One manâs e-waste is another manâs⌠e-waste.
- Intel Core i5 6th Gen processor
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB SSD
Warning: Incoming Hot take.
I would not go so far as to refer to these as e-waste.
As specâd, assuming that it were to ship with something such as an i5-6500, one of these units might not be bad for a home build to run pfSense, OPNsense, or a similar roll-your-own-firewall solution.
Frankly, Iâm always for older hardware getting a second chance at life as opposed to ending up in a landfill somewhere.
With that said, however, Iâm not sure that I can agree with the current price point.
I would consider an i7 but not an i5âŚ
The problem with these (to me anyway) is always the storage. 256GB just isnât anything. The CPU and RAM are adequate for most tasks short of heavy gaming, though these likely canât be easily upgraded to Windows 11 and will be out of support in October 2025. Linux is always an option for those who are a tiny bit more tech savvy. If $120 - $140 is worth it for a year and eight months of browsing and email, then this is a great machine. An external drive can always add storage if needed, but itâs an extra cost too.
And speaking of extra costsâŚthere appears to be no guaranteed networking here. WiFi is listed as ânoneâ and no mention of wired ethernet or BT.
I feel like ethernet is assumed in any desktop chassis even SFF, but good point
I agree, Chromebooks have normalized these small storage solutions. 256gb is basically a beefy boot drive. This is the storage size my home computer Dell dimensions had in like 2006. You can get a SSD boot drive for like $8. That being said a 6th gen i5 isnât a terrible cpu for basic tasks, like you said, outside of heavy gaming. But without a GPU, I donât see that being an option anyway. This thing could easily run HTML5 browser games, as well as be a decent word processor/PowerPoint/workstation and internet surfing, even movie watching PC. Pretty much all the stuff outside of gaming and photo/video editing.
I feel like most people would have their priorities for storage and cpu/RAM reversed. Storage is cheap, and 256 gb is a lot for an 8 year old machine. These arenât really meant to be a primary PC for a home or a business, and important files should be saved elsewhere. Plus, storage is cheap, and even large capacity thumb drives can be used by non technical people.
That said, these still seem like an expensive gamble. I just bought an i5 7th gen Dell 5050 on eBay with windows 11 and a 500 gb mechanical drive for $80 (shipping included). Iâm using it to stream Steam to my living room and set up a retro game system. Iâll replace the HDD with a 256 GB M.2 for $25 and Iâll be set until it dies. eBay is full of cheap PCs with these specs and you get a better idea of what youâre actually going to get.
One thing that stands out is you are not told what is the chance of getting something better than the minimum specs.
1% ?
I disagree with the worst who say this is e-waste. A 6500 is still very capable. You can add more RAM and storage. Used RAM and SSD are dirt cheap these days. You can look for those in e-b-a-y.
And you can upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10. Do some Googling!
FTFY. Consumers wanted âaccess from anywhereâ and were willing to pay monthly for it, so the shift to cloud storage was what killed the need for large local drives. And manufacturers happily obliged with the cost savings.
Likewise in the corporate environment, except itâs more typically a local server. Even then, thatâs shifting more to cloud based.
A while back, I place a bid on a no reserve, local pickup only, of an i5-7500 desktop with a SSD â and it closed at the opening bid of $1.
The caveat with eBay, however, is that there might not be any warranty whatsoever. Some folks may not want to deal with such unknowns.
FWIW, I still chipped more to the seller, which she was grateful for. And the 2+ hour drive out to the Salton Sea area was pleasant â along with decades old memories of yore, back when there was still recreation there.
Instead of just the stench of dead fish in the present.
(Note that I am not staff. I just volunteer to help out on the forums.)
Power consumption is something to factor in, however. Regardless of the which 80+ standard the power supply is rated at, desktops will consume a lot more power than the micro PCs with their mobile CPUs.
You might be right, but either way Iâd want a bigger drive! A bit of a hard ask on a sub ~$125 PC, though.
Unless youâre wanting to take your chances on getting something âbetterâ, I feel the extra $10 on the 7th gen and extra RAM would be the way to go. [Dell Optiplex 7050 SFF Desktop - $129.99 - Free shipping for Prime members Dell Optiplex 7050 SFF Desktop](Dell Optiplex 7050 SFF Desktop - $129.99 - Free shipping for Prime members Dell Optiplex 7050 SFF Desktop)
You can, with a lot of work and potential headaches. And itâs not a perfect guarantee. It takes some work. For someone who wants something working out of the box for longer than 17 months this probably isnât it.
Better than raspberry pi or something of the the like. Definitely worth the cost in that sense when capabilites are so much higher than a rpi. Would be great for linux based uses like home automation, 3d printer off loading, etc.
too funny, I buy these locally all the time for 10-30 dollars depending on the CPU and upgrade the ram, upgrade the ssd and and re-sell for 100-150 dollars. If itâs the tower version i toss in a 1050 ti and sell it for 200. Seriously youâre buying used here anyway, buy then from FB marketplace or better yet an office sell off.
The only thing wrong with these is really the PSU and connectors are proprietary and totally underpowered for any kind of real upgrade.
My experience has been the in place upgrade from Win 10 to 11 has been quite smooth. I have machines ranges from Sandy Bridge (Xeon E5-1603) to Gen 9 capable (has a i7-8700 in it). Most are Gen 4 (like i3-4130T, i5-6500T, and some Xeon E3-12XX v5 which are just rebadged Gen 6 i5 or i7s, depends on what XX is.)
I hope I donât get into trouble posting this here. There are 3 options mentioned in the page:
- Registry Modification - good for if you know you are booting via UEFI and has a GPT partition on your boot drive.
- Rufus - sorry, I have not tried this before.
- Override by a file / script that is provided - this is my favorite option, as it works for EVERYTHING. You need to run the file once to disable checking. When youâre upgrading, itâll say âupgrading your serverâ - but there is nothing to worry about.
Okay, there are some things I learnt from experience:
- Back up your data if you have any. (You should be doing this periodically anyway.)
- Make 2 install USBs. One for Win 10 and one for Win 11. Hope you wonât need the Win 10 one.
- During the upgrade, do not unplug the Win 11 USB even after the files are copied. Only unplug after Windows 11 is completely loaded and you see the Win 11 desktop comes up. Otherwise, itâll complain it cannot find some media and will revert back to Win 10!
- Make sure your USB is not the first boot device. Make sure it is AFTER the drive/disk/ssd you are installing on in boot order. Otherwise, after copying the Win 11 files to PC, youâll see the Win 11 install UI and it will be like âwhat?!â. UEFI boots usually 1st boots to Windows Boot Manager, so thatâs not an issue.
I totally understand some are not comfortable with this and would rather spend a few more dollars to get something thatâs Gen 8 (intel) and above to bypass this. But for people who has a very capable machine (like a i7-7700 or 6700) or even 4th gen i3, it seems like a waste to just throw it away due to MS not officially support Windows 11.
Well, if you are buying one of these things, itâs a perfect spot to try because itâs a new machine to you, and youâre not losing any personal data. Just make sure you have a Win 10 installation USB too, just in case you need to âstart overâ.
Let me add one final thing. Not every machine is worth doing this. You should start with something that can be upgraded to at least 16GB of RAM (like the ones in this listing). Any CPU that is < Intel 4th gen i3 is probably not worth your time, as it would be a little slow. And, I am sure all of you know this - DONâT USE a HDD as the boot drive! (Or give that machine to your worst friend as a punishment!)