Looking for a very small low power computer? (1 Viewer)

[Gromett]

I just needed one for web dev and office work. I wanted it to be low power, very small, with the option to run off 12v.
It also must support at least 2 monitors.

I bought a Lenovo M75Q-1 1st gen for £130 off ebay. I added an extra 8GB of memory to bring it to 16GB and changed out the 256GB nvme for a 1TB.

I have to say I am really suprised at how capable it is. I run it on a dual monitor system and it can support up to 3 (in my configuration). It is easily fast enough for my needs.
The only slow downs I notice at all is on some media file at initial load. But outside that I am really happy.

I am going to look at getting 2nd generation one of these purely for the faster GPU.

Lenovo M75q Gen 2 Mini PC ThinkCentre Ryzen 5 Pro 5650GE 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Win11 | eBay

AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 5650GE Processor, 6 Cores, 12 threads. Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q (Gen 2) Tiny PC. For sale is a Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Gen 2 tiny Desktop PC. 256 GB SSD PCIe, with a spare 2.5" SATA hard drive/SSD bay.

www.ebay.co.uk

I thought these were cracking good value, very small, very power efficient and ideal for motorhomes I thought. Hence me sharing my experience.

Do your own research though

 

[TheBig1]

I bought a job lot of BeeBoxes to play about with. Set one to dual boot Linux to act as a 3d print server. I was amazed at how well it worked for such a tiny computer. About 6inches square by 2 1/2 tall and easily capable of most tasks

 

[Gromett]

I didn't mention it. But these are second hand. They are bought in huge numbers by big corporations and then sold on a regular cycle in large numbers for leasing, tax and support reasons.
So big numbers of them all hit the market at the same time keeping the price down on gear that is not that old and is usually in very good condition.

 

[Gromett]

I bought a job lot of BeeBoxes to play about with. Set one to dual boot Linux to act as a 3d print server. I was amazed at how well it worked for such a tiny computer. About 6inches square by 2 1/2 tall and easily capable of most tasks

No idea what BeeBoxes are. Googled for them it it just brings up loads of Bee Hive type houses.

 

[TheBig1]

No idea what BeeBoxes are. Googled for them it it just brings up loads of Bee Hive type houses.

Another tiny form factor computer by asrock

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[TheBig1]

ASRock Beebox Mini - Celeron N3000 - 8GB RAM - 256GB SSD - CHARGER (OFFERS OK) | eBay

STORAGE: 256GB solid-state drive.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[barryd]

Yes they really are tiny those. I supplied some to a couple of clients a few years ago where footprint space was limited. Not sure I would want one in the motorhome though unless as you state you need two monitors but then you would need decent power for them as thats where the draw is. We tend to just use laptops in ours. My Thinkpad draws just 11-13 watts when fully charged and plugged in just browsing or doing basic stuff, Michelle's 14" Honor Magicbook about the same.

 

[Gromett]

ASRock Beebox Mini - Celeron N3000 - 8GB RAM - 256GB SSD - CHARGER (OFFERS OK) | eBay

STORAGE: 256GB solid-state drive.

www.ebay.co.uk

Ah, I see. I couldn't work with those. The intel CPUs that are low power like that are too weedy for serious work.
The ones that are fast enough are too power hungry.

The Ryzen chips have an excellent power to performance ratio. Intel still can't catch up with Ryzen.

 

[TheBig1]

Ah, I see. I couldn't work with those. The intel CPUs that are low power like that are too weedy for serious work.
The ones that are fast enough are too power hungry.

The Ryzen chips have an excellent power to performance ratio. Intel still can't catch up with Ryzen.

I would not have chosen them by spec. They were in a job lot, used and very cheap. I got three and two are still waiting for a suitable project. Was thinking a headless NAS server but not got round to it