Originally Posted By: jazzmammal
Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music
I'm going with the 11400 specifically because it's the most power for the money with the lowest TDP. It's a 65-watt chip, which is important because I'm building a very small formfactor ITX machine (the case is just over 3" thick and around 15"x13").


This is exactly what I'm in the middle of researching now. My only issue is if I build a new system myself I'll have to pay for Win 11 Pro which could be $150? I just spent a few minutes surfing the MS site and don't see Win 11 for sale. Is it actually for sale yet? That's the main reason I bought the ZBox used, it had 7 already on it so 10 was free. Otherwise I see a lot of mini ITX's on Ebay with that i5 10400 chip with Win 10 Pro so 11 is free.

Bob

The 10400 is a very good chip, so if that's much more cost effective I'd say go for it. I might go that way too, simply due to motherboard availability and cost.

This is also the reason I bought a "retail" Windows license, as it can be moved from one machine to another. Some Windows licenses can be transferred, particularly the "upgrade from regular Windows 10 to Pro". OEM licenses that come preinstalled cannot be transferred.


Originally Posted By: justanoldmuso
Simon and JM.
one reason i like refurbs is i save on buying windows, plus i get a decent warranty.
also ive never had one prob ever compared to friends buying new retail pc's which often need cleaning up..
of bloat etc.

but the 11400 cpu has sorta thrown me cos...is it better
basing a pc round it, OR are the 500 buk ...........

hp z or lenovo beasts a better deal. with xeons.
om

Depends which Xeon. Quick google search, the HP Z400 is a common inexpensive refurb with a Xeon W3503, which has a benchmark score of 1052, while the i5 11400 scores 17383 - no I did not type an extra digit in there, it is 17 times as fast!

Another one that came up, an HP Z800 with two Xeon E5620's would score around 6528, so the i5 is still 3x as fast. Nice thing about a new 10/11 gen build is new connectivity, like USB-C, options for Thunderbolt, super fast PCIe storage, etc.

All depends on the total cost though. A cheap refurb is still a bit cheaper than the parts to build your own 10/11th gen machine. Mine's going to cost around $800 CDN or so just for parts, not including labour or the video card and OS I bought previously (not that everyone needs a fast video card).

Originally Posted By: jazzmammal
I agree about the value of refurbs it's just that I'm replacing my ZBox which is about the size of an older external drive. For me it's about the smaller size. The one Simon is building is about twice that big but still small and you can fit some high end parts in it. That's why I'm considering both right now. The mini ITX can be a fairly powerful machine but the standard ITX is better. I think the difference is the regular ITX can be almost as powerful as a full size tower while the mini ITX can be comparable to a high end laptop.

Bob

There is only Mini ITX, no other versions exist - perhaps you're thinking of Micro ATX or full ATX vs ITX?

The mini ITX I'm building is not using laptop-grade components - it'll have a desktop i5 11400 (or 10400 depending on what parts I find - local supply is atrocious at the moment), 32gb of desktop-size RAM, 2tb NVMe SSD, and a GTX 1060 6gb video card. What ITX does is simply make the motherboard smaller by reducing some connectivity options - only 1 PCIe slot, reduced port selection, only 2 RAM slots, and on many ITX boards they'll only accept the "lower"-spec chips like the 11400, 11500, 11700, but not the overclockable K-series chips that require more wattage. There isn't much power difference for me between an 11400 and an 11600K, but the 11600K uses 50% more electricity and subsequently creates more heat.

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