Downsizing PCs

[Gymrat76]

Dear Sexperts, need your opinion/suggestions.

I’ve always been a gamer, and have always built gaming rigs, with mid-full tower setups and the latest GPUs etc. I run a NAS at home for all of my music collection etc. And have data on my SSD’s in my desktop that I can transfer over.

As I’m not gaming anymore and I seriously only use the company laptop for work (connected to my x34), otherwise I mainly use my iPad, I’m thinking of downsizing my rig... Wondering what would work best, a micro-ATX setup, or one of those mini-PCs?

I don’t do much, occassional word processing/MS Office stuff on the desktop, YouTube, Netflix, music etc, so I wouldn’t need to maintain an overkill gaming setup. Any suggestions on setup? Thanks!

 

[wwenze]

Meanwhile I want to upsize PC...

 

[NightRaven49]

a nuc will do just fine if looking for sffpc and little gaming requirement. or u can also check out aftershock's new updated vision mini with zen 2 apus. also a good idea to build ur own itx builds and run off the igpu.

 

[Gymrat76]

Thanks. I’ve looked at NUC’s and I think they would be great for what I need them for. Not sure about all the other acronyms you spouted, but guess I need to do more research

 

[NightRaven49]

Not sure about all the other acronyms you spouted, but guess I need to do more research

sffpc - small form factor pc
zen 2 - amd ryzen latest available architecture, zen 3 will be announced very shortly
apu - accelerated processing unit, basically amd cpu with integrated graphics
itx - mini-itx, smallest mainstream motherboard size standard
igpu - integrated gpu

nucs tend to be a little expensive for what they offer though. so i would recommend u look at ryzen options, like the vision mini i mentioned or building your own.

 

[Gymrat76]

Thanks you!

Just had a thought about what I’m going to do with all the games in my Steam library!

 

[irbadboyz]

Hey bro, wow your situation is similar to mine, so here is what I did.

I bought a mini-ITX case, I was going to go for the thermaltake Core V1, but in the end I went with the inwin chopin, which in the end was great in terms of size for sure for the cabinet under my TV.

If it was not for my wife and her "size requirements", I would have went with the core V1, much better airflow and space. Much more freedom for a large fan, maybe even liquid cooling. Whereas for the inwin, its a small condo, stylish, cool but cramped. So if you dont have the aircon running all the time, maybe a little more space is great. Although I will admit, the Inwin looks fantastic. I got the silver because Sim Lim did not have black anywhere.

I work in it support so I know a little about parts, but I did go for an AMD Ryzen 3 with built in graphics, and if I am honest thinking back, I should have gone for the i5, which costs slightly more and a little more oomph.

Mainly I use my computer for watching 4K movies. A little warning, DO NOT GET TRANSCEND SSDs. They may be cheap, but for some reason, my 2TB transcend 2.5 inch, sending mix signals to motherboard and OS, claiming it is overheating when it is not. So playing movies sometimes required a little "warm-up" before things went smooth. I should have invested more for a Samsung EVO.

Ram I went a little crazy with 32GB, I run a lot of tabs when surfing and also sometimes do work on my smart TV using a wireless keyboard with mousepad. Obviously I went overboard and do not need it. Motherboard is an Aorus Gigabyte, and the main M.2 SSD, about 512GB holds the OS. Storage is on the transcend SSD 2.5 inch.

So that is my set up. Was thinking of installing a soundcard, but tough look for me, the casing is much too small for that. Oh well.

 

[ringrain_78]

After WFH for 8.5 months, I have been almost exclusively working on my computer laptop and my home has 2 other laptops (1 each for wife and me).

Hers recently broke down when trying to upgrade and we basically pulled the plug when it was stuck, so I took everything out, reboot it from a Windows machine to a Linux MacOS clone. Looks good but not much use for us.

I have my own personal laptop which my wife is now using for her online stuff.

Took time to revamp how we use our machines and work and basically, the conclusion is that we don't even need laptops. We don't game or watch TV. For media consumption, iPads (I have an old iPad 9.7 pro and wife - a 1st generation iPad mini)/mobile phones are more than sufficient.

