I’ve always built my own desktop PCs. I’m not a gamer. Web browsing, photo editing, email (old Outlook desktop client with 20 years of saved mail), Quicken. Now I see “mini PCs” at incredibly low prices ($300-$500). Less that I usually spend on an upgrade. For a new CPU, motherboard, memory and occasionally storage.
I’m tempted to try one. What’s the opinion on these mini PCs? There has to be a catch.
Hard to know what PCs you’re seeing, but I’ll give you an example of one I am familiar with. The ZimaBoard is an all in one PC (aka a SoC) that Steve Gibson recommended for use with SpinRite. It’s got a low end CPU, comes with your choice of 2, 4 or 8GB of RAM, and has relatively slow flash storage of a fixed size. None of the CPU, RAM nor SSD are expandable, so basically, if such a PC meets your needs, then it’s probably great, but if it doesn’t or if you outgrow it, then you’re likely to have to completely replace it.
On the other side, but probably not what you’re referring to, I have a DIY mini PC that arrived barebones and I installed my own CPU, RAM and SSD to make it usable. The downside of it is that it’s tiny, and so the fan is noisier because it too is tiny… and has to work hard (spin fast) to achieve the results that a larger fan could achieve with less work (i.e. at a slower, quieter speed.)
I guess I would say that many, if not all, mini PCs use laptop CPUs and parts because they’re designed to be smaller and size matters in a mini PC. Many of them use low power CPUs because they don’t have adequate cooling, and that means they’re probably likely to throttle the CPU to keep the temps safe.
It depends on what you are looking for. If what you have mentioned is really all you do, most decent mini PCs with a modern processor will be more than good enough. They usually use a mobile chip, with a lower TDP to keep temperatures more manageable.
We have used Intel NUCs (now sold by Asus) for years in our production areas, relatively cheap, reliable and usually very quiet, unless they are being pushed really hard.
I switch to the Mac mini M1 a few years back and the lack of a fan has put me off of Windows desktops and laptops, but it still provided equivalent performance to my old Ryzen 1700 from 2017.
If you aren’t into gaming, CAD or other high end tasks, mini PCs make a very nice altnerative. You can buy them barebones (motherboard and processor) and add your own storage - usually NVMe SSDs these days - and RAM, or you can buy them fully kitted out.
I referring to complete systems like Beelink. Not a kit. Some available for less than $300.
Are there specific features in the old Outlook desktop that you need? I can’t imagine how large and bloated at 20 year .pst file is. That’s probably going to be the biggest reason you need any sort of horsepower in a PC.
Those are using Atom or Celeron class processors for embedded systems. The modern normal processors for laptops seem to start around $600-$700.
I use Outlook soley to maintain 20 years of mail messages, which I use quite a bit for reference, which has proven valuable many times. My main read/send mail client is Thunderbird on Linux. I use Outlook just as a filing system. I’d love to be able to extract the history and keep the folder structure, or convert it to Thunderbird. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to do this, with no success. I’m aware of the tools that exist, but none have worked for me.
I don’t find that true. Beelinks have Intel Core-I7 and Ryzen 7. That beside the point, I’m asking about people’s experience with using a mni PC as a desktop daily driver.
As I said, the ones with modern processors are much more expensive, I just pointed out, the ones around the $300 mark are Atom and Colton equivalents. The Intel Core and AMD high end chips start at around double that.
MeLE turn key units are <$200. Fan less, low power, silent. Comes with Windows 11 Home edition installed on the built-in eMMC.
I dropped in a NVMe and installed Ubuntu. Was a bit tricky to get the Linux WiFi and BT drivers compiled and working when I bought it in Feb '23, but otherwise it’s a good little machine. I even mounted it to the back of my monitors.
I have to disagree. On Amazon the Intel Core and AMD can be had for under $300
Just listening to this scenario makes me a bit queasy. Memories of my deskside support days waiting hours and hours for ungainly PST files to repair/corrupt/import/export.
Sorry I don’t have a solution to offer you, the only advice I have is what you probably already know - you should get away from that PST file before it pops. This is not at all the format was intended to be used when designed back in the 90s.