Looking for "silent"-ish Mini PC

[Stark_Source21]

Hi guys, 

 

Looking to achieve the following:

 

• Quiet fan, ideally silent device when under specified use-cases below
• 4k YouTube/Netflix/Prime Streaming via Chrome with extensions running
• 4k movie playing direct from device storage
• Enough ports to achieve WiFi/Bluetooth mouse and keyboard
• Solid WiFi 
• Gigabyte Ethernet 

Bonus: basic plex server

 

I was thinking the N95 or N100 chip would be good enough, but on the pre-builds with said chips, some talk about fan noise. (Example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C49GBZ66/ and https://www.amazon.co.uk/NiPoGi-Lake-N100-Computer-Desktop-Bussiness/dp/B0CP6T3646)

 

I would be looking to keep the budget as low as possible, maybe below £250. 

 

Any advice? Have any of you out there purchase such a device recently and can confirm "silent" but powerful to achieve the above?

[BoomerDutch]

Maybe bee-link for you?

 

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Stark_Source21 said:

would be looking to keep the budget as low as possible, maybe below £250. 

 

Unfortunatly too much to ask for so little.

 

Id honestly just get a sff hp, dell,.... NOT usff and upgrade the fan inside with a silent one or not at all as they are quite silent out of box. An intel 8th gen or newer is easily doable used

[Stark_Source21]

7 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Unfortunatly too much to ask for so little.

Any suggestions on what I should go for, and where that would leave me, price-wise. Happy to push budget if needed.... don't want random buffering during 4k streaming or fan going really wild due to over-heating. 

 

What price-range would we be talking for the specs I mentioned? Would a larger form-factor help re: noise while reducing cost?

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Stark_Source21 said:

Any suggestions on what I should go for, and where that would leave me, price-wise. Happy to push budget if needed.... don't want random buffering during 4k streaming or fan going really wild due to over-heating. 

 

What price-range would we be talking for the specs I mentioned? Would a larger form-factor help re: noise while reducing cost?

Yes its why I recommend a used sff system instead of the usff stuff. An 8th gen intel or up will easily be in budget. A 10th gen i5 is no stretch here to get used.

 

Id say try using it once gotten if too loud you can upgrade the cooler, better fan and thermwl paste replacement. All options but usually not needed

[Stark_Source21]

7 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Yes its why I recommend a used sff system instead of the usff stuff. An 8th gen intel or up will easily be in budget. A 10th gen i5 is no stretch here to get used.

 

Id say try using it once gotten if too loud you can upgrade the cooler, better fan and thermwl paste replacement. All options but usually not needed

Know any good new sff Dells or HPs off hand that would fit the bill? They would likely not have a GPU, and just onboard CPU Intel UHD graphics, right? I didn't realise these systems would be the same price or better bang-for-buck. Thought the difference between sff and usff would be negligible. (Good idea of upgrading the fan if needed.)

[Stark_Source21]

26 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Yes its why I recommend a used sff system instead of the usff stuff. An 8th gen intel or up will easily be in budget. A 10th gen i5 is no stretch here to get used.

In addition to my message above, have had a look around:

Cheapest Dell New comes in around £369 (13th Gen i3 13100, Intel UHD 730, 8GB Ram, 256 GB M.2: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/desktop-computers/inspiron-small-desktop/spd/inspiron-3020-small-desktop/cd205001)

HP comes in about the same: https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=7M500EA

Would either of those be good enough for what I'm looking for in terms of processing power and RAM?)

Would you idea of upgrading the fan apply to these two options?

It's kind of embarrassing, but I've tried to keep up with tech for years and find myself totally unable to know what CPU are capable of what tasks... it's a spec jungle and none of the numbers mean anything anymore.

I would be tempted to get into the used market, but nervous about that atm. 

[jaslion]

48 minutes ago, Stark_Source21 said:

Know any good new sff Dells or HPs off hand that would fit the bill? They would likely not have a GPU, and just onboard CPU Intel UHD graphics, right? I didn't realise these systems would be the same price or better bang-for-buck. Thought the difference between sff and usff would be negligible. (Good idea of upgrading the fan if needed.)

Honestly any of the sff systems of em are bussiness grade stuff so all pretty much good to go cant have a looky on ebay rn but you can post a couple you found.

 

Basically 8th i5 or newer 8gb of ram (super easy to upgrade but if 16gb of thr bat is possiblr do that) and a ssd is all you need

[jaslion]

33 minutes ago, Stark_Source21 said:

In addition to my message above, have had a look around:

Cheapest Dell New comes in around £369 (13th Gen i3 13100, Intel UHD 730, 8GB Ram, 256 GB M.2: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/desktop-computers/inspiron-small-desktop/spd/inspiron-3020-small-desktop/cd205001)

HP comes in about the same: https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=7M500EA

Would either of those be good enough for what I'm looking for in terms of processing power and RAM?)

Would you idea of upgrading the fan apply to these two options?

It's kind of embarrassing, but I've tried to keep up with tech for years and find myself totally unable to know what CPU are capable of what tasks... it's a spec jungle and none of the numbers mean anything anymore.

I would be tempted to get into the used market, but nervous about that atm. 

The dell will do tho 16gb is preffered however it is upgradable by yourself and also like WAAAAAAAY cheaper to do. A 8gb ddr5 stick is like 50 tops

 

The hp doesnt have a link that takes me to a product.

 

As for used its fine all of em will be ex bussienss

[Stark_Source21]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

The dell will do tho 16gb is preffered however it is upgradable by yourself and also like WAAAAAAAY cheaper to do. A 8gb ddr5 stick is like 50 tops

 

The hp doesnt have a link that takes me to a product.

 

As for used its fine all of em will be ex bussienss

Saw this on ebay:

Optiplex 5060, i5-8500, GPU UHD630, 16 Gigs Ram (presuming DDR4), 256 NVME, Gigabyte Ethernet, W11 Pro - £209.85

 

Thoughts? 

 

Good enough for my use cases? 

[Stark_Source21]

OK, so prioritising money and trying to get price as low as possible, I've got:

 

On eBay: The Optiplex 5060, i5-8500, GPU UHD630, 16 Gigs Ram (presuming DDR4), 256 NVME, Gigabyte Ethernet, W11 Pro - £210

However, if I prioritise longevity (AM5 Mobo) and functionality (multi-transcoding, AV encoding), potentially salvaging parts in the future for other builds and really going for a home server, I've got:

 

New AMD: AMD R5 7600, 32Gb DDR5, 256GB M.2 NVME, 2TB HDD, 2.5 Gig Ethernet, (OS not included): £570 (https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/jrvvh3)

[Edit, added an Intel version below:]

New INTEL: Intel i5-11400, 32GB DD4-3200, 250GB M.2. NVME, 2TB HDD, 1Gig Ethernet, (OS not included):  £433  (https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/vbTVgB) 

I think the bang for buck may lie with AMD in terms of new options, as the has more longevity, maybe?

Any advice on the above, given my use cases in original message? 32Gb Ram is overkill I think, but might come in handy in future. That said, £570 seems like a lot for a 4k HTPC/Plex Server, but I could be struggling to catch up with inflation here. 

 

Any feedback appreciated.