I have 2 raspberry pi which 1 is being use as an ad-blocker. I am planning to use the other one as a simple computer, stick it to the back of my monitor and connect via HDMI for just some office stuff, connect my outlook via OWA and onedrive/icloud online. It's really all I need.

 

[windwaver]

Meanwhile I want to upsize PC...

Easy, just exchange with TS.

 

[GotBetrayed]

How about Mac mini

 

[alamakazim]

I wanted too... But I afraid I will miss the horsepower

 

[windwaver]

Took time to revamp how we use our machines and work and basically, the conclusion is that we don't even need laptops. We don't game or watch TV. For media consumption, iPads (I have an old iPad 9.7 pro and wife - a 1st generation iPad mini)/mobile phones are more than sufficient.

I have 2 raspberry pi which 1 is being use as an ad-blocker. I am planning to use the other one as a simple computer, stick it to the back of my monitor and connect via HDMI for just some office stuff, connect my outlook via OWA and onedrive/icloud online. It's really all I need.

I personally also have that experience.

The use of PCs or laptops can be replaced with other devices quite easily. Other than gaming, a traditional desk space for PCs or laptops can be utilized for other usage which is even more important in space constrained Singapore homes.

At the bare minimal, a basic laptop that cost less than $1K can easily complete office work. For internet consumption, an android box, tablet or even your own phone can be utilized.

 

[elmohootbigbird]

I have 2 raspberry pi which 1 is being use as an ad-blocker. I am planning to use the other one as a simple computer, stick it to the back of my monitor and connect via HDMI for just some office stuff, connect my outlook via OWA and onedrive/icloud online. It's really all I need.

which pi u gonna use? Is it seriously gonna be enough as a PC?

 

[yusoffb01]

i was like you. i used to have 2 mini itx. 1 with gtx1060, another used for torrent

i sold away the gtx1060 to downsize to nuc. iris graphis should be good right?

then i found triangle mini pc for $120. i replaced my itx torrent machine with this. very solid runs many days to download and upload 1000GBs. cpu can run fanless

NUC is honestly pathetic, sold it away to get deskmini. better graphics and even has h265 encoder! I could play my games in low quality 4k and encode 4k videos faster than realtime with 2400G. has 4 storage slots

Now aftershock has 6 core model for $700

The latest minituarization is larkbox.

dont think it is possible to get any smaller without sacrificing ports

Now I can fit all 3 mini pc into my original itx box

 

[Entry Level PC]

Dear Sexperts, need your opinion/suggestions.

I’ve always been a gamer, and have always built gaming rigs, with mid-full tower setups and the latest GPUs etc. I run a NAS at home for all of my music collection etc. And have data on my SSD’s in my desktop that I can transfer over.

As I’m not gaming anymore and I seriously only use the company laptop for work (connected to my x34), otherwise I mainly use my iPad, I’m thinking of downsizing my rig... Wondering what would work best, a micro-ATX setup, or one of those mini-PCs?

I don’t do much, occassional word processing/MS Office stuff on the desktop, YouTube, Netflix, music etc, so I wouldn’t need to maintain an overkill gaming setup. Any suggestions on setup? Thanks!

Grab a Laptop.

 

[elmohootbigbird]

The latest minituarization is larkbox.

dont think it is possible to get any smaller without sacrificing ports

Now I can fit all 3 mini pc into my original itx box

this is damn cool. how much u got this for? saw it on indiegogo

 

[yusoffb01]

this is damn cool. how much u got this for? saw it on indiegogo

sgd $230 +$50 ssd

 

[shadow84]

What do you all do with these mini PC boxes? Connect to TV at living room for 4K Netflix/Youtube?

 

[yusoffb01]

What do you all do with these mini PC boxes? Connect to TV at living room for 4K Netflix/Youtube?

for 4k tv getting a $25 h313 tvbox is sufficient.

triangle for torrebting. deskmini is main pc. larkbox put at work for web surfing

 

[octacon]

https://shopee.sg/Mini-PC-AMD-E1-70...0M-WIFI-HDMI-Gaming-PC-i.280467089.5342973065

Think this is cheap and good , just that you need to get a 2.5" harddisk.