0-20k Looking to buy a mini pc

M

msankadi

Level G
Hi one of my friends is looking to buy a pc while I am also trying to get something for similar purpose

Primary purposes
0. Power consumption should be less than 20-25w maximum
1. Playing full 4k blurays
2. Torrentbox
3. Basic browsing

For now he has narrowed down j5040 intel nuc. One advantage this has over the sbc boards is warranty. This comes with 3 year warranty. This will cost roughly 13 14k as the hdd and ram already available.

Alternates considered raspberry pi 4, odroid n2+. Ruled out primarily because of warranty

A. Want to get your feedback. Do you think this is a good solution?

B. Would any micro or mini itx build in this budget be able to meet all criteria?

C. Is this a good time to buy or better to wait a few months? For what?
 
Since you're in Bangalore and can source stuff from Chennai - Check for Asrock Deskmini Ryzen models from Devraj Computers - Deskmini is barebone where you will have to add Processor + RAM + HDD/SSD + NVME. Once this is done, you can run almost anything when compared with J5040 (assuming 2200G/3200G is installed) and with little Forum search, you will be able to update BIOS and install latest Renoir APUs (Asrock pulled back this update from official website as their newer model supporting Renoir launched).

Another benefit is you get the STX solution - literally looking compact (consider as an laptop replacement) and still support upgrade options and in future you can even install eGPU to make it gaming build.
 
Buy the i3 nuc (NUC8I3BEH). It is around 20k and far better bang for the buck than the apollo lake based NUCs as it is a proper SoC and not an excuse of an SoC which lacks basic features like AVX and virtualization.

The performance difference between them is immense. The i3 NUC (8th gen Bean Canyon not 10th gen Frost Canyon) is the best one out there as it has 2 cores, 4 threads and a very usable iris plus GPU with 128 megs of cache memory.

I use one for network monitoring, vpn etc and it works really well and is reasonably quiet even at full load. For 19k now on amazon

Amazon.in: Buy Intel NUC Kit - BOXNUC8I3BEH Online at Low Prices in India | Intel Reviews & Ratings

Buy Intel NUC Kit - BOXNUC8I3BEH online at low price in India on Amazon.in. Check out Intel NUC Kit - BOXNUC8I3BEH reviews, ratings, features, specifications and browse more Intel products online at best prices on Amazon.in.
www.amazon.in

Edit: @tech.monk : Deskmini isn't a bad option either but it is a much larger form factor compared to a nuc. Also power consumption is way higher.
 
tech.monk said:
Since you're in Bangalore and can source stuff from Chennai - Check for Asrock Deskmini Ryzen models from Devraj Computers - Deskmini is barebone where you will have to add Processor + RAM + HDD/SSD + NVME. Once this is done, you can run almost anything when compared with J5040 (assuming 2200G/3200G is installed) and with little Forum search, you will be able to update BIOS and install latest Renoir APUs (Asrock pulled back this update from official website as their newer model supporting Renoir launched).

Another benefit is you get the STX solution - literally looking compact (consider as an laptop replacement) and still support upgrade options and in future you can even install eGPU to make it gaming build.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the inputs. Wouldn't this have a higher power consumption though?

Do you mean device like this?

Is this the right sort of cost for this and right now it is showing oos, does it come back in stock like Amazon fk or I need to contact them for the same?

Quick search on the tdp for the 2200 cpu gave me this
For this I will need to buy a separate ups along with the pc. So deskmini+cpu+ups will net me around 14k+8k+3k= 25k.. Do you think this will be worth it compared to the nuc? (I already have approx 40-50w capacity from my existing ups which should be sufficient for nuc and won't require additional investment)


When gaming you load up the CPU and GPU and we noticed that the system power draw topped out at 91.2 Watts on the Ryzen 3 2200G and 111 Watts on the Ryzen 5 2400G.Feb 14, 2018
 
Last edited:
Chaos said:
Buy the i3 nuc (NUC8I3BEH). It is around 20k and far better bang for the buck than the apollo lake based NUCs as it is a proper SoC and not an excuse of an SoC which lacks basic features like AVX and virtualization.

