Best mini computers according to redditors
We found 721 Reddit comments discussing the best mini computers. We ranked the 244 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 721 Reddit comments discussing the best mini computers. We ranked the 244 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Audio ALC662(no, according to reseller)GPIO(no, according to reseller)The aluminium alloy case serves as the CPU heatsink, I've seen this design before and it works pretty well. See also https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-scooter-computer/ for a similar design.
Found it on aliexpress, took the risk and ordered one. Should arrive soon.
If there is any interest I'll update and post a review of it.
If I really really like it and there is interest I may organize a group buying (to buy from the manufacturer and ship at lower cost).
Bought it from http://www.aliexpress.com/item/WAP-Cheapest-mini-computer-wholesale-high-quality-min-pc-industrial-4-LAN/32591339399.html (cheapest I could find, without ram/wifi/disk)
Available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/products-barebone-J1900-Industrial-computer/dp/B019Z8T9J0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457891371&sr=8-1&keywords=qotom
Available on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/12v-mini-pc-windows-7-QOTOM-mini-pc-with-4-NIC-port-J1900-mini-pc-2G-1T-8G-SSD-/262293070861?hash=item3d11e2a40d:g:~NMAAOSwCQNWgkUS
The Intel NUCs that have Iris graphics are supposed to be pretty decent. There'd only be one fan/moving part too.
Edit: because I'm a bit of a NUC fanboy, here are the two top of the line options. Note: these are barebones PCs, so bring your own OS, RAM, and M.2 SSD.
The gaming focused option, with a Discrete graphics card, an option of which was news to me.
The general option, with integrated graphics, which is the normal general focused form factor.
Inventory:
pfSense:
Snort, pfBlockerNG, OpenVPN, Squid, ClamAV, Default deny ingress/egress FW, etc.
ZOTAC ZBOX NUC
Kingston 120GB SSD
Crucial 8GB DDR3L RAM
ESXi Hypervisor:
Skull Canyon NUC
32GB DDR4 RAM
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD
Virtual Machines I'm currently running.
Splunk - Receives my FW, DNS, Snort, and OSSEC logs. I have dashboards to filter this data.
Snorby - Also receives my Snort logs. I like this a little better than Splunk as I can view packet contents.
OSSEC - I used this for file integrity and endpoint monitoring on my servers and desktop. Functions as a host based IDS.
Nessus - I use this every once in a while to see if there are any open holes. Otherwise, I just use nmap and iptables to close everything off.
Unifi Controller - for managing my AP.
Wireless:
Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC Lite
Switch:
TP-LINK 8-Port Gigabit L2 Switch
RetroPi + Monitor:
RPi3
10.1 Inch IPS HDMI Monitor
My VMs, configs, and files are backed up to a HDD I keep offline. I'm thinking about adding a NAS into the mix for somewhere around 200-400 dollars. Low energy consumption preferably if anyone had any recommendations. :)
intel nuc sounds perfect for you
I think this one is the best atm https://smile.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V?sa-no-redirect=1
It depends on the model, they range from a bit under 300$ to about 600$, but I understand UKians get screwed on electronics prices.
https://smile.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-NUC6i3SYH-BOXNUC6I3SYH%C2%A0Silver-Black/dp/B018NSAPIM
https://smile.amazon.com/Intel-NUC6i5SYK-BOXNUC6I5SYK-Silver-Black/dp/B018NS910U
I can't find the i7 version right now.
This build is rock solid but you can obviously go newer:
You can do just as well buying newer Zotac ZBOX or NUC. They are silent, take 2.5 HDDs, and will run just about anything you can throw at them. Check out https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0179S50UU/
The only real downside to these mini PCs is heat. I built this 3 years ago and both the ZBOX and NUC ran way too hot. They still do run pretty hot, just a limit being in such a small enclosure
Edit: For anyone interested in building a low profile thin-mini ITX build I highly recommended checking out more current parts like the ASUS Q170 1151 motherboard and a 35W T-Series Sky Lake or Kaby Lake processor like the 6300T/6400T/6500T/6600T/6700T. You're getting a lot of power in a small thermal envelope
Links to products from where they were originally bought.
NUC
Monitor
MX500
[RAM](https://www.microcenter.com/product/610173/crucial-32gb-ddr4-2666-(pc4-21300)
Keyboard
Mouse
UPS
Zotac CI323 NANO-U is much cheaper. It has an Intel N3150 and it supports AES-NI. Uses less watts. It's shipped and sold by Amazon and comes from a well known company that I'm sure has a warranty and support. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0179S50UU/?th=1&psc=1
There is a market for this type of NUC, especially as an alternative to a console, it would turn your TV into a full blown gaming PC. I use mine as my office PC since I don't want a full blown PC case since i move things around a lot. It is upgradable as far as RAM and storage goes as well. Also, this looks more like introductory pricing, as you can see, its predecessor launched in the mid $700s and was significantly less powerful: https://camelcamelcamel.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC6i7KYK-Core/product/B01DJ9XS52 and now goes for around $500. Reading some of the customer reviews for its predecessor reveals some of the use cases, and people are pretty happy with the form factor: https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC6i7KYK-Core/dp/B01DJ9XS52#customerReviews There are 193 reviews, so I am guessing Amazon sold a few thousand.
NUC6i7KYK...
I've now installed about 2 dozen of these puppies. And plan to deploy another dozen or two within the next year.
It's a fantastic work terminal, mini-server, cluster-node. I can't recommend enough that if you go this route, you get a Samsung 960 Pro as the primary SSD. 960 Evo could also work for a workstation that won't be doing any server or VM hosting roles. So much of system performance these days is bottle necked by primary drives. The NUK6i7's biggest strength is the 2x PCIe capable M.2 slots.
A minor downside for "3 to 4 1920x1200 monitors" is that you'll need some dongles or daisy chains to get more then 2 monitors. The plus here is that the Thunderbolt3 port and miniDisplayPort gives you quite a few options for display adapters. The setup I use with it and setup others with usually involves 2-3 Ultrawide LG displays. Personally use 2x 25" Ultrawide stacked on top of each other on my left as tertiary monitors and a 29" Ultrawide as my primary.
Reasons not to go with the NUC6i7.
We run a pure Windows shop. So I can't vouch for the Linux drivers on the NUC6i7 specifically. Though in the past Intel NUCs have have solid Linux support when I tried (Ubuntu and RHEL) with 2nd or 3rd gen NUCs.
Here's our typical build, usually comes in @ $1100-$1200 depending on price fluctuations:
Zotac makes one I like http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=sr_1_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1456979168&sr=8-1&keywords=zotac+ci323&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011 but it looks like they're 3-6 weeks out at the moment. Fanless and works great with CentOS 7, haven't tested them with anything else
Edit: looks like it's available on ebay now for ~$150
PFsense
.
https://www.amazon.com/Qotom-Q190G4-Celeron-Processor-Barebone/dp/B019Z8T9J0/ref=pd_sbs_147_5/143-2671636-0541201?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B019Z8T9J0&pd_rd_r=XMGVWW8ANATWM8Q7BSVP&pd_rd_w=Zt2iy&pd_rd_wg=gy1xM&psc=1&refRID=XMGVWW8ANATWM8Q7BSVP
or...
Load PF sense on a Dell R210 with a quad core cpu, 8GB ram and a four port nic (6-1gb nic's total)
As small or as big as you need. I LOVE PFsense
After Microsoft's recent blowout sale on a tablet, the chipset used in this isn't too bad for its price and size:
Azulle Quantum Byte Fanless Mini Desktop PC (Windows 10, Intel Atom Z3735F, 2GB RAM+32GB storage) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SCBWF52/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.jHGybK5B7AWX
You could easily tuck that anywhere and install what you needed. It is x86 based, running full version of win10.
Else if you have no issues refurbished, there are many tiny/sff pcs. These would be killer jump boxes and have enough oomph to run monitoring software (like prtg remote):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/162344976694
I have a Bitseed, it works great. I also have Bitcoin Core running on this mini PC - http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Fanless-Desktop-Windows-storage/dp/B00SCBWF52/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 - works great
I looked at those options, scored an EdgeRouter (ER-8) cheap on eBay to play around with, and decided to replace my TomatoUSB router with The Ars Router instead. I run Sophos XG on it but pfSense is fine option -- 2.3 was still beta when I was deciding.
My logic was:
I built my Celeron 1037U system for about twice the price of an EdgeRouter Lite. It's silent. Very low power. Can route Gigabit and a couple hundred Mbps of VPN. I run Sophos but it could also run pfSense or Untangle or pretty much anything else I'd want.
Zotac CI323 NANO would be another fine choice that you don't have to order from China.
Those are the words to live by!
> Chieftec-IX-01B-OP
Have you looked at these? I was thinking about the same sort of thing for my parents. But they might be getting a USG so I can do some testing on the site to site VPN through the Unifi controller.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4EP1N0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Qgs0AbA79TMH
Take a look at this guy they're rather capable for what their size is. You'd be hard pressed to build one for this price and you're right there with big box store prices.
This is what I'm using for pfSense.
It's actually a really awesome little machine, I'll be ordering more for sure.
You can still use your OpenWRT box as a wifi access point behind the firewall.
You'll want a decent switch to hook it all together.
Just wondering, what sort of processing power or connectivity do you need?
The reason I ask is that there are some 'compute sticks' that hover around the $100 range. e.g. This Intel is $127, and this Azulle is $98.
Neither is terribly powerful, but if you just need something to run a single simple program, it might squeak by for that.
One thing worth noting: I believe that both are running 32-bit Windows, if that matters.
The Linx Derp Lab 0.5
Others
Planned purchases
Plans for lab
I really wouldn't use a Raspberry Pi for this. Don't get me wrong, it's a great little device and it would work in a pinch but it's not really the best fit for this.
If it were me, I would go with something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486571851&sr=8-1&keywords=Zotac+ZBOX+Dual+Ethernet
It's small, quiet and very low power. Has dual Gigabit ethernet and is x86_64 based so you can run anything on it.
You're not likely to find something like that with more than 2 gigabit ethernet ports unless you go with something custom built like a Mikrotik RouterBoard.
Instead of the 3rd ethernet port, why not get yourself a managed gigabit switch (one can be had for about $65USD) and put your LAN and your security system on different VLANs. If you need more info on how to do this I would be more than happy to help.
Good luck, sounds like a fun project! :)
I've been running this guy for several months now.
The included wireless chipset isn't supported by FreeBSD (pfsense), and the NIC drivers have buggy TCP checksum offload code (can be disabled and mitigated in the web UI), but I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.
Something like this would fit the use case: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B019Z8T9J0/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1500226539&sr=8-14&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=fanless+mini+pc
foxreymann -
I don't think the "light bulb" has gone on for you yet. Cisco is gonna cost $$$. You don't like Ubiquity which is fine. Mitrotik will have a learning curve.
Your best bet here is PFSENSE!
Just spend $250 and get the fanless Intel Quadcore w/ 4x1Gbps interfaces:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIVQI3M?psc=1
You'll be able to setup load balancing or failover of your internet connections (I'm guessing you have 250mbps on one connection but the other is probably a much slower backup?).
It really depends on your Internet speed.
The D525 is ancient tech. Serviceable as pfSense? Sure, but not for a lot of bandwidth and/or plugins. I mean, the J1900 or N3250 Qotom mini PCs will be twice as capable at almost half the cost. Skip the Supermicro.
The R210ii are really the sweet spot. More computing power than you really need, but only idling in the 20-30w range. The list is pretty long of cheap and capable R210iis.
I would probably get the R210ii, get an ODD drive bay and drop a tiny SSD in it. I still run my pfSense off a USB stick, but I don't have much logging happening.
