New mini-PC ideas?

demonikal

demonikal

New Member
Now that my ultrabook is liquid-damaged and I previously stayed with Windows 8.1 for no more than 2 months, took it off and put Windows 7 back on - I wanted to get a PC (not laptop) that I can put the Windows 8.1 on.

I don't need a power-hungry PC. I think Intel Core i3 would be sufficient or the equivalent with AMD. I think 4GB of DDR3 RAM would be sufficient as well. I would plan on getting a touchscreen monitor (for Windows 8.1) to hook it up to, and possibly later down the line an HDTV via HDMI. I don't use video game consoles.

I've heard of mini-ITX boxes that can be bought barebone or partially built with soldered in CPU and only really needing RAM and storage. Does anyone have any experience with these? I was looking at them on Newegg.com, but I've never met anyone that owned one.
 
I don't recommend you go for those CPU soldered on mobo. They are not upgradeable, such that they will be no difference for getting laptop with additional monitor.

When you say mini-PC, what size are you after?
I personally have silverstone sg 06, I think that is small enough and you can add a video card and turn to gaming machine if you want.

Silverstone SG06/ SG05
300W PSU if you have no plan for additional Video card ever
450W PSU if you plan for upgrade sometime in future

slimline DVD drive (optional) + cable
3.5" HDD - What ever size you like.
120GB SSD as boot drive (optional)

for AMD
A10 6800K or A10 7700K or A10 7850K, which ever suit your budget
GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
RAM - get DDR3 2133 or faster if possible, which make full use of APU. But I think the fastest 1 x 4GB is DDR3 1866. Probably worth consider go direct to 2 x 4 GB

intel
i3 4150
GIGABYTE GA-H97N-WIFI
DDR3 1600 RAM
 
Cisco001 said:
I don't recommend you go for those CPU soldered on mobo. They are not upgradeable, such that they will be no difference for getting laptop with additional monitor.

When you say mini-PC, what size are you after?
I personally have silverstone sg 06, I think that is small enough and you can add a video card and turn to gaming machine if you want.

Silverstone SG06/ SG05
300W PSU if you have no plan for additional Video card ever
450W PSU if you plan for upgrade sometime in future

slimline DVD drive (optional) + cable
3.5" HDD - What ever size you like.
120GB SSD as boot drive (optional)

for AMD
A10 6800K or A10 7700K or A10 7850K, which ever suit your budget
GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
RAM - get DDR3 2133 or faster if possible, which make full use of APU. But I think the fastest 1 x 4GB is DDR3 1866. Probably worth consider go direct to 2 x 4 GB

intel
i3 4150
GIGABYTE GA-H97N-WIFI
DDR3 1600 RAM
Click to expand...

Thanks. I actually like it when CF users offer specific ideas for building/upgrading, because sometimes I have no clue.

All I know, or thought I knew, was that in terms of motherboard size, the ITX was the smallest you could get and install yourself into a barebone case. In terms of size, size doesn't really matter. But I'm not concerned about a gaming case that looks cool and has colored LED fans, etc. For a bit, I actually considered getting the Asus Chromebox, because I bought my mom a Chromebook for Christmas and she loves it - in spite of the fact that I rarely use Chrome itself for browsing and don't really think it's developed enough as an operating system to buy yet.

Gaming is also not a big concern of mine. I've been told that my current specs (as you can see in my signature for my desktop PC) are horrible for even Fallout 3, which I was having trouble with last year - but I don't do a lot of gaming anymore. In the future, when I can afford to buy an HDTV, hopefully around 46 inch, the needed video resolution to support that would be important I guess.

USB 3.0 support is also fairly important to me. It was important when my Dell XPS 13 ultrabook was working, when I could attach my WD My Passport 750GB external hard drive via the one USB 3.0 port and have transfer speeds fairly quick.

eSATA is not a big concern of mine, considering it's slower than USB 3.0 speeds and many devices that have USB connectivity (external hard drives, at least) also have eSATA connectivity.