The performance difference between them is immense. The i3 NUC (8th gen Bean Canyon not 10th gen Frost Canyon) is the best one out there as it has 2 cores, 4 threads and a very usable iris plus GPU with 128 megs of cache memory.

I use one for network monitoring, vpn etc and it works really well and is reasonably quiet even at full load. For 19k now on amazon

Amazon.in: Buy Intel NUC Kit - BOXNUC8I3BEH Online at Low Prices in India | Intel Reviews & Ratings

Buy Intel NUC Kit - BOXNUC8I3BEH online at low price in India on Amazon.in. Check out Intel NUC Kit - BOXNUC8I3BEH reviews, ratings, features, specifications and browse more Intel products online at best prices on Amazon.in.
www.amazon.in

Edit: @tech.monk : Deskmini isn't a bad option either but it is a much larger form factor compared to a nuc. Also power consumption is way higher.
Click to expand...
Thank you I am trying to research more on this. Somehow had missed this particular model earlier.

The one you have has i3-8109U cpu right? Are you using this one only? Did it come with 3 year warranty too?

This processor does look so much better compared to the j5005 I was looking at. It is about 5k extra compared to the j5005 nook.
Only downside i see is the 28w vs 10w power requirements. Do you think it will be worth spending 5k extra? I plan to use it for about 3 years, sell and move on to what's available at that time
 
Last edited:
msankadi said:
Thank you I am trying to research more on this. Somehow had missed this particular model earlier.

The one you have has i3-8109U cpu right? Are you using this one only? Did it come with 3 year warranty too?

This processor does look so much better compared to the j5005 I was looking at. It is about 5k extra compared to the j5005 nook.
Only downside i see is the 28w vs 10w power requirements. Do you think it will be worth spending 5k extra? I plan to use it for about 3 years, sell and move on to what's available at that time
Click to expand...
Yes I'm using the exact same model. Totally worth spending 5k extra on this.

Intel intentionally put 28w chips from 8th gen onwards for better performance. You can tune it down to 15w in the bios if you want.
 
Chaos said:
Yes I'm using the exact same model. Totally worth spending 5k extra on this.

Intel intentionally put 28w chips from 8th gen onwards for better performance. You can tune it down to 15w in the bios if you want.
Click to expand...

Oho thats awesome, you just changed my machine. The other nucs were a bit cheaper from other retailers like primeabgb, priyacomputers vs. Amazon but they don't seem to be selling this one. Let me see if I can get any discount and pick this one up.
 
msankadi said:
Oho thats awesome, you just changed my machine. The other nucs were a bit cheaper from other retailers like primeabgb, priyacomputers vs. Amazon but they don't seem to be selling this one. Let me see if I can get any discount and pick this one up.
Click to expand...
The other thing I forgot to tell was that this has thunderbolt 3 and associated expansion options. The cheaper ones don't have this.
 
Be sure to buy the RAM and SSD. This is a bare bones. RAM is limited to 2400 MHz so no need to buy high end - any basic stick like crucial value will do.

Do buy an NVME SSD. I use a Kingston A2000 500GB and 2x8GB of crucial value ram.
 
Chaos said:
Be sure to buy the RAM and SSD. This is a bare bones. RAM is limited to 2400 MHz so no need to buy high end - any basic stick like crucial value will do.

Do buy an NVME SSD. I use a Kingston A2000 500GB and 2x8GB of crucial value ram.
Click to expand...
Yup already have the 16gb RAM https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/bl2k8g26c16u4w
and SSD Samsung EVO 240gb sdd

I was planning to get the 5005 version so had kept these items from my previous desktop build
 
Chaos said:
Be sure to buy the RAM and SSD. This is a bare bones. RAM is limited to 2400 MHz so no need to buy high end - any basic stick like crucial value will do.

