this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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Looking for advice on a good Mini PC for a family Minecraft server. 64 GB, SSD, budget is $400. Amazon is preferred, because I have award credits from my job. I'm happy to assemble things myself if that's more cost effective.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Amazon refurbished used and refurbished devices.

And then from there, I'd recommend one of the older office PC's like the HP elitedesk line, as they are sold in large amounts by institutions like colleges when they are done with them. You should replace the SSD on them, as the SSD is commonly replaced with a really crappy one that is likely to die on yout.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
  1. Type NUC into amazon search
  2. ???
  3. you find what you're looking for
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I guess I'm worried that I might buy a brand that's junk if I do that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Asus has always been a solid brand in my experience. I would recommend anything Ryzen-based, since they're definitely in the lead over Intel right now, but anything with at least 4 cores that can run at at least 4.0GHz will be fine.

Minecraft servers can eat up a ton of RAM, so I would focus on that first. 32GB minimum, maybe 64. Should also preferably have an M.2 SSD, but anything non-mechanical is fine. Other than that, there isn't much spec-wise you need to worry about.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Unless you're going to be running many servers, or serving many users, or running multiple servers with a LOT of mods, you're better off cutting back a bit on the RAM and spending more on CPU - and with regard to the CPU, having high frequency cores is more important than lots of cores (again unless you're running many servers). I've been looking to upgrade our MC server and the floor CPU for me is a Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel i5 12600. There are frequently deals on combos, but even at market price they're not too bad - https://www.amazon.com/INLAND-Motherboard-AMD-Ryzen-5500/dp/B0CGLB7X9X for example.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Some colleges sometimes sell there old computers, try looking into that.