Topic: pc or mini?

my pc is about to expire RIP. So knowing we have some techsavvy people on here I thought I might get some advice. are mini computers as good or better than tower desktops? to be used for day to day stuff and recording multitrack music. I would be grateful for any advice. thanks 

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Re: pc or mini?

I'll chime in here, having built many pcs over the years I still go with the tower form factor. Out of habit I suppose but i do see that there are some very good options in the mini box area for those that can find one that has all the stuff you will ever want in it at time of purchase. Generally the smaller form factors do not have space to add stuff later or upgrade with things like video and sound "baked on" to the mainboard and zero expansion slots. Sure you can change out the SSD for a larger one if you need space for storing stuff, and you can increase the RAM should you need more, but adding a drive or improving the sound or video isn't happening. Then there is repairability, if the power supply dies can it be replaced at the user level, if you want a better CPU can it be done and still interface with the cooling system? I tend to think of minis as a notebook pc, you got what you got and if it dies or becomes obsolete, shop for a new one, better one.
It's just a thought.     

"what is this quintessence of dust?"  - Shakespeare

Re: pc or mini?

Unless you have a requirement to be tied to a desk, I'd recommend a laptop over either. I've successfully run 8 audio tracks into a 2015 MacBook with 16Gb of memory, with the convenience of being able to move that (almost) anywhere. Considering it's an older Inter i7 CPU, it keeps up with most daily tasks I throw at it, including video processing, gaming, and graphic design. Anything newer will be a bonus and will probably meet your requirements. Expanding on what Doug said above, you may want something with expand-ability, including memory, SSD and GPU, but it also depends on your use case and desire for future requirements. Most PC's are sold these days with an expected lifespan of 2 to 3 years, as that's when manufacturers will hope you will upgrade, but you'll get some good bargains if you look second hand for those aged computers, and will probably be sufficient from the details you gave here.

Of course, that all changes if you say you're editing 4K videos as part of your "day to day" stuff ...

HTH

Richard     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
Discogs          https://www.discogs.com/release/29065579
YouTube         https://www.youtube.com/@RichardMortimerMusic

Re: pc or mini?

Thanks to Doug and Richard. I already have a laptop but find they have a tendancy to let me down at the worst possible time, I used to use it for stage work! I think I've decided on a tower PC as I want a dvd drive. Amazon have pages of reconditioned PCs at attractive prices and win11 installed so I may go that way. Any further advice will be welcome like how to get my stuff from old to new PC?
Richard my son lives in a Perth suburb...he says it's really hot at the moment. He's tone deaf so he doesn't follow me...lol     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Re: pc or mini?

Phill Williams wrote:

Thanks to Doug and Richard. I already have a laptop but find they have a tendancy to let me down at the worst possible time, I used to use it for stage work! I think I've decided on a tower PC as I want a dvd drive. Amazon have pages of reconditioned PCs at attractive prices and win11 installed so I may go that way. Any further advice will be welcome like how to get my stuff from old to new PC?

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with a laptop, but sounds like you've already jumped on the right track ...

I'm more Mac orientted these days, and haven't done a Windows user swap over for a few years - I'll let others advise on that, as the old way was to re-install everything from scratch (don't know if that's changed?).

Phill Williams wrote:

Richard my son lives in a Perth suburb...he says it's really hot at the moment. He's tone deaf so he doesn't follow me...lol

Yer, we've had lots of days in the high 30's (centigrade), but haven't cracked any 40 days yet ... it's cooler at the moment, but apparently getting hotter next week, which is unusual for mid-March!

Cheers

Richard     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
Discogs          https://www.discogs.com/release/29065579
YouTube         https://www.youtube.com/@RichardMortimerMusic

Re: pc or mini?

Phill Williams wrote:

I think I've decided on a tower PC as I want a dvd drive.

Oh, forgot to add - I thought I'd miss a CD/DVD player on my Mac, but we bought a USB based one, which we share among the family - I was surprised at how often it just sits on the shelf these days, as most items (software/videos/etc) are downloadable. The times I do use it are for ripping rare CD's from Perth bands ...

Cheers

Richard     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
Discogs          https://www.discogs.com/release/29065579
YouTube         https://www.youtube.com/@RichardMortimerMusic

Re: pc or mini?

I hear  ya Richard, got you beat though... my laptop is over 20 years old and I've maxed out the memory and slipped in a half terabyte hard drive. switched to Linux and it still serves me well for most things not graphics heavy.  My tower has had many upgrades over the years including at least three power supplies, a couple of mainboards ( to go with new processors) as much RAM as it will address, and at last count no less than four hard drives (each dedicated to some specific type of function. Audio files take up a bunch of RAM and drive space for post production). Two hot graphics cards, and a pretty good sound card for the DAW. Can't get all that in a mini-box. LOL.

Phill, one easy way to move your stuff is to move the whole drive into an available space in your new tower. The windows migration tool is pretty good too, and you can choose what you want to move or leave behind. Personally I tend to move the hardware and then the content because the old drive becomes the archive should something go awry in the move. Also saves space on your new primary drive. smile     

"what is this quintessence of dust?"  - Shakespeare

8 (edited by Riverdales 2023-03-18 03:18:16)

Re: pc or mini?

