[plug] miniPC recommendations?

[James Henstridge]

On Mon, 14 Sept 2026 at 13:40, Bruce Axtens via plug <plug at plug.org.au> wrote:
>
> >  I am curious what are you trying to achieve or the type of work you will do with your miniPC?
>
> Assorted bits of dotnet development in C#
> I'm a maintainer and language track developer for exercism.org (helped with COBOL, 8th, and Euphoria tracks and working on SNOBOL4 track)
> I have three Substack accounts I write into occasionally:
[...]
>
> Microsoft Teams and PowerPoint (I'm the "Order of Service" builder for my church (Three Crosses WPC))
>
> That's the top four of lots of other miscellaneous activity.

Your options are going to be a bit limited given the price range you
specified. Also, with mini-PCs you're more likely to find some weird
custom hardware in them making it more difficult to upgrade later.
That might not be a problem for things at that price point though.

One thing to consider is the amount of RAM in the machine. You
wouldn't want anything less  than 16 GB today, and I would try for 32
GB if you can: it will give you a bit more head room as web browsers
(and websites) get heavier. It won't hurt for photo editing either.

>From the refurb website Ono mentioned, this machine might be a good fit:

https://reebelo.com.au/collections/hp-prodesk-400-g4-mini-desktop-pc?skuId=sku-mpwfytwvof5LmzYfzn3oAS5

It's a low power (35W max) CPU from 2018, but has 32GB of RAM. The
storage is a bit on the small side, but you can bump that up if you
are willing to extend your budget a bit. It has gigabit ethernet, but
may not have wifi: that appears to be an optional feature, and isn't
mentioned here.

James.