Hi All,
An elderly friend had their desktop die yesterday, asked me to track them down a replacement - they've bog standard basic usage requirements, looking an compact ex-corporate desktop units.
Whats the current processor models that are the best bang for buck in the sub-$600 range? e.g i7 8700, i5 9500 etc?
And it's a generalisation thing but any general concensus on whether the usual suspects - Dell, HP, Lenovo etc - are any better than the other?
Cheers in advance.
Came here to suggest this
You wanna use the tag, otherwise a search for 'mini pc' will also get hits for people suggesting mini pc in comments 😂
If they already have a monitor then any of the many mini pcs posted here will be more than adequate. For $600 you can get a high powered one.
Now that I am in this age range, I'd rather the term distinguished gentleman than old codger.
Cheers for the responses.
Hmmmm yeah I'll run the eye over some of the mini pc's - my concern with them is a whole bunch of IT hardware crammed into a very small box, when there's for the user (specifically this user) no real benefit of the incredibly small size - just brings about the concerns about heat, longevity, replacability of components etc.
I'm always a tad sus also on the mobile chipsets like the N95 up against something like an i7 8700 etc
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5206vs3099/Intel-N95-vs…
But of course there's more than goes into end 'snappiness' than CPU grunt on a basic metric. On paper I concede it's a compelling simple package if buying something like this - which is well within his budget, which I know he would like:
https://www.amazon.com.au/KAMRUI-Windows-Computer-Bluetooth4…
Appreciate the responses, thank you
Horses for courses.
elderly friend
bog standard basic usage requirements
For that use case, an i7-8700 is going to be overkill… what are we talking here? Web browsing, maybe Office suite? Possibly some streaming? How many tabs does your friend like to have open at once? An 8th gen i3 would probably suffice, thus a refurb'd mini PC (which you should be able to find plenty of with 8th gen (or newer) i3/i5 processors for sub-$600), or if you want new one of those N95/N100/etc boxes.
For the workloads you've suggested thermals shouldn't be an issue as they won't be flogging the machine.
All true.
Yes, it's that type of basic use stuff.
I'm getting some more info from the user as I suspect they might freak out if there's not an optical drive on the system etc. STuff like that a normal user now would not give much thought to.
Appreciate the effort but a low end gaming PC isn't a fit for purpose. Thanks though. :-)
I don't really see how it's "not fit for purpose", it's a nice looking case, it's not like it's lit up like a Christmas Tree with RGB declaring it a "Gaming Rig"!
Sure the GPU is overkill, but that's the only thing making this a gaming rig.
Take that out and you're well below budget with brand new components.
I really posted it to highlighting that with your budget, pretty much anything is possible.
Even something like this should probably do the job for an elderly person, right?
$159.
I have a very similar one bought 2 years ago from the same seller, and it does all the basic stuff that I need. Using it right now.
The only issue with that is if they use Windows. It may not easily upgrade to Win-11, which may become a problem.
i5-8XXX is cheap enough. This one has 16GB too: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/195582338787
Spend some of the change on a nice big monitor if they are older, and their current display is small.
Very good point regarding Win 11.
2nd this.
Bought my mum this about 9 months ago https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/855369 and perfect for her every day use, e.g. email, youtube, and web browsing.
If he has the monitor set up already just HDMI into the laptop and away he goes also has the option of taking laptop anywhere he wants…
A Mini PC: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/mini%20pc