with applications like Steam. 3. Believe it or not, most of the lack of speed you're experiencing is actually from a combination of OS and hard drive. A slow hard drive, coupled with Windows features like Search Index, can bring CPUs like this to their knees very quickly (and also steal a lot of CPU cycles from games). Upgrading to a solid-state storage medium (which I believe it is possible to do on this particular device) will help a LOT. 4. This Atom is actually single-core, not dual-core. It's hyperthreaded so it shows up as "2 cores" in Windows but it's one physical core with 2 threads. The USB is also 2.0 "standard speed", not USB 1 or 1.1, which is a subset of USB 2.0 that doesn't get talked about much (or really at all). It's USB 1.1 speeds with USB 2.0 compatibility. 5. Running Steam or other launchers is a pretty quick way to steal most of the CPU power before the games even begin. Running them natively without a launcher will definitely help matters, as you've expressed already in the video. 6. In regards to improving performance in-games, the biggest bottleneck isn't actually the CPU (I know, crazy) but is actually the system bus. 533Mhz stock is quite slow, SATA speed is SATA 1, and the screen resolution is too high for the embedded GPU. Turning off as many things that need to be live-loaded from the disk as possible can help a lot (such as textures). 7. I'm sure this is nothing new to you but retro gaming is pretty decent on systems like this. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions. Fun to see some Atom love :D

Ubuntu stopped 32-bit suppoort a while back. I'd recommend using something like debian instead. It still has 32-bit support and is fairly stable. Not sure if it would help much with steam though but it might make the device a bit more usable

This is the calmest amount of computerised chaos I have ever seen in my life and I’m all for it

"time for our third operating system" - truly words to live by, reminds me of my childhood

The DankPods editing and style got you a sub! Love the video

This is exactly what modding is all about, Jerry-rigging stuff together just to find out it doesn’t work anyway

The american dankpods

9:43 As someone who's first computer was a crappy Gateway notebook, this part hit me the hardest.

Those old Atom processors had multithreading on a single core, so they'd show up as dual core but they definitely were not. That entire Trimble is basically a ruggedized netbook.

Not even a minute in and you're ripping electric cords apart. I both respect and am terrified of these engineering channels.

Gotta love the way you brought in your sponsor. It's quite the surprise for those uninitiated with Xubuntu and doesn't feel as shoe horned in as other sponsor breaks I've seen. Keep it inventive, I wanna see more ways you could bring a sponsor without destroying the vibe of the vid too much.

"What is this thing? Let me give you guys a little background: I have no idea!" Great start. I'm hooked ngl.

thank you for going some what in depth on what you were doing, helps me learn on how this stuff works as none of the other ones help. Its a great blend between showing the parts for those intrested and others just wanting to watch.

that would be great for RetroPie OS with emulators

Trying to guess every song in this video 1. Donkey Kong Country level select. (1.1 gannon warlock punch) 2. Delphino Plaza 3. Idk some obscure DS game 4. Everybody votes channel 5. Mushroom bridge / city - Double dash 6. Something from Toadstool Tour 7. Hyrule Courtyard OOT 8. Brawl Main Theme 9. Something something animal crossing 10. Mario world 2 athletic 11. Mario odyssey - steam gardens Also, fun video!

8:21 that gave me SOO MUCH NOSTALGIA

Why is his transition to sponsor segments so dang smooth 😂

Had that very same netbook you referenced, the acer aspire. What a brutal machine lol

This is so awesome lol, part of my job is administering license management servers for a wide range of engineering, chemistry, and geosciences software so I'm somewhat familiar with Trimble. They've got a ton of different software out there, but what I'm familiar with is their geosciences and mining engineering software. These tablets would be used for geospatial work (in my personal experience), e.g. surveying land and mines, capturing data from laser scanners, and stuff like that. A lot of the work is handled by specialized equipment, and these tablets are basically just there to gather data points and stuff, not much actual processing needed from what I understand. I've been hoping the geosciences people go for a tech refresh so I can nab one of these from the e-waste, lmk if you'd be interested in selling it lol

I just found your channel and I absolutely admire your persistence

I personally would have gone with Crysis. I believe that would possibly run. I don't think it will do anything more powerful than that.

That VPN transiton was just perfect 👌👌

Probably needed the full direct x 9 update . If you were running none service pack xp almost no programs want to run on that. If you can get sp3 onto it you could probably get project 64 going.

bro the editing, humor, and dedication 🔥🔥 spot on

Centuries ago, I had a Casio CFX-9850G scientific calculator (actually I had the previous model in gray and monochrome) I made a very simple game based on gorilla.bas, it was a ship that appeared randomly on a line on the screen and you had to introduce angle and force to launch a bomb. It drew the trajectory of the curve using the grapher and if it guessed its coordinates a smoke was shown and a screen that said "sunk", if it did not ask for the coordinates again. The programming language was a very simplified BASIC, that Casio used, but that allowed each point of the screen to be graphed, I could never have an HP48G, they were very expensive.

Can't wait to see what you do with the X1 Carbon! Also, definitely very jealous. My current printer is a tiny cube from 2017 that can print 13cm in each direction

What tool did you use to expose the wires on the destroyed laptop charger cable?

I remember running a similar system to this, the Gateway LT2016U and I had the opportunity to run Void Linux (running i3), DOSbox games, Yume Nikki, Cave Story, and Doom and some WADs. Alongside that I was crazy enough to do modern workstation activities such as web browsing with qutebrowser, image editing with gimp and inkscape, and office-work with libreoffice. One of the key moments I had was playing Oregon Trail with my therapist, it was super fun! :D

“Welcome to the future. Everything is worse” True.

