In July 2024 I heard from Jacky about his experience with the t530:
When I was given this unit, it had a 4GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD fitted and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC installed. It was a pain to use it: I found it to be very slow and the lack of space on the SSD was annoying.
I installed VLC and tried to watch films but found it couldn't handle 1080 resolution properly.
I thought it was strange to have a machine equipped with fast USB 3 ports, SSD, PC4 RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and yet it was so gutless.
My first thought was to do a straight forward basic hardware upgrade. I decided to give it a try with a Crucial 16GB 2666MHz PC4 stick of RAM, a 512MB M.2 2280 Western Digital SSD and a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro. The outcome was disappointing to say the least. The system was a bit faster probably due to the fresh install but the 1080 videos still had glitches.
Next I dumped Windows and installed RECALBOX to try to play retro games and that turned out to be pretty good. I could play games with ease, no glitches, no sound issues and very stable. This showed me that the t530 WAS capable of being a useful box.
RECALBOX uses KODI for its various media streams. I found it could play up to 1080 videos easily, no glitches, no sound issues! After some research I found that KODI could be installed standalone under a 'JeOS' (Just enough OS) called LibreELEC. They were a good match and I found that the setup can even handle 4K films with no problem at all.
Today I use the HP t530 as a media player for videos and music. I bought a Display Port-to-HDMI cable to connect the box to my TV.
I would also point out that as a bonus the unit has a very good WAF (wife acceptance factor) due to its small form factor and "Black Mac Mini" look.