Small Footprint PC

Al1944

Al1944

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Has anyone any recommendations for a small footprint PC for £300 max (excluding monitor, keyboard, etc) please.

Thanks,
Al
 
Everday stuff - internet browsing, photo storage and viewing etc. Not photo editing :) Also, for viewing films, videos, without (too much) buffering.

We have 2 PCs - one about six or seven years old which I used for the everyday things, but which has just died - I think the hard drive has gone, can only hear clicking when I turn it on and nothing appearing on screen.

I would imagine even a basic spec model will be better than my old one, which I was reasonably happy with.

Thanks,
Al
 
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My atom netbook and the office's atom desktop both drive me nuts when I try to use them...sooo clunky. They feel significantly slower than my phone these days (atom's from 2010 and phone's last year's galaxy)...I know they're not directly comparable machines, but I really do use my phone to browse the web at home over the netbook when my other half nicks the main laptop.

You can get mini-itx machines that'll run full-spec core i5 chips these days - though prob not for under £300. If you build it yourself though you can get very close on budget and get a 'real' desktop chip in I think.

Have a google for SFF (small form factor) cases and motherboards. Or you can get 'smaller than desktop' boxes that aren't as tiny but will run fullsize mATX and ATX motherboards.

I'm in the process of building an editing PC in an Coolermaster Elite 361 case, it's not as small as SFF cases but it's narrow enough I can hide it behind the sofa!
 
atom should be fine for basic usage like browsing if it can cope with HD video (a lot of people use them for HTPC, i had one at one point but i never really got it set up right as a media centre).

£300 isnt going to get very far in the SFF world unfortunately. you might just be able to build an older spec 775 socket ITX with 2nd hand parts?
 
Older Mac Mini (core 2 duo type) perhaps? Windows 7 will go on it, no need to keep OSX installed so you can just format the hard drive during the install process, and there are Windows drivers on the OSX install CD.

No idea about 2nd hand prices but mine cost 400 quids new direct from the apple website.
 
Have to say that the couple of Atom based machines run as web browsers (and media centres - their intended use) fine here. I am running Linux on them here though which may give them an advantage compared to a Windows install (never put windows on them so can't compare).
 
I reckon your HTPC setup had deinterlacing switched on by default..... Reading your thread from a couple of years ago in OCUK, I can get the same symptoms by turning de-interlacing to forced on....
 
arad85 said:
I reckon your HTPC setup had deinterlacing switched on by default..... Reading your thread from a couple of years ago in OCUK, I can get the same symptoms by turning de-interlacing to forced on....
Click to expand...

That was probably it then, shame I got impatient with it lol
 
Thanks for all your suggestions. Not capable of putting one together myself unfortunately.

Might broaden the search to include a mini tower type.

Thanks again,
Al
 
Al1944 said:
Thanks for all your suggestions. Not capable of putting one together myself unfortunately.

Might broaden the search to include a mini tower type.

Thanks again,
Al
Click to expand...

I was just looking at HTPCs and decided (if I had the cash) that a Zotac Nano (the green or blue ringed versions) would be my preferred choice.

I'm currently pondering (when I've finished editing my thesis) about re-packaging my mighty desktop into a HTPC under-tv case and dual booting it as a media center (most of the time) and editing PC (less of time, what with a job and all that ;))
 
I have two Zotac machines, one is the ID41 dual core atom, which is my home server. Runs all my sabnzbd/sickbeard/couchpotato services and XBMC, plays 1080p video flawlessly. Mine has 3TB+ storage part internal, part external (USB3 + eSata). You just need the base unit, a single SO-DIMM for memory and a 2.5" HDD, easily comes in your budget, even with an SSD. It's about the size of a hardback book, and has a VESA mount so you can attach to the back of your monitor. The ID41 is a little old now, you can get faster models for the same money now.

http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=100144&lang=en

Also recently got an Nano XS AD-11plus, which is an astonishing bit of kit! About a quarter of the size of the ID41, but still packing a dual core 1.6ghz processor, 2gb ram, and a 64GB SSD. This runs XBMC again streaming 1080p over the network from the ID41.

http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-nano-xs-ad11-plus.html

The ID41 has enough poke to run Portal 2 respectably, not tried any games on the AD11 though I imagine it's fairly similar in terms of performance.
 
I know this sounds daft but how do you think they'd cope with LR and PS? I'm just thinking for occasional use, I'm doubting the results would be great?
 
Just to close my bit - I ended up buying a refurb mini tower from Dell.

Al
 
I know have my £20 htpc running xbmc via hdmi no problem. Running openelec which is a stripped down linux distro and boots straight into xbmc. Install file is only about 80mb
 
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