<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Check out the latest batch of Intel-based N100 Mini PCs. They’re smaller than MacMinis. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’d say a minimal configuration would be 32GB of RAM and 1TB (or 2TB) of SSD. I’d say an N100 is minimal CPU.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Some with AMD CPUs are cheaper as well.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Here’s a search on Amazon:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://amzn.to/3woboP0" class="">https://amzn.to/3woboP0</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">They don’t sort very well; here’s the cheapest Linux box I found. There are cheaper ones with Windows that you can delete.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://amzn.to/48wM5rv" class="">https://amzn.to/48wM5rv</a></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="">I’ve got a 2014 MacMini, a 2014 MBP, and a 2018 MacMini and they’re still going strong. You can find late-model used Intel MacMinis for a few hundred bucks that work great.</div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Way back in the day, the all-in-one boxes used to have problems with a serial port or the video going out and the whole thing would be dead. But that doesn’t seem to happen much any more. I use my MacMinis daily and the newer one runs the fan a lot when I’m watching videos, but other than that, they’re still humming right along. I had one of the first gen iMacs and the video card in it died shortly after the AppleCare expired. I ended up selling it for $375 anyway. Today you can buy USB-3 and USB-C expansion ports with one or more HDMI interfaces on them if the on-board video dies.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Unless you need a super-high-power over-clocked water-cooled screaming machine for gaming or bitcoin mining, I cannot see the value in building a machine from scratch unless you’re trying to do it on the cheap using recycled components. What’s the point?</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
-David Schwartz<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Feb 23, 2024, at 6:46 PM, Michael via PLUG-discuss <<a href="mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org" class="">plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="">I want a guy I know to put a computer together for me. I'm thinking a single core (I don't think I need more processing power than that) with 8 gig of ram. I'm wanting to spend $3-$400. I'm an older guy now and won't use it for much more than web and email. What should I tell him to put in it?<br clear="all" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br class=""><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px" class="">:-)~MIKE~(-:</span><br class=""></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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