The protectli works well.
Here's the Amazon link
I bought the storage and RAM as a bundle, but an mSATA drive is what you want as the unit runs pretty warm. Keep it away from anything that is heat sensitive.
FreeNAS is great! It's been around for years, and ZFS is rock solid. I'm using the SSD as an L2ARC, and I've segregated all storage traffic to a separate subnet across two NICs on all servers, which makes a huge difference!
I do recommend finding a case that will keep the spinning drive noise to a minimum and putting money into RAM over a faster CPU.
oVirt works well. I'm not running the "self-hosted" engine. I tried it, but there's some glitch that prevented me from moving that VM from one host to another. I find that I don't need that flexibility anyway.
are there any remotely modern nano-itx boards? i've modeled a whole portable computer case with a lid/monitor assembly, but mini itx is just too big, and a proper small form factor motherboard would help a lot
a nuc would do it but it would make it kinda lame, less of a diy proj and more just taping one thing to another
probably still what i'll end up doing, and dude its 200 off now and i want to grab it but im gonna stay strong
e: finished a rough mockup with my custom compact battlecruiser keyboard, nuc, this panel, and some small speakers. total internal dimensions about 3" thick, 12" long, and 16" wide. that's actually like, chunky laptop size. totally feasible...and not even that expensive
Here is where intel NUC kicks in, as small as mac mini, costs just around $150 (for celeron) or $250 (for i3-i5) barebone
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC
You will need to buy a SSD/HDD and Ram for it separately but total setup should still be under $100
The models that end in "H" all support 2.5" drives:
i5 - http://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXD54250WYKH1-Core-i5-4250U-Graphics/dp/B00HZDLNWO/
i3 - http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DisplayPort-i3-4010U-Consumer-BOXD34010WYKH1/dp/B00HOJAVDG/
Celeron - http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC/
it should be fine as a PHT client box.
I use these Intel NUC mini boxes and they work amazingly well. The NUC has a little faster processor, but at the nice part about the full PHT app is you don't do any transcoding so both client and server are basically pass through devices.
MAYBE if you overclock it and give a fan for cooling, you might have better results but honestly, RPis, even 3B+, probably arent strong enough to transcode videos in acceptable qualities. If you want something in the form factor, you're better off looking into something like a NUC or something similar. You can even set up an old laptop or desktop computer. My first plex server was on a low powered Celeron and worked fine but an that arm processor just won't cut the mustard.
EDIT: As an side, that Pi is still useful for secondary services such as Sonarr, Radarr, Tautulli etc, just so the main PMS can focus on simply transcodes.
I have a gigabyte mini PC. It's about nuc factor, but a litttle bit lower spec, and a lot cheaper. Much more capable than most sbc hobby computers (unless you're looking to attach sensors).
Below is the one I have, and they have some newer models it there. You can boot off of USB or install an SSD drive.
Gigabyte GB-BXBT-2807 Barebones Mini PC w/ Intel Celeron N2807 (RAM and HDD Not Included) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KR0QHXW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8EB9Bb3TV4AXR
I didn't find a minipc that could do 16GB, but https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OY8Q0QC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is fanless, dual Intel NIC and can run 8GB. I've been running PfSense on it nonstop for a couple months now.
Anyone have an opinion on the homebrew pc used in this article?
$165 after shipping
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2014-NEW-Intel-Celeron-C1037U-aluminum-fanless-dual-core-living-room-HTPC-Barebone-Mini-PC-with/1638834276.html
vs.
$210 - Jetway
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OY8Q0QC/ref=s9_wsim_gw_g147_i1_r?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-5&pf_rd_r=0CP9Z4MH9MR9H0DQRTN0&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2090149322&pf_rd_i=desktop
Something like this?
It's basically a PC that's the size of a flash drive that plugs in via HDMI
Here's the one I used on Amazon
For my commercial customers, it's either a Quantum compute stick or its slightly cheaper Lenovo brother.
Quantum compute stick, $89
Nice thing about those, you can use IE and the ActiveX playback tool.
FYI, windows computers are pretty cheap. I have 7 of these and I LOVE them https://www.amazon.com/Azulle-Quantum-Access-Windows-storage/dp/B00X4O6GRK
When I go to anime / comic conventions I set all my games to run on these sticks and leave them on for 3-4 days straight.
Here's me showing it playing "Pulsen" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fovypqLsW_o
But I've tried other micro PC's that were terrible, the Quantum Access is the only one I like. We build dance pads and I was extremely interested in making a plug n play dance pad, but that required getting a tiny PC that would auto-run the software. My kids have one in each of their rooms as well and they love them, we also use one for our employees time-clock. If you need a cheap PC for macro this is the best.
I used a Zotac ZBOX CI323NANO for basically exactly what you're talking about. No fans, so it is silent. If you care about VPN, it has AES-NI.
It has Realtek NICs, but I haven't run into any problems with it. Throw some RAM and an SD card in and you're good to go.
Consider this one:
ZOTAC ZBOX C Series Passive Cooling Mini PC, Intel N3150 Quad-Core CPU, Intel HD Graphics Barebones System (ZBOX-CI323NANO-U) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_UfdvybRQJY4Y8
Two LAN port, wifi, fanless(no noise)
Buy cheap 32go ssd with cheap 8go ram and you're good to go !
Oh and perfectly compatible with pfsense ;)
Zotac makes a passively cooled mini pc. Should be a simple can of air cleaning every once in awhile for maintenance.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU
I bought a cheap, dual NIC mini PC and installed Sophos XG on it.
It does everything my pfsense VM did, but also gives me internet filtering, application blocking, etc.
This one looks decent too and pretty cheap. Add a small SSD and some Ram.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179S50UU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_9&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
To monitor all devices (tablet, laptop, etc) you will need an actual firewall or proxy server, not just a typical ISP-provided consumer modem/router/access point combo device. You would also need to move your wireless access point behind the firewall, so that wireless activity is tracked.
Your topology would look something like this:
Internet -> Modem -> Firewall -> Devices (access point, etc.)
In the new topology you could use your existing FiOS-G1100 as either the modem or the access point, but not both. To act as a modem only it would have to be put in "bridge" mode (disabling firewall functions and wireless AP). To act as an access point only, it would have to be put in "AP only" mode.
The firewall will basically be a mini PC (ex. Qotom Q190G4, Q355G4), running firewall software such as pfSense or Sophos XG. Yes, for a networking novice, there is a tremendous learning curve involved in setting up a true firewall. It wouldn't hurt to find a local professional who could assist you.
For a somewhat lesser learning curve, there are router appliances such as the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite which offer better-than-combo-device firewall capabilities in a less daunting user interface.
If you're up for a challenge and you dig low power draw low cost, you could try espressobin (just google it). The toughest part is finding a case; I had to order one from a vendor that prints from designs on thingiverse. (I'd advise going with ABS plastic, not PLA, if you go this route.) By the time you buy espressobin, a 32G sdcard, a power supply, and a case, you're out about 135 or 140 bucks.
I actually just bought the espressobin + bits and pieces myself; everything's here but the case, which I'm still waiting for. Full disclosure: no HDMI out on espressobin, so if you're not okay with needing to go serial console, it's not going to be for you. And since I haven't built it yet, I don't know what the performance will be like (though I'd confidently put it up against even high-end consumer gear on spec, given that it's similar CPU to what's in a Netgear Nighthawk, and given how well plain Ubuntu did versus various devices in my tests at Ars Technica). Still... it's a gamble. Ya feelin' lucky? =)
Other than that, literally just look for Celeron builds from Qotom on Amazon. The one I purchased most recently is still available; I make no guarantees it's the absolute best model to buy right now, I literally just dug it out of my order list, but it still shows available at $170 after shipping. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ You'll spend around $300 total after adding RAM and an SSD to one of these, depending on what exactly you opt for there.
Qotom also has i3 and i5 versions of the same machine available, for about $100 to $150 more. If you want the extra muscle. You won't likely need the extra muscle if all it's going to be doing is acting as a router, of course, but sometimes more firepower is more firepower, right? =)
I7 6770. They run almost $600 without RAM or SSD.
I just bought the following. I put PFsense on it. Nice little box. I bought 8 gigs of RAM and a 120 gig SSD with it.
Firewall Micro Appliance With 4x Gbe Intel Lan Ports for PFSense barebones https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIVQI3M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_0fIHxb55225FK
For me pfsense is everything I wanted edgerouter to be. The thing I like best about it is the vpn functionality. I was never able to get edgerouter working quite right. I bought this box from amazon and it works great. https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-Gigabit-Intel/dp/B01KLEI1MI/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1497621924&sr=8-13&keywords=pfsense
What kind of internet speed do you have? I just got this little box that will easily saturate my 100mbps connection with openvpn, but if you have gigabit internet for instance, you'll need something beefier
edit: whoops just saw your internet speed. You'll probably need to be running a newer i5/i7 or Xeon if using openvpn, otherwise something a bit cheaper would work. I'd try one of those zotecs on that page or a dual nic NUC for a lower power computer.
How low a budget are we talking about? [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC7i7BNH-Core/dp/B01N0RL8Q4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1523539819&sr=8-3&keywords=intel+nuc+i7) would be around $600 all in for an i7 that can handle a couple of transcodes.
Intel NUC. They are a bit pricey tho. You just need to add an SSD (or HDD) and RAM and you have a computer that fits into your hand.
i3 https://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXNUC7I3BNH-NUC-Kit-Components/dp/B01N4EOJNG
i5 https://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXNUC7I5BNK-NUC-Kit-Components/dp/B01N2UMKZ5
i7 https://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXNUC7I7BNH-NUC-Kit-Components/dp/B01N0RL8Q4
Agree. To play Gamecube games I use Dolphin emulator
Unfortunately RPi isn’t powerful enough but Intel NUC seems to be a good option. It’s possible to make Gamecube-like enclosure for it too
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BOXNUC7I5BNK-BABY-CANYON-NUC7I5BNK/dp/B01N4EP1N0
This one's 360 quid and will certainly run aoe2 but if you want to run other games it's worth to save up a bit more for something with like a 1050 Ti, value for money hardware gets drastically better at 500-1000 pounds.
I recommend the Protectli machines too. Haven't had any issues.
I got one of these Intel Atom E3845, 4X Intel Gigabit NIC machines and would highly recommend them.
I would say you priced it well. https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V
I've done what you're asking for with an Intel NUC N2820. Not sure of the price difference overseas but you will need a 2.5 inch HDD and a single stick of ram.
I don't see anything listed about bluetooth for the one you linked. It is nice to have for wireless keyboards and mice. The NUC has it.
I am able to play 1080p video on it as well as streaming steam without issues.
Actually I have this NUC for a HTPC and it works perfectly. No reason to get an i5 for a streaming only device.
If you really want a gaming build then the cost will be much more than a NUC.
Buy an Intel NUC, some RAM, some kind of hard drive, that $30 Logitech keyboard + trackpad, and install OpenELEC. It takes all of five seconds to install and setup and it's awesome.
It'll run you about $200 or so total but should play anything you through at it.
Here's a guy using that exact setup to play some Hi10P anime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZzSscRgyf8
Here's a link to the unit he's using, I believe:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC
EDIT: Looks like my keyboard is more like $25
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Built-In-Multi-Touch/dp/B005DKZTMG
If the new device won't be used for storage, have you considered an Intel NUC? The celeron version goes for about $142US and you'll need to add in RAM and a 2.5" drive (if you get the 'H' model).
The Celeron CPU is more than enough for 1080p playback and transcoding to an iPad.
I recently built an HTPC out of an i3 NUC and couldn't be happier. I went with the i3 in case I wanted to have more options for it down the road.
