Comment on What fun things can I do with an M.2 SSD and 2x4GB ram?
PeachMan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Plenty of barebones mini PC’s that you can get for relatively cheap (under $200 or even close to $100). “Barebones” is a good keyword to search for because that means it doesn’t include RAM and a drive.
Look for an N100 or N200 processor if you want something that’s very small and power efficient (but it won’t be powerful enough for many games). Or, look for whatever fits your budget.
Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
I learned that lesson recently about RAM. I have DDR4. I don’t care for gaming. I think it could be fun to have a dorky little mini-PC that can do all the PC stuff that I can tote around to show off :P
PeachMan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The biggest thing to worry about is DIMM vs SODIMM. The latter is much smaller, and probably what most mini PCs will use. So if you have full sized DIMM RAM, you might have trouble finding a mini PC that will work.
And even if it is the right size, you’ll still want to make sure that your motherboard supports your specific RAM clock speeds.
Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
It’s not vital to keep the ram since it is definitely bulky when it comes to a mini pc.
I also don’t necessarily need a “normal” case. Could I make something weird? Could I make a shoe-computer?
Alto@kbin.social 11 months ago
Could you? Probably. Should you? Probably not.
Realistically unless you're up for spending at minimum of a couple hundred bucks, you're not going to get a true mini-pc (unless you want to buy a NUC or something, but that kinda defeats the purpose). Any mini-itx case you'd want (<14L) is going to be around the $100 mark on the cheap end. Unless you really luck out and find a compatible used motherboard on the cheap, youre looking at another $100 minimum. Could get a used 4600g for ~$65, but it's probably not going to come with a cpu cooler if it's used. Add in a power supply that fits, that's another $140 on a good day.
Small form factor PCs are stupid expensive because it's a fairly niche market that very few people absolutely need.
What I'd personally do is find a used dell inspiron or similar for <$150 and toss that all in it
PeachMan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Sure, the sky is the limit. You could also just get a motherboard, processor, and power supply, plug everything in and shove it in whatever container you want.