You're welcome to ask me anything about computers, I do this as a job, in fact I meet quite a lot of 70+ year old people that used to be programmers 30+ years ago, and as technology has moved on so rapidly, they are clueless for want of a better word. I fully expect that if I get to 70 (I'm 46 now) then I'll be just like them, I can walk in to a shop (if they still exist then) and tell them how I used to repair computers and now I don't have a clue about these new ones. Maybe I'll still be in to computers then, I've started to lose some interest in them due to how invasive the technology is and let's face it, anyone can learn to do what I do just by reading and watching youtube videos and spending enough time. It's so easy to learn things now, almost anyone can be an 'expert' these days.

Some trusted vendors to buy computer parts:

http://www.scan.co.uk
http://www.overclockers.co.uk
http://www.ebuyer.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk
http://www.cclonline.com
http://www.novatech.co.uk

Site to choose parts for computers:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/

Help and assistance for computer building:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/

Microsoft site to create a bootable USB of the latest version of Windows 10 (under the section "Create Windows 10 installation media") >

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

You're never too old to learn anything, and don't be afraid to make mistakes and ask for help. Obviously some mistakes can be costly so do your research first. If you can build lego you can build a PC. Troubleshooting is where the skill is in building a PC and also in overclocking if you're in to that, overclocking is quite like car customisation and getting more power of the computer.

That's a credit to you . What a wonderful person. My job was medicine .
Keeping curious is the key to a good life.
Thanks again.and again

Any tips on what where you bought ram and os
First time doing this at 70 yrs

Man of the month award goes to Fishmaster, or should that be Fish of the month? well regadless, well done that man/fish*, have a medal/worm*.

*delete as appropriate

Excellent price for a well featured mini PC, the dual 2.5" hard drive capability really opens up possiblities and the CPU should turn in a fairly decent performance and will be better than most of the similar priced newer Celeron / Pentium versions. Heat from me and my housekeeper.

Any tips on what where you bought ram and os
First time doing this at 70 yrs

Thanks that's great . I will update from my old dell from work 10 yrs agp

if you are looking for others who are into computers later in life I would recommend having a look at https://forumite.co.uk/forum-categories/

there are quite a few people in there 60's and 70's who build their own pc's there and would be more than willing to help out.

the forum was set up after the magazine micro mart closed down.

You're welcome to ask me anything about computers, I do this as a job, in fact I meet quite a lot of 70+ year old people that used to be programmers 30+ years ago, and as technology has moved on so rapidly, they are clueless for want of a better word. I fully expect that if I get to 70 (I'm 46 now) then I'll be just like them, I can walk in to a shop (if they still exist then) and tell them how I used to repair computers and now I don't have a clue about these new ones. Maybe I'll still be in to computers then, I've started to lose some interest in them due to how invasive the technology is and let's face it, anyone can learn to do what I do just by reading and watching youtube videos and spending enough time. It's so easy to learn things now, almost anyone can be an 'expert' these days.

Some trusted vendors to buy computer parts:

http://www.scan.co.uk
http://www.overclockers.co.uk
http://www.ebuyer.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk
http://www.cclonline.com
http://www.novatech.co.uk

Site to choose parts for computers:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/

Help and assistance for computer building:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/

Microsoft site to create a bootable USB of the latest version of Windows 10 (under the section "Create Windows 10 installation media") >

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

You're never too old to learn anything, and don't be afraid to make mistakes and ask for help. Obviously some mistakes can be costly so do your research first. If you can build lego you can build a PC. Troubleshooting is where the skill is in building a PC and also in overclocking if you're in to that, overclocking is quite like car customisation and getting more power of the computer.

I like the look of this would be ideal for my setup currently using a acer xc710 hooked upto tv but looks to big infront of tv. .does my video encodes severs my plex clients (direct play some audio transcoding) and use it myself for my media internet etc.


would this cope with the above with out the video encoding or could add a usb blu ray would it be able to cope doing few dvds/ blurays a week?

That's a credit to you . What a wonderful person. My job was medicine .
Keeping curious is the key to a good life.
Thanks again.and again

One of the best most informative deals/thread to date.

Man of the month award goes to Fishmaster, or should that be Fish of the month? well regadless, well done that man/fish*, have a medal/worm*.

*delete as appropriate

Thanks for posting this. Never heard of this company but they have good reviews.

