My suggestion for MorphOS x64: The intel compute card.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-card/intel-compute-card.html

I guess when supporting that thingie a whole lot of hardware will be available to MorphOS x64. Top edge may be missing though, but well...
I think it's actually kind of sexy and a next logical step from intel's POV (before the computer on a chip will arrive eventually).

[ Editiert durch Zylesea 06.06.2017 - 00:57 ]

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I think the Compute Stick would make a better starting target if you really want to do what amounts to an x86 SoC. The Compute Card is more specialized-- you have to deal with the interface. The Stick is a pretty vanilla PC.

I run Linux on an Intel NUC at home. I've always liked small, quiet, low power computers. I'd like to have lots of processing power, though, but I'm not a gamer. I used to have an Rebel Netwinder. That was a pretty cool little Linux box. I have a Lenovo compute stick. MOS on that would be one slick stick.

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Seems to pair well with one of these Nexdock things NexDock

[ Edited by dethknave 06.06.2017 - 06:49 ]

Well...at least initially, we need AMD graphics.
So I'm in favor of a solution with a discreet graphics adapter or something with an AMD APU.

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Macbook Pro lol

/runs and hides

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Nope, Intel graphics (again).

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Macbook Pro

[ Edited by terminills 06.06.2017 - 19:18 ]

$3000 for the model with the slower gpu?
Apple...

Alternately, a Lenovo Y700 can be had with an i5 cpu and 4GB Radeon M375 graphics for $599.99 direct.
Twice the vram, a fraction of the price.

Don't really see the point of these card/stick computers (atleast not in a MorphOS context).

What I do have here is an Intel 4core miniITX with no fans or other moving parts in housing a bit bigger than a MacMini.

Can take 2 2.5 SATA drives and up to 16GB and if put in a bigger case you could add 1PCIe and an optical drive.
Sure comes with intregrated Intel GFX, but such units also come with AMD CPU which would have a shared memory Radeon of some kind on the chip.

@Jim
Well googling for that Lenovo comes up with units from 599 to 1700€ with the cheaper units having just FullHD and about half the battery life of a MBP while weighing more.

I'm sure a laptop for a fair comparison could be had for less money than the MBP, just not at 599....

There's another Intel NUC that has some nice features - including an i7 with 128MB of L4 cache... Intel Skull Canyon NUC & i7-6770HQ

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The piont being is that these intel cards are _very_ standard. MorphOS x64 faces the problem of hardware diversity. These cards will probably offer a very standarized hardware. This is the particular reason I see these cards as a viable target. The hardware/computer geek in me would probably select another hardware if I could freely chose. But I doubt we can chose freely..

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Standardized, but not particularly optimal.
I think Kronos' point about the lack of cooling is a real problem.

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I just bought two Lenovo Thinkpads with i3 CPUs for 189 all in. EBay ftw! :)

@Jim

Huh, I made a point about cooling???

Good that you told me!

Seriously, while these ultrasmall solution have certain geek appeal and surely have real world uses, I just don't see any benefits in desktop setting.

One has to see what's actually still available off the shelf by the time MorphOS x86 happens (assuming it does happen)

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I have an i7 and an older Core Duo Thinkpad. They are built significantly tougher than Apple hardware.

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The challenge for the Dev. Team is choosing a desktop and laptop system that are new enough, so that the chipsets that they use are still being used in later models that will be available for purchase, once the porting of MorphOS to x64 is completed, so us users will be able to buy new computers that are supported by the port. What might actually happen, is that once the port is completed, us users might have to buy NOS, or used computers, if we want to have the exact computer hardware that the Dev. Team members wrote the port of MorphOS for x64 on and for.

I'm not worried about it, as I have confidence that the Dev. Team knows what they are doing, and that they will choose the best hardware that they believe they can fully support, and that will still be available for us to purchase, hopefully as new systems, but if not, I don't mind buying NOS, or used systems, and I am sure the Dev. Team will continue working to update MorphOS for x64 to newer hardware, as updates become available.

