My Dad's all in one PC has died as of today, he wants a NUC type form factor or mini-itx prebuilt, any advice welcome

[Space Lynx]

we have a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse. So he wants a prebuilt mini-itx form factor, or one of this super tiny mini nuc's. I am trying to find him a good deal and could use the help of the community... Amazon/Best Buy is ok, USA...

I been browsing, but just can't seem to find any good deal, if anyone comes across something let me know, his budget is $250 or less... maybe 300 in a very good/rare deal situation. He really only browses the web, but he needs 8gb of ram at least cause he has a bad habit of leaving Chrome tabs open. lol

 

[oxrufiioxo]

That's going to be rough to fit in the price range you are looking at really old hardware in that form factor. Might want to browse ebay to see if you can get a good deal on a used setup.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

If you're not bothered by refurb, or the fact it's only 6th gen Core i5, this for $133 is hard to beat. The ThinkCentre Tiny's are pretty bulletproof. Comes with legit Win10 Pro too.

Amazon.com

If you want current gen stuff, there's some NUC style by Minisfourm on Amazon that start at about $345

 

[Udyr]

Have you checked the Minisforum? I haven't used one myself, but I've seen some good reviews about them and they're upgradeable.

This particular listing has many configs and different prices you can check:

Amazon.com

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

The model linked by @Udyr is a really good deal at $269. Might need a windows license though. (or set your dad up on Mint).

 

[mechtech]

we have a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse. So he wants a prebuilt mini-itx form factor, or one of this super tiny mini nuc's. I am trying to find him a good deal and could use the help of the community... Amazon/Best Buy is ok, USA...

I been browsing, but just can't seem to find any good deal, if anyone comes across something let me know, his budget is $250 or less... maybe 300 in a very good/rare deal situation. He really only browses the web, but he needs 8gb of ram at least cause he has a bad habit of leaving Chrome tabs open. lol

many little PCs here........i almost got one last sale for an HTPC....................but car broke down :|

minisforum

minisforum

www.minisforum.com

 

[A Computer Guy]

we have a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse. So he wants a prebuilt mini-itx form factor, or one of this super tiny mini nuc's. I am trying to find him a good deal and could use the help of the community... Amazon/Best Buy is ok, USA...

I been browsing, but just can't seem to find any good deal, if anyone comes across something let me know, his budget is $250 or less... maybe 300 in a very good/rare deal situation. He really only browses the web, but he needs 8gb of ram at least cause he has a bad habit of leaving Chrome tabs open. lol

Perhaps a DeskMini X300? All you need is ram and cpu. estimated: $150 (for the unit) + $30 (for the ram) + $70 (for the cpu, g series of course).
(edit: oops forgot about the storage!)

 

[Space Lynx]

thanks for the help everyone

Have you checked the Minisforum? I haven't used one myself, but I've seen some good reviews about them and they're upgradeable.

This particular listing has many configs and different prices you can check:

Amazon.com

i think i am going to show him this one. we may do this, thanks!

 

[ixi]

My old, old good fella. Check out chuwi store. They have great deals for mini PC and prices IMO are really cheap.

 

[Space Lynx]

My old, old good fella. Check out chuwi store. They have great deals for mini PC and prices IMO are really cheap.

LarkBox X Intel N100

CHUWI LarkBox X mini-PC -12th Gen Alderlake N100 3.4Ghz DDR5 M.2 2280 NVME Wifi 6 DP1.4 4K Triple Screen Output Desktop Mini PC

store.chuwi.com

think going to get this one

looks like they don't ship to USA, says USA outlying islands is my only shipping option

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

looks like they don't ship to USA, says USA outlying islands is my only shipping option

try

CHUWI US Store

Welcome to Chuwi US Store - your go-to destination for premium Tablets, Laptops, and Mini-PCs. As an established brand in the computer industry, we are dedicated to bringing cutting-edge technology and modern design to our customers at affordable prices.

us.chuwi.com

 

[oxrufiioxo]

LarkBox X Intel N100

CHUWI LarkBox X mini-PC -12th Gen Alderlake N100 3.4Ghz DDR5 M.2 2280 NVME Wifi 6 DP1.4 4K Triple Screen Output Desktop Mini PC

store.chuwi.com

think going to get this one

looks like they don't ship to USA, says USA outlying islands is my only shipping option

I was gonna say grab a paddle bruh.....

try

CHUWI US Store

Welcome to Chuwi US Store - your go-to destination for premium Tablets, Laptops, and Mini-PCs. As an established brand in the computer industry, we are dedicated to bringing cutting-edge technology and modern design to our customers at affordable prices.

us.chuwi.com

But hopefully this is the answer.

