Small desktop for child

[clv101]

Looking for a small system to be used as a 'family' (basically for the child) system.

My wife and I have been exclusively on MacBook Pros (+a recent Chromebook) for over a decade, haven't used a desktop machine (or Windows) in that long.

First thought was the new Mac Mini - but they really do seem overpriced. So what other SFF systems are around? From Intel, Dell, Lenovo etc? I guess budget is around £500 give or take. Doesn't need fancy GFX, but are external graphics cards a thing now?

What's Windows like these days? A decade ago it was pretty hopeless compared to OS X and I never looked back. Have things improved?

Or what about Linux? This system will be mostly used by a 5 yr old.

 

[clv101]

ASUS just released the PN50 mini PCs. They need a M.2 drive and RAM, but fit in your budget as they start at £274.98 for the base model (uses Ryzen 4300U cpu).

Thanks, looks interesting. Should be able to stretch the Ryzen 7 4700U version. Ha, haven't owned an AMD CPU since a 1GHz AXIA Thunderbird bought from this very shop best part of 20 years ago!

Seems there's lots of decent choice for this kind of system.

Looking like the bigger question will be Windows vs Linux.