Mini PC or Full size pc for general office work and pc audio production

ALIEN1X

ALIEN1X

ALIEN1X

Associate
Joined
15 Apr 2017
Posts
25
Hello and Happy New Year to all,

Im tryig to decide if I should go for a Mini PC or full size system. The main use will be for general office work like word, excel reports and some graphical presentation report and audio production work.

Generally looking on the net it appears that mini pc can do the same job as larger ones, but surley there must be some issues like processing large files and audio?

For audio work, I will be connecting all my hardware via USB audio/midi interface and running software for recording and some software synths. Ausio work is processor and ram demanding.

I note that mini pc has the advantage of being compact and cheaper and are available with Intel i7 pricessors + 16-32gb ram.

Any advsie on which direction to go would be helpfull?
 
deadly raccoon said:
Are you going to be doing any gaming and what budget?
Click to expand...
Only rarely I would do any gamimg, be nice ti have that facility only when required.
Buget - max £900.00
I was thinking of a intell core i7 7700k 16gb ram with SSD main drive thought that wpuld do well for what I'm doing. Processing and Ram is crucial.
No need for flashung led lights or water cooling etc, On board HD graphics would be sufficeint t, I already have the audio interface.
I already have keybaord, mouse and monitor, so juist looking at the main box.
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £918.14 (includes shipping: £12.30)​
​

8c16t processor with 32gb ram in a small form factor case - if the programs you use is multithread capable, this would run faster than the 7700k
case oos at ocuk but can be sourced elsewhere
gt1030 gpu with cuda cores should you require to use it either way amd processors do not come with an integrated gpu, so a dedicated one is required
large 500gb ssd for super fast loading (and scratchpad) and a 1tb hdd for file storage
 
tamzzy said:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £918.14 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

8c16t processor with 32gb ram in a small form factor case - if the programs you use is multithread capable, this would run faster than the 7700k
case oos at ocuk but can be sourced elsewhere
gt1030 gpu with cuda cores should you require to use it either way amd processors do not come with an integrated gpu, so a dedicated one is required
large 500gb ssd for super fast loading (and scratchpad) and a 1tb hdd for file storage
Click to expand...
Thanks, but there are some items I dont need like led lights, graphics card, hardrive as I prferf ssd only, woukld prefer motherboard thats has 2 pci legacy slots
 
ALIEN1X said:
led lights
Click to expand...
cheapest 32gb ram you're gonna find anywhere, so either live with the led lights or spend more £££ :p

ALIEN1X said:
graphics card
Click to expand...
tamzzy said:
amd processors do not come with an integrated gpu, so a dedicated one is required
Click to expand...

ALIEN1X said:
hardrive as I prferf ssd only
Click to expand...
fair enough, i'm assuming you have a NAS to store your files then?

ALIEN1X said:
2 pci legacy slots
Click to expand...
gonna be hard. that connector has gone the way of the dodo for nearly a decade
edit: okay i lie. found a board with 2x pci connectors
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £875.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

gonna have to go full ATX tower though, to accommodate the PCI connectors x2.
also i *think* the graphics card is single slot - may cause problems as the pci connectors are directly below pci-e slot 1 and 3, where the gpu normally goes.

would have specced an intel one for the integrated gpu, but did a quick look and couldnt find any boards that supports 2xpci, only found boards with 1xpci
 
tamzzy said:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £875.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

gonna have to go full ATX tower though, to accommodate the PCI connectors x2.
also i *think* the graphics card is single slot - may cause problems as the pci connectors are directly below pci-e slot 1 and 3, where the gpu normally goes.

would have specced an intel one for the integrated gpu, but did a quick look and couldnt find any boards that supports 2xpci, only found boards with 1xpci
Click to expand...
asus Z270k prime and gigabyte Z270-HD3P i belive both have 2 pci slots with intergrated graphics, i prefer intel rather than AMD
 
If you don’t need 32gb ram then you can up the ssd to bigger size.



My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x Primo Nano i3 - Intel NUC NUC7i3BNH Core i3-7100U = £909.98
    • Memory:Corsair Value 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-17000 2133MHz 260 Pin SODIMM Kit (CMSO32GX4M2A2133C15)
    • M.2 Solid State Drive:Samsung 960 EVO Polaris 250GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive
    • Solid State Drive:Kingston A400 240GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive - (SA400S37/240G)
    • Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD - OEM (MS-KW9-00139)
    • Security Software:Bullguard Anti-Virus 2017 - 1 PC 1 Year **Offer Price**
Total: £924.08 (includes shipping: £14.10)
​
 
Gigabyte Brix units are pretty much the same as above but custom built by them . Sometimes they are cheaper or more expensive then Intel NUC

Then there is ITX format and using AMD A12 APU in A320/B350 itx board for small compact pc - though ocuk doesn't sell that chip for £100
 
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