[plug] miniPC recommendations?

[gavinwc]

Hi Bruce,

I think you've been 'lurking' for around as long as me. In fact, many, many
years ago I'm pretty sure I bought some used kit from you? Well done on
your son getting to work in his passion area!

As far as the mini-PC, I'm going to issue a caution, but it may not apply
to your price-point. That is, I wanted power with small size a couple of
years ago because I wanted to edit all those hi-res landscape shots I'd
been taking for years. The mini I settled on was the Intel NUC, which i
packed with goodies (of the time) in the shape of 12th gen i7, 64Gb ram and
2Tb SSD. The same specs in a laptop would have cost at least 3 times the
price.

However, here is the caution - the small form factor with hard-working
components works VERY hot. Often super hot in fact. After a period of
streaming with 100s (yes, 100s) of tabs open and working on a high res
photo, the little brick gets so hot that it goes into safety mode and
seizes up with its little fan trying to get the brick taking off into
orbit! Haha.

So, I have all that power, but the form factor is hobbling it. Just FYI, I
did look into some fandangle fanless cases for this board, but they're very
steeply priced, so I get by with a room fan blowing across the box as it
hangs on the back of the monitor 😕

So, buyer beware depending on your application. If my needs and practices
were more restrained, though, I can say that I'm well impressed with the
nucs as an option.

Gavin

On Mon, 14 Sep 2026, 09:26 Bruce Axtens via plug, <plug at plug.org.au> wrote:

> Hello Pluglings (for want of a better term)
>
> I'm still lurking here in the shadows. Have been for years, my son Daniel
> having been the impetus. He's now Principal Engineer for Fastly:
> https://www.fastly.com/blog/author/daniel-axtens
>
> But I didn't come here to do that. My question is more mundane: after
> years of having various second-hand laptops as my home setup for Linux I'm
> now seriously considering laying out real money for a miniPC. Does the
> group have any suggestions re manufacturer and vendor? I'm thinking
> something in the $300-$450 range.
>
> Kind regards,
> Bruce Axtens
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.plug.org.au/pipermail/plug/attachments/20260914/e53651e9/attachment.htm>