 

[Space Lynx]

try

CHUWI US Store

Welcome to Chuwi US Store - your go-to destination for premium Tablets, Laptops, and Mini-PCs. As an established brand in the computer industry, we are dedicated to bringing cutting-edge technology and modern design to our customers at affordable prices.

us.chuwi.com

that fixed it, i was on the global store. man this is an insane deal, the ram is even ddr 5 and its alder lake

at checkout it doesn't give me an estimated time of arrival, and only shipping option is free, can't pay for faster shipping, and my dad needs it by end of day sunday cause he has to pay bills.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

that fixed it, i was on the global store. man this is an insane deal, the ram is even ddr 5 and its alder lake

at checkout it doesn't give me an estimated time of arrival, and only shipping option is free, can't pay for faster shipping, and my dad needs it by end of day sunday cause he has to pay bills.

It's 'Alder Lake', but it's 4 e-cores only.

 

[Space Lynx]

It's 'Alder Lake', but it's 4 e-cores only.

for what my dad does it will work fine

i found the exact same model on amazon, prime arrives december 9th, going to give it a go

thanks everyone, still chuwi brand

 

[cvaldes]

I recently purchased a Beelink Mini S12 (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Windows 11) which I paid $159 from Amazon (when it was on sale). It is currently $179:

Amazon.com

I use mine in the bedroom, mostly as a Kodi home theater system driving an old 1080p television. It is fine for mundane office productivity, web surfing, YouTube, etc. The Intel N95 CPU is an Alder Lake-N with 4 efficiency cores (non-threaded) with integrated Intel Xe graphics. With a hardware video decoding, it does a fine job playing back video files. It is very quiet which is really important to me for a bedroom PC.

Overall it appears to be similar to the Chuwi model linked by Super Firm Tofu.

There's space for an internal add-on 2.5" SATA SSD which I filled with a 2TB Lexar ($60).

I believe the onboard graphics are good enough to drive 3840x2160p@60Hz even if I'm not running at that resolution. For giggles I installed the Project64 and Dolphin emulators and the device is capable of playing old N64 and GameCube titles just fine.

Amazon shipped it the next day after I ordered it and even though I don't have Prime, I received it the following day (two day delivery).

There's currently a Mini S12 Pro (Intel N100, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD) on promotion for the same $159 price I paid a few months ago. If I had to purchase today, that's what I'd buy.

 

[Space Lynx]

if anyone is interested this is the one we got, its ddr5 ram 12gb, 512gb storage, and alder lake ecores quad and has windows 11 and wifi 6 $170

amazon.com/gp/product/B09QLVNJVN/

@ixi my dad is semi-retired so on a fixed budget, he appreciates the $100 savings, thanks for the tip!

 

[bonehead123]

I'm currently running a Beelink 11th gen i5 mini-me box (see my system specs), which only cost me ~$275 last year....however, I upgraded the ram to 64GB and the drive to an 850x that I already had, mainly cause I do some CAD & imaging work in addition to everyday stuff...

And I had an 8th gen one before that, so I can highly recommend them, but both of the Choowy's I had completely fried & died in less than 6 months

 

[Space Lynx]

I'm currently running a Beelink 11the gen mini-me box (see my system specs), which only cost me ~$275 last year....however, I upgraded the ram to 64GB and the drive to an 850x that I already had, mainly cause I do some CAD & imaging work in addition to everyday stuff...

