Mini PC spec -- any advice, please?

[anisin]

As a compromise between a laptop and a full-sized desktop, I am thinking of purchasing a mini PC: for ease of lifting it (and even taking it with me to a (long-term) holiday home for use with existing monitor etc. I am wondering if I can just carry the mini PC (alone) in the car to a holiday home. I am a silver surfer -- and don't do gaming, video-editing, streaming/recording/viewing of films etc. on the computer. Is a mini PC just as good a value as a full-sized PC in terms of price/speed ratio & also in terms of (relative)future-proofness. Thank you for your advice & thoughts.


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-680 Dual Core (3.60GHz, 4MB Cache) + HD Graphics + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
INTEL® DH57JG: H57 Express Chipset, 10-Channel HD Audio, 2x DDR3
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5450 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
300GB WD VELOCIRAPTOR® SATA 3-Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (10,000rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS-N (150Mbps) 3dBi HIGH GAIN USB ADAPTER
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £789.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Sleinous]

This is not a bad little computer, but for a silver surfer I would say, a dual-core Intel Atom, would be more than ample. This would reduce the price to around £350 for a maxed out spec.

For £789 you could get a really nice full size desktop, yes less portable but to me it seems a little bit of a waste to be paying so much for a mini

 

[anisin]

This is not a bad little computer, but for a silver surfer I would say, a dual-core Intel Atom, would be more than ample. This would reduce the price to around £350 for a maxed out spec.

For £789 you could get a really nice full size desktop, yes less portable but to me it seems a little bit of a waste to be paying so much for a mini

Thank you so much for your advice!! I shall run with it. Thank you.

 

[Sleinous]

So for a mini-pc that suits your needs you're looking at something like:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Atom™ DualCore Processor 330 (1.60GHz) 533MHz FSB/1MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® AT5IONT-I: NVIDIA® ION™, HDMI 1080P, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M mGPU + HDMI & DX10 Support
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 SD Card Reader
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £410.00 including VAT and delivery.

FOr a litle more you could even add an SSD for slight faster boot-up times, although it may be better waiting for cheaper, faster gen3 SSDs by Intel in the next couple of months.

 

[anisin]

This is really, really helpful. I am going to cut & paste your reply on to a Word document on my desktop so that I can refer to it before ordering -- perhaps with a small SSD, which will be safer too for (very occasional) car journeys. Thank you so much.

 

[Sleinous]

that's true, forgot that they have no moving parts . You could always add an HDD in there too, and just take it out when u travel & put it in an anti-static bag then in your clothing in your bag, then just take it back out when you arrive and place in machine