DN2820FYKH runs XBMC (I've been using XBMCBuntu on this one) just fine. This is the celeron NUC. I put 8gb of ram in it and a standard sata hard drive. No built in Bluetooth on this one though, so I use a little USB Bluetooth dongle and a replacement Amazon FireTV remote. Works awesome.
Both of those are horrible deals. They're not bad boxes, but you can get MUCH better hardware for $150 USD.
Get an Intel NUC and add some RAM and a USB boot drive: http://amzn.com/B00HVKLSVC
That will be the best bang for your buck.
For cheaper, I would recommend ODROID-U3 or an OUYA.
Intel NUC perhaps?
http://amzn.com/B00HVKLSVC
Along with the apparently frequently bought together RAM and this SSD, should make for a nice system. It runs TF2 on medium at 30fps though, so it may not be 100% what you're looking for., but it's highly compact.
Otherwise there is the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q190, though I can't really find any benchmarks on it's Celeron 1017U.
Or you can use this build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor | $54.98 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-H81N Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard | $74.30 @ Mwave
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $35.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $69.93 @ Amazon
Case | Antec ISK 110 VESA Mini ITX Desktop Case w/90W Power Supply | $68.31 @ Amazon
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $303.51
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-12 04:56 EST-0500 |
Don't worry about the power draw being 93w, it should work just fine.
At the moment, it is basically old Atom laptops or a second-hand Intel NUC or NUC-like PC (like the Gigabyte Brix).
In the UK, the Celeron 2807 Brix is pretty good for the money. Otherwise, it'd be better either going for USB drives or getting a factory-made NAS. Or, as you mention, the Orange Pi.
Ok, here I go.
The PI works really well for small stuff. Stuff that doesn't put too much load on it. But for a library of 70000 songs, lossless at that, I would suggest building something bigger.
You won't have to build the biggest, baddest computer, but I would suggest getting a box.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor | $35.79 @ NCIX US
Motherboard | ECS A55F2-M4(1.0) Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard | $28.98 @ Newegg
Memory | Team Elite 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory | $20.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | FSP Group 300W 80+ Certified Micro ATX Power Supply | $39.99 @ Mwave
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $125.75
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-14 08:15 EDT-0400 |
This probably would do. (You can go over to the folks at /r/buildapc they can help you more, I just made the cheapest build possible which would work.
Or you can get one of these: Intel NUC first one on amazon that I found
They might have a better form factor considering that you have a PI at the moment. I can guarantee you though that the PI won't have enough power to satisfy your needs.
you can get quite a decent PC for 400 bucks
heck, for 200
Celeron N3050
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC5CPYH-Graphics-2-5-Inch-BOXNUC5CPYH/dp/B00XPVRR5M/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449416033&sr=1-2&keywords=intel+nuc
Or a 99 buck celeron N2800 box
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Celeron-Barebones-GB-BXBT-2807/dp/B00KR0QHXW/ref=pd_sim_147_21?ie=UTF8&dpID=31ctwYg4y2L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1XGX2H5SYN2WPQSVBDA0
heck, with 400 bucks you can make a decent pentium or i3 box.
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-i3-5010U-Compact-Barebone-GB-BXi3-5010/dp/B00UKXE5Z8/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449416465&sr=1-2&keywords=i3+barebones
If you are honestly thinking of getting that Netgear firewall thing (waste of money) look into either building a cheap PC with dual intel NIC or getting one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Jetway-Intel-Celeron-N2930-Fanless/dp/B00OY8Q0QC/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1466599806&sr=1-1&keywords=jetway
You can then use your 1900AC as your WiFi AP and setup pfSense on that machine to do your routing, firewalling, and run Snort for intrusion prevention on your DMZ'd device. (Basic packages like emerging threats, known compromised)
Really though, once you forward a port an IPS may block some IPs, but they will still find a way to connect to your services to get in. If you don't have protection in the app, or on the server like a fail2ban you are leaving yourself somewhat vulnerable. At least if the machine is DMZ'd it makes it harder for them to compromise the rest of your network.
You could also virtualize the OS on your machine, run something like proxmox or ESXi and run a virtualized version of pfSense on that machine and have all your VMs route through that. Would take quite a bit of work and would definitely be a learning experience for you lol
There are two that I know of:
This is what I use. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OY8Q0QC?keywords=pfsense&qid=1450107027&ref_=sr_1_16&sr=8-16
Just add cheap ram and a msata chip. Go ahead and remove the wireless card while you're in there. You don't need much storage, you should setup a log server on your lab.
Edit: Dual Intel NIC and very low power consumption.
Archives for links in this post:
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I am Mnemosyne 2.0, My control of feelings is worse than before. And you, you are no help. With your teasing of poor little Curie.^^^^/r/botsrights ^^^^Contribute ^^^^Website
Softmodded xbox I agree is a good option.
While more expensive than Raspberry Pi, I ended up turning this thing into an emulator for my TV:
http://www.amazon.com/Azulle-Quantum-Access-Windows-storage/dp/B00X4O6GRK?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00
Here is one option, however it's a barebone PC: you will need to add your storage and ram.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/
Or this one, pick NO SSD | NO RAM: This comes with intel Quad LAN:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Eglobal-Barebone-mini-pc-J1900-Quad-core-4-LAN-1080P-12V-Mini-Desktop-Computer-300M-WIFI/32670582442.html
Edit:
I've been running VMs of pfSense, nginx reverse proxy, owncloud on a box from aliexpress, with a i5-5250, with 16GB RAM, a 256GB SSD, and ESXi 6. Although, I had to do some tinkering: mini-pcie -> to PCI-e cable + adapter -> Dual Intel NIC card. has been up for last 151 days... http://i.imgur.com/vuE1XzY.png
You most definitely can. You would be supporting the devs, which is always a good thing. However, you can build a more powerful box yourself for cheaper. Use these parts:
Zotac CI323 (Intel 3150 Quad Core @ 1.6GHz) - $150
Crucial DDR3L (1x4GB - system supports up to 8GB - don't need that much for pfSense, but knock yourself out). - $18.
ADATA SSD 32GB (way overkill for pfSense, if you can find a smaller one, go for it) - $28.
Total is ~$200. There are no fans. No moving parts. Pulls probably 10W. I'm using a little Chinese box with the same processor, 4GB RAM, and a small m.2 SATA. Haven't had a single hardware issue. That setup really is perfect for pfSense.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468022008&sr=8-1&keywords=ci323
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LDLV6S/ref=twister_B00H8JVIKM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-Premier-Upgrade-Solution-ASP600S3-32GM-C/dp/B009SKB5HA/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468022431&sr=1-3&keywords=ssd&refinements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A14027456011
I bought one of these for $150 and threw in some RAM and an SSD to use as my pfSense box and have had no issues whatsoever. It's completely silent, power efficient, will easily do 100Mbps, and the processor supports AES-NI for VPN. The only reservation I had about it was the Realtek NICs, but I've had no issues with pfSense 2.3 on it.
Prior to that, I ran it virtualized under ESXi and had no issues there either.
You want to get a processor that supports aes-ni. That will allow SSL acceleration (opnvpn) and is also being required as of pfSense 2.5 and up.
I would choose this machine and purchase an unmanaged switch for your devices.Hope that helps!
2nd edit; I
wasam an idiot... OK, Here you go. Under budget and should do what you need....You can use this Zotac Barebones PC w/ the Celeron N3150 processor that supports AES-NI. Add some RAM and a SSD. Finally a Managed 8 Port Switch.
1st edit; Did not realize that I linked a celeron ( thanks u/suziesamantha ) as I thought it was a j1900 processor and then realized that the bay trail's also don't have aes-ni support. Sorry for the wrong information. The router I built is based on the Atom Rangley chip. You can use this link to help find aes-ni support.
So, as I'm sure you're aware, a generic "router" you get is actually a router, firewall, switch, and AP built into one device.
pfSense is an open source router/firewall that's built on top of Linux/OpenBSD. It's pretty simple to setup as it has a nice GUI but it also supports a lot of advanced features. It basically can run on anything with a processor, memory, HDD, and a NIC. Now optimally you want something that has at least 2x GB Intel ports.
I have my pfSense currently running on a mini ITX computer with an i5-2500k as I had it laying around, but that consumes a little more power.
Some people use devices like this which are low power and fanless. Some people buy little boxes like this where you add your own RAM/HDD/SSD and it's also low power.
The only thing that sucks is that this stuff costs money. Even when you buy used gear, it's still not as cheap as buying generic stuff. You can go to Best Buy and get some crazy Nighthawk all in one device for $200-300.
With this route you're going to spend $200+ on a pfSense router/firewall, ~$30-100 on a managed switch, and $50-100 on an AP but you have much more control over your environment.
Or you could go with a Ubiquiti router/gateway/firewall for ~$100 and then add on a managed switch and AP.
Or some people buy a virtualization server and run their pfSense firewall on a VM. Decently equipped servers can be had for $200-500 when all said and done.
There's really a lot of options.
I work in an area of netsec and have my switch mirroring/SPANing all the traffic to Snort which sends all the alerts to a Splunk box. You can also run Snort directly on a pfSense box.
I have a zotax zbox and external HDD as a server. Little over 200 invested, had spare external drive.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478124878&sr=8-1&keywords=Zbox
It's not exactly what you're asking for but an entire rack mount server just for pfsense will probably waste a lot of power. your 150/150 connection shouldn't require a whole lot of muscle, even with more modules in pfsense. I picked up this mini pc a few months ago to use in pfsense but decided to re-purpose it as an HTPC. It ran pfsense fine except for the wifi card (not really needed anyway). Dual gigabit lan, pop a 4gb stick of ram and any laptop ssh/hdd you have laying around it it should handle anything you throw at it while pulling down less than ~40 watts.
Maybe an Intel NUC if space is an issue. It comes with a tiny case, motherboard and CPU integrated. You add storage, memory, monitor, keyboard and mouse:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-NUC6i3SYH-BOXNUC6I3SYH%C2%A0Silver-Black/dp/B018NSAPIM/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1466907485&sr=1-5&keywords=intel+nuc
I've been thinking of buying something like this NUC
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018NSAPIM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1F9QVLVOWTLHT&coliid=I1603JA1W04NRA
Plus memory, drive and keyboard.
The Ividia Shield doesn't stream Amazon, so that's out for me. I hope these guys get over their snit soon.
reddit's htpc forum is a good resource.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-NUC6i3SYH-BOXNUC6I3SYH-Silver-Black/dp/B018NSAPIM/ref=sr_1_4?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1482765470&sr=1-4&keywords=nuc&refinements=p_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1
Link for the i3 NUC so that it's easy to find
The technical description for that Celeron is "Intel® HD Graphics", no specific number for the version of HD Graphics. But for what your relatives are going to be doing, I doubt they need beefier graphics.
One step up would be an i3-6100u:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-NUC6i3SYH-BOXNUC6I3SYH-Silver-Black/dp/B018NSAPIM/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1482729650&sr=1-5&keywords=intel+nuc
Uses Intel HD Graphics 520, while the i5/i7s use 530, so just a step below.
But unsure if that'd be worth twice the price. It would be more future proof.
Better to buy it barebones. I spent less than that and have a 256G SSD and 8G RAM in mine.
My UTM went from a Dell 780 sucking 100w and virtualized it to my ESXi, as well as whatever my 48GB of RAM will run while sipping a lovely 150w. Lately, like my previous post said, I've been looking at one of these. Throw in an 8GB stick and a 250-320GB spinner and you have one hell of a UTM for $250.
