Is a mini pc right for me?

[drobi]

Hi there,
Our 5 year old WindowsXP Mesh desktop is really struggling and also increasingly noisy. We have no TV so the desktop has a TV tuner for fairly limited TV watching (maybe 4 or 5 hours per week, MotD, occasional films and TV comedy, occasional kids shows), it is used for lots of music (120GB of mp3 & flac + spotify premium), office 2010 for work, photo storage (100GB and counting) & display, and internet use. In that past its been used for some games (Civ4, football manager) but hasn't been able to cope with that for about 6 months. Good sound quality to my hifi amp is important.

It's on a lot, but the fan noise is very irritating which is why I'm drawn to a mini pc. I started looking at dell, have been all over the place, and ended up on this forum. I'd always expected to replace it with another desktop thinking that mini's just weren't powerful/long lasting enough, but the noise issue is a major factor. Budget is limited - could probably stretch to £450 ish. Is a mini pc the correct route, or am I better with a desktop? What sort of spec to get a good balanced result?
Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Corfate]

A Silent mini PC does sound like it would be ideal for you, and im sure it'll still be able to play those games There is a case, called the "PCS Hush!" I think, and it's fannless (I saw in another thread) so it'll be totally silent I'll let somebody spec you something up, as im not very good at that

 

[Petchi b]

Something like this would be ideal for you. A quiet case and a quiet hard drive with loads of space.

@Corfate - Similar to your spec actually, apart from HDD and not sure what case you have. I'm sure you will be able to back me up in saying the 6670 will be able to run Civ 4 and FM with no problems.

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X2 DUAL CORE 270 (3.40GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6670 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £459.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[drobi]

Thanks Corfate and Petchi b. The spec you suggested isn't a mini pc - would I be correct in thinking that as size of case isn't an issue for me I am best speccing a desktop as powerful and quiet as I can? Would the onboard sound be good enough for me or should I try to stretch to a sound card?
Thanks again....

 

[Wozza63]

i think that an AMD integrated graphics one would be best, it has good graphics on board and will be quieter and shouldnt have any problems playing on low settings

 

[Serendipity]

I am replying to you on a mini p.c I received yesterday from PCS for my grandparents. It's a silent one too... and it's weird, I can't hear ANYTHING. It's ideal for what you need, it has 5.1 sound built in if you fancy adding speakers. Perfect for internet/office use and watching T.V

 

[Corfate]

Something like this would be ideal for you. A quiet case and a quiet hard drive with loads of space.

@Corfate - Similar to your spec actually, apart from HDD and not sure what case you have. I'm sure you will be able to back me up in saying the 6670 will be able to run Civ 4 and FM with no problems.

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X2 DUAL CORE 270 (3.40GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6670 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £459.00 including VAT and delivery.

The 6670 shouldn't have any problems running those games Should be perfect for your needs, but it's not a mini-PC, so