Hardware changes so fast, it will always be a challenge for a small team of developers to keep up with the newest hardware, that problem even exists for Linux, which has tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people working on it.

I'm guessing we will get support for a certain family of desktop & laptop systems that will be available for a couple of years or more, then a few years later, if the Dev. Team is still willing to work on updating MorphOS for x64, we will get support for another family of desktop and laptop systems. I don't know how much work it will be for the Dev. Team to support newer x64 systems in the future, once they have successfully ported MorphOS to the x64 architecture. If we are lucky, most of the hard work will only need to be done once, and supporting newer, different chipset x64 hardware will not take our Dev. Team too long, and our updates will come fairly quickly, once newer tech becomes standard in the x64 world.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I am looking forward to MorphOS for x64, without native support for Amiga API, just running old Amiga software through EUAE. Vampire accelerators, and eventually, stand alone Vampire hardware is interesting enough for running old Amiga software faster. It has that old school geek hacker kind of vibe that myself and apparently many old Amiga users love, and hopefully, MorphOS for x64 will have enough in common with how it works, compared to how the AmigaOS was/is organized and works, that it will be a welcome alternative to Windows, MacOSX & Linux for us current MorphOS users, and a handful of curious current users of mainstream OSes users, to keep our userbase large enough, so some few developers will write new software for MorphOSx64, and port existing Linux software to it as well.

[ Edited by amigadave 07.06.2017 - 08:28 ]

@amigadave
Very good reply indeed. What I am wondering is how far away MorphOS x86 is, I have no idea if we are talking weeks, months or years (probably the latter). Well, it happens when it happens.

I'm definitely interested in the possibility of getting a powerful laptop with morphos on.
Meanwhile, mac mini gets the fix for now.

When we are talking about our dreams, I really would love to have something, like this:http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/flex-series/Lenovo-ideapad-FLEX-4-1470/p/88IP8FX0685

This tablet/notebook design is really cool. It isn't the cheapest one, but still ok. These modells are available with Radeon graphics too.

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You have to go to the top model of that line at $739.99 to get discrete graphics, but I like it.
And Lenovo laptops are well built, rugged devices.

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Actually Jim, if you look again, strangely, the $739.99 model is an i5 with 8gb RAM and 2 or 3 spot back is the real top of the line model with an i7 2.5GHz, discreet Radeon Graphics card, and 16gb RAM for only $649.99.

I'm not sure what I am missing in the specs to understand why the i5 is more expensive than the i7 model with more RAM.

Edit: Looked again, and the pricing makes no sense. The model I pointed out is definitely the best deal (it is currently discounted over $300), and looks like something I would definitely spend $650 to purchase. I still like to have an internal optical drive, but I can see that in a 14" device that has discreet graphics, that might be hard to do and I have an external optical drive I can use when needed. Overall, it looks like a good laptop choice for the price, but I really haven't shopped for any new computers in a long time, so I don't know what the competition is like for this device.

[ Edited by amigadave 09.06.2017 - 07:54 ]

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This intel card computer suggestion was not my dream hardware, but rather a pragmatic one: Cheap ubiquotous hardware with - probably - a not too fast life cycle and standarized compounds.

Thanks David,
Neither system would be particularly odious to me, as long as it had a discreet gpu.
I'm typing on an i7 Lenovo right now, but the built-in graphics really don't cut it.

Who knows, maybe the Ryzen cored APUs (when introduced) will make built-in gpus tolerable, but I wouldn't count on it.

Anyway, these systems are way more affordable than an Apple laptop, with all the same functionality.
And Lenovo takes measures Apple doesn't (like making their keyboards spill proof).

So...on laptops, that's the company I'd pick (if only because I can't seem to kill them, I have three, only use two, the third being a bit too dated, BUT all work).

The ThinkPad may be the one IBM product I really grown to appreciate.
And Lenovo appears to still be building devices worthy of the name.