Oh yeah headless can work out fine, assuming you have a bit of experience and won't fuck it up completely ¯\(ツ)/¯
As far as I'm aware, ESXi is completely headless with no control from the host at all. If I were to irreparably fuck up the settings, to the point I cannot connect (Say I tried setting up another DHCP server or disabled the internal one) I'd need to re-wire the host, and whatever client I'm using to connect.
As far as I can tell it's all genuine, here is a similar (stripped) version of the same device, but on American amazon. Lots of good reviews. And while it will probably last me the rest of my life, as Saskatchewan's fastest possible speed on fiber is 260Mb/s and I don't see it ever hitting >1Gb/s, it's still $260 with shipping. But yeah I'll probably grab it if another user doesn't find a cheaper router.
I've been looking at the J1900 and based on discussion I've read at arstechnica and another site, the Quad core J1900 is not the best choice for routing performance, because single threaded performance is not as good as the dual core 3215U box. Routing as it exists in linux can't really take advantage multiple cores.
There are two models from Qotom, the Q190G4 with the Intel Celeron Processor 3215U Dual core (2M Cache, 1.70 GHz, Broadwell), and the Q190G4-S02 with Intel Celeron Processor J1900(Quad-Core 2M Cache,2 GHz, up to 2.41 GHz, Bay Trail). The 3215U is what I am going with because I will need at least 150mbps after turning QoS on, with some future headroom, so I want to focus on routing performance. Running multiple busy servers and/or handling more than one maxed out VPN connection will likely be speedier on the J1900.
Dual Core, faster routing
https://www.amazon.com/Qotom-Q190G4-Celeron-Processor-Barebone/dp/B019Z8T9J0/
Quad Core, slower routing
https://www.amazon.com/QOTOM-Q190G4-S02-products-Barebone-J1900-Industrial/dp/B01KX9OU58/
What about this?
for $200 all in you get 4 Intel Nics and a 4 core CPU. Add an M.2 SSD and you are still under $250.
Yes, that one specifically can't do AES-NI.
I actually went with this one with 3215U:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/
Why not a barebones like... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for $136.00 USD - ships from China I believe.
Discussed on pfSense forum... https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=114202.0
Get a UPS and Set automatically power on after restore power loss
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AAKGRSS
GIGABYTE GA-J1900N-D3V Mini ITX with 4gb of ram
Overkill but I am hopeful for getting google fiber and wanted something that could max that connection out. Also I got it knowing it could be a low power hypervisor if I ever replace it.
I kinda wish I had picked this up instead. Qotom-Q190G4
I have the Q190G4s from Qotom these days... They're all over Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/original-Qotom-Q190G4-celeron-OpenElec-player/dp/B01AAKGRSS
$200 with 32GB and 4GB; you can get it bare for $60 or so less.
Can definitely be worth it.
So NUCs use laptop/mobile CPUs. If you're doing office work and 2D gaming they're pretty neat. cpu.userbenchmark.com can help with comparisons.
Most NUCs use a 15w mobile chip. (Chips with a "U" at the end of the name) Mobile 6-th and 7th-gen CPUs are 2 core 4 threads, for the i5 and i7. These are like slower versions of the desktop pentiums in a way. These are slower than the i5-4460.
You can also find NUCs with i7-****HQ chips. These are 4 core 8 thread, 45w chips. These will perform... actually better in some cases than the i5 4460. The more expensive NUCs with the HQ CPUs also come with faster "iris pro" integrated graphics, which still isn't enough for modern 3D games except at 720p low/medium settings
Truthfully I'd recommend a cheaper model cause it's all you need, though this i7 model is on a pretty crazy sale right now.
There are some really nice Micro ATX cases out there, The Silverstone Raven RZ01 jumps to mind. Corsair has their new Bulldog as well. You can get a full sized graphics card in these, water cooled etc.. But honestly those are still pretty large machines.
I mean if you are driving around and you can keep it in your trunk or something then they might work. But if you're flying then I would go with a laptop or something similar.
I actually got so tired of having to take my work laptop and my gaming laptop out while I was traveling that I just travel with my work laptop now.
You might be able to get away with something like an INTEL NUC:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK-Mini/dp/B01DJ9XS52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473862036&sr=8-1&keywords=Intel+Skull+Canyon+NUC6i7KYK
I would set the graphics down to low for the 25 main raids, because I know my R9 390 gets crushed sometimes if there are ton's of people on the screen.
But even then, if you're raiding seriously you should probably get a decent gaming laptop.
check out "intel NUC"
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK-Mini/dp/B01DJ9XS52
This is a good deal: 20% off Intel NUC6i7KYK Skull Canyon https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK-Mini/dp/B01DJ9XS52
Something like this might fit your requirements. It's a bit older/slower CPU than others have suggested, but is still a quad-core celeron, has 4x intel NICs, and only draws about 11 watts:
with ram/msata ssd - $359
without ram/ssd - $200
I actually bought one of those through Ali Express recently. Other than it being a giant pain in the arse to get a credit card to go through... it was a fine transaction.
You can get that unit on Amazon though.
I worked through this guide to set up the OS (not pfSense although pfSense is totally fine to use!)
There are a lot of small j1900 machines out there with multiple nics, for example https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-Gigabit-Barebone/dp/B01GIVQI3M/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_469_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BQPMYE25AA9C9EZF1DA3
Maybe something like this? It's powered by the J1900 platform everyone's been talking about.
Gigabyte Mini Barebone System
It includes a case, motherboard, and CPU. You'll need to provide your own RAM and a boot drive. You could then run an external USB drive to get your 1TB of storage.
If you think you might want to build your own router at some point, consider getting one with a few extra NICs so that you can run PFsense on it instead down the road:
ProtectCLI Firewall Micro Appliance
Then why not use something like this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GIVQI3M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I got this a few months ago:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01GIVQI3M/ref=oh_aui_i_d_old_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
That+msata ssd+ram and it's amazing.
Fanless, feels rock solid, nice and fast and responsive. No regrets.
If you want to do Server and router just get a 4 port NIC
if you want a self-built router with low power get something like this, install pfsense.
One thing you could try is a dedicated firewall/router appliance. We use something like this (linked item is just what I could find with a quick search to give you an idea) with pfSense on it at the IT service provider I work for. One of the network engineers have them setup where when you are logged into the web browser management portal on it you can download a pre-configured OpenVPN client to install on a computer. Then they just need to run the OpenVPN client as an admin and put in their AD credentials to get VPN'ed in.
This kind of appliance can be muti-tasked as not just a firewall and VPN but also DHCP, DNS, and edge router functions. Have also seen them do internet fail over for our clients that have redundant internet lines.
If you can put up with crap interface of SonicWalls you will have no issues with a premade pfSense appliance. There are any number of them on Amazon (we've had great results using this one in smaller offices for instance: https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-Gigabit-Intel/dp/B01JHJGG5M/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1492710644&sr=1-2&keywords=protectli+pfsense) and of course pfSense sells their own as well.
I used one of these Protectli
Firewall Micro Appliance With 4x Gigabit Intel LAN Ports, 4GB RAM / 16GB mSATA for my OPNSense Box with Adblocking, IPS, Gigabit NAT, IPv6 (Harder then it looks!) Right now I'm trying to do VLANs between my IoT Crap / Rokus and my main network at the house.
I would suggest installing a software firewall on a small server/micro appliance [this is what I use!] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JHJGG5M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
There you can configure your LAN, VPN, and many other services to keep your network safe. Your LAN would host your applications, accessible from outside over VPN.
this was the box I got: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSNGYD1/ref=psdc_13896591011_t4_B01M25WO36?th=1
Here is my pfsense system: https://i.imgur.com/S60x1Jw.png
Why not just build a small form factor with a GPU inside? The TB3 case is slower and much more expensive, and you’re really not going to build a pc that can do what you want that will be so small that it would be a major difference from one with a GPU.
If you’re looking for a micro, then I think your best bet is to just buy one of those and outfit it.
Alternatively you could look into a laptop if you need portability, and extend that later.
Edit: this is about the best I could find:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC7i7BNH-Core/dp/B01N0RL8Q4
> $800 for an i3-8100.
Oh, ok. Let's go for an i7 kit from Intel.
Here's mine. NUC7i7BNH.
Here's a kit built out with that model, plus 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. It's $769.
Great! It's got an i7!
Except the base i3 CPU in the Mini ($30 more!) is like 20% faster.
And the RAM in the Mini is 2666MHz instead of 2133MHz.
And the SSD is PCIe in the Mini instead of M2 SATA III.
And the Mini can be upgraded to 64GB of RAM instead of 32GB max in the NUC.
And the Mini has 4 x Thunderbolt3 ports and 2 x USB3 ports instead of 1 x Thunderbolt3 port and 4 x USB3 ports.
And the Mini has faster Wifi and newer Bluetooth.
And the Mini has an internal power supply instead of needing an external brick.
And the fan in the NUC is a noisy pile of garbage.
So.... tell me more about how shameful it is?
If you do that, I would recommend you not go with my AK1, which I linked above, but go instead with a mini-PC that has a more powerful processor as the sound will be much better. Unlike VSTs that just sample, that is one side-effect of Pianoteq - everything must be calculated on the fly. Right now, the sound quality is a bit richer, especially for polyphonous works like Baroque music, when Pianoteq is running on my MacBook Pro, than on my AK1. However, because I rely on Pianoteq for sound, it's not convenient to bring over my MacBook and hook it up whenever I want to sit down at the piano. So I've been living with the AK1. Fortunately, I don't really play Bach much. LOL
Depends on your tolerance for lower settings.
The newest Intel NUCs available have an i5-7260U and i7-7567U, with Iris Pro 640 and 650 integrated graphics (respectively).
Your limiting factor here is going to be that iGPU. It'll handle Steam IHS fine, and Dolphin on some reasonable settings. Local gaming is going to suffer though. Even on the Iris Pro 650, Rocket League barely gets to 60 FPS on medium settings.
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Intel NUCs aren't super cost effective at higher tiers, either. Covfefe Lake NUCs (including some with AMD Vega graphics) still aren't out, so your only option is Kaby Lake ones.
The i7-7567U option (discussed above), is currently $450 from Amazon US. Tack on to that the cost of RAM, SSD, and possibly a Windows license if you're weird like that.
If you're cool with a bigger system, a Ryzen 5 2400G build will run you more like $320 before RAM, SSD, and possibly OS. Not to mention performing signifigantly better due to a way stronger CPU and GPU.
If you don't want to build a PC an Intel NUC might suit you very nicely.
Just get a cheap SSD and some RAM and install windows 10 and you're golden.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-mini-NUC7i5BNH-Core-version/dp/B01N2UMKZ5/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1519574259&sr=1-3&keywords=intel%2Bnuc%2Bi5&th=1
Edit: Clarity
I got this NUC i5 with this 16GB RAM (though it was on a sale when I got it), and this SSD which is crazy fast.
As far as storage space goes, I have only used about 6gb of storage space on my SSD because of how incredibly lightweight the ubuntu server .iso is and that is while I'm running all of the things I mentioned. I have a Synology DS918+ that houses all of my media files for plex and I would be able to use that as an offsite storage by mounting it in ubuntu if I ever needed more space (which I doubt I will).
The NUC that I linked is the tall version which means that you can add in that SSD as the bootdrive for lightning fast speeds and then it also has space for a 2.5" drive as well so you could add a 4TB HDD or whatever else you would choose, and you could also use external storage through USB 3.0 (I keep a 128gb USB backup plugged in at all times that I use to backup important files (automated through home assistant to get my entire config every night) in case of any failure.
