Small Form Factor Computers

[dominover]

I've been looking around for a good fast small form factor desktop computer.

I have so far looked at these:

Dell Optiplex 9020 i5 SFF desktop. The capacity of this PC is impressive and I want to really up my RAM from the measly 3 Gig I have.

HP Compaq 8200 Elite i5 SFF desktop. I like this size of this PC but it only accommodates a laptop hard drive capped at 500 GB. I probably won't go over 500 GB anyway but this desktop also uses an external power supply.

Would anyone have any suggestions of good value (I don't want super expensive, just reliable and fast) desktops in the Small Form Factor range. I want to be able to put 8 GB of RAM in it but will probably only use 4GB.

Maybe there is something similar to the i5 processor out there that will perform as well. Anybody had experience in finding SFF desktops?

I will be buying USED.

Thanks all.

 

[pete.i]

I'm in favour of Dell because of their home collect and return warranty policy. Having said that I have been buying Dell for years and currently have 2 laptops and an older Optiplex and I have never had to use their warranty so I don't know how effective their warranty is. But I suppose that never having had cause to use it speaks volumes about the reliabilty of Dells, at least for me.

As I said i have an older Optiplex and really the only thing I could fault it on is the difficulty of getting upgrade boards, such as graphics cards. The small form factor case does make these items difficult to find. As I am not a gamer this is not particulary important to me.

 

[dominover]

Dell OptiPlex 390 i3 processor (SFF) seems to be my choice at the moment.

Would anyone have any experience with the i3 processor? Are they fast?

I know there's better out there now but I'm just not willing to spend the money at the moment.

 

[crazyman143]

Check out cpubenchmark.net. You can search and compare the performance benchmarks of nearly every processor out there.

I know that a lot of people are favoring intel right now but if you're looking to spend a little less, some of the AMD processors could get you a little more bang for your buck. They do run a bit warmer though, so good cooling would be important and you might not be able to get that with a SFF case.

 

[Technician1]

Check out cpubenchmark.net. You can search and compare the performance benchmarks of nearly every processor out there.

I know that a lot of people are favoring intel right now but if you're looking to spend a little less, some of the AMD processors could get you a little more bang for your buck. They do run a bit warmer though, so good cooling would be important and you might not be able to get that with a SFF case.

Another important factor is the yearly cost of operation of the machine. nVidia tends to be more efficient than AMD as does Intel for CPUs.