New desktop needed

[Shot]

I need a new desktop PC and screen. I ran across a closed TV thread, talking about NUCs with this website https://www.jetcom.co.th/index.php.

 

These seem like pretty nice units, without the giant clunky box, and the prices are encouraging. Plus, I only buy what I want, not a package. One of these, and the monitor of my choice seems like a good deal. My concern is, how hard are they to work on or upgrade in todays market?

 

BTW I would like genuine Win10 installed.

 

Your thoughts?

[david555]

With those mini pc's you could easy use your Tv screen ...no need for a screen .....and so act as a big pc screen

[KeeTua]

I looked at the prices for NUCs and decided a laptop for 20K with Win10 connected to external monitor with wireless keyboard/mouse was the way to go for my uses. I take the laptop with me when I travel.

[KannikaP]

I have used NUCs for many years and am very happy with them. But only if you do not want to f..k around with the hardware. You put what RAM, SSD and OS you want, Windows is easy as is Linux.

As Kee Tua says, if you want to take it around with you, get a lappy, but for an in-the-home PC and media centre they are perfect. Asus do one with the Ryzen 5 CPU which is better value than an Intel with an i5 CPU, and faster. But if a few milliseconds every day doesn't bother you, either would do the job.

[OneMoreFarang]

I setup many Intel NUCs and I have very good experience with them.

Their limitation is obvious: You can't add several "hard" disks or a gaming graphic card or something like that.

JET is also a good supplier. I use them since years.

I think the new NUCs allow M.2 and SATA "disks" at the same time. If you want a lot of storage but don't spend too much money you could get i.e. a fast 250 or 500 GB M.2 and a 2TB hard disk.

I suggest make sure you get one RAM module when you buy it. Then maybe later you can add a 2nd module.

 

I would use a PC screen. You can buy big and good screens cheap. A TV is ok if you look at it from a distance but not if it is 0.5m in front of your eyes.

[KannikaP]

6 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I setup many Intel NUCs and I have very good experience with them.

Their limitation is obvious: You can't add several "hard" disks or a gaming graphic card or something like that.

JET is also a good supplier. I use them since years.

I think the new NUCs allow M.2 and SATA "disks" at the same time. If you want a lot of storage but don't spend too much money you could get i.e. a fast 250 or 500 GB M.2 and a 2TB hard disk.

I suggest make sure you get one RAM module when you buy it. Then maybe later you can add a 2nd module.

 

I would use a PC screen. You can buy big and good screens cheap. A TV is ok if you look at it from a distance but not if it is 0.5m in front of your eyes.

I had noticed that you are a fan of NUCs. 

But on the question of RAM, it is better to get two sticks so it runs in dual mode from the start. Let's face it, when you buy one of these, you are not planning on upgrading, so get the best to start with. 

As for a large screen.........sit back a bit. I run mine on a 55 inch Samsung HD Telly, and sit on my recliner 2 metres away.

[BenDeCosta]

The big question that nobody has asked is "what do you use your PC for?".

 

Web browsing, emailing, Skype calls and creating documents, almost any PC can do this very well nowadays.

 

You can buy a small form factor PC with a 24 inch monitor for under 20,000 baht quite easily. Fortune Town is great. If you plan to use it for many years, look for one with a minimum 8Gb of ram, preferably 16Gb, and something with SSDs instead of mechanical hard drives. NVMe (M.2) drives are even better.

 

If you have a good quality TV at home, then you can use this, as mentioned.

 

Also, AMD chips are great now, arguably better than Intel for many applications. The PC I am typing this on I built myself and it has a 6-core AMD processor, and is much faster than the Intel i7-2600k that I had before, and it is much cheaper.

 

If you are not gaming or video editing, you can get something that'll last you 5+ years or even more for $600.

[OneMoreFarang]

17 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I had noticed that you are a fan of NUCs. 

But on the question of RAM, it is better to get two sticks so it runs in dual mode from the start. Let's face it, when you buy one of these, you are not planning on upgrading, so get the best to start with. 

As for a large screen.........sit back a bit. I run mine on a 55 inch Samsung HD Telly, and sit on my recliner 2 metres away.

IN theory the two parallel RAM sticks are faster. I didn't read any recent test but I would be surprised if a user could "feel" a difference of a few % more speed. I doubt it.

In the moment I would buy 16 GB and that is good enough for the moment. But maybe in 2 or 3 years I would like to have more. Then it's nice to just add a module without throwing away an existing module.