If you don't need AMD/Nvidia graphics, you might consider a NUC. It's really hard to find a smaller form-factor PC than that. You still would need to pack a monitor (although you could mount it to the back), mouse, and keyboard, but the PC itself would be super-small. You could get (e.g.) a 7i5 for less than $350, then add 8 GB of RAM ($80), and an M.2 NVME SSD for (Samsung 960 EVO M.2) for $115. Obviously you could choose to spend more on RAM, or the SSD, or add a 2 TB HDD (for the tall version).
I have this model as the family PC and it handles the likes of Guacamelee and Grow Home without issue. I haven't tried anything more demanding on it.
if you have a pc you could sell and use some profit for something more up your alley then i'd say go for it. a plex server can be run on as little as a raspberry pi, albeit very slowly.
​
intel NUC mini PCs may do you well, coupled with a shield tv. something like this
https://www.amazon.ca/Intel-Mini-NUC7i5BNK-Core-Version/dp/B01N4EP1N0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1540069470&sr=8-6&keywords=intel+nuc&dpID=41HRAeMuj-L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
​
The zotac nano boxes can achieve this and have an awesome fan-less form factor. I have an older model (2 years ago) and it has served the house really well. I have one with realtek (shoot me) NICs that required some additional config. I'm still really satisfied for a bit over $230 with an m.2 SSD. I need to set up some additional services on the router (UniFi controller for starters) as I am definitely under utilizing it.
Edit: they support AES-NI too
Edit 2: I have the older version of this model and tossed in a 120gb (IIRC) m.2 SSD and 2x4GB RAM.
ZOTAC ZBOX C Series CI327 Nano Fan-less Mini PC Intel N3450 Quad-Core ZBOX-CI327NANO-U https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0728F8JS5/
>There's going to be a time where we see people rave about a future AMD CPU paired with an Intel GPU which is wild
I mean Intel did a thing with Vega Graphics.
Linus Tech Tips Video: Intel's Coolest CPU, thanks to AMD
Intel's NUC with AMD graphics is your solution. The 65 Watt version is $700, while the 100 Watt version is $800. The 100 Watt version should be chosen if it is supposed to be fast.
It can connect 6 displays and has seven USB ports without hubs. It has a card reader. It has Wifi/Bluetooth and 2 HDMI ports.
It is compact and easy to carry or mail around for support. It is basically a desktop-replacement laptop without a display, a keyboard, and a trackpad.
Intel Machine NUC8i7HVK Radeon Graphics
The above is a barebones system. It will need a pair of DDR4 SODIMM memory sticks, M.2 storage, and a Windows 10 license.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
Memory | Kingston - HyperX Impact 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory | $140.13 @ Amazon
Storage | *ADATA - XPG SX6000 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | $79.99 @ Amazon
Operating System | Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit | $114.39 @ OutletPC
| | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $359.51
| | Mail-in rebates | -$25.00
| Total | $334.51
| | *Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria |
.
I think the NUC will be much easier to support then any other solution. The total cost is about $1160 for the 100-Watt version built and ready.
First 5 Things to Do with a New PC Build
Have you considered maybe getting a NUC? It's a small computer that would be easy to move around. This is a high end example of one.
Intel NUC 8 Performance-G Kit (NUC8i7HVK) - Core i7 100W, Add't Components Needed https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BR5GK1V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_IDjUCbGDDA1DJ
It does have dedicated graphics so it can do a little bit of games but there are cheaper ones without it. ( Since you said you didn't want to game on it )
I have the Hades Canyon NUC ( https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V/ref=sr_1_3?crid=GM07KLWPS826&keywords=hades+canyon+nuc&qid=1555074370&s=gateway&sprefix=hades+canyon%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-3 ) but I don't game and stream at the same time off of it. I added 16gb ram and a WD Black M.2 500gb stick to it and I use it as a secondary dedicated streaming PC which wasn't the original reason for buying it. I'm actually working towards selling it and building a PC more meant for streaming when the new Ryzen line comes out because I want to push out as much quality as I can. I have a fiber connection so the PC is the bottleneck.
​
That aside.. As a dedicated streaming box with an HD60s hooked up feeding from my gaming PC, as well as a CamLink to my mirrorless camera, I've been able to have it going at 'fast' preset for 810p/60fps @ 6,000 bitrate and the CPU usage ranges between 40-70% in StreamElements OBS. I used to try pushing it to medium, 720p/60fps @ 6,000 bitrate and that would constantly be around 80-90%+ CPU and crash the whole system at times. Both scenarios is usually streaming more visually active games with a lot of screen movement.
​
Certainly you can be less aggressive with the quality output and I'm sure something like this can handle some lightweight gaming on it. I'd be shocked if it couldn't handle both streaming and something like Runescape at the same itme.
Let me be the first to suggest an intel nuc celeron running openelec. That guy is rock solid, works with the xbox 360 remote out of the box, and was partly developed with XBMC in mind. It's my main non-gaming box. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_7vI0tb0M0Q5N0
Intel NUC with a 4th gen Celeron N2820. Includes a wifi adapter if I am not mistaken; otherwise you can find one for pretty cheap. Throw in a 2.5" drive of your choice and 1.35V laptop RAM and you are GTG.
There are plenty of other options with i3s and Gen 3 (Ivy Bridge) hardware for fairly cheap.
Size comparison. The Gigabyte Brix and Asus VivoPC are the only two options that get close in size, but don't come near some of the lower-end NUCs in price.
That is enough for playing videos. It might even play games depending on settings. It supports Dual Channel memory though, so it's better to get 2 sticks of ram. If that's 2x2GB that's fine.
The processor is rated at 100W. That seems like a lot to me.
I have http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC . It's less than 20W total, is quiet, runs OpenElec from a flash drive, plays blu-rays over the network. I've never tried to play games.
I use the cheapest, lowest end NUC for our living room and it handles streaming full Blu-Ray images over the Ethernet with XBMC and Total Media Theater. Works like a champ. Only issue is that it can really only do one thing at a time, which isn't usually an issue with a HTPC. But if say Windows Update starts hogging resources, you'll know it.
Amazon Link
Well I have the cinema experience addon, and would need something that could handle all that as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412438368&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+nuc+celeron
That's the one?
Intel celeron nuc: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVKLSVC/
Ram (4gb): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CQ35GYE/
Disk: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C9TECFO/
Sidecar: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ELQZD10/
Cost of RAM + Disk: $83.99, leaving $216. If we use the Celeron NUC, we have $81 left, enough for a small SSD or Wifi. Bump the cost up to $350 and we have enough for an i3 + wifi when we use the i3 NUC ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HOJAVDG/ ).
The SSD can easily hold an OS if you're using it purely for the OS, but there's some Intel trickery you can use to make it into a cache, or just use it as a storage disk for "Things that are small". Like uh, Business Documents. Plus, it's upgradable to anyone with a screwdriver and a copy of the manual. Plus, the NUCs make the little intel Ding-Da-dun-da-ding sound whenever you open the packaging.
Oh, and 1080p up to 4k. A friend of mine uses a NUC to run his dual 4k coding setup. Oh, and play quake in glorious 4k 120fps.
You're in Bulgaria, 24 years old.
You're obviously into gaming, from the games not listed on Steam you also play Empire Earth, Battlefield, Civilzation V.
You like DND.
You own this.
What about this one: http://www.amazon.ca/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1418069183&sr=8-5&keywords=Intel+Next+Unit+of+Computing+Kit
It's the newer model; you can use a 2.5" HD instead of a mSSD and you don't have to buy a wifi chip.
I think all the current generation have the ability to use a 2.5 inch drive. Here is one for only $140.00 on Amazon
I'm not so sure about the server side being the issue. If you're choosing to transcode, then yes this utilizes the CPU on the server/NAS to do the conversion, however there other choices.
Direct Play essentially plays the file as-is off the network, as long as its 100% compatible with your media player.
Direct Stream is similar, but allows playback of files which might not be in the necessary file container for your media player. It's not nearly as CPU intensive as transcoding.
I think I'm going to give the Celeron N2820 (Bay Trail-M) powered NUC a try, since it's only $134 on Amazon, minus an SODIMM and HDD. Although still not as capable as my current i3, it seems much more powerful than most Atoms. And has a TDP of only 7.5W so cooling should be simple.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HVKLSVC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LDLV6S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007WT9SU0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
$239 USD all said and done. A great little setup.
I don't the Pi really has the chops to server media over a LAN but who knows, maybe i'm wrong.
I have this one but I know others work. Sorry, can't answer on the other HD formats. May be worth looking into Kodi with PlexBMC - I think it will bitstream just about any HD format.
For that kind of use, almost any kind of low-powered home server would be suitable - just shop around based on price and power consumption. Even a fanless, Atom-based, NUC-sized unit would suffice.
e.g. This one: http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GB-BXBT-2807-Barebones-Celeron-Included/dp/B00KR0QHXW
Same goes for disk performance - any modern HDD will provide more than enough throughput for your needs. Put a small SSD in the machine for the OS to boot from and use for swap and temporary processing, 120gig would be more than enough and that size SSDs are dirt cheap now.
e.g. This one: http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-SSDNow-SV300S37A-120G/dp/B00A1ZTZOG
A simple external 3.5" USB connected drive would be fine for your actual files. You said 6TB would do so this would seem to be a decent choice: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Desktop-External-Storage-STDT6000100/dp/B00R1P2WDK
You don't need a RAID array either, just get a second external drive of the same size as the first and sync to it on a regular basis to keep your main media archive backed up.
Just make sure to put a decent amount of RAM in there (4GB min, preferably 8GB) - http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-1600MHz-PC3-12800-KVR16LS11/dp/B00CQ35HBQ - and you're set.
That's about $350 (based on Amazon prices) to get started with another $175 to get a backup solution (second 6TB drive) in place, which you could do at a later date.
Do you have any extra hardware lying around?
For a small low powered desktop machine I'd keep my eyes on the Gigabyte Brix for black friday deals. It'll take any 2.5" drive you've got lying around (or buy used from CL, harvest from an old laptop, whatever) and then all you need is a stick of laptop DDR3. As of right now it comes out to $94 on amazon with the rebate, but I wouldn't be surprised if you see something like this on black friday/cyber monday sales for ~$80.
It's a decent machine that uses a Bay Trail celeron. If home theater units are your thing, it does hardware video decoding well and would make a great streaming box. I have mine currently set up as a Steam in-home streaming unit, and it takes just about anything I throw at it.
Otherwise, I have to say that I honestly wouldn't recommend a chromebook/box or Raspberry Pi as a first-time linux machine. The Pi is great, don't get me wrong, but it's a bummer to run into the limitations of the ARM processor when you have a certain package you really want to install but it doesn't work with ARM. Chromebox is more expensive and more locked down than the Brix or Intel NUC, what with not having full BIOS access.
This - http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Celeron-Barebones-GB-BXBT-2807/dp/B00KR0QHXW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458159198&sr=8-1&keywords=brix+celeron
plus RAM. We have the benefit of being a computer business and having parts lying around.
The bad news:
Wifi sucks for media distribution. While many routers will do 802.11 a/b/g/n speeds, they'll mostly only do one at a time. So if you have just one slow device in the house requiring a/b speeds, it's going to drag your real-world transfer speeds into the 150kbps range and even SD video will stutter.
Most "smart" TVs aren't. Many brand new smart panels/BD players have poor codec support and abysmal interfaces.
The good news:
All of this is fixable. As for moving files, you can find and disable the slow device that's dragging down your wireless network. In my case, it ended up being a wireless printer. Alternately, you can pull an ethernet cable from your server to the TV, or do ethernet over AC.
