Tower PC question

[Ice_Dragon]

This is slightly off-topic but I am curious. I have been interested in the skull canyon NUC for a while now but a few of my tech friends tell me it is too much money and I can get better for much less money. I love the form factor of the NUC because I have a 2011 Mac mini but Apple does not care about the mini sadly. Some might say that if I want the NUC I should just get it regardless of what my friends say.

Keep in mind I do not want to build my own PC and I would like to stick with Mac but my mini will be 5 years old and I would like to replace it.

I have looked at PC towers on some sites and imho they suck because of how the site format is compared to a site like simplynuc and Apple's online store.

So... my question is, does such a site exist that sells semi small towers with a say a skylake 6600 processor, God graphics like say a desktop 950, a good pcie sad minimum of 256 gb, and 16 gb of say ddr4 memory.

So... stay on the nuc or can someone show me better for less pre-built?

 

[Kartajan]

NUC is all about the form factor. The key is who needs to be happy with your expenditure; unless they are funding your build- They can like it or leave it...

And with the level of specifics you are providing, it is difficult to find a "pre-built" that is cost effective (It would be easy to DIY, but you said you don't want that)
here:
https://build2.falcon-nw.com/Configurator/Configurator?s=14

or here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...40&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=30

 

[Ice_Dragon]

I'll admit I'm kind of lazy and don't want to take the time to build my own PC and also in the back of my mind I am kind of afraid I'd screw something up.

On my Mac mini, I voided my warranty and installed my own SSD a few months after I got it. I replaced a 500 GB Hitachi HDD with a Samsung 470 128 GB SATA II. I am still using it today. I also upgraded the base memory from 2 GB to 8 GB but I could do that back then.

I would die for a quad-core Mac mini but I don't want an Ivy Bridge one. When news of this NUC came out, I was thrilled but 1. It's out of my budget 2. My Mac is still kicking and I really don't need a new computer and 3. I just got new tires so once again see number 1.

This thing though if I could afford it would be perfect. I'm not a huge gamer but you got a quad-core processor, Iris Pro 580 which handles 4K at 60 Hz through HDMI, takes up to 32 GB of RAM although I don't need that and SimplyNUC's 32 GB option is high performance gaming memory. I can have an fast PCIe SSD in this thing, slap Windows 10 Pro on (only $30 more than W10 Home) and I'm good to go.

The price by the way is about the same as a HASWELL Mac mini that is a dual-core processor with Iris 5100 graphics.

 

[Kartajan]

need/ want conflict.

I would suggest saving the cash, and getting what you want when your budget is more amenable to the expense... And DIY is NOT rocket science- a little reading and a little caution go a long way; not to mention all the free advice available here...

 

[Ice_Dragon]

That one tower you linked to for $1,500 I'd rate probably 8.9/10. The only things I do not like are the mostly red of the tower case and I would need to be sure that the OS is on the SSD not the HDD. To be frank, I don't want an HDD of any kind in the tower by default and wish I could just configure maybe a 250 GB SSD as a OS/App drive and maybe another 128 GB SSD or 256 GB SSD as a movies/music/files drive. I am barely 25% full on my 128 GB SSD as it is.

 

[Kartajan]

the newegg link was just a search configuration, so the results will change with their stock..

The Falcon-NW link was a more selective response...
(I keep nothing on my systems but OS/apps, so I only use just over 50G on my system drives)