Recommendations for compact PC

extra-ordinary_

Apologies for the long post...I am in the market for replacing my aging E8400 itx build with something modern. I'm debating between around 3 different options.

1. I can get a Dell Optiplex 7040 micro- 6500T/32GB DDR4/500GB SSHD/Intel Wifi+NIC for about €530. So that's lots of RAM, really nice small form factor, with a chip I'm not mad about but could possibly put up with, and a HDD that'll be used for storage and will need an NVMe added to it for a further expense of about €150 so that's just under €700 all in. Main thing going for it is it's tiny size and power consumption, against it is - can be a little loud when pushed, max of 2 drives, and low powered CPU.

2. Put 16GB and a regular i5 6500 into an Asrock DeskMini with an NVMe drive -about €600, and the option of adding in two SATA 2.5 drives of my choice - Regular 6500 would be a more powerful CPU than the T version, although the deskmini has only two USB 3.0 ports (1 x C type, 1 x A type) and 1 x USB 2 port - which is really not that great but possible to live with. Main thing going for this is better CPU, type C USB connector, and the possiblity of 3 HDDs, against - is a lot bigger than the 7040 micro

3.Buy an ITX H170 or similar board, build with same components as the Deskmini above with the added expense of an ITX case with either separate or included PSU for an all in cost of about less than €700. Main advantages for this are - system is fully upgradeable, customisable, expandable - different board choices give a lot more features - think I can get USB3 gen 2 and will have way more various ports. Against is will be bigger again than the DeskMini.

The other thing to think about is the release of kabylake boards/CPUs- maybe better wait awhile but lots to think about. Any suggestions/recommendations anyone?

the_syco

What will this be used for? Gaming, or put behind/under a TV for streaming?

extra-ordinary_

No gaming, hence no gfx card. Would like it do anything else I throw at it whether it's browsing, office, encoding a move, streaming, or whatever.

Another probably bad idea at the back of my mind is to build the bare minimum and wait for the next socket.

tadcan

Here is a basic PC build.

ASRock H110M-HDS €53.12
Intel Pentium Dual-Core G4400 CPU €55.44
Crucial 8 GB Single Ranked DDR4 Ram €49.94
Corsair CP-9020095-UK VS Series PSU €32.85
120GB Kingston SSDNow SSD €51.47
Aerocool QS240 Gaming M-ATX Case £24.26 approx €36 with postage
plus €30 postage
Total €307.82

extra-ordinary_

tadcan wrote: »

Here is a basic PC build.

ASRock H110M-HDS €53.12
Intel Pentium Dual-Core G4400 CPU €55.44
Crucial 8 GB Single Ranked DDR4 Ram €49.94
Corsair CP-9020095-UK VS Series PSU €32.85
120GB Kingston SSDNow SSD €51.47
Aerocool QS240 Gaming M-ATX Case £24.26 approx €36 with postage
plus €30 postage
Total €307.82

Yeh...thanks for that...could go the cheap route and still have a performance upgrade. Last build was 8 years ago and there's a part of me already thinking about cannon lake and if it will be the beginning of a new socket and so a better time for a major upgrade.

TerrorFirmer

You could wait for Ryzen and see what that does for market prices, but broadly speaking I wouldn't bother holding out when you're still using an E8400 - even the basic G4400 is light years ahead of it and a titanic upgrade from a performance perspective - and the 1151 socket will be viable for the sort of uses you're looking at for the best part of a decade.

For example you've mentioned the 6500T as a 'low powered CPU' - it's not, it's an extremely fast CPU and you'd only really notice any difference between it and the full 6500 if you were doing frequent and fairly heavy editing/rendering/encoding type stuff or higher end gaming. There'll be zero difference in casual to moderate use.

extra-ordinary_

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

You could wait for Ryzen and see what that does for market prices, but broadly speaking I wouldn't bother holding out when you're still using an E8400 - even the basic G4400 is light years ahead of it and a titanic upgrade from a performance perspective - and the 1151 socket will be viable for the sort of uses you're looking at for the best part of a decade.

For example you've mentioned the 6500T as a 'low powered CPU' - it's not, it's an extremely fast CPU and you'd only really notice any difference between it and the full 6500 if you were doing frequent and fairly heavy editing/rendering/encoding type stuff or higher end gaming. There'll be zero difference in casual to moderate use.

Yeh the E8400 system has served me well but is very slow now compared to modern stuff. I'm trawling the sites over a week at this stage so have the bug now but will try and wait for AMD although there's no release date yet? Also, if I go AMD or Kaby lake that will be bye bye W7 as well - although I'll have to bite the bullet on that sooner or later. About the 6500 - put it this way...they both cost around the same money - which one would you prefer? The 6500T's main saving grace is it's low power draw which is definitely something to think about but not really one of my concerns.
I think from writing it all out I realised that the Dell 7040 is bad value for what I'm getting and the ground up build looks the best option.

the_syco

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

1. I can get a Dell Optiplex 7040 micro- 6500T/32GB DDR4/500GB SSHD/Intel Wifi+NIC for about €530.

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

No gaming, hence no gfx card. Would like it do anything else I throw at it whether it's browsing, office, encoding a move, streaming, or whatever.

Maybe leave room for a low-profile card, if you can? Just in case at a later date you decide for a bit of oooomp.

Serephucus

I'd wait and see what Zen does to shake things up. We don't have exact dates yet, no, but I mean you've obviously waited a while as is with that system, so waiting until the end of March shouldn't be too bad (AMD have said Q1. That's as specific as we've got).

Depends how much money you want to spend, and how compact you want to go, but throwing some options out there:
NUC - I assume you don't want a laptop chip. Intel does do a high end Skull Canyon one, but it's not cheap.
Dan Case, NCase M1 - Custom SFF gaming cases. Not cheap, but extremely well thought out and very small cases.