Cheap mini PC ... from AliExpress?

[2Btoo]

Hi,

I'm looking for a cheap mini PC to run PiHole, some home automation stuff and maybe a NAS. An old Intel NUC would be ideal - I'll be spinning up a lightweight Unix mix on it, possibly one with no desktop and just run it headless on a remote command line.

However I've noticed that you can buy new machines (from manufacturers whom I've never heard of) from AliExpress for around £80. Has anyone tried this? Are they any good? If you buy a known chipset with a specified slice of RAM then what could possibly go wrong? ☹️

All suggestions and wisdom welcome! Thanks.

[Jim the Sunderer]

I'd look at a base Mac Mini 2014 model with the Intel™ Core™ i5-4260U™ CPU if 2 cores/4 threads & 4GB meets your requirements.
Very low power use, though the RAM's soldered.


I use an earlier i7, 8GB, twin hard drives version as a Ubuntu web server, also hosting a Windows Server 2019 VM, seems to work quite well.

I can't complain for £75.

[nyt]

I have a Lenovo M73 with an i3 processor and an HP G3 with an i5
Each cost about £50 from ebay and they are great little machines

Something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166176564003

[MesoForm]

There was a 'low power computing' thread not too long ago that might give a few suggestions, I bought an HP thin client HP T630 off the back of that thread and it happily runs Linux Mint Mate. Think it cost £60 and runs at 10-15W.

[deanobeano]

Buy an bombproof Thinkpad laptop of Ebay - if you go with one of the U processors, it will be low power. Easy to upgrade ram/SSD etc and also has a screen keyboard built in.

[Beati Dogu]

nyt said:

I have a Lenovo M73 with an i3 processor and an HP G3 with an i5
Each cost about £50 from ebay and they are great little machines

Something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166176564003

I also got a LenovoM73 from Ebay, although I upgraded the CPU from an i3 to an i7 (also from Ebay).its a nice little computer and is currently running Linux Mint, which I’m quite impressed with.

[ARHarh]

I run 2 hp t630s right now. I was so impressed with the first one running pihole , omv and home assistant. I bought a second to run motioneye. You can pick them up cheap.If you wait, then add some second hand ram and ssd. Good bit of kit then for about £60.

[Church of Noise]

What everyone above is saying: used thin client like Lenovo Tiny or HP Mini or ..., ideally with Celeron or i3, even better i3 that ends in u (for ultra low power, were typically used in low power devices such as thin clients, laptops etc
I've bought a HP 260 G3 with an i3-7130u running Home Assistant at 3W.

[dudleybloke]

I have a HP Elitedesk 800 G3 mini for running Serato and it's a pretty solid bit of kit, came with SSD, 8gb ram and I5-7600 and I paid less than £100.