 

Personally I still use a 24" computer screen which I bought a few years ago for about 15k. I wouldn't want to change it to a TV of any size. But maybe at some stage I will buy a bigger computer screen - not that I really need it.

 

 

 

[ozimoron]

I bought a Chinese NUC from AliExpress to use in Thailand but it lasted less than a year before frying the mainboard. After that I did some research around Mini ITX desktops. My requirement was that it had to take a K series Intel processor and be able to fly in carry on baggage. This meant that the whole box had to weigh less than 5.2 Kg and fit in a carry on bag. The only case I could find was the Cooler Master Elite 110. I managed to build a 32 Gb desktop with an ASUS rog strix board, i9 9900K cpu, Noctua NH-L12S cooler, 500 Gb nvme drive and 650 watt power supply which weighed 5.1 Kg. My carry on bag is a Samsonite which weighs 1.8 Kg, the lightest they make.

 

I need my computer for work and don't like laptops as I use an external mouse, keyboard and monitor anyway. I usually just buy a new monitor every time I travel. I believe I got way more bang for my buck than either an NUC or a laptop. I don't usually travel heavy and extra baggage is cheap so I don't see the point in going with a NUC to save a little space and 3 Kgs. I am also free to add more disk space and RAM as prices allow in the future.

[david555]

18 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I had noticed that you are a fan of NUCs. 

But on the question of RAM, it is better to get two sticks so it runs in dual mode from the start. Let's face it, when you buy one of these, you are not planning on upgrading, so get the best to start with. 

As for a large screen.........sit back a bit. I run mine on a 55 inch Samsung HD Telly, and sit on my recliner 2 metres away.

i use mine on a 50 inch Samsung smart and sitting 0.8 meter from it with no problems , but adjusting screen brightness , 

[BenDeCosta]

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

IN theory the two parallel RAM sticks are faster. I didn't read any recent test but I would be surprised if a user could "feel" a difference of a few % more speed. I doubt it.

In the moment I would buy 16 GB and that is good enough for the moment. But maybe in 2 or 3 years I would like to have more. Then it's nice to just add a module without throwing away an existing module.

 

Personally I still use a 24" computer screen which I bought a few years ago for about 15k. I wouldn't want to change it to a TV of any size. But maybe at some stage I will buy a bigger computer screen - not that I really need it.

 

 

 

 

It's true, dual channel (i.e. two sticks of 8gb instead of one stick of 16gb) gives performance benefits over a single stick of ram. But it's under 10% performance increase and only noticeable in demanding games where you are monitoring the frames per second, I doubt anyone would notice a difference.

[OneMoreFarang]

9 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

You can buy a small form factor PC with a 24 inch monitor

I am not sure if you think about an all-in-one device or separate PC and monitor. Personally I don't like all-in-one. You can't easily change just one component. And if you mean separate devices then a NUC is a good choice from a quality company - Intel.

[BenDeCosta]

7 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am not sure if you think about an all-in-one device or separate PC and monitor. Personally I don't like all-in-one. You can't easily change just one component. And if you mean separate devices then a NUC is a good choice from a quality company - Intel.

 

All in one PCs are designed for people who don't know anything about computers. Not only is there not enough spaces to accommodate upgrades, but sometimes the RAM is soldered in. And they often have quite poor specifications for the price, but people seem to like the idea of an expensive, under-powered PC because it comes in a smaller box.

[recom273]

I have a  NUC - the cheapest one available, I got it from invadeaiT - I needed a windows machine and it was a quick and simple solution - I don’t think it cost me 10K. If you just wanted to surf the net, basic office work and email, then it’s ideal, maybe some lightweight photo editing, but as mentioned by @KannikaP just get storage and RAM to suit your budget and forget it it, you aren’t going to work on it. I printed some brackets and it just sits under the desk quite happily.
 

Invade set mine up for me for free - you can download an official version of windows 10 and buy a key from a reseller. 

[KannikaP]

10 hours ago, david555 said:

i use mine on a 50 inch Samsung smart and sitting 0.8 meter from it with no problems , but adjusting screen brightness , 

0.8 metres from a 50 inch.....do you not have to turn your head to see from one edge to the other?   LOL

[OneMoreFarang]

10 hours ago, recom273 said:

I have a  NUC - the cheapest one available, I got it from invadeaiT - I needed a windows machine and it was a quick and simple solution - I don’t think it cost me 10K. If you just wanted to surf the net, basic office work and email, then it’s ideal, maybe some lightweight photo editing, but as mentioned by @KannikaP just get storage and RAM to suit your budget and forget it it, you aren’t going to work on it. I printed some brackets and it just sits under the desk quite happily.