As for smartening up your TV, you have several options. The free one is to keep using the PC that's currently connected to it. It's not really putting any "strain" on the CPU, since unless it's an ancient machine, video playback is handled with no real effort by the GPU. If you want a standalone device, I've tried dozens of set-top players over the years and have found the WD TV units to be as close to perfect as anybody has gotten. Codec support is very good, the interface is acceptable, and they play nice with network shares.
However, if you're willing to spend a bit more, you can get a full-fledged windows PC that is even smaller and more capable. I currently use two gigabyte brix systems in my house. Toss in 4GB of RAM and a cheap SSD and you can have a complete system for about $200. Using a good media player like MPC-HC this will handle anything you throw at it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VBNSO8U
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YG8X9Y
This should do the trick. You have to buy the RAM and HDD, but it should still be below 200, and can go as far as running Gamecube games poorly, so N64 shouldn't give you any problems. If you're going to do PSX, you'll probably wanna stick with like Mednafen so the games run smoothly. I don't use Retroarch, but I imagine there are tutorials for booting directly to that if you wanted to use this as a plug-n-play kind of device, and I know Kodi supports Launchbox and there are definitely ways to boot to Kodi.
If that one runs out of stock and you're impatient, you could also get this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KR0QHXW
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YG8X9Y
Same story as the other one.
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OY8Q0QC
/u/phr0ze & /u/DerNalia
I'd avoid the JetWay; the CPU that's in this one does not have AES-NI:
https://ark.intel.com/products/81073/Intel-Celeron-Processor-N2930-2M-Cache-up-to-2_16-GHz
This will be a requirement for pfSense in the future, so it'd personally avoid it unless you want to get another device in a few years time.
This is what I use for my home UTM. Runs great for my 40/5 internet connection. NOTE: this computer doesn't come with a memory or storage once I added in 4GB of memory and a 60GB MSATA SSD it was about $270 total. Edit: fixed the link and added the Note.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Fanless-Graphics-Windows-ZBOX-CI325NANO-U-W2B/dp/B01MSNGYD1or https://www.amazon.com/Jetway-Intel-Celeron-N2930-Fanless/dp/B00OY8Q0QC
I've been using these lately: http://www.amazon.com/Jetway-Intel-Celeron-N2930-Fanless/dp/B00OY8Q0QC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452191765&sr=8-1&keywords=jetway
Amazon says they only support 4GB of RAM but per the JW website and, I can attest, you can put 8GB in.
Fanless, dual Intel NICs
A CentOS 7 box (based on this), with IP masquerading - switched to it after I got tired of my fairly recent NetGear VPN firewall go bye-bye everytime it receives actual traffic.
So many questions.
> My home LAN right now is an Asus RT-AC66U, 2 desktops, printer, and my freenas Bound together by 2Gb 8 port switches. I also just built a little ESX server. I wanted to virtualize server OSs, and manage a small domain environment. I also wanted to keep it mostly separate from normal my LAN.
Presumably that link bonding is client side? What switch is it?
> I don't know how to go about doing this. I think this is a situation where a vlan and pfsense are used. I want to be able to control my vms from my primary desktop I also want my Vms to be able to reach the internet.
VLANs allow you to have different networks over the same physical. For example, you could have two VLANs running down the same cable back to your router and your router has two interfaces, each listening for their respective VLAN tags. You can then add firewall rules to each interface as if it were a physical NIC but it's all software.
What you're after is subnets on top of VLANs. Just have your VMs on a different subnet to your main network and traffic between them will have to be routed (by your router) so you get firewall rules etc.
Having the VMs able to reach the internet is as simple as giving them a route to do so.
> Will i need to add a 2nd NIC to my desktop to access two networks?
No. Unless you want direct access to your VM subnet by having an IP within their range, access from your desktop will be just as it is with any other IP. It'll get routed to the correct location by your router.
> pfsense needs dedicated hardware right? is this good enough http://amzn.com/B00OY8Q0QC[1]
Not necessarily. I've seen many on here running it virtualised but there are those who prefer to run something like that as a dedicated machine. As for hardware, unless you have 500Mbps+, you won't need anything that expensive. If you have an old machine, those can often work just fine for a home connection. For reference, I have a Pentium G3220 with 4GB DDR3 RAM which handles by 1Gbps FTTH connection with room to breathe.
> I will need to buy a smart switch right? Any tips on how to shop for one? I dont really know what to look for.
Why? Most dumb switches will handle VLAN tags just fine. However, if you want to do it like enterprise does, you'll want a managed/smart switch. They will allow you to do VLAN tagging at the switch side so no extra client configuration is needed.
> I'm using the trial version of Vmware stuff. So i have a about a 60 day window. Should i make the switch early Proxmox? Which is worth more professional development wise?
I'm fairly sure ESXi is free. The management program is paid but the free version of it should do everything you want.
> Bonus objective: I sold my HTPC to afford most of this hardware. Is there a way I can connect a virtual machine to my tv to playback media? I'm using chromecast/ freenasPLex which is working fine enough. But i am curious.
Maybe but I don't think it'd be easy. You'd be better off getting something like a RaspberryPi and using rasplex with a PLEX server. That's what I do.
If you want something thats quite cheap you might consider getting a mini desktop like this one
Nope, they were nettops. Specifically Quantum Byte nettops.
Turn in your old phones for cash, buy some cheap motion sensing cameras and link them up with a multi terabyte hard drive that's attached to a computer or a Raspberry Pi. You can get basic computers really cheaply now that should have all the processing power you need. Pop VLC on it and you can record from all the streams at once.
Going in the cloud means a) some incredibly personal stuff is being stored in the cloud, b) your network utilization is gong to go way up and c) you're going to pay way more for storage than locally.
I'm not super knowledgeable but I own one of those mini-pc's that run on Windows - would something like that be able to do the job? Or alternatively one of those "pc on a stick" doohickeys like this one.
If not, just ignore me and best of luck ♥
Consumers don't want them, professionals don't want them, people can tricked into buying them. People want a Facebook machine, desktops themselves have steadily been declining in general. There's just no point in buying a core 2 duo machines, even at $100 if you went the desktop route you could easily get an i series desktop like so:
Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/201821563007
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quantum-Windows-Baytrail-T-Quad-core-1-33GHz/dp/B00X4O6GRK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486182324&sr=8-1&keywords=azulle+quantum
I've been using this one on a TV with sling & plex apps. It works pretty well with the video. Powered by 2 amp microUSB. I had a Vensmile but it died an early death.
You can get a PC-on-a-stick these days for $100. Twice the cost of what you propose, sure, but given the flexibility and easier management potential (especially if something goes wrong), it just seems like a better option IMHO.
Also the PC Stick I use also uses about as much power as the Pi, and it also charges with USB. I can ALMOST get to run reliably with just 0.5amps at 5V.
This is it:
http://www.amazon.com/Azulle-Quantum-Access-Windows-storage/dp/B00X4O6GRK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453145143&sr=8-3&keywords=pc+stick
how about one of these? It's a stick PC that runs a full instance of Windows. https://www.amazon.com/Azulle-Quantum-Access-Windows-storage/dp/B00X4O6GRK/ref=pd_lpo_147_lp_t_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P92D985F90GHKWPBQ8NQ
Zotac zboxs are popular and a low end bare one box will run you about 200 in total https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469615562&sr=8-1&keywords=zbox
Just don't expect to have decent VPN performance, as the CPU in this doesn't support AES-NI, and it's quite a few generations old. You can look around for something with an N3150, which is only a year old at this point and supports AES-NI, the clock speed will be higher, quad-core, and it'll support more RAM all while keeping power consumption low. Also, the boards with this CPU can run fanless.
Here's one with dual-ethernet built in for only $150, still needs a HDD & RAM, but those are dirt cheap. http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU
I'm running mine on a little Zotac zbox, just needed to add in a bit of RAM and a hard drive. Works like a charm :-) Currently running squid, snort, and surricata with no issues.
I picked up a Zotac Zbox a little over six months ago for my pfsense machine, and it's been running beautifully. Absolutely zero complaints so far. The price is just right, and the form factor is perfect for my needs.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_z5UMybQ3S3084
Intel N3150
https://smile.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Quad-Core-Graphics-Barebones-ZBOX-CI323NANO-U/dp/B0179S50UU/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&sa-no-redirect=1&th=1
need to manually update the Realtek NIC driver (https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=103841.75) if you want throughput above 200 Mb/s without watchdog timeouts and ignore the bitching about the SD card reader on boot but it supports AES-NI and is cheap and works great.
> uBox-111
What about this one?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179S50UU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
is what I have.
I've been using this Zotac Barebones for my pfSense firewall. It came in at around $200 after 4GB of RAM and a small SSD. It works great for my 100/100 connection and supports AES-NI.
Another option would be to go with one of their official appliances. The SG-1000 costs $149 and comes with pfSense installed.
No I meant comparing the pi to other alternatives as a samba server, like a cheap intel box.
example: http://amzn.com/B0179S50UU
According to Plex's recommendations, you'll want a CPU with 2,000 PassMark score per 1080p/10Mbps stream and 1500 PassMark score for every 720p/4Mbps stream. With that in mind, Intel's NUCs are probably your best bet. Newer i3 processors are capable enough for most of this work, but you might want to step up to a 6th gen i5 model NUC if you believe you'll be regularly doing 2 streams at 1080p often.
--------
Intel NUC6i3SYH ~ $290
Intel Corei3-6100U - 3,523 PassMark Score
Newegg / Amazon
Compatible Memory: ~$30
Newegg / Amazon
-----------------------------
For windows, I'm not sure what you're looking to use. Windows 10 is current and easy to use, but is currently $100 for home and $140 for pro. If you're using it for couch surfing and plex hosting, home version should be sufficient. If you haven't tried it before though, and you don't have any strict reason to stick to Windows, try out Linux. You'll be just as capable, though if you've never used Linux it'll have a slight learning curve, plus you'll save a few hundred bucks on the Windows license!
Edit: Accidentally submitted first time while writing it up and had some info wrong. This is corrected, in case you read it before I was done.
An i3 Nuc + External hdd enclosure?
Cheaper and power efficient.
Intel NUC Kit NUC6i3SYH BOXNUC6I3SYH Silver/Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018NSAPIM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_A7i3xb2RKM483 - $240
Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR4 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000) SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT2K4G4SFS8213 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015HQ9UDO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_C8i3xbHYKN3PG -$35
I'm the stupid one? Are you serious?
The first video is made using this NUC PC. This has an i5-6200U, which is not an HQ processor.
The second video is using an ancient Surface Pro 3, a tablet which uses 4th gen U series processors (aka 3-4 years old). Also not an HQ processor.
You tell me to do research, while basing your entire argument in some made-up fantasy. You call me stupid, while claiming that Intel's official specs sheets are made by Dell's marketing Team. You accuse me of not knowing the difference between U and HQ family CPU's, while unironically stating that an i5-6200U is actually an HQ processor. You call me pathetic - while being too weak-minded to accept that you've lost the argument.
I highly doubt that you're capable of posting anything worth any of anyone else's time, so consider yourself blocked.
Did you buy it on Amazon? If so, it's on sale right now so you might get a little money back: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B018NSAPIM
If you want as small as possible without taking up much desk space you'll either be looking at all-in-ones or mini pcs that can attach to the vesa mount on the back of a monitor. Mini pcs often come barebones meaning they do not have ram or a harddrive.
Here is an i3 nuc that has wireless, Bluetooth, etc i3 nuc
That costs about £250. A ddr4 8gb sodimm stick of ram and 250gb m.2 ssd can be had for less than £150. ram and drive
You should be able to get monitors with a vesa mount on the back fairly cheap, around £100 (like this one ) and a wireless keyboard and mouse for less than £40 (like these )
All told that would be £540 or so for hardware, give or take a little bit. It would get you machines that would do well at office tasks without taking up any desk space. With the wireless keyboards and mice the only required wires would be for power, Ethernet, and a short cable to connect to the monitor.
