Low Cost Mini PCs

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

A simple price-comparison site for low-cost mini PCs on eBay has highlighted how much value there is in ex-corporate “tiny” desktops for home servers, media boxes, and hobby projects. Commenters praise the dense, fast, table-style interface and push for richer filters (CPU family, power use, location, shipping, architecture, ECC, vPro) and support for non‑US marketplaces and non‑eBay refurbishers. Much of the conversation centers on trade‑offs between cheap used x86 minis, modern low‑power chips like Intel’s N100, Raspberry Pis, and new Chinese brands, with many concluding that used enterprise mini PCs often offer the best performance‑per‑dollar and acceptable power consumption.

Overview & Use Cases

  • Tool aggregates low-cost mini PCs from eBay into a dense, sortable table; many find it far easier than raw eBay for hunting lab servers, home servers, HTPCs, light desktops, or routers.
  • Common target uses: Proxmox/virtualization hosts, Jellyfin/Plex media servers, NAS, Docker hosts, home routers/firewalls, HTPCs (including 4K playback), and general-purpose desktops.

Site Feedback & Feature Requests

  • Strong demand for:
    • Location filters: marketplace (ebay.de, .co.uk, .es, .com.au, etc.) and especially item location + shipping cost integration.
    • CPU-related filters: architecture (x86/ARM), Intel vs AMD, CPU generation, T-series, core count, vPro/AMT, passmark/Geekbench, price/performance and perf/Watt.
    • Keyword filters (already added) for things like NVMe, N100, specific models, ECC, fanless, etc.
    • URL-encoded state for sharing/bookmarking configurations (added).
    • Columns for power usage, noise, external I/O (USB-C power/video, eSATA), PCIe presence, and possibly 4K decode capability.
  • Some want links to open in new tabs to avoid losing scroll/filter state; others prefer default behavior. Author changed to new-tab links.
  • Suggestions to add non-eBay sources (AliExpress, refurbishers, local EU classifieds) and possibly open the model list on GitHub for community curation.

Power Consumption & Cost Trade-offs

  • Large subthread debates electricity cost vs upfront price:
    • Rules of thumb: ~$1–2/year per Watt at 24/7 depending on kWh price; 20–50 W savings can pay for hardware over a few years.
    • Idle power is more important than TDP, especially for always-on home servers; many enterprise mini PCs idle around 5–15 W.
    • Measurements show some NUCs and mini PCs idling at 1–12 W; others caution TDP and spec sheets are poor predictors.
    • Some prefer newer N100/N305 boxes; others argue used enterprise mini PCs match or beat them in idle power and quality.

Mini PCs vs Alternatives

  • Many compare mini PCs favorably to:
    • Raspberry Pis and other SBCs (more RAM, storage, and performance, often similar or slightly higher power; GPIO and extreme low power remain Pi advantages).
    • Old SFF desktops/workstations (more PCIe and expansion, but bigger, louder, higher idle power).
    • Cheap used laptops, especially with damaged screens, which offer built-in UPS and better mobile CPUs.

Brands, Models & Buying Tips

  • Frequent mentions of Dell Optiplex/EliteDesk/ThinkCentre “tiny/micro” lines as excellent value, plus Chinese brands (Beelink, Minisforum, GMKtec, N-series boxes, etc.) with mixed but often positive reports.
  • Calls to include Fujitsu and fanless firewall-style appliances; note that AMD mini PCs and some popular brands are underrepresented due to search patterns.
  • Multiple reminders to watch for:
    • Variant listings where the shown price is for the lowest-spec option.
    • Shipping that can dwarf item price, especially outside the US.
    • BIOS quirks, limited upgrade paths (e.g., Wi-Fi whitelists), and sparse data on ECC or coreboot support.