I'm in the market to buy a SFF PC for my mother. Her needs are minimal and she lives across the country so something small is preferred, especially if it needs to get shipped back to me for "tech support". Her current PC is an old Dell running Windows XP. She even has a CRT monitor, which needs to get replaced.
There are so many NUC's these days, I don't know where to start. Here are my needs:
I know Intel has some new ones coming out in March, so I can wait if needed. Either wait to buy those, or wait to buy the older ones cheaper. Either way - still needs to run Win7.
There are so many NUC's these days, I don't know where to start. Here are my needs:
- Something fairly powerful, almost normal desktop speed. i5 would be nice.
- Something bare bones so I can add my own SSD and OS (or RAM, but I don't care about that)
- No need for anything other than Intel graphics, but better is fine.
- Minimum 4 USB ports, especially considering the keyboard/mouse takes up two.
- Can take a regular 2.5" SSD
- Relatively quiet.
- Has drivers to run Windows 7. I'm not going with any of that Windows 8 nonsense.
- Does NOT have to be tiny. Small sure, but not micro. As long as it fits in any standard shipping box.
- Power consumption is not a concern since it's not a 24/7 HTPC, but then again, the more powerful & hot, the more loud it might get, so that is a factor.
I know Intel has some new ones coming out in March, so I can wait if needed. Either wait to buy those, or wait to buy the older ones cheaper. Either way - still needs to run Win7.