So I’ve been looking at upgrading my PC and it looks like I can get a better “micro” pc than my current (ancient) desktop for significantly less money than a full blown gaming rig. An example of such a rig is this.
I don’t have high gaming requirements - I play mostly old games, I think the newest games I play are from 5+ years ago.
What reasons are there for not buying one of these (over a comparable “proper” desktop)?
A “proper” desktop is cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain. And that maintenance is actually possible.
Are they cheaper, though?
GPU prices being what they are an equivalent full size card, and the same CPU aren’t far off the full build cost of the micro unit I linked to, and that’s before cases, power supplies and whatever.
I understand the service situation; but that’s not worse than my laptop/integrated devices - and this still has some scope for replacing non-soldered parts, presumably.
Yes, always. Between 2 not second-hand machines with comparable hardware, a “normal” one would be significantly cheaper than a “mini”.
How would you break it down?
PC Partpicker disagrees with you, especially at the reduced price on the Amazon micro option - making some assumptions on equivalence between the ‘baked in’ chips and proper GPU etc.
I’d assume that economies of scale play a part too.
But I’m willing to accept that I’m wrong!