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Solved Small Desktop vs Full Size Desktop

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User101

User101

PCHF Member
Sep 16, 2016
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#1
Dell has some "Small Desktop" PCs on sale and the price is decent. Is there really a concern that Small Desktop units will get