Mini pc recommendation and help please.

prowla

I am currently using a Dell Micro 7050 PC, which is perfectly fine for my requirements (i7, 32 GB RAM, NVMe SSD); it's attached to the underside of a bookshelf.

elljay

Thank you to everyone, yes I have been very gratefully reading and following up on links and other information.  A couple of things, I'm very limited on space, my desk is in the spare bedroom (often needed for grandchildren) and the desk itself is shallow, with a bookshelf perched on top for files etc.  This prevents me from having an additinal screen/keyboard with my laptop on a stand as I need to maximise space.  But a monitor will sit nicely on the lower shelf at eye level and a keyboard on the desk.  The pc bit can go on the floor.  Which idea is what led me to realise that my old 486 would do nicely (well, maybe not the monitor!)  Hence the enquiry.

Have just been appointed to a new post working from home (71 yr old granny strikes again!) so will get this sorted this week.

Thanks again to everyone.

Liz

googler

"pc bit can go on the floor.  "

Another reason to get a small-form fanless one. A PC with fans down there will hoover up more dust, the fanless one will not. 

You might want to check length of leads on your keyboard and mouse before you buy, in case you need USB extension leads to reach the base unit down there and have them routed comfortably. 

eBay has loads of used, refurbished office machines, but as a "for instance", this one is almost identical to the one I got for £45 or so ....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265603850531?hash=item3dd7392123:g:YfwAAOSwZHRiNlc4

Win10 installed, all you need add is a cloverleaf mains lead, and the stuff you have already - monitor, mouse, keyboard. Depending on how much you want to store on it, the 32Gb SSD may be a limitation, but there's loads of USB ports to tack on external drives.   Have you looked to see how much drive space you are using at the moment?

Ibrahim5

Fanless PCs are just a little underpowered for my liking. I normally make them with more CPU power with a single almost silent Noctua fan. You have to remember that other components warm up too so a single quiet fan blowing cool air around is optimum in my experience.

RumRat

Ibrahim5 said:

Fanless PCs are just a little underpowered for my liking. I normally make them with more CPU power with a single almost silent Noctua fan. You have to remember that other components warm up too so a single quiet fan blowing cool air around is optimum in my experience.

I have a fanless PC with a Ryzen 7 5700G, admitted I don't do much gaming, but, there's plenty of power there.

Ibrahim5

RumRat said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Fanless PCs are just a little underpowered for my liking. I normally make them with more CPU power with a single almost silent Noctua fan. You have to remember that other components warm up too so a single quiet fan blowing cool air around is optimum in my experience.

I have a fanless PC with a Ryzen 7 5700G, admitted I don't do much gaming, but, there's plenty of power there.

And which mini PC do you have?

Ibrahim5

You can make any CPU fanless with an enormous lump of expensive metal. Most mini PCs don't have space for an enormous lump of metal so they have a CPU that's not very powerful with a smaller lump of metal.

RumRat

Ibrahim5 said:

RumRat said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Fanless PCs are just a little underpowered for my liking. I normally make them with more CPU power with a single almost silent Noctua fan. You have to remember that other components warm up too so a single quiet fan blowing cool air around is optimum in my experience.

I have a fanless PC with a Ryzen 7 5700G, admitted I don't do much gaming, but, there's plenty of power there.

And which mini PC do you have?

One of these ... Fanless AMD Ryzen APU Mini ITX PC | Inside Tech (inside-tech.co.uk) customised.

Ibrahim5

That's £700 though. Making it silent adds a lot of money because it's a load of metal. Making it very quiet is cheaper. I worry about other components like SSDs overheating in fanless PCs.

RumRat

Ibrahim5 said:

That's £700 though. Making it silent adds a lot of money because it's a load of metal. Making it very quiet is cheaper. I worry about other components like SSDs overheating in fanless PCs.

I didn't claim it to be cheap, it was a bit more than that with what I had....The temps are all fine, in fact they are cooler than the desktop it replaced. I take your general point though.