There is a market for this type of NUC, especially as an alternative to a console, it would turn your TV into a full blown gaming PC. I use mine as my office PC since I don't want a full blown PC case since i move things around a lot. It is upgradable as far as RAM and storage goes as well. Also, this looks more like introductory pricing, as you can see, its predecessor launched in the mid $700s and was significantly less powerful: https://camelcamelcamel.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC6i7KYK-Core/product/B01DJ9XS52 and now goes for around $500. Reading some of the customer reviews for its predecessor reveals some of the use cases, and people are pretty happy with the form factor: https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-mini-NUC6i7KYK-Core/dp/B01DJ9XS52#customerReviews There are 193 reviews, so I am guessing Amazon sold a few thousand.
You won't build a reasonable pc for that budget. Just buy this prebuilt
This one is the same thing but without the memory and ssd, and also sold by the manufacturer instead of a middle man:
Buy and add your own memory/msata and it will be cheaper. I bought one about a week ago and got it setup just a few days ago. It's awesome. Read some of the reviews on amazon.
Edit: correct link added.
Are you buying in US?.. if so then you can buy this..
This should easily run games at 1080p.. in future I would recommend adding another stick of 8GB ram in this to make a total of 16GB..
In Lamboshi's hardware guide on the sidebar, there's a linked NUC that you can get without RAM or an SSD for $409 on Amazon. From there you can get 16 or 32 GB or RAM (make sure it's the right size), and an SSD (2.5" or MVNe). I grabbed this, 16GB, and 1TB SSD for something like $600, very reasonable.
APs and routers interoperate on open standards, so you can technically pair any router with any type of AP. That said, I'd get a router with similar out-of-the-box feature depth as your UniFi APs (VLANs, etc.), such as an EdgeRouter, Mikrotik or an x86 box running an open-source distro (example: a Qotom running Untangle Home). I'd avoid the UniFi gateways, as the USG's are long in the tooth and underpowered for CPU-based throughput; also avoid the Dream Machine platform, as it seems they still haven't been able to stabilize it.
If you're up for a challenge and you dig low power draw low cost, you could try espressobin (just google it). The toughest part is finding a case; I had to order one from a vendor that prints from designs on thingiverse. (I'd advise going with ABS plastic, not PLA, if you go this route.) By the time you buy espressobin, a 32G sdcard, a power supply, and a case, you're out about 135 or 140 bucks.
I actually just bought the espressobin + bits and pieces myself; everything's here but the case, which I'm still waiting for. Full disclosure: no HDMI out on espressobin, so if you're not okay with needing to go serial console, it's not going to be for you. And since I haven't built it yet, I don't know what the performance will be like (though I'd confidently put it up against even high-end consumer gear on spec, given that it's similar CPU to what's in a Netgear Nighthawk, and given how well plain Ubuntu did versus various devices in my tests at Ars Technica). Still... it's a gamble. Ya feelin' lucky? =)
Other than that, literally just look for Celeron builds from Qotom on Amazon. The one I purchased most recently is still available; I make no guarantees it's the absolute best model to buy right now, I literally just dug it out of my order list, but it still shows available at $170 after shipping. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ You'll spend around $300 total after adding RAM and an SSD to one of these, depending on what exactly you opt for there.
Qotom also has i3 and i5 versions of the same machine available, for about $100 to $150 more. If you want the extra muscle. You won't likely need the extra muscle if all it's going to be doing is acting as a router, of course, but sometimes more firepower is more firepower, right? =)
This one is also a decent option if you want something cheaper.. this one has the same specs, just the processor is cheaper..
Make friends with someone heading to the US for a visit, lol. Or - calculate the shipping cost and add it to this (https://www.amazon.com/2020-Apple-Mini-256GB-Storage/dp/B08N5PHB83) and see how it compares. You'd be getting the most up to date chip that way instead of old intel tech which Apple is not going to support forever.
Is this the same PC but with an Intel CPU instead of AMD?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NCFRFFD/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1
Pro tip: if you decide to go this route, the new macs recently announced have guts more or less identical to last year's Mac Mini. It's a lot cheaper, and you can pick your own display.
This is the bare minimum I would get if you want to play games. It's a little light on ram, but with no other programs open it should be fine.
https://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-i3-10100-Keyboard-TG01-1022/dp/B08NCFRFFD/
Intel NU8i5BEH kit could work. You buy memory and SSD. You loosen the bottom plate, install memory and SSD, and then an OS. Really simple. https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Mainstream-Kit-NUC8i5BEH/dp/B07GX59NY8
Oh yeah headless can work out fine, assuming you have a bit of experience and won't fuck it up completely ¯\(ツ)/¯
As far as I'm aware, ESXi is completely headless with no control from the host at all. If I were to irreparably fuck up the settings, to the point I cannot connect (Say I tried setting up another DHCP server or disabled the internal one) I'd need to re-wire the host, and whatever client I'm using to connect.