Power...I have no clue. I don't know what's important when it comes to power (in watts), especially when it comes to Bronze, Silver, or Gold status.

SSD though is pretty important to me. Access time, transfer time, etc.

And if I were to watch a DVD/Blu-ray on a future HDTV, then, yeah, a slim optical drive would be important too.

How happy are you with your Silverstone? What kinds of things do you do on it?
 
Some good recommendations there.

Don't worry about gold, silver or bronze, its marketing bs.

Get a Corsair 450W PSU and you'll be fine. 550W if you ever want to game or put a GPU in it.

SSD - Samsung 840 EVO
 
Okedokey said:
Some good recommendations there.

Don't worry about gold, silver or bronze, its marketing bs.

Get a Corsair 450W PSU and you'll be fine. 550W if you ever want to game or put a GPU in it.

SSD - Samsung 840 EVO
Click to expand...

I've most certainly read quite a few articles on the Samsung 840 EVO.

Thanks, Okedokey.
 
demonikal said:
Thanks. I actually like it when CF users offer specific ideas for building/upgrading, because sometimes I have no clue.

All I know, or thought I knew, was that in terms of motherboard size, the ITX was the smallest you could get and install yourself into a barebone case. In terms of size, size doesn't really matter. But I'm not concerned about a gaming case that looks cool and has colored LED fans, etc. For a bit, I actually considered getting the Asus Chromebox, because I bought my mom a Chromebook for Christmas and she loves it - in spite of the fact that I rarely use Chrome itself for browsing and don't really think it's developed enough as an operating system to buy yet.

Gaming is also not a big concern of mine. I've been told that my current specs (as you can see in my signature for my desktop PC) are horrible for even Fallout 3, which I was having trouble with last year - but I don't do a lot of gaming anymore. In the future, when I can afford to buy an HDTV, hopefully around 46 inch, the needed video resolution to support that would be important I guess.

USB 3.0 support is also fairly important to me. It was important when my Dell XPS 13 ultrabook was working, when I could attach my WD My Passport 750GB external hard drive via the one USB 3.0 port and have transfer speeds fairly quick.

eSATA is not a big concern of mine, considering it's slower than USB 3.0 speeds and many devices that have USB connectivity (external hard drives, at least) also have eSATA connectivity.

Power...I have no clue. I don't know what's important when it comes to power (in watts), especially when it comes to Bronze, Silver, or Gold status.

SSD though is pretty important to me. Access time, transfer time, etc.

And if I were to watch a DVD/Blu-ray on a future HDTV, then, yeah, a slim optical drive would be important too.

How happy are you with your Silverstone? What kinds of things do you do on it?
Click to expand...

I have Silverstone SG06 Lite and it is in my living room as HTPC. The only problem is the case fan is slightly noisier than I expect. I may change it to quiet one in future, but that isn't too important as once I play video/ youtube the sound would be louder than the case fan.

Asus Chromebox is $180, I am not sure if it is powerful enough for HD video.
 
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BTW, I don't see the problem with your current spec if you use it as HTPC.

The video card is too weak for gaming. If you still want to play game, spend $200 for R9 270X and job done.
If you need USB 3.0, get PCI-E to USB 3.0 add on card
 
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Cisco001 said:
BTW, I don't see the problem with your current spec if you use it as HTPC.

The video card is too weak for gaming. If you still want to play game, spend $200 for R9 270X and job done.
If you need USB 3.0, get PCI-E to USB 3.0 add on card
Click to expand...

Are you talking about get the PCI-e to USB 3.0 add-on card for my current system or the Silverstone (if I buy it)? I didn't know the Silverstone had PCI-e slots.
 
demonikal said:
I've most certainly read quite a few articles on the Samsung 840 EVO.
Click to expand...
They are excellent SSD's.

I had an 840 PRO in my gaming PC before they released the EVO, now I have two 840 EVO's and moved my PRO to my MacBook. I only have praises to say about the performance and reliability of these SSD's.
 
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