Do buy an NVME SSD. I use a Kingston A2000 500GB and 2x8GB of crucial value ram.
Click to expand...
OP already has RAM kit for Sale - he should plan to keep that and add NVME - it will be lot better.
Chaos said:
Edit: @tech.monk : Deskmini isn't a bad option either but it is a much larger form factor compared to a nuc. Also power consumption is way higher.
Click to expand...
I agree with it but look at the RAW power and ultimate build will be. power consumption will be higher but then you get 2x2.5" HDD connector, option to upgrade the CPU and RAM - with Ryzen you get the higher frequency support for RAM's. Reason why I proposed this over the NUC has many reasons - we change up the plans to upgrade our usage and with APU compared to Pentium/Celeron or even i3 8th gen - you will be getting 4 Cores and might end up setting up pfSense or PiHole + add Plex (assuming their will be transcoding for the torrent downloaded) or NAS and other set of utilities, and still this APU will be available without running out of juice.
msankadi said:
Do you mean device like this?
ASRock A300 Deskmini With WIFI – Devraj Computers
Click to expand...
It shows OOS but if you call them and ask for this - they will tell you that its available for sale. Basically they are selling offline.
 
tech.monk said:
OP already has RAM kit for Sale - he should plan to keep that and add NVME - it will be lot better.

I agree with it but look at the RAW power and ultimate build will be. power consumption will be higher but then you get 2x2.5" HDD connector, option to upgrade the CPU and RAM - with Ryzen you get the higher frequency support for RAM's. Reason why I proposed this over the NUC has many reasons - we change up the plans to upgrade our usage and with APU compared to Pentium/Celeron or even i3 8th gen - you will be getting 4 Cores and might end up setting up pfSense or PiHole + add Plex (assuming their will be transcoding for the torrent downloaded) or NAS and other set of utilities, and still this APU will be available without running out of juice.

It shows OOS but if you call them and ask for this - they will tell you that its available for sale. Basically they are selling offline.
Click to expand...

Thank you maybe in a couple of years will switch. For now, given the form factor, wattage I decided to pull the plug on nuc.

For my usage I think 8th gen i3 should be more than sufficient (hopefully)
 
msankadi said:
Thanks for the inputs. Wouldn't this have a higher power consumption though?

Do you mean device like this?

Is this the right sort of cost for this and right now it is showing oos, does it come back in stock like Amazon fk or I need to contact them for the same?

Quick search on the tdp for the 2200 cpu gave me this
For this I will need to buy a separate ups along with the pc. So deskmini+cpu+ups will net me around 14k+8k+3k= 25k.. Do you think this will be worth it compared to the nuc? (I already have approx 40-50w capacity from my existing ups which should be sufficient for nuc and won't require additional investment)


When gaming you load up the CPU and GPU and we noticed that the system power draw topped out at 91.2 Watts on the Ryzen 3 2200G and 111 Watts on the Ryzen 5 2400G.Feb 14, 2018
Click to expand...
Also email Primeabgb and ask. They had it in stock a year ago for 12,500. This combined with SODIMM (Laptop RAM, AMD 3200G and SSD) will be a killer build
 
@Chaos : any idea what should be a safe operating temp for this .. ?

My Nuc 8i3 gets to almost 75-80C (ambient: 20C) during 4K rips playback.
Its tucked into a media cabinet though..

@msankadi : Bleddy Appario Retail selling it for 4K less than when I bought it last month !
 
delhiboy1 said:
@Chaos : any idea what should be a safe operating temp for this .. ?

My Nuc 8i3 gets to almost 75-80C (ambient: 20C) during 4K rips playback.
Its tucked into a media cabinet though..

@msankadi : Bleddy Appario Retail selling it for 4K less than when I bought it last month !
Click to expand...
Oh wow yes i checked primeabgb they had much higher price too... And since appario is an a+ retailer i decided not to wait for any sale
 
For anyone looking for a machine with requirements similar to mine. Would suggest you to go with this blindly

Have been really happy with it

1. Very smooth out of the box performance and 4k playback
2. After i have installed my 16 gigs ram have not faced any challenges with multi tasking - kodi 4k + 350 torrents + chrome 12 tabs + 4 windows explorer + couple of smaller apps... Still half of cpu utilized and half ram... No hiccups
3. Make sure you download the Intel auto driver download. It helped me get updated to latest drivers in 1 go
4. Build quality+ size factor is top notch doesn't look like such a cheap machine
5. Make sure to use high quality hdmi cable. I know most of the time I always say all are same but with nuc I faced issue with one of bluerigger cables... Then i started using my Xbox and ps4 cables... Both worked fine... There was flickering on earlier cable which went away after I switched to these cables
 
Back
Top