from Hacker News

Under $100 Pre-Owned Mini Computers to Use as Desktop PC's and Servers in 2023

by worldofmatthew on 8/12/23, 5:02 AM with 40 comments

• by squarefoot on 8/12/23, 7:21 AM

  The article doesn't mention used chromeboxes. They're ordinary PCs in everything except that Google locks them in order to force users into ChromeOS, but most of them can be easily liberated and repurposed. For further info: https://mrchromebox.tech/

  Older models are very easy to unlock and their SSD+RAM aren't soldered, so they're easily expandable too. They're also excellent as media players in their stock configuration (4GB RAM,16 GB SSD). 2 years ago I upgraded my Raspberry Pi 4 based Kodi box to a used CN62 Chromebox which I paid roughly half of the RPi cost (and runs circles wrt performance and stability around it) and never looked back. Now I own several of them, mostly HP, Asus, Acer; unlocked all of them and installed different Linux distros with full success.

• by dangus on 8/12/23, 12:13 PM

  I’m not sure why the author brought up used Apple TVs without even mentioning Mac minis.

  The 2012 Mac mini has two 2.5” drive slots, replaceable RAM, a quad-core processor, low idle power consumption, it’s quiet, and you can upgrade it to the latest macOS with OpenCore Legacy patcher. The cost is around $100.

  Chrome Remote Desktop and Jump Desktop are two good ways to access the GUI over the network, or of course you can use SSH or install Linux if you’d like.

  It’s probably not the most cost/performance efficient option but if you have any need to run macOS it’s a good choice.

• by 28304283409234 on 8/12/23, 7:55 AM

  I use secondhand Thinkpads.

  Always a keyboard and screen ready. And battery saved me a number of times when power needed to be cut in th house for maintenance.

• by 3np on 8/12/23, 9:44 AM

  servethehome.com has been talking extensively about the Dell/HP/Lenovo varieties in their TinyMiniMicro series. They also have a bit of coverage on even more affordable and bang-for-buck Mini PCs typically sourced through AliExpress. You typically don't find these on the secondary market (yet) but if buying new is an option you can get a decent Ryzen barebone for ~$300.

• by anyoneamous on 8/12/23, 7:45 AM

  My Thinkcentre just died an early death - only had it 3 years from new. With that I think my time of having a bunch of devices at home to tinker with is coming to an end - just running a couple of VPS instances in Vultr or Hetzner is less hassle.

• by stevezsa8 on 8/12/23, 1:35 PM

  I think it's amazing what you can get these days in terms of used desktops.

  I've been down that route many times. In fact, all my machines are workstations work was throwing out each refresh cycle. So I didn't even pay. Just had to get myself an SSD.

  If you have the money and expect to use it as a reliable primary machine, I'd personally spend the extra $500 and build a new machine. Life is better with faster USB ports and CPU fans that don't rattle :]

  But used machines are great for testing and tinkering.

• by pkulak on 8/12/23, 6:39 AM

  These are amazing options for relatives who need a computer. One of these things with Linux + Firefox will basically cover everything.

  I haven’t totally settled on the distro at the moment. Something immutable, so things can’t go wrong during updates, but you also want something established that you know will be providing updates for a very long time. I’m trying out Nix for this purpose at the moment. There is no graphical App Store for the OS, but if you set up FlatHub then there is. We’ll see how it goes.

• by micheljansen on 8/12/23, 7:29 AM

  I have been running an old HP thin client (I think either a t510 or t520). It’s holding up surprisingly well as a general purpose home server. It is low power, completely silent, comes with 16GB onboard SSD and loads of ports. I’ve added two SATA ports using a cheap extension module from AliExpress, but it also comes with 4 USB ports for external storage.

• by rahimnathwani on 8/12/23, 6:49 AM

  "With electricity prices around 12 cents per killowatt-hour in many places in the United States,"

  Here in SF, we pay about 3x that.

• by mtVessel on 8/12/23, 5:55 AM

  Mini PCs, not Mini Computers. TFA is not talking about vaxen.

• by creer on 8/13/23, 12:43 AM

  How easy has it become to spin up a sleeping linux desktop in response to something monitored by a very-low-power SBC or laptop? - Occasional decent performance box spun up only as needed - but reliably?

  ... looking into this thread from 3 months ago:

  Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way (dgross.ca) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35627107

  Except I remember it now: that seemed just a bit overly involved. Any simpler?

  ... And another one from 4 months ago:

  Using Wake on LAN (WOL) Across the Internet (2010) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35447094

  where one answer seemed to be to use a smart plug. Simpler.

• by rewmie on 8/12/23, 2:13 PM

  I have a Beelink SEi8. That little guy kicks serious ass, and cost me around $300. It's slightly larger than a Raspberry Pi 4, and supports up to 32GB of RAM.

  I see people talking about the Mac Mini, but it can't hold a candle to these micro boxes from the likes of Beelink and Minisforum.

• by tornato7 on 8/12/23, 6:58 AM

  I've seen M1 Mac Minis for sale under $200. With Asahi Linux that could be a very fast and energy efficient home server.

• by willsmith72 on 8/12/23, 7:59 AM

  I'm always so tempted to get a cheapy pc as an alternative to my 2017 MacBook when I'm home, it gets too hot and slow when I use it all day.

  But I love having 2 monitors too much, don't really have space for 2 external ones