Possibility of replacing an ancient PC with a Mini PC?

[Calavera]

A family member of mine is still using a very old PC that is a Phenom II X4 955. All they use it for is Facebook,Youtube,Netflix and other streaming services. It works fine for that but I was looking around on Newegg and saw some Mini PCs and thought that might be a much better option for them. They have the old Phenom hooked to their TV in the living room so that old tower is sitting there next to it and I figured a Mini PC would look much better and would probably quite a bit less power than the Phenom.

Here is one I was looking at
https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-prodd ... klink=true

The i3-6100t it has is slightly better than the X4 955 so it would be more than powerful enough. It has 8GB of DDR4 where as the Phenom has 8GB of DDR2. It also has built in wifi would would be nice. On the Phenom it has some old PCI wireless card. It also has Intel HD Graphics 530 which would be a huge improvement over whatever onboard video the 2008ish motherboard the Phenom is using has. The only thing extra I'd need is a displayport to HDMI adapter but those are like 5 bucks.

Am I missing something here? It seems like a pretty good deal for less than $200.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

You can get one of those. You can an Nvidia Shield. You can get a Larkbox if you want something extra small. Those are both HDMI.

https://www.newegg.com/p/1VK-01UN-00003 ... klink=true

https://www.newegg.com/black-nvidia-shi ... -_-Product

I own both of those and they are both good. The Shield is Android and is great for streaming. Facebook should be fine on it.

The Larkbox is a Windows 10 PC and again is fine for surfing and streaming.

[Calavera]

Thanks for the info Zoidberg! The Larkbox looks decent but I'd like to get one under $200. The shield would probably be fine but it is an older person that will be using it and if it is Android then "everything is different" You know how that goes lol. You can change the desktop wallpaper and they will claim that everything is different now.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I understand what you mean. It can be a pain in the ass to teach older people how to use tech, even if it's only a little different than whatever else they've been using.

I'd actually get them a Chromecast Ultra for streaming and a cheap tablet or second hand laptop for Facebook and email. The Ultra has all of the main apps on it, so no need to cast anything.

[melancholy]

Another option, and what I did when I needed a more powerful Plex server, is to go on EBay and find an Intel NUC. These are really tiny computers that are a quarter of the size and usually around the same price as that ProDesk.

[Calavera]

Another option, and what I did when I needed a more powerful Plex server, is to go on EBay and find an Intel NUC. These are really tiny computers that are a quarter of the size and usually around the same price as that ProDesk.

Thanks for the info, I hadn't heard of Intel NUC mini pcs before. Then again I've never really looked for a mini pc!
I took a quick look on Ebay and while they are much smaller I couldn't find one that would give as much performance for the money as the Prodesk.

Either way I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to convince them that they need to buy one. I tried to explain that not only would it look much better than my old 2008 tower that is rigged together and full of dust that is currently sitting next to their TV but that it would only use around 15-25w under normal use. Opposed to the 100+ watts that the phenom uses. It actually may use more than that. I need to plug it into my kill-a-watt meter and see.