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Replacing a desktop with a mini
Hi all,
Long time lurker and used to contribute in the eight forums 10 moons ago - good to see this is going strong!
I've always had a fairly powerful laptop (Currently a Dell XPS 9300) and a desktop (currently a Dell Precision 3620 however recently I know the mini desktops have come far and wanting to now potentially increase monitor numbers (from 2>3), I was thinking what the potential of a mini is these days. The increase in screens also means space is a premium on the desk!
The Desktop is a i7-6700 (Quad Core 3.40GHz, 4.0Ghz Turbo, 8MB) with 32GB ram
The laptop is a i7-1065G7 with 16GB ram though this would be the mobile/ultra version I guess.
What I was looking at is either the HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini Dell Optiplex 7070 Mini
Both are i7-9700 with the HP being K and Optiplex being T
Both 16GB ram though I would double this
Storage is not an issue as this would be increased via SSD
I'll be doing a count of peripherals shortly to ensure I'm not limited but aside from that, is the power enough?
For what you ask...
Day to Day it would be SQL coding in sql server management studio with potentially the database on the system too.
Importantly though, I do tend to run virtual machines time to time for development work.
End of the day, what I don't want is any restrictions in what I can/cannot do - I'm not talking about expansion as I fully appreciate I cannot just whack the machine open and shove a full size dvd writer or 5 SSDs in.
What I don't know is whether the quad core 6700 for a full desktop is the same as the newer 9th (and 10th) gen i7 processors.
I also am unsure whether it can handle 3 monitors.
The only thing the 3620 had issues with is the built in 530 graphics card really struggled with 2x 4k screens. Day to day it was fine but stick something up like a CCTV application and everything ground to a halt.
I ended up installed a AMD FirePro W5100 card which resolved it.
Potentially the screen outputs could be a showstopper as both have only two displayport outputs though the images on the HP shows 2 + 1 hdmi.
Worst case, use an egpu.
Thanks in advance!