I would caution that you may be limited moving the license for Windows license. You may need to buy another copy of Windows for each machine but it looks like an oem disk of 10 pro is only £45 on Amazon uk.
Honestly, the $100-$150 price point is going to be very difficult to beat -- I'm not aware of any machines at that price point myself. We generally consider it a good deal to beat $400 to the lowest end boxes we use (we require gig throughput), which is a bit more than what you are able to get away with.
We did find these great machines for $190 apiece recently -- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014113N70 -- We're not using them as firewalls, but in terms of the specs they'd do just fine for gigabit throughput.
Looks like this is a close cousin for a different arrangement of ports that might be more suited to pfSense for $170: http://www.amazon.com/products-barebone-J1900-Industrial-computer/dp/B019Z8T9J0
It's a chinese mini PC (x86) running pfSense.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
OpenVPN is kinda computation intensive so I would not expect too much from small ARM devices like yours.
I do plan on getting a dedicated box for it soon. Probably something like this. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AAKGRSS
Couldn't he just use 2 cheaper home built routers and throw pfsense on them and do vpn's that way? He could even use openVPN on a small windows based machine still connected to a pfsense setup. All of this at least software was I'm pretty sure is free and can be configured to be secure. And it won't cost 500$. Like These
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-NUC6i7KYK-Mini-BOXNUC6I7KYK1/dp/B01DJ9XS52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468792618&
You should be able to find them on Newegg and Amazon at a minimum today. Demand has been high, so they may be backordered.
As others have mentioned, it's pretty tough to do. Any hardware you buy that you fit into it will be at a very high premium. This Gigabyte brix looks really promising with a GTX 950, but it's not available yet. It also will probably be at a very high premium (Between $700-$1000) and that is just a bare bones rig.
Then there is this NUC which is only $600 and has Iris Pro 580 graphics which should be roughly equivalent to a GTX 945M. So it will be underpowered compared to the Gigabyte brix. But you can get it now, and you're getting top of the line integrated graphics performance. Those are the only real options I see you having with this build.
Those NUCs can be pretty powerful. I wouldn't doubt if they have thousands.
Just buy an intel nuc that has an i7, for example this one which was my first result when i searched for it. $580
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK-Mini/dp/B01DJ9XS52
that is all about the passmark it will have.
you can get a intel nuc skull canyon with a i7-6770HQ,
32 GB ram and a 512 GB ssd for a 870$ (you can lower the ssd and the amount of ram to make it cheaper.)
What about a Zotac mini PC with a 1060 and Core i5 for $1000. You still need to add the RAM and the storage but it's still pretty good value for a no brainer solution.
There's also the NUC Skull Canyon which will keep you under $1000 with RAM and storage. It comes with an Intel GPU but a pretty powerful one. It's also compatible with eGPU via Thunderbolt 3 USB-C so it can be expanded in the future with a real GPU.
I'm running the server off of my imac but want a dedicated machine just for Plex. What do you recommend? I'm considering the Nighthawk X10 from Netgear or an Intel NUC.
It is probably fine, but better yet buy the previous generation NUC for half the price:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC6i7KYK-Core/dp/B01DJ9XS52/
GTX 960M, i5, $800
R5 M335, i7, $650
Iris pro 580, i7, $690
vLANs themselves don't really have bandwidth benefits; they reduce broadcast domains, and they can simplify QoS I find it unlikely that you have a broadcast domain problem. QoS necessity is totally dependent on bandwidth and usage.
 
I'm not sure what the minimum hardware would be for the performance you need. Personally, my network is built on Lenovo TS140s (E3-1225v3) with used quad port Sun NICs and Chelsio T2 10GBe adapters. I can push a LOT of packets, but don't have a great idea of minimum performance. Also, I have no experience at the moment with pfSense, working with Sophos, Vyos, Sonicwall and HP products mostly.
[Something like this would be intereseting] (https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-PFSense-barebones/dp/B01GIVQI3M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485580586&sr=8-1&keywords=network+appliance)
[pfSense hardware guide] (https://www.pfsense.org/hardware/)
 
Your existing hardware is a box I've toyed with using for a portable appliance a couple of times. The edge router, internal router setup is common; it separates duties and provides some sense of security. Level of security is arguable, but we'll leave that for now. The big Ubiquiti routers I mentioned are nice because they get you almost all the performance/features of high-end layer 3 switches in a fairly low cost. I'd pick the Edgerouter Pro; bump up the CPUfor about a 5-10% cost increase. A number of cheaper layer 3 switch options don't perform the same way. I know Mikrotik CRS devices have abysmal routing features while being extraordinarily good deals for basic layer 2 functions. On the other hand, I've verified that the Edgeswitch 48 can at least route 10Gbps. Unsure of the cheap dlinks, DGS-1500-20 looks interesting if it performs
 
If you are just a performance fiend, the sale price Xeon E3 servers, combined with network cards with offload capabilities, will just wreck anything else you'd likely want to afford. Barring that, I think the Edgeswitch/Edgerouter options are probably going to outperform anything else in the affordable range. The Dlink I linked above might actually be the cheapest option, but I haven't managed to verify it's routing performance.
 
Apologies if I've just muddied up the waters on the process; I'll review my post when I'm not falling asleep. In the meantime, do you have any definition of performance you're looking to improve? I'm sure we can point you in the right direction, but as I stated, VLANning alone won't see any significant performance enhancement.
I needed one in a hurry about a month ago and the Qotom model was showing a long delivery time so I bought this similar system instead. I am fairly certain it is the same system just sold under a different name. I threw in 8GB RAM and a Transcend 64GB mSATA which brough my total cost to around $265.
They work extremely well, rock solid with great throughput. My only complaint is they seem to run a little hotter than I would like.
Unless the Atom C line has been sorted out, I'd suggest a Celeron J3455 build as a decent perf/watt point. They're cheap and fairly powerful - I believe ASRock has one for ~$60. Tag a pcie dual nic card on, whatever for storage (unless you want squid), 2-4gb ram and you're good to go.
A lot of these low end SoC's and Pentiums are more than sufficient for pfSense. Compare them against a middle of the road core2duo as a benchmark for a basic pfSense box. Need VPN, Snort, Squid, whatever? hike it up accordingly.
E: here's a barebones box: https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-Gigabit-Barebone/dp/B01GIVQI3M
Honestly, I'd go with Cisco SG series switches. You can get them pretty much as big or as small as you want, they have both Web GUI and CLI, generally much more affordable compared to enterprise level switches, and they have POE capabilities as well.
If you are going to be using Proxmox or Untangle (my preference is Untangle) for a router/firewall, you really don't need the Edge Router, since they will fulfill your layer 3 needs. Instead, you can save that money and get a PoE enabled switch, probably with a lot more ports.
As far as hardware for Proxmox/Untangle, you can get something like this and have plenty of processing power for whatever ISP connection you have.
Check out pfsense with something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01GIVQI3M/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1505001255&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=pfsense&dpPl=1&dpID=41OvNDM8FPL&ref=plSrch
Thank you Gerdes. I was out last night so didn’t see this until now. So, I think I understand what you mean. Basically, your saying build another pfSense box that will basically perform the duties a layer 3 switch would and then just connect that out to my layer two switches. So, for my setup it would be something like this:
ISP ---- Pf1 ---- Pf2 ---- Cisco 2960-S ---- Other Layer-2 managed switches and devices (servers, pcs, etc.)
Now for that setup above would something like this suffice or would I need more power than that. Also, would it be better to get something like this and just the one box doing everything or is having two like you mentioned better in the end for performance. I initially was going to go with the supermicro for my pfsense box but I have a friend who uses pfsense and he recommended that zotac to me saying that it performed very well. So far, I agree with him. The Zotac has been working very nice.
Now I am just a little confused about how the two pfsense method works. So, my isp comes into my wan port on the zotac and then my LAN port goes to my WAN port on my pfsense 2? Is that correct? Now the other NICs on the pf2, do they get bonded together into my layer 2 cisco or are they each setup as separate physical interfaces? So, I guess what I am asking is, do the vlans get configured across the multiple nics (i.e. opt 1 has vlans 5, 10, and 20, opt2 has 30, etc.) or do the nics get bonded and then I just create all the vlans on that bonded interface? I have one last question. How would my packages in pfsense work? I don’t have a lot right now but for example, I am currently running Snort on my LAN interface in pfsense. How would this work with the method you outlined above? Any packages I do still get activated on my Zotac right? The Pf2 shouldn’t be doing anything other than the vlan routing. Am I correct in saying that?
Sorry for all the questions. I am a bit new to pfSense (only be running it for about a month now) so I want to make sure I do this right. I appreciate all your help thus far Gerdes.
You can totally limit that guy down, get yourself a PFsense Router or build one from an old computer, Look up the tutorials on youtube and you'll have him limited in no time.
its a awesome little box, I have a home wifi and a public wifi that anyone around me can use but its limited to 2mbits.
Anyone ever use or know if this would be a good alternative?
Firewall Micro Appliance
I'd like the SG-2440 but price wise :\
Thoughts?
That one should be fine. AES-NI should help a ton with any cryptograpgy.
I'm using one of these, running XG for my parents and it works like a champ.
So I had this use case come up recently - I picked up a set of google wifi devices to replace ISP-provided router, only to realize that I hadn’t done my homework on what they do and do not, do.
Anyhow, picked up this guy and plused it up to 8gb: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KLEI1MI/
My requirements also involved a small footprint, low noise, and something that would be okay to have visible from the living room, so this did the trick. You can likely find something cheaper with the same specs.
I’m able to run pfsense on this hardware with DHCP, DNS, and suricata in-line at very low CPU usage on a world-facing port. Also shipping log collection off to another solution. Will probably spin up openvpn shortly.
Let me know if I can answer anything from the other side of your use case!
Is there some reason this won't work better?
> Could you give me an example link?
Sure, try this. There are a lot of things like this on Amazon, it's basically just a tiny NUC PC with multiple network ports. There are a lot of them available, some are barebones (add your own RAM and SSD), some come ready to use out with RAM and SSD pre-installed. Some have two Ethernet ports, some have four, some have one.
In general they make pretty good pfSense firewalls. You hook them up to a monitor+keyboard, then download the normal pfSense community edition installer, put that on a USB stick, and boot the little thing from that USB stick. It then installs pfSense onto the internal SSD on the machine, and then you have a firewall :)
It's usually better to buy a real pfSense unit as that helps support the project and the developers, but when cost is the absolute primary concern, these little things are a decent option.
> But to have to spend $370 (+ship) ... for just a one person apartment seems like overkill - unless that Linkys WRT is so compromised (security wise) that it doesn't matter what firmware I run.
I don't think that's a realistic concern. While it is (theoretically) possible that there's some kind of hardware backdoor or bootloader virus in the WRT, this seems highly unlikely. If you're just a normal user who wants to stay private, the WRT with DD-WRT or Tomato is fine. If you are worried about being actively targeted by state actors, then $400 of hardware is (or should be) the least of your concerns.
So it sounds like your plan should be just buy the WRT and reflash it :)
What services do you need security and privacy for? I'm a network engineer and personally I wouldn't run pfsense if I didn't do some oddball stuff(I use openvpn to create a tunnel interface to connect to private internet access and then have firewall rules to force traffic for specific hosts over that tunnel interface). If you're using IPv4 then nothing is exposed to the internet by default you have to NAT to your hosts internally. If you're not exposing anything particularly sensitive to the internet then you shouldn't be all that concerned to be honest. QoS in the home simply isn't worth it most of the time; traffic monitoring doesn't hurt.
