cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28083834
Windows 10/11 is a requirement because it will be a shared console, sorry y’all. I’m considering a refurb’ed model on eBay because some include Win10 Pro licenses, which would save ~$80 versus building from scratch.
The PC would be used for streaming media through Plex and maybe some light gaming via SteamLink, so specs aren’t very important as long as it can handle basic web browsing and graphic output.
Has anyone here had any experience with these? I would imagine they’re pretty no-fuss boxes given that they’re business-class units, but I also understand that they’re several years old. What’ the upgradeability of them like? What specific models/SKUs would be recommended for this use / are there any other SFF PCs that are comparable?
I was recently reading a lot about these because I wanted to use three Lenovo M920x for my homelab as virtualization hosts with Proxmox.
The really cool thing about them is their low power usage, that you can easily buy them used/refurbished and that you can fit a small PCIe expansion card into them.
I didn’t use them in the end because sadly 22110 M.2 SSDs don’t fit and I wanted to use enterprise SSDs for Ceph.
However, your use case seems simpler, so I’d think a M720q or maybe even M710q (without PCIe slot) would do, for less money than the M9xx series (which support vPro).
There’s a really nice forum thread on ServeTheHome with loads of information about these units.
It’s pretty meek on specs. It depends on how much you’d be paying for it. If it was free, I’d say go for it. If it’s $100, you’re halfway to a much more capable machine. The onboard graphics on this are going to be abysmal, even for video.
My advice would be to go for a 7th gen or upwards if your going intel as the processers igpu is what I would consider your minimum, secondly massgrave.dev should sort out your activation/licensing issues and also look into sunshine/moonlight for game streaming rather than steam link potentially
Appreciated. It may be worth it to just build a SFF after all. Never heard of massgrave before. QRD?
Can I please query the win10/11 because it’s a shared console? What about it being a) shared or b) a console makes win 10/11 a requirement?
A consistent console-ish experience with pc-like access to games is more a case for Bazzite or steamos than a case for windows.
If it replaced my current media player (PS5), then it would be used about 95% for streaming media and 5% playing games, so I consider it more of a Windows HTPC than a gaming console replacement.
I would just be 1/3rd of the people using the console and don’t believe anyone would touch it if it wasn’t an OS that the other users are comfortable with.
