A 35W i7-7700T mini PC from 2017 will absolutely spank a modern N150 in single and multi–threaded applications, and uses very little extra power to do so.
100% this. And Lenovos and HPs designed for the business market generally are a pleasure to work on (in the hardware sense) if you need, with good manuals and secondhand spare parts.
Oh for sure. I’ve got a handful of SFFs and mini PCs making up my little “homelab”:
(Yes, that’s the furnace. No, it’s not hot there. Ever. I’ve checked on it many, many times.)
I’ve also got another pair of Optiplex 9020s, an Optiplex 3040, and my old trusty HP Elite 8100 SFF w/8300 SFF mobo, i7-3770/32GB, and modded BIOS that supports booting from NVMe (via it.s M.2 PCIe card). Those are sitting in the closet just taking up space at the moment.
eBay supplied the 7050 and the mini PCs. My sister gave me the other Optiplexen from her work office.
A 35W i7-7700T mini PC from 2017 will absolutely spank a modern N150 in single and multi–threaded applications, and uses very little extra power to do so.
Mini PC is the way to go.
I love my micros.
100% this. And Lenovos and HPs designed for the business market generally are a pleasure to work on (in the hardware sense) if you need, with good manuals and secondhand spare parts.
Oh for sure. I’ve got a handful of SFFs and mini PCs making up my little “homelab”:
(Yes, that’s the furnace. No, it’s not hot there. Ever. I’ve checked on it many, many times.)
I’ve also got another pair of Optiplex 9020s, an Optiplex 3040, and my old trusty HP Elite 8100 SFF w/8300 SFF mobo, i7-3770/32GB, and modded BIOS that supports booting from NVMe (via it.s M.2 PCIe card). Those are sitting in the closet just taking up space at the moment.
eBay supplied the 7050 and the mini PCs. My sister gave me the other Optiplexen from her work office.
That shelf sag scares me, sir. At least reinforce each layer with a slab of plywood or something.