Looking for a Mini Desktop

LAhmed01 on 02/08/2023 - 17:48

Hey ozBargainers,

I’m looking for a mini desktop PC to use instead of a laptop for a work from home setup.

Looking for something ideally i5 or i7 12th gen or 13th gen.

Was able to get a price breakdown of $856 for a Lenovo ThinkCenter M70Q Gen 3 Tiny with i5-12400T, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD inclusive of accessories and 2 year onsite support earlier in February through the education store but this price for the same model has gone up now.

Open to other mini PCs like Dell Optiplex, HP ProDesk/EliteDesk (these are much more expensive from what I’ve seen) and Intel NUCs etc.

Not too fussy about the specs either besides an Intel i5 or i7 recent or latest generation.

Would have gone for the Mac mini but already have a MacBook so wanted a windows PC.

Looking to purchase for around or below $1000.

I would appreciate if anyone knows of any deals or promotions around these products as I believe the mini variants of desktops are not much sought after compared to gaming PCs.

Thanks :D

Computing Computer Desktop Computer

Comments

  • scrimshaw on 02/08/2023 - 18:12
    +2

    the mini variants of desktops are not much sought after compared to gaming PCs.

    they are pricey unless you were to order them in bulk and can negotiate a better discount. It's cheaper to buy directly from Dell / Lenovo with an education discount than it is to buy from a reseller. You can also try the Dell Outlet once every few days to see if there are customer returned units (in an "As new" or refurbished condition) that might be going for cheap.

    USFF PC's are not in high demand amongst home users, they are only sought after in the enterprise and business target market, since they save a lot of space and are easier to manage in an office environment. I personally don't see the appeal of one in the home, since they're oftentimes just restrictive in terms of upgrades and storage capacity, and you are essentially just buying the lower half of a laptop (without the screen) in some cases as they CPU's they come with are low-TDP variants with lower clock speeds.

    Intel NUC's and other Nuc-like barebones PC's are a flexible alternative, and a lot of these may already come prebuilt and preloaded with a Windows license.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/mini-pc
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/small-form-factor-computer

    • Ahmed01 on 02/08/2023 - 18:29

      I agree with you, I also had the experience of using these mini desktops at my workplace hence me wanting to purchase one for a home workstation setup. As I am not a gaming person, I prefer these much more over bulkier desktops due to their portability and taking up much less space.

      I’ve also occasionally came across cheap deals with companies like Lenovo and their education store offers.

      I’ve seen some desktops like the Lenovo ThinkCenter M70Q I mentioned also has a tool less option for opening the chassis which is good if you want to upgrade the ram or storage in the future so this would likely address your concern and the lack of appeal in these products but the factory ram and storage would probably be sufficient for me so that is not one of my concerns.

    • Chandler on 03/08/2023 - 09:26

      USFF PC's are not in high demand amongst home users

      I know I'm certainly interested in cheaper refurbished USFF PCs - I've currently got one in a Proxmox setup at home, and getting additional units would allow me to setup a cluster for load balancing and fault resilience, maintenance uptime, etc.

  • keeneisgood on 02/08/2023 - 18:15
    +1

    You can’t go wrong with one of the beelink mini PCs on amazon

    The beelink ser6 pro is $824 on sale at amazon and can do some gaming at 1080p
    8 cpu /16 threads
    32GB ram
    500GB ssd

    if you don't care about gaming, it looks like the beelink ser5 series is also on sale via amazon coupons and would be fine for work etc.

    https://www.amazon.com.au/Beelink-4-75GHz-Processor-Integrat…

    Review
    https://youtu.be/C2NGURfKXeA

    • Ahmed01 on 02/08/2023 - 18:31

      Looks good, honestly haven’t had the best experience with ryzen chipsets though do they have an Intel i5 or i7 version?

      • keeneisgood on 02/08/2023 - 18:33

        yeah if you dont care about gaming and want intel they have plenty

        this one is a i5 12c/16thread, 16 gb ram, 500gb ssd, windows 11 for $670 if you apply the coupon on amazon.
        https://www.amazon.com.au/Beelink-PC-i5-1240P-Thunderbolt-Bl…

        I think either of these would be plenty fast for 4k video, office work etc.

        with any mini pc, i would look into how much fan noise they make under load. if that sort of thing bothers you. It's going to be sitting right on your desk like a laptop, and probably similar noise fan to a laptop , but good to check. my work laptop is a dell, and has a super noisy fan.

        • Ahmed01 on 02/08/2023 - 18:58

          Thanks for a link to that product.

          Yes I agree with you, I just realised fan noise could be one potential concern and I didn’t think of this earlier but having experience of using both optiplex and Lenovo mini desktops at my workplace, I do not remember them making much fan noise so I would like to go with something and then see how it goes.

  • sumyungguy on 02/08/2023 - 18:38

    Interested to know… why do you need both macOS and Windows? Are you an Android user so don't get the benefit of macOS/iOS integration?

    • Ahmed01 on 02/08/2023 - 18:56
      +1

      I’ve been an android and windows user for years and loved the operating system as opposed to MacOS.

      However, both android and windows tend to fall short in terms of battery life, this was the case with both my HP spectre I had for university and a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra that I purchased new back in 2020. Apple devices on the other hand, like iPhones and MacBooks have amazingly impressive battery life hence my shift to a MacBook Pro m1 in 2021.

      A desktop doesn’t need to be charged so battery life was not one of my concerns and I use windows at my workplace so wanted to stick with a windows option.

      With a mini desktop, I do realise there may be fan noise and this was something I didn’t think of before but I would like to see how I go with a product before making any further judgements.

      • sumyungguy on 02/08/2023 - 19:33

        Every place I've ever worked used PCs as ERP clients and for MS Office. I was fortunate when WFH became a thing because we were already setup to remote access our desktops, so I was able to use my 27-inch iMac to get all my work done. It's great having only macOS, iOS and iPadOS at home and thanks to iCloud it doesn't matter which device I'm using.

        • jv on 02/08/2023 - 20:23

          thanks to iCloud

          or Onedrive

          • sumyungguy on 02/08/2023 - 20:28

            @jv: …but AFAIK Onedrive doesn't replicate my passwords, credit card prefill, wallet, contacts, calandars, notes, reminders, browser bookmarks, home automation, etc. across all devices.

            • jv on 02/08/2023 - 20:29
              +2

              @sumyungguy: Between Onedrive and Chrome (or Edge), all that gets done…

  • jv on 02/08/2023 - 20:22

    Looking for a Mini Desktop

    Check under the couch.

  • donga100 on 02/08/2023 - 20:32
    +1

    Are you comfortable plugging in an SSD and RAM and installing fresh copy of Windows? You can buy 13th Gen mini PC barebones kit $629 for i5 or $787 for i7. Add a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM for $108 and install a free copy of Windows (either Education or just unactivated).

    If you prefer it to all come assembled you can get this i5 for $999. It also then has 2yr warranty compared to 1yr for the barebones version.

  • Guerilla89 on 02/08/2023 - 20:48

    Get a laptop and put the whole laptop underneath your desktop flush with the countertop: https://www.amazon.com.au/Sliver-Computer-Bracket-Keyboard-S…

    The Dell USB-C laptops turn on automatically whenever the monitor is turned on with the monitor power button.

    If you have a cheap monitor and don't want a monitor upgrade, you can buy a Dell dock that has the power button on it: https://www.untech.com.au/products/dell-wd15-k17a-docking-st…

  • pjetson on 03/08/2023 - 11:24

    Something like this?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdqFVxF-LCI

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