Just built an ASUS PN50. So cute!

[DanceswithUnix]

It's actually for my mum. Went for the 4700U APU based one as it is about as cheap as the later quad cores and comes with WiFi 6 and 2.5GbE networking. Added a 1TB SN770 WD Black SSD and 32GB of 3200MHz DDR4 and the whole thing came to £515 from Amazon. I could have halved the ram and SSD size, but I figured the cost savings weren't worth the hassle of possibly needing a future upgrade.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Mini-P...dp/B097BVLM6W/

Such a beast of a machine in such a tiny box

She was talking about getting a laptop to replace the large desktop machine that she doesn't really have space for, and I suggested this might be a better solution. She doesn't need portability (she has an Android tablet for that) and has a keyboard and screen that she's happy with. I've always found laptops an awful form factor for staying on the same bit of desk because I always end up plugin in an external display and keyboard and shutting the lid of the laptop. So this is basically a docked laptop, compressed into a tiny space because it doesn't have a screen, keyboard or battery that would never be used anyway. It has a VESA mount with it, though at this size she might just leave it on top of the desk.

It replaces and old Xeon quad core with I think 8GB of ram and my old 8800GT graphics card. Hopefully she'll like it.

[Jonj1611]

That's a tidy little unit. Amazing how small they can get these things down to now. Can just literally pick it up and take it with you

[MrJim]

I put together a similar SFF PC for a family member a few years ago. It was this Asrock PC:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used a 6 core Intel CPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, & used a mounting kit to fix it to the back of a VESA compatible monitor. It's a great little machine for anything that doesn't require a dGPU

[DanceswithUnix]

That's a tidy little unit. Amazing how small they can get these things down to now. Can just literally pick it up and take it with you

Too big for trouser pockets, but coat pocket sized easily. It's sat on top of a test PC built in an old Thermaltake mini ITX case which is just about big enough for a small half height GPU, and that looks HUGE

They could have made it smaller, but it has space for a 2.5in hdd/ssd inside so some wasted vertical space these days. Though if her old PC has a 2.5in drive in it, I could just transfer that over.

[AGTDenton]

Looks really good! What OS did you go for?

Oddly in Amazons Spring sale there are quite a lot of alternate SFFs. None as good looking as this though


I've been using the HP Mini Pro's & Elites in various guises at work, very easy to work with. Recommended if anyone wants some grunt but they are at the premium end when new.

Worth noting they regularly come out with new models so it's a little impossible to keep track but occasionally some good deals can be had at the £300-£500 range on the lower/mid spec models. I wouldn't have any issue picking up used ones.

[DanceswithUnix]

Looks really good! What OS did you go for?

I chucked Windows 10 on there, but it upgraded itself to the latest 11. That's fine, I'm half expecting my dad to re-install it with 10.

We got one at work which runs Fedora Linux, but I haven't had a chance to try using it.