Cheapest 8GB single stick I could find (£40)...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8GB-DDR3-1600MHZ-PC3-12800-204-PIN-SO-DIMM-RAM-LAPTOP-MEMORY-MODULE-BRAND-NEW-/201238144760?hash=item2edaba66f8:g:~D8AAOSw0vBUaxKM

more info here:
https://www.asus.com/uk/Commercial-Desktop/VivoPC_VC62B/

Awesome. Bought. Great thread.

Sorely tempted my this to replace an ailing acer revo which is struggling with 1080p.

I've got plenty of spare hard drives around. So I'd just need memory.

Will this play 1080p video, mkv or 1080p /4k YouTube properly? Considering this for a htpc.

Heat added just for the info - much appreciated
btw - I have an 128 Gb SSD sat in the cupboard (project never finished) and 4 x2Gb ddr 3 sticks that I never used (again another upgrade project never started!)
both were free ... so not an issue on cost
Did you download Win10 onto a bootable memory stick and use that to install windows?
cheers!!

4th gen Intel processor is a bit long in the tooth in 2017, basically you're getting a 3 year old machine (so less time before you feel the need to buy something new). I suppose the price cut justifies somewhat, but I'd be after something a bit newer.

I've got this 8gb RAM (as below) already in my Acer Revo M1601 Nettop which I've never been really happy with

Kingston KVR16S11/8 RAM 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM 204-Pin 1.5 V

Can anyone confirm that I can use this in the Asus VivoPC ?

I still have the original 2Gb stick that came with the Acer Revo and use it just for streaming to tv or something :wink:

Ignore it

Just found this
DDR3 vs DDR3L

DDR3L:

DDR3L is pin-compatible with DDR3.
DDR3L is a dual voltage capable memory SoDIMM, which supports operation at both 1.5V and 1.35V.
DDR3:

DDR3 is a single voltage capable memory SoDIMM, which supports 1.5V operation only.
It is NOT compatible with systems using 4th gen Intel processors, which exclusively support 1.35V operation for memory.

FYI 16GB RAM according to the spec sheet

I'd say that this is well worth considering - however always worth checking what else a newer generation CPU/chipset offers such as better video encoding/decoding, newer HDMI specs and such like but yes, this still represents excellent value for money for many typical users.

I would buy two sticks of this 4GB Corsair Ram £24.99 each delivered from Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00G40TB6E

Not fanless. Shame.

If Heineken posted deals it would be as good as this one.
Helpful, kind people. Be proud of yourselves.

Good man

Good man

Sign up and register to their website as the advice is exceptional. Maybes this could be the new chapter and revival of Micro Mart online.

Get some of these commando strips and attach it to the back of your monitor then you got an all-in one PC.

I have just cloned and fitted a Samsung SSD at weekend to my 9 year old Dell tower PC but unfortunately only found out about SATA 1,2 and 3 afterwards when testing the new disk speeds, my old PC only supports SATA 2. Could I just move my new SSD and 9 year old 8GB of RAM (6 sticks) out from my old DELL to this and carry on as if it were my old PC but quicker? Im am guessing I can do this but would only be able to fit two sticks due to size?

Thanks

In part that's because Intel has had no serious competition for the last >12 years. Now AMD has something remotely competitive with Ryzen, perhaps Intel might start spending a bit more on R&D and we'll see more than ~5% improvement with each new generation?

Not until they find an alternative to Silicon.

I thought it would be twice as fast as it can read/write 600MB/S rather than 300MB/S? (my computer also doesn't support AHCI)? There isn't too much Junk on it as I only use it to play poker (70GB total used) and it was left unused for most of those years, I mentioned the age because I thought it would be the old processor and motherboard holding my SSD back which is why this grabbed my attention.

So do you think sticking my new SSD in this with new RAM wouldn't be worth the money then? Thanks for the reply as well as I am terrible with computers.

Thats what the VESA mount is for mate :wink:

I have just looked and I actually have 6GB of RAM so my mistake. I have windows 7 Home premium 64-bit SP1, intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz Yorkfield 45nm technology, 6GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz (7-7-720), Dell Inc. 0G254H (CPU) motherboard, ATI Radeon HD 4600 series (Dell) and a 232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G.

I use postgressql all day to track poker results which is why I want my hard drive in particular to be fast.

Thanks.

I have just looked and I actually have 6GB of RAM so my mistake. I have windows 7 Home premium 64-bit SP1, intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz Yorkfield 45nm technology, 6GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz (7-7-720), Dell Inc. 0G254H (CPU) motherboard, ATI Radeon HD 4600 series (Dell) and a 232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G.

I use postgressql all day to track poker results which is why I want my hard drive in particular to be fast.

Thanks.