And I had an 8th gen one before that, so I can highly recommend them

yeah they seem like a smart idea in my book, I'm actually looking forward to setting it all up for my Dad on Saturday. I like minimalist look I will be able to achieve with this for his work area. going to re-do it for him and get it looking all nice and such

 

[ixi]

if anyone is interested this is the one we got, its ddr5 ram 12gb, 512gb storage, and alder lake ecores quad and has windows 11 and wifi 6 $170

amazon.com/gp/product/B09QLVNJVN/

@ixi my dad is semi-retired so on a fixed budget, he appreciates the $100 savings, thanks for the tip!

Glad that suggested variant helped out. I'm waiting on new ryzen models with strong iGPU.

 

[Space Lynx]

Glad that suggested variant helped out. I'm waiting on new ryzen models with strong iGPU.

yeah my Dad doesn't need strong igpu, he only watches netflix and youtube on his PC usage. lol

this is a great deal for him

 

[ixi]

yeah my Dad doesn't need strong igpu, he only watches netflix and youtube on his PC usage. lol

this is a great deal for him

When he gets the PC and have used for few days, would it be possible to tell us about overall experience?

Would be interesting to see how good are "those", e cores which by ST performance is better than 6000 intel series. But again single channel memory and cache will make it choppy in uber duper tasks (like gaming and e-pe*** benching)



does it handle OS well, what usage in full hd/2k/4k rez at youtube and so on.

Now I'm thinking of ordering one too with n100

That price is so sweet! TV mini PC. For browsing and viewing other stuff it will be excelent.

 

[Space Lynx]

When he gets the PC and have used for few days, would it be possible to tell us about overall experience?

Would be interesting to see how good are "those", e cores which by ST performance is better than 6000 intel series. But again single channel memory and cache will make it choppy in uber duper tasks (like gaming and e-pe*** benching)



does it handle OS well, what usage in full hd/2k/4k rez at youtube and so on.

Now I'm thinking of ordering one too with n100

That price is so sweet! TV mini PC. For browsing and viewing other stuff it will be excelent.

I will let you know Saturday/Sunday. I can only test 1080p though, unless youtube will let me run videos at 1440p and 4k, in which case I will test that on a 1080p monitor, but yeah I will let you know either way.

 

[PLAfiller]

I got my dad some time ago a Lenovo Tiny M720 Coffee lake i3 CPU, UHD 630. I slapped 32Gigs of cheapest laptop memory and a cheap NVME drive and the thign flies through anything. Transcodes 50GB HEVC movie hardware based, no stress for the CPU. Pretty happy with it. Aaand I can still add a GPU, if I purchase an adapter ($45 or so).

 

[Space Lynx]

@ixi so here is the update, I got it all installed and setup, I ended up doing a clean install of Win 11 on it, its similar to a laptop in that the key is saved inside the BIOS, so you don't have to enter in a windows 11 key or anything if you stay on the same OS. so I did a clean install of Windows 11, updated chipset, graphics, and latest intel wifi drivers, reboot, let win 11 update everything, reboot a few times.

got all my dads stuff backed up put back in the way he likes, everything was honestly really smooth and fast. I went to youtube ran a few popular channels at full 4k on my dads 1080p, not only does it run 4k youtube perfectly smooths it doesn't even need a microsecond to buffer, the ddr5 ram and wifi6 and nvme drive combined with the alder lake ecores are powerful enough to make it all seamless. i even opened up 2 4k youtube videos, let them both play and picked random areas in the videos on both... not a single moment of hesitation (not even a 0.2 second buffer wait period thanks to the wifi 6 I am guessing). this thing is insane for the price. lmao. i'm trying to convince my mom to upgrade her rig now and get rid of that giant tower i built her like 10 years ago. she is like my Dad just does basic web browsing and youtube. honestly impressed by this little thing, it looks great, has 5 usb 3.0 ports and 1 type c. it even has a 2.5gb lan and a 1gb lan port...

best bang for buck there is. AMD blew its lead on the APU market cause there are a whole lot of fucking people out there my dads age that just want something basic, but snappy for a really good price. this damn thing can't be be beat. flawless experience.

edit: it does have 512gb storage as well, which is impressive for this price. and overkill for what my dad needs.