As far as I can tell it's all genuine, here is a similar (stripped) version of the same device, but on American amazon. Lots of good reviews. And while it will probably last me the rest of my life, as Saskatchewan's fastest possible speed on fiber is 260Mb/s and I don't see it ever hitting >1Gb/s, it's still $260 with shipping. But yeah I'll probably grab it if another user doesn't find a cheaper router.
I paid $150 for it, but it's at like $130 now I think. I also bought a $15 generic remote that included an IR sensor for the remote.
Under $200 the Chromebox would be your best bet. For pure Kodi, and value, the Rpi2 would work well also, at half the price.
The firetv is very nice though, you really can't go wrong with any of them for your needs. The chromebox is the most powerful. There is a whole slew of various android boxes, but they are all over the place feature/support wise. The best android box for home theater integration is the firetv with an flirc, in my opinion.
Amazon renewed or ebay.
ebay listing for i7: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125545084049
Amazon renewed with a i5: https://www.amazon.com/EliteDesk-800-Mini-Professional-Bit-Multi-Language-English/dp/B07J2TFW5T/
I just bought one couple of months ago:
Fair enough; that's much higher than what I'm used to
Still, I don't think switching to another desktop processor will save you more than few watts. Maybe look into a ULV CPU or something intended for mobile/fanless systems
Hard to know for sure how much you can save without knowing the exact consumption of your current server. Do you have any wattage measuring tool like a kill-a-watt?
fwiw some fanless mini PC's like this can idle down to around 10W
it won’t be able to game really, but if you save for a bit this one is ok
I just checked and NUCs seem either expensive or old or without RAM, I did find this HP desktop for $130 though
Am i looking at the correct item that would work? Amazon looks like it has the NUC8i5BEH for 300 and the I7 for just a bit more...
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Mainstream-Kit-NUC8i5BEH/dp/B07GX59NY8?th=1
Just checked, this things running for 550 plus tax no where near worth it. If you have that to spend right now i'd save it for a little while longer and buy something a tad better. Get a gpu with at least 6gb of ram bare minimum i'd go is a 1060gtx The price on that shouldn't be too bad. Something like this is about 120$ more but is substantially better https://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-i3-10100-Keyboard-TG01-1022/dp/B08NCFRFFD/ref=sr\_1\_8?crid=3TDWJ8DEC8TRW&keywords=kepler%2Bsystems%2Bgaming%2Bpc%2Bgtx%2B1060&qid=1655941002&sprefix=kepler%2Bsystems%2Bgaming%2Bpc%2Bgtx%2B1060%2Caps%...
This is from the US amazon but should give you an idea of what to look for. You will also need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor if you do not already have one. Something like this will run pretty much all games at low to med settings and some older games at high/ultra.
Ram is a bit low to be doing video editing but you still can do it and can add more later.
Probably look at Amazon or best buy prebuilts, something like the spec on this one here should be good, though HP and Dell design their prebuilts to be harder to upgrade, so if you want anything better in the future you'll have to mostly start anew
Depending on your needs you'd do well to to with something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CSCGD58
Down the road more RAM and hardware encryption may be of benefit. Worse case grab a netgate device but I find them pricy
From "Amazon Renewed" It's an HP Elitedesk mini desktop with an i5-6500, skylake cpu's includes Intel Quick Sync for decent video transcoding performance without a gpu. Currently available for ~ $255.
Doubt you'll be able to get a decently functioning system for much less than that, if all you have right now is the cpu and ssd. If you're buying retail, even just a compatible motherboard and power supply on their own will cost you nearly that, nevermind the case, etc.
I recently migrated a server from a VPS to a local machine. I found this neat little machine with a 3.1GHz Core i5 and 8GB of RAM for ~$200. It'll run two worlds with 4-5 players on each before it gets too laggy.
Considering the VPS cost me about $50 a month, the new machine should pay for itself in five months. And at 35W of power consumption it's only costing me like 10¢ per month in electricity.
I just did quick blanketed search just looking at a few systems and your best bet still might be a pre-built.
Save a lil more money and go for i5 and 16gb ram added on. Keep in mind for the price the 1650 super is the best thing. It alone is fetching $500 and people buy pre-builts just for the gpu... sad times.
HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super, Intel Core i3-10100, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Windows 11, USB Mouse and Keyboard, Compact Tower Design (TG01-1022, 2020) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NCFRFFD/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_JT82PVZ7XA832QY6PX8G