A bracket comes in the box of every NUC. With that bracket it can be fixed at the back of many monitors. The monitor connection is an industry standard.

[david555]

11 hours ago, KannikaP said:

0.8 metres from a 50 inch.....do you not have to turn your head to see from one edge to the other?   LOL

Vistavision Panavision , looks like i am IN the action ...????

 

Besides ...what about those who use 3 desktop screens connected in serie by eachother ......????

[Shot]

10 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

A bracket comes in the box of every NUC. With that bracket it can be fixed at the back of many monitors. The monitor connection is an industry standard.

 

 

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

 

I ordered this NUC with 8 GB RAM

 

https://www.jetcom.co.th/คอมพิวเตอร์เครื่องประกอบ/ComputerBrand/INTEL-NUC-L10-7I3BNHXF.html

 

And this monitor

 

https://www.jetcom.co.th/MONITOR-MOUNT/SAMSUNG/27-SAMSUNG-S27R350FHE.html

 

I contacted Jet via LINE app to ask some questions. The rep was very informative, with good English, so I did the deal.

 

Thanks again to you all

[KannikaP]

28 minutes ago, Shot said:

 

 

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

 

I ordered this NUC with 8 GB RAM

 

https://www.jetcom.co.th/คอมพิวเตอร์เครื่องประกอบ/ComputerBrand/INTEL-NUC-L10-7I3BNHXF.html

 

And this monitor

 

https://www.jetcom.co.th/MONITOR-MOUNT/SAMSUNG/27-SAMSUNG-S27R350FHE.html

 

I contacted Jet via LINE app to ask some questions. The rep was very informative, with good English, so I did the deal.

 

Thanks again to you all

With an i3 and a HDD? They saw you coming.

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, david555 said:

Vistavision Panavision , looks like i am IN the action ...????

 

Besides ...what about those who use 3 desktop screens connected in serie by eachother ......????

When you have 2 or 3 screens, its usually because you have different windows open on each one, not to watch a wide screen movie.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Shot said:

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

 

I ordered this NUC with 8 GB RAM

 

https://www.jetcom.co.th/คอมพิวเตอร์เครื่องประกอบ/ComputerBrand/INTEL-NUC-L10-7I3BNHXF.html

 

And this monitor

 

https://www.jetcom.co.th/MONITOR-MOUNT/SAMSUNG/27-SAMSUNG-S27R350FHE.html

 

I contacted Jet via LINE app to ask some questions. The rep was very informative, with good English, so I did the deal.

 

Thanks again to you all

 

Good choice. It's not the fastest but you know that already.

I highly recommend that you ask them to add a M.2 with 256 GB or more and install Windows (or whatever you use as OS) on that one. It will make the computer a LOT faster. And that should be done right from the beginning.

Then you can keep lots of data on that (relative) slow HDD and Windows and the programs on the very fast M.2.

If you have more questions ask here or if you like send me a private message.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

38 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

With an i3 and a HDD? They saw you coming.

An i3 is still a fast computer.

If someone has lots of data HDDs are still a lot cheaper. If he uses a SSD (M.2) for the OS then that will still be a fast computer. Not superfast, but fast.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, david555 said:

Vistavision Panavision , looks like i am IN the action ...????

 

Besides ...what about those who use 3 desktop screens connected in serie by eachother ......????

On many NUCs it's possible to connect two screens without any adapter or in series. 

[david555]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

When you have 2 or 3 screens, its usually because you have different windows open on each one, not to watch a wide screen movie.

Same twisting your eyesight or neck i guess...?? To see any screen besides the middle one .....

 

Anyway with  my 50"  i dont need glasses to see as i do need on my 12'3" tablet or 15 " Asus ????

[Shot]

On 4/30/2021 at 8:33 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

 

Good choice. It's not the fastest but you know that already.

I highly recommend that you ask them to add a M.2 with 256 GB or more and install Windows (or whatever you use as OS) on that one. It will make the computer a LOT faster. And that should be done right from the beginning.

Then you can keep lots of data on that (relative) slow HDD and Windows and the programs on the very fast M.2.

If you have more questions ask here or if you like send me a private message.

 

 

 

After communicating with Jet a few times, I ended up ordering the M.2, with the latest version of Windows, 8RAM

[OneMoreFarang]

44 minutes ago, Shot said:

After communicating with Jet a few times, I ended up ordering the M.2, with the latest version of Windows, 8RAM

That was a very good choice.

SSDs and M.2 are a LOT faster than HDDs. You will enjoy your new computer.