Hmm really tempted to go for it - it's quite a bit bigger (at 190 x 190 x 56.2 mm = 2L) than an Intel NUC though that I currently have (DC3217BY - 116.6mm x 112.0mm x 39.0mm = 0.5L).

The ability to use a 2.5" SSD along with more USB ports, a faster CPU and built in WiFi and card reader has got me sold though.

Bought! Thanks for posting, heat!

its worth looking at custom build around a pentium g4560 which can be bought for about £55 for the processor...
overall might cost a tiny bit more but will be a way more powerful system than the 4210u

but this small?

Bought one of these a couple of months ago. Old cpu but you have to spend a lot more for a mini pc to match this performance. 2 ram slots and usb 3 - again, something you don't usually get on budget systems.

Wasn't sure if iCubes were legit; however, received plenty of coms and my pc rocked up 2 days after ordering!

I trade with iCubes/UC Solutions with work, great bunch of guys, really helpful.

Can't believe this has got so hot - not going to vote cold but it's a bit of a pointless computer.

Rubbish integrated graphics and no ability to properly upgrade with no PCIE slots. It has laptop hardware and you can pick up refurbished laptops with similar spec for the same price on eBay.

Can't really see why anyone would buy this.

Just a heads up for those who don't know, the i5 is not a quad core. It's a dual core with hyper-threading. The clock is not bad though if you have it at the max turbo frequency.

Why are you comparing laptops to this? And why are you comparing refurbished computers to new ones? Do you see why now?

Hi all , currently have a intel DN2820 would this be a good upgrade ?
It would mainly be used for Kodi using libreelec . Ideally be able to play my 4K movies . Doesn't say if hdmi is 2.0 or not .
Was considering the new celeron NUC but I understand there are 4K and hd audio issues
Cheers

Can this be hackintoshed?

Actually I'm with fo_sho-yo in so far as this is a pretty useless base unit.
It has novelty value only, unless you live in some sort of confined space, there's no reason to buy this, and if you really lack space then a cheap laptop is likely to be more useful and may even be better value and faster.
As regards the 70 year old, it's not really clear why he wants to get back into computing after 30 years of being out but if it's building computers he's interested in, he'd be better off buying some new or second-hand low profile midi tower where at least he could add and remove significant bits.
My two cents :smiley:

I'd say it has a million-and-one uses, not everyone is into gaming.

yes

It's obvious it has uses however it doesn't have any advantages over a laptop. In fact a laptop has many more advantages over this and no disadvantages.

So why not just get a laptop?

Also, don't be drawn in by the i5 brandished around.

This i5 has pretty much the same performance as the same generation i3!

This is great. My mate dropped his really. Old laptop that is upgraded with SSD and Windows 8/10 a couple of years back. He's been looking for a new laptop but only wants to browse the net and do his iTunes. He's now bought this. I'll upgrade it with the parts he's got, cheap as chips and it'll also run off the telly. He's got a wireless keyboard so this is an absolute brainer. Hot!

There's this mini-stx which is what I would look at that is built with Pentium 4560

Mobo @ £78.57

CPU @ £56.89

I can't get a price on the Silverstone VT02, but as an indication the VT01 is £25.50

happy birthday mate...watched that little boy blue last night..was very good..how was the meal ?

A little untrue, here's one: It has better connectivity than a laptop.
I'm not doubting there are pros to a laptop but this is a totally different unit and compared to other barebones available now, i3 and i5 you're making a huge saving.

A couple of examples for you. These are the cheapest USFF barebones on ebuyer, and only 5th Gen.
In this respect, you got to admit this is a cracking deal.
£234 - http://www.ebuyer.com/705935-intel-nuc-kit-nuc5i3myhe-intel-core-i3-5010u-barebone-blknuc5i3myhe
£327 - http://www.ebuyer.com/702363-intel-nuc-kit-nuc5i5ryk-intel-core-i5-5250u-barebone-boxnuc5i5ryk

Would this be suitable for a silver surfer who really only wants to do her banking, send emails and a bit of Microsoft Office stuff?

I'm assuming it has an onboard graphics card or is that something that needs to be added as well?

Is it OK to use just one of the memory slots?

Ditto this!

Would love to replace my £100 Revo with this!

I would have thought it perfect, of course it needs memory, hard drive and operating system installed (and accounted for cost wise)

Getting emotional in here

Thanks. She's got the OS already, well I've got a spare copy of Windows 7 knocking around she can have and a 3.5" HDD won't be too pricy - she's not fussed about an SSD.

Anyone tried to hackintosh it?