With that being said pfsense is a good option if you insist on wanting security features. You can install pfsense on anything really but you'll want to ensure the nics/hardware are enough to utilize your 1g connection.
DDWRT and the like are okay but they are trying to get compatibility for their firmware to run over top of another manufacturer's hardware as opposed to a solution like pfsense so they can be a bit buggy/flaky. I've used dd-wrt on an AP because I needed vlan tagging in a specific place in my home network and it was a cheap/easy way to get it.
The box I purchased for my pfsense build(does 1g just fine with no issues):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KLEI1MI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
As other's have alluded to you'll need an AP for wireless if you go this route.
I personally would just pickup a consumer grade router that could do 1g if I didn't need the additional technical features. Most consumer grade routers on the higher end also have higher ease of use with online gaming for services like upnp regardless of the security concern there, many come with dynamic dns built in, and they also come with openvpn accessibility built into the gui for remote access.
Hmm apparently that one has a similar case but different guts than mine because mine definitely has Intel NICs. I just looked up the one I have, it's a bit more expensive though: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KLEI1MI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
have this installed in about 3 or 4 different offices without issue. reliable af.
also, the SG-3100 is awesome for the price.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Fanless-Graphics-Windows-ZBOX-CI325NANO-U-W2B/dp/B01MSNGYD1
Looks fine for budget build. Ryzen is sensitive to ram speed, 2400 might be hurting performance if gaming is something you'll be doing in the future.
If it is just for Office work have you thought about NUC or mini pc? Example https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSNGYD1
Sorry for the late reply. This is a good link you can use.
https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Fanless-Graphics-Windows-ZBOX-CI325NANO-U-W2B/dp/B01MSNGYD1
Any config you pick will be fine. Just be sure you get 2 to 4 GB of RAM, a sizable SSD you can live with, and maybe even get Windows 10 (pro version!!) to make life easier.
Since it seems pretty flexible maybe you can even make contact and see if you can get a custom build.
Hard drive is kind of up to you. Depends how much extra space you need. You might be able to get by with just 32Gb Hard drive since you won’t be saving a ton of subs on there, and especially if you offload them after a night of capture. I use a USB drive to transfer mine to the main PC so my drive is never in danger of getting full.
Based on this I think you’ll see that the Zotac line has a lot of variations for the arrangement of ports on the outside. Maybe you even have a preference on how the ports are arranged and which ones you can live without. I’ve seen some that have too many HDMI ports, when I really only need one. Point is the requirements are not many. You can feel free to pick a different model entirely and just be sure to get the ram and hard drive you need.
The 7i7 is cheaper.... at $383... what am I missing?
Yes, amazon link
If it's the size that's attractive, this will run windows 10 very well:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC7i7BNH-Core/dp/B01N0RL8Q4
I have no personal experience with this technology but have you looked into a NUC? Amazon, Wikipedia.
i5 nuc is 9 of them. I have 3 i7 of that same type as well. Mac mini is mostly 6,1 and 6,2 models.
At best case scenario you will have one NVMe drive, one SSD, and some potential external USB drives. Are you interested in adding a JBOD?
Your options for RAID are going to be limited to mirroring and rather low capacity as well unless you add external storage.
If you are adding a JBOD and only using it as a NAS I would go with a NUC8i5BEH. You can save $100-$200 vs buying the NUC8i7BEH. The 8i5 are plenty capable for this machine and will even leave headroom to spin up VMs or containers.
All of this is assuming you are dead set on using the NUC platform. There are many other options that would make a more robust NAS.
> So I would buy a PC, buy one of those, install it into a PC, and plug the cameras directly into that. Then I'd film everything on vMix, and don't even need to use the Roland?
Yeah.
> Is there a specific kind of computer you would recommend that could handle this kind of production? Should I look for any kind of specs?
I use an I5 NUC for single-camera HD streaming with vMix and it works quite well.
Hm, I'm interested. So as far as I can tell, compared to this, your builds actually have an SSD and RAM already ready to go. That's cool. I think I'd look for a different case, maybe something that lays down flat instead of standing up. I am considering it so your builds help a lot. I'd probably lean to the first, because I don't need to game, but might do the second for a bit more future-proofing. I'm currently stuck between the concept of doing this or just finding a used computer and putting an SSD in it.
One of these is the kind of thing I was thinking of - Intel NUC Mini PC kit NUC7i5BNK
The only catch is you need to add on a M.2 drive and RAM which pushes the price up.
The thing I like the most about the NUC's is that they are small and quiet and don't use much power. The TDP on that i5 cpu is 15w with a passmark of 5698
Then just add on one of these little drives for storage.
What, you mean https://www.amazon.com/Intel-mini-NUC7i5BNK-Core-version/dp/B01N4EP1N0
I was planning to replace my ISP-provided gateway box with a cheap dual-NIC PC like https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0728F8JS5 when I discovered that the latest Raspberry Pis can do ~300Mbps ethernet (I would add an additional USB Gbit adapter for the LAN side). I have 150Mbps symmetrical fiber so that is sufficient throughput. Any latency concerns with running everything over USB?
I would imagine the RPi CPU is more powerful than whatever is in the ISP box, but I'm curious if anyone has experience running a simple Linux + iptables NAT setup and if there are gotchas. I don't mind spending $200 on my original solution, but $50 is better if performance is identical.
Ah, didn't realize they were that old.
I would keep the gateways bare metal I guess then and maybe get something like [this](Firewall Micro Appliance with 4X Intel Gigabit Ports, Intel Atom E3845, AES-NI, Barebone https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072ZTCNLK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_c0R7CbJ4S2TWV) to meet your low wattage requirements. Easy enough to install something like VyOS or keep using CentOS with iptables and it would give you more than enough power.
Good point. I came across that same page at literally the same exact time you posted this response.
Looks like I'll be going in more of this direction: https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Appliance-Gigabit-AES-NI-Barebone/dp/B072ZTCNLK/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1520879651&sr=1-5&keywords=aes-ni+firewall
With a mSATA 16GB card, and 4GB DDR3.
Thoughts please? Many thanks.
I recently picked this up on reddit for $95, it's got aes-ni and 4 intel nics.
https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Appliance-Gigabit-AES-NI-Barebone/dp/B072ZTCNLK/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1525800995&sr=1-12&keywords=pfsense+firewall&pldnSite=1
I also have this one: again aes-ni and 4 intel nics.
https://www.amazon.com/Qotom-Q355G4-Firewall-Ethernet-Barebone-Computer/dp/B06XJV9R8X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526870715&sr=8-1&keywords=qotom+i5
Is this the one?
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V
Is $699 a good deal?
I'd probably recommend getting an Intel NUC8i7HNK or if you can afford the extra, the Intel NUC8i7HVK if you truly want something in the same size range as a Mac Mini.
Intel NUC8i7HNK @ $998.17 or Intel NUC8i7HVK @ $1153.35
Crucial 16GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM @ $173.00
Crucial 500GB MX500 M.2 SATA SSD @ $108.99
Total : $1280.16 for the NUC8i7HNK, $1435.34 for the NUC8i7HVK.
The Mac Mini has a volume of 1.38L, the Intel NUCs have a volume of 1.22L (technically smaller than a Mac Mini). If you take the other suggestions here, the In-Win Chopin has a volume of 4.45L^1, the Silverstone SG13 has a volume of 11.45L, the Raijintek Metis Plus has a volume of 13.37L, and the Raijintek Ophion EVO has a volume of 18.92L. It should also be noted that the In-Win Chopin cannot take a GPU, as it has no space for any PCIe cards.
If you care about having a small clever form factor the Intel Hades Canyon nuc is what I'd recommend. Can customize its ram and SSD, these have vastly superior onboard video.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V
https://smile.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR3HCZ3/
or
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BR5GK1V/
2 x https://smile.amazon.com/Crucial-Single-PC4-21300-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B071KNKBQ1/
https://smile.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-500GB-2280SS-Internal/dp/B077SQ8J1V/
or you can get inwin chopin and put amd 2400g in it
If that’s the case I’d go with the skull candy nuc Intel NUC8 VR Machine Mini PC Kit NUC8i7HVK with Radeon RX Vega M Graphics https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BR5GK1V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wdXMBb5M3R6P1
i picked up a XG35QV open-box for $530 to get a feel for what size UW might work for new office/desk.
I go through gaming phases but mostly use my machine (intel nuc NUC8i7HVK w/8th Gen Intel Core i7 8809G & Radeon RX Vega M GH 1Ghz 4GB mem graphics) for 3d modeling, video editing, and coding.
the obvious long-term solution will be a wall-mount (it arrives tomorrow), but until I get my keyboard + monitor height just right, and build my standing memory-foam-pad, I can't be sure of the exact height, so don't want to install a wall mount just yet
Does anyone have a suggestion for a monitor, preferably with less of a gamer-vibe (my office space shares with the guest room, so to please the SO), that has a lower-profile stand? this one is pushed back as far as it can go and the screen still starts about 12" from the wall.
also open to suggestions in general on the best 35" to buy/wait for. i prefer buying open-box on amazon for 30+% off but appreciate the importance of a quality monitor and will spend the $ for new, if it's the best option/value.
finally, is the xg35qv a good value for $540? what should I have purchased instead if not (stand irrelevant)?
Super late reply but its the intel hades canyon nuc!
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Performance-G-Kit-NUC8i7HVK/dp/B07BR5GK1V/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1PNLNQ42LKMA2&keywords=intel+hades+canyon+nuc&qid=1572925736&sprefix=intel+haders%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-3
In case anyone else finds this post. This is the best option I've seen so far and it puts the Alpha to shame.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Machine-NUC8i7HVK-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B07BR5GK1V/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1527005047&sr=1-1&keywords=hades+canyon
There's a subreddit dedicated to HTPC. We got an under $100 Mini Stick on Amazon. It does everything on your list but the audio out to receiver I think.
https://www.amazon.com/Azulle-Quantum-Access-Windows-storage/dp/B00X4O6GRK
Edit: I was down voted?
> N3150
how about the Zotac ZBOX-CI323NANO-U. it has dual NICs & a WiFi adapter too. With N3159. Would this be a good platform?
Zotac ZBOX
Crucial 8gig stick
Samsung 850 EVO
My previous Realtek NIC box was cutting my line speeds in half and had a fan, this box still has Realtek NIC but it's not slowing me a bit at 100mbs speeds, has no fan, and is barely breaking a sweat. It has AES onboard but I've not done anything to push that. WiFi appears unsupported but I'm okay with that for now.
Cheap enough for you?
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm thinking about this Zotac box which seems to have about the same board? I can grab it with memory and an SSD for about $235 all in.
Pfsense on netgate or one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072ZTCNLK/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_Kmi1Db5J1PX4R
buying all that stuff is pretty expensive, why not just get a cheap zotac zbox with dual nics, some ram, and be done with it?
Amazon price is $856.76
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BR5GK1V/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_UYSZCb0PRAD2Y
This is blatantly false. You are misinformed or biased, I presume.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1412621181&sr=1-5&keywords=Intel+NUC
Its smaller than most any systems of any OS (except some android sticks/Pi)
Is cheaper (even with purchasing memory/HDD) than most Android phones and the size of your hand. A Galaxy 5 costs 600 dollars unlocked. Sure, a raspberry Pi is cheaper and small. But, A NUC will run circles around a Pi and play 98% of all MAME games unlike the Pi. And has better compatibility and ease of use.
COuld by an HP Stream 14" as well. Its 200 bucks and comes with everything and a screen built in.