Which mini PC to get?

[Philtor]

Hi Folks

I have been looking into replacing my ancient desktop with a mini PC but not sure which is best.

I don’t game on the PC and would mainly be used for general stuff such as printing documents, burning the odd disk (I have a USB burner) and managing my music collection etc.

I like the look of them Lenovo mini PC’s and can get a reasonable spec for under £200 it seems.

That said, they seem to appear on the members market from time to time so are they carp?

I want something completely silent and reliable but also fast enough to run Windows 10 and possibly 11 with ease (I'm on the fence with Windows 11).

What would you suggest?

 

[Philtor]

This is the model and spec I had been thinking about for reference.

£129 delivered seems ok. Just need to add my wifi adapter which I already have.

 

[Philtor]

I'd be tempted to picking up one of the N100 based mini PCs direct from China for £100ish.

16GB RAM/512GB storage is impressive for the price.

China then say ‘all your data belong to us’

I know Windows 10 is going EOL but they need to fix Windows 11 before then imo.

If you are not gaming with a PC then I firmly believe the small form factor kit is the way forward these days rather than a small tank with fans inside

Tempted to pull the trigger on that Lenovo above but will have a think and check out the suggestions

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Philtor]

Haven’t bought anything just yet but thinking I might need to spend a bit more for something decent.

I like the look of them little Lenovos but the CPU’s in them are all quite dated.

Not that I would be doing any demanding stuff with it mind.

 

[Philtor]

I just use the Xbox for gaming these days. Currently looking at the HP EliteDesk 800 G2. Think I may have found my mini PC

 

[Philtor]

Why buy something so old? Does 6th gen Intel even officially support Windows 11? Eventually, you'll want to move it off of Windows 10. Feels like painting in to corner, unless you're happy to go Linux.

You would be better off buying one of the many cheapish mini-PCs with a 5th gen Ryzen mobile CPU.

Given what it will be used for, i’m not wanting to spend much being honest.

The EliteDesk i’m looking at runs Windows 11 like a dream!

It’s not officially supported by M$ but i’ll not lose any sleep over that and will be running Windows 10 anyway for now.

Maybe even Linux later on…

 

[Philtor]

It will be replacing a system with an E8400 chip and 4GB RAM

 

[Philtor]

Still pondering over the HP EliteDesk G2 mini. They do look like great little machines.

Bought a 1TB Western Digital M.2 drive in the meantime as that will be going in whatever I buy.