By Kyle Venter, Senior Engineer, Dial a Nerd
Mini PCs can be a great way to save space, power, and money so we at Dial a Nerd looked at a few models that can replace your home PC while still running the same operating system you’re familiar with, Windows.
Have a look at our top 4 below:
- Revo One Windows PC
The specs on the Revo One are a bit older compared to other PCs on the market as it comes with Windows 8.1. A nice add on is the smartphone app which allows you to control the PC from your phone. The Revo One would pack a pretty punch if you were to upgrade the disk storage and the RAM.
- Acer Aspire Mini PC
The Acer Aspire is a great start for anyone wanting to go “mini”. It has the basic RAM, CPU and power consumption you would expect from a mini PC and comes at a very fair price tag of R4 200.
- Mecer Extreme Jupiter Mini PC
The Acer Aspire and Mecer are very similar in terms of specs, however, the Mecer can be upgraded to 32GB RAM. The Mecer also has an upgrade option to SSD to allow for a faster machine. Unfortunately, the Mecer has the highest power consumption of the devices compared.
- CloudGate X
CloudGate X is the silent winner of our list. With no moving parts, the CloudGate is a quiet mini machine that consumes less power to boot. The CPU is powerful enough for the device to be used as a home center or business computer and it ships natively with an SSD hard drive to make it as fast as possible. This device is the most energy-efficient out of the devices that we looked at using 15 – 24 W of energy and can be purchased with a security cage to allow it to be mounted under a desk if required.
Compare our top 4 below and let us know what you think in the comments!
| Acer Revo ONE Windows PC | CloudGate Square | Acer Aspire XC830 Celeron J4005 | Mecer Extreme Jupiter Intel Pentium | |
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| Processor Name | Intel Celeron Dual-core | Intel Quad-Core Apollo Lake | Intel Celeron J4005 | Coffee Lake Pentium G5400 |
| Processor Speed | 1.40 GHz | Up to 2.2 GHz | 2.7Ghz | 3.7GHz |
| RAM | 2 or 4 GB DDR3 (upgradeable to 8GB) | 4 or 8 GB DDR4 | 4GB DDR4 (upgradeable to 8GB) | 4GB DDR4 (upgradeable to 32GB) |
| Storage Capacity | 500GB Sata (Upgradeable to 2TB,2.5″) | 64 GB EMMX SSD (Upgradable to 128GB/256GB | 500GB 3.5 SATA | 500GB 2.5 Sata(supports 1 x m2 For SSD) |
| Graphics Card | Intel HD Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 500 | Intel UHD Graphics 600 | Intel HD Graphics |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 64 bit | Windows 10, Linux or Chrome OS | Windows 10 Home 64-Bit | Windows 10 Home 64-Bit |
| Power consumption | 65 W | 15 W, 24W max | N/A | 19V, 90W AC |
| Price | R4,806 | 64GB: R3 799 ex VAT or 192GB: R4599 ex VAT | R4,200 | R5,189 |
| Seller Details | https://www.takealot.com/acer-revo-one-windows-pc-media-player/PLID40362316/product-information | www.cloudgate.co.za | https://www.takealot.com/acer-aspire-xc830-celeron-j4005-4gb-500gb-win10h-desktop-pc/PLID53824721 |
Why would one buy a Mini PC?
Hi John,
Not only is it more affordable but Mini-PCs are generally more eco-friendly and space savers.