Hope I'm not too late and you already purchased. We are no longer living in hard disk drive era and if you are it's time for you to upgrade. Even the SSD which is fairly new is being pushed to the side by the newer faster bigger storage size NVME flash drives. I've seen some of these newer small form factor or mini's and the specs are outstanding. For the first few months. As soon as you start downloading and saving pictures videos BAM it slows down to a crawl or even worse blue screen of death. I work with pc's everday for lots of businesses. we don't ever recommend minis. But for some reason they choose to go the mini way and then like clockwork the tickets start coming in. I believe that packaging all this equipment in such a small package just makes the computer start to bake itself. So I would say no don't go the mini way and if you don't want to go full blown monster desktop there's a middle ground. You can buy something like a dell optiplex. Now i can't say which model out of the thousands that dell has because that would come down to your budget and what you plan to do with it. So let's say something like a dell optiplex 7000 series small form factor but it's inbetween mini and monster desktop. Also you get what you pay for and i cannot stress that enough. But...ah man this is difficult because the advertising sometimes makes a top of the line pc seem so great but it will suck and you could have gone cheaper for a better pc. I can continue but as technology just booms, it's just crazy. If you tell me what your looking for and what you will be using it for I can recommend something that will at least give you 5 to 8 years worth of tech life expectancy rather than the 2 to 3. Hope that wasn't to to long and somewhat helpful but my mind was racing with so many directions i could go with type of processor, ram size, battery capacity, integrated graphics or pcix16 graphics cards, fan cooling, water cooling, Solid state drive , nvme flash drives,  power supply wattage WOOOOOOO!! I feel like building a new pc now!!!  (DO NOT GO MAC)!!

Forgive your enemies, but always remember their names!

Re: pc or mini?

Thanks once again Doug, your input is always welcome and mostly helpful,,, truth be told I'm a plug and play type of silver surfer so though I love tech I'm more confused by it than comfortable. When the time comes I will pull up your post again and go step by step. Thank you my friend.

Riverdalesd, good to hear from you. I've pretty much given up on minis, you've consolidated my thoughts on that. I've seen a lot of Dell rebuilds on Amazon, the ones I've read up on have SSD and HDD built in along with a DVDdrive, all I want it for is day to day stuff like storing my writings and photos plus emails and stuff, all very basic as you can tell. I'm not a gamer apart from Freecell,.

Richard, I'm kinda working on a budget so having all I want built in so I don't have to pay out on periforals is key. The family came to visit Perth a few years ago when the temp was over 40° C, the beach was very welcome and the bottle shops...lol     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Re: pc or mini?

As long as the ssd has the main operating system the HDD is great for storing all your stuff. I too actually use a 2 TB HDD for all my stuff. Good luck.

Phill Williams wrote:

Thanks once again Doug, your input is always welcome and mostly helpful,,, truth be told I'm a plug and play type of silver surfer so though I love tech I'm more confused by it than comfortable. When the time comes I will pull up your post again and go step by step. Thank you my friend.

Riverdalesd, good to hear from you. I've pretty much given up on minis, you've consolidated my thoughts on that. I've seen a lot of Dell rebuilds on Amazon, the ones I've read up on have SSD and HDD built in along with a DVDdrive, all I want it for is day to day stuff like storing my writings and photos plus emails and stuff, all very basic as you can tell. I'm not a gamer apart from Freecell,.

Richard, I'm kinda working on a budget so having all I want built in so I don't have to pay out on periforals is key. The family came to visit Perth a few years ago when the temp was over 40° C, the beach was very welcome and the bottle shops...lol

     

Forgive your enemies, but always remember their names!

Re: pc or mini?

A short update: I bought a Dell from amazon and I'm just blown away with the speed! I am left scratching my head at times with the change of operating system.  Thanks for all the advice and help you guys. Any further tips will be gratefully received.    Phill     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Re: pc or mini?

Phill Williams wrote:

A short update: I bought a Dell from amazon and I'm just blown away with the speed! I am left scratching my head at times with the change of operating system.  Thanks for all the advice and help you guys. Any further tips will be gratefully received.    Phill

Great!! Which model did you get? And which OS did you go from and to .. ?

Cheers

Richard     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
Discogs          https://www.discogs.com/release/29065579
YouTube         https://www.youtube.com/@RichardMortimerMusic

Re: pc or mini?

It's aDell Optiplex with Win 11 Pro. 16 gigs ram, 500 or so memory. My old PC was Win10 . I kept the 1 terabyte external drive which has all my pics and songs. I know it's a referb but it looks brand new and faster than a rat up a drain pipe! Also a lot cheaper than a new one. I did lose Ableton DAW and another one which was too complicated for me anyway. So I've down loaded Audacity which still needs a bit of tweeking from me, any help would be gratefully received.  Thanks again. Phill     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Re: pc or mini?

Well awesome those are good specs. curious if that harddrive is an ssd or hard disk drive. And everyone has got to go through the win 11 learning curve. It's just the way it is. Every six months or so take a can of compressed air. open up the case and give it a good dusting. It will keep performing at it's peak if it is staying cool. Any questions feel free.

Phill Williams wrote:

It's aDell Optiplex with Win 11 Pro. 16 gigs ram, 500 or so memory. My old PC was Win10 . I kept the 1 terabyte external drive which has all my pics and songs. I know it's a referb but it looks brand new and faster than a rat up a drain pipe! Also a lot cheaper than a new one. I did lose Ableton DAW and another one which was too complicated for me anyway. So I've down loaded Audacity which still needs a bit of tweeking from me, any help would be gratefully received.  Thanks again. Phill

     

Forgive your enemies, but always remember their names!

Re: pc or mini?

Compressed air...that's original, never thought of that. I think it's SSD. At the moment I have no worries about it getting too hot, the temp is under 10°C and with our energy crisis we can't afford to put the heating on for long. Thanks for that.     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.