New mini PC advice - 5820K finally went kaput

Karnivore

Active member
Had a great X99 build I got from PCS about five years ago now, upgraded the RAM, got a 980ti and bought a Noctua cooler in that period, my chip was decent too as it could clock to 4.6GHz no sweat, and I never attempted past that just to be on the safe side. Great machine despite the X99 flaws.

Last week my X99-S board showed the dreaded 00 code, and no amount of fiddling around has fixed it. I even took the thing apart and reseated the CPU, so i'm still none the wiser if it's PSU, board, CPU or RAM playing up. At this point the X99 chipset is old enough that it's not worth ploughing any money into for a new mobo/CPU.

I think my needs have changed since 5 years ago too, and all I really need is a media playback machine with some light application use for Office and a few other apps, heavy browser usage. I am aware the next set of Ryzen APU's are just around the corner which has made this quite annoying, but i'm struggling along with my office laptop, so looking for a very small build to get me along the way (and who knows, maybe keep).

Any suggestions? I do have a 4K monitor so would like something that can also playback 4K@60. I think the Intel iGPU's since Skylake all support it with HEVC decode capabilities (which my 980ti didn't even have), so that's pushing me towards Intel. Thinking of a mini-itx build without splurging a fortune, though PCS really seem to be lacking at the moment with their mini PC configuration options.
 

Karnivore

Active member
This is the frustrating thing, I don't really have a strict budget to go off, my limit was going to be £400 for a small backup HTPC as I wait for next gen, but then you start moving parts around and end up being within a few quids range of getting something better, before you know it your build has gone up by about £200-300. Jotting some things down (for my own sanity):
  • - Small form factor, possibly ITX/NUC? (Currently have a Fractal R5, far too big and heavy)
  • - GPU/iGPU capable of 4K@60 output w HEVC decode without bogging PC down - presuming UHD Graphics 600 does the job, or GT 1030?
  • - HDCP 2.2/HDR compliant for Netflix/Amazon
  • - Quick enough processor for multi-tasking (browsing with multitude of tabs/browsing sessions, office, media playback)
  • - 4 USB3 ports (i'll be using my external HDD's till I can sort a separate issue with my current Internal ones)
  • - WiFi not important, it'll be near a router
I feel like i'm describing something very basic without realising it. :(
 
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