Thats a special kinda potato. In 05 I had a garbage emachines netbook or whatever they were called. Nes emulation was basically all the gaming it could do and even that was probably better. Edit: Nvm this potato is definitely better!

This is why you save charging cables, no matter what lol.

wow that was the biggest linux skill issue i have ever seen 10/10 video

just found your channel and i love it. A mix between Dankpods and Michael MJD

The F in the F keys is for functions, so while your playing the game the computer will then start running background processes and switch your input to something else because it is not registered in that window anymore.

Dankpods type thumbnail, absolute W

That was the best and most relatable sponsor ad I've ever seen.

I think this Intel Atom has 1 core, 2 threads, not 2 cores (because hyper threading)

I have the sneaking suspicion in win7 it was using open gl with a missing open gl driver. As for in xp half life was using cpu rendering. I remember running Left for dead on an n270 which is a fair bit weaker. Granted, I did have to use a bunch of commands to make it run smooth

ik this video is 3 months old, but having DKC OST is a great way to get me interested, I love technology shit like this

These type of tablets are typically used for construction. The estimating software I use is Trimble Autobid Mechanical/Sheetmetal. These tablets can be used with the 3D scanning cameras used in the field to take real time images of pre/post construction. The issue with these tablets is that they make them so bare bones that you are forced to buy a new one every few years just to keep up with the demand of tech. And they aren’t cheap

On windows xp you possibly need the actual gpu driver for that scientific tablet pc... maybe look up the cpu to see of what igpu it would have to stage the right driver

You need to run old non-steam day one version of Half-Life or at least Xash 3D engine, while the first one is least resource hungry. Works just fine on my Via C7-M based 2006 XP UMPC.

Dude that was a smooth sponsor transition

I found your channel randomly, I really enjoyed this video. You gain s shiny new subscriber!

I'd love to see you turn a switch into a steam deck. Please bringus!

Hello Mr.Bringus! Did you know that the 32 bit version of puppy Linux from 2020 only takes up around 65MB of RAM at start up and I’m pretty sure it’s still supported to. I installed it last year on laptop from 2006 and it was pretty good. it’s based on Ubuntu also.

It’s a EFB for Trimble , it’s for field data collection for Field Surveyors. I used a couple different types

I love that the default wallpaper is of a shop in my home town.

What a stupid little computer.. I love it! 😍 Keep up the great work! Really enjoyed this video.

I see you finally got you windows portable console!

These Trimble units at least used to be ridiculously expensive special hardware for geo survey and mapping applications. I would not be surprised if they are still sold and in use. IMHO their business model was find something a geo related use case and sell something insanely expensive for it.

Love watching you pain. I always have that problem when installing OSes that should not be on old tech.

Mom cab I have a steam deck We already have a steam deck at home The steam deck:

Hey, I love videos like this but I would like to point some things out, you might have better luck witch directx games since intels opengl drivers are trash and hl runs on opengl, also this is intel atom so even if it was quad core it would still be bad.

I used to work IT. Some of my customers had these on their survey equipment and data collection equipment.

for a 32 bit cpu you should have used puppy linux or Opensuse basic install

AntiX is the most lightweight Linux Distro I know, it could be usefull for future expirements with severly under powered hardware. Edit: For some reference it runs pretty well on an old laptop of mine that struggled to play an mp4 file.

I am watching this video on my steam deck, I can confirm you may have a slight skill issue I use arch btw >:))

Your leap frog thing and installing windows on a mac apparently a second time inspired me to install windows on my old macbook

idk why but i love watching these type of videos

but can it run Crysis?

One of my favourite reasons as to why I use Linux, is seeing people try to use it, get frustrated and claim that Linux sucks and they eventually return to Windows and make a bunch of jokes about how Linux sucks and tell people to just use Windows, meanwhile, as a Linux user, I'm perfectly fine with the OS, I know how to do stuff and how to fix stuff and I've been daily driving it for 2 years, gaming on it, basically doing everything I would do on WIndows on Linux. I try to help those kinds of people at times, but I often feel as if Windows users have the wrong idea coming to Linux. Theres definitely a learning curve, and if you're impatient then its not for you. But something about me just loves seeing people complain about Linux, meanwhile, I am playing Roblox on Linux, I am gaming on Linux, I am doing everything I've wanted to do on it, but it's just broken for everyone else, it seems.

They use them tablets for heavy equipment for like geo fencing and grade control

first time watching your content and its hilarious honestly, love funny obscure tech stuff

try playing something more scientific than half life, might run better since its a scientific computer

It's amazing how the closer we get to Linux being useable, the more it begins to behave like Windows

Oh god, that clicking noise. I remember it from running Goldsrc games on my Dell Demension in middle school. Only when loading in games but after that it was good.

This guy is the next dankpod

But can it run DOOM?

Weirdest steam deck

What can tell via research, there is a SSD in the system along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The USB ports appear to be 2.0, and there is an express card slot as well as an SD slot

not gonna lie, that transition to the NordVPN sponsor was good

We use Trimble devices at work, they're used with our survey crews to interface with their equipment.

Your Commitment to Gaming on Crappy Hardware is Amazing 😂😂 Love your Content

Well, it's a ruggedized tablet for things like construction and survey work, so it makes sense that it would have some sort of water resistance sealing.

from what I can tell, Trimble makes mobile computers for fields where data is necessary, like Surveyors in construction, which need a small computer to wirelessly talk to a laser so they can calculate coordinates and elevation. (I worked at a construction site for 5 months, and the computer he was using, attached to the IR pole was made by Trimble, obviously a newer model that ran Windows 10.

A thing about getting free space back on Windows 7 is to disable power hibernation and disable page file. This can give anywhere to 2GB to 10GB back. You can enable show system files and show hidden files to see how much space they actually consume in the C:\ directory before turning them off.