A quick google search suggests people have tried & succeeded.

nice one

But 7100 can do 4K60fps & VPU decoding.
If you are interesting in using this as HTPC don't bother as the Gfx chipset is outdated.

For the connectivity that matters it doesn't have extra connectivity. If you mean extra connectivity is extra USB ports then that is a negligible benefit - Extra ports for £2.15 including delivery (sure you could find one cheaper too).

I never said it was not a deal - it is cheap compared to other tiny barebones - hence my original comment that I wasn't going to vote cold.

It usually does, same as if you post a deal for a new Dacia you'll be told to buy a 8 year old BMW instead because it's better. So many people vote cold or get arguementative about a deal on here because they don't have a need or use for the product and for some reason assume everyone would be the same. I'm all for alternative options or better deals but these tiny little PC's are a somewhat useful for many

Yeah, you can use just one of the DIMM slots and it'll work fine.

What's the easiest way to Hackintosh?

Also, any recommendations for a screen?

Ordered one, the price looks not bad. But no more reviews to consider quality.

Yeah to be fair, despite the CPU being 3 generations behind I've not been able to find a mini-PC this cheap that isn't some awful Atom thing.

Half tempted to finally retire my 2009 Mac Mini (it's certainly more powerful than that!) but I only use it to watch videos on the TV and act as a backup server anyway.

Was tempted to buy to build a hackintosh dev machine but now OOS :disappointed:

Took literally less than 30 seconds to find this:
Roughly the same for £125.

Slower clock. Max is 2GHz for the 5005 whereas this one can do 2.7ghz.
Also the problem of it not being UK based. If you have any problems with the pc within the warranty.. good luck with the added hassle of it being in another country.

The point of being UK based makes this one better.

In regards to clock speed being related to performance that is no longer the case. Old Pentium 4s had clock speeds of 2.8GHz(!). Need I say more?

The old P4s can't be comparable. They were rubbish with dual core. You're on about the Pentium 4 D I take it? It was an awful chip.
0.7ghz is still a good bit difference despite it being a year older.

Yea the core 2 wiped them out once they were released a year later. A vast improvement.

But in saying that I had a pentuim D for many years (with a different heatsink to stop the throttling and over heating) This allowed me to overclock and I must say I had 0 issues and never had a problem with performance. In fact I upgraded just because it was gutting ridiculously old lol.
And now my desktop PC is running a 3220 I3 I believe, coupled with an SSD I cant see me ever having to upgrade for another 5 years. (I surf the web and do allot of office work) and maybe the odd game.
In my opinion as long as your not gaming or video editing any current CPU with an SSD will be more than sufficient it could even be an over kill.

Benchmarks are used to compare CPUs. Benchmarks point to the i5-4210u being about ~10% faster in reality not ~30% faster if you go off of clockspeed.

no more stock, just tried to order and got an email back saying as much

Loving this thread, brilliant community

Very roughly the two seem about on par. Clock speed alone doesn't mean much these days http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4210U-vs-Intel-Core-i3-5005U

But yeah, I've been burned a few times with cheap China imports...

Would I be able to use an SD card to store the operationg system on, its 128gb so big enough to store.

Then would I just need to get RAM?

Anyone bought a decent remote for one of these? Not a USB keyboard or anything but a media remote.

Also would be keen to know how people have set theirs up, ideally id like it to function more like a YouView box or something similar.

Ditto

This would be well over £200 all in ,something like this for £83 would be ok .... https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/ta4/GULEEK-Pocket-Computer-Wintel-Windows10-Android4-4-Silver/B01B969ECI/ref=sr_1_20?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1495473721&sr=1-20
Should be able to install MS Office on a seperate Sd card.
Or this one.... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XNRG5PX/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1495475750&sr=1-7&keywords=mini+pc+windows+10
On Ebay similar models for just over £82,99 ... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Quad-2GB-32GB-Windows-10-Dual-WiFi-4K-HD-Bluetooth-VGA-MINI-PC-TV-BOX/112369380221?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D44293%26meid%3D8b7c28390b034c5fb7d7901b396e66c6%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D112299196118

It would be awful mate, about 20 mins to boot!

You can say that again! :smiley:

This. Get me a used business laptop all day.... If you want them "fixed", take battery off and stck them up. I have four e5430 at home running in mirrored mode. another advantage being, if one bombs up you have anothe ready....

Mines been dispatched. Arriving tomorrow via dpd.

Yes mine also arriving tomorrow by DPD

lucky chap

Anyone know where you can buy one of these, as I quite fancied one.

Thanks! Bought a new dell branded 8gb stick for £38.