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Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

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gjsman-1000

Don't even buy one of these devices. I love picking up old micro Optiplexes.

For example, take the Optiplex 7060 Micro. On eBay for $180, you get:

- i5-8500T (35W version) [According to Passmark, about 50% faster than an N100]

- Power Supply

- 16 GB RAM across 2 RAM slots

- 500 GB SSD (two bays, one M.2 and one 2.5" SATA)

- Windows 11 Pro

- 2 DisplayPort Out, 1 HDMI out, Gigabit Ethernet

All in a nice metal case that opens with a single screw. Can't beat that deal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155685037292

There's also other versions, like this 8GB / i5-8400T / 256GB configuration for $120.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326086160071

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N100 though allows the PC to be fanless, which is attractive to those of us who hate noises that persist all day (more precisely, that contain a frequency that persists all day, fatiguing the part of the inner ear specialized for that frequency).

I personally own one of these, and unless you are running it with a very intense load, it's pretty inaudible. Active cooling on a 35W part is not very loud.

I'm glad that computer worked for you, but I bought a computer once because multiple people online reported that the model (Intel NUC8BEH) was almost completely silent, but ended up hating it because of its cooling fan's constant whining noise even though the noise was not loud, e.g., not loud enough to interfere with my understanding someone talking.

+1 for fanless. I got one of these optiplexes as they were recommended everywhere. They are indeed more powerful but very closed down. For example one cannot even control the fan speed on them and I hear it whine at idle all day long. If I try to unplug the fan from the motherboard, the whole computer won't boot.

Also, what I could gather from a youtube presentation is that they are electricity hogs (compared to a 5W Pi) unless you get a >9th gen box which has some better low power states (which may or may not be supported by your distro).

The older generation thin-client PCs also tend to only support SATA M.2 SSDs, which are becoming a liability now with the prices rising sharply relative to NVMe due to lack of demand, especially if you want a model with DRAM. Just about anything with an N100 will support NVMe, so you can load them up with a 2TB SSD pretty cheaply.

>Don't even buy one of these devices.

Why not? The ones you shared cost the same as a new N100 but are more power hungry due to their age. You're also getting weaker GPUs.

They might be right for some people, I admit. Just looking on Amazon though, right now in my area, the average price is $150-$200 for an N100, sometimes higher [the best-selling N100 on Amazon is $200]. For the money (see my $120 one), you can get much better performance, greater expansion, a metal case, and even though the power draw is higher... unless you are in, say, Germany, the cost savings of the computer will pay off any savings from the greater efficiency. For what it's worth, it's also a Dell and not a Chinese brand.

>unless you are in, say, Germany

Basically yes.

> it's also a Dell and not a Chinese brand

That's the best reason I can see.

But how much power does it use?

For the T-series chips which have a 35W limit, the power adapter is 90W.

For models which have 65W CPUs, it's a 130W power adapter.

I don't know what the power draw at the wall is though - these are just the highest upper boundaries.

(To be fair though, I live in a place with 11 cents per kWh electricity with 13 cents during June-September, so it's not much of a concern for me.)

Depends on what the use case is. You can't possibly fit that chonker in lots of spaces that a Pi 5 or an N100 will easily fit, and they're much lighter to carry. And the power consumption is atrocious in comparison for battery use.

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