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My laptop has fallen apart. Or more accurately it's fallen apart more than tape will hold it together.
Is there a thing such as a half mini pc IE I supply the ram and SSD?
I really don't need a laptop it's just something to sit on my desk when I need to do some minor tasks that my shitePhone and shiteTab can't do well. IE run some basic photography software.
Do you have a monitor, etc?
Do you have a monitor, etc?
Oh aye. I have a two screen and a dock.
This guy WFH.
Bare bones and nuc are exactly the kind of search terms I needed.
Take a look at Beelink mini PCs, highly recommended
NUC are great but AFAIK they are very particular with RAM i.e. you must use the exact type of RAM specified, faster or slower won't work, so check first if you're hoping to re-use RAM you've already got!Yes, you want a NUC. Just search NUC and you’ll get loads of options.
I've bought a couple of refurbished Lenovo Thinkcentre machines (their equivalent of NUC) ready to go off eBay for not crazy money.
Have a look at used mini pc's like HP Elitedesks. They come in really small form factor (will fit on back of monitor).
Another search term which may help, "SFF" (small form factor).
NUC are great but AFAIK they are very particular with RAM i.e. you must use the exact type of RAM specified, faster or slower won’t work, so check first if you’re hoping to re-use RAM you’ve already got!
Not had any such issue with my Intel NUC (10 i7). Faster RAM was easier to get hold of so that's what it has.
Just had Asus NUC pop up in my Youtube feed over the weekend. Looks tempting. Interesting that they use the term NUC, which i assumed was an Intel trademark.
Intel NUC are not cheap whatsoever (ie you can buy a new PC for the same price as a barebone to transplant RAM/SSD into). Asus probably won't be much cheaper. Did seriously consider Beelink or similar for a cheap 2nd PC once, but never got round to it.
I've been using an Acer Veriton Mini for a few years, seems to have a new version called the Revo Box. Well made and well thought out. I bought one with small SSD and RAM and upgraded to what I wanted. It takes an SSD and a laptop size hard drive and has loads of USB. It came with a bracket so you can mount it to the VESA screws on the back of a monitor. Mine is N4660G, but there are more modern ones now.
I’ve bought a couple of refurbished Lenovo Thinkcentre machines (their equivalent of NUC) ready to go off eBay for not crazy money.
OP I've got a spare one of these that you can have for the cost of postage and a bit of a donation towards something.
(I've used them with Linux and they're cool little boxes.)
I have a Morefine which is our TV pc, the best way to describe them is 'fairly quality China'
But it has been great, good enough that it can play a bunch of my up to semi recent steam games on.
How old/dead is the laptop?
You can usually take out the mainboard, disconnect the peripheral bits like the keyboard, screen, trackpad, battery etc and I've seen them mounted on the back of a monitor on some standoffs.
Otherwise, a bearbones ITX PC if you're using desktop RAM, or if you're re-using laptop RAM you might need to shop more carefully. TBH though unless the budget is super tight, or you find a bargain, you might find a whole SFF / ITX PC is as cheap, then just intall your SSD in it as extra capacity.
You may not be able to remove the CPU and memory from the existing laptop, it's sometimes soldered on
You may not be able to remove the CPU and memory from the existing laptop, it’s sometimes soldered on
A laptop's CPU and RAM is not going to work in a desktop PC. And even if it would, you probably wouldn't want to if the donor laptop is old enough to be held together with thoughts and prayers.
I am not so worried about form factor I just want to be able to use what I have rather than contribute to landfill. But smaller is nicer.
And what I have is a 500gb SSD with windows 11 and a brace of ddr4 16gb and 4gb. Also what's a decent budget processor these days? i# at the price that suits?
And even if it would, you probably wouldn’t want to if the donor laptop is old enough to be held together with thoughts and prayers.
It 5 years old. It's just a notably fragile plastic dell. however it got me an i5 with student discount.
Also what’s a decent budget processor these days? i# at the price that suits?
Depends on usage but I got a new laptop recently (so same stuff under the bonnet (laptop hardware, essentially) as a NUC or similar) for casual use (holiday, movies, web browsing)..odd bit of light office work etc..
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/-b5302fea-lf1011x/version.asp
Core i5 1135G7
8gb ram
512gb ssd
13..3" OLED touchscreen, which is nice...
Much better than the outgoing gen10 i3 it replaced, as thats only 2 core, 4 thread, only had 4gb ram and a 256gb ssd... it struggled to run zoom, pokerstars at the same time... it just couldnt cope with multi tasking.
The newer gen11 i5 is 4 core, 8 thread, and double the RAM, so whilst it's no ferrari, it can actualy cope with the workload I want to chuck at it!
Its worth noting that laptop CPUs often found in NUC type PC's, are lesser versions of thier full fat desktop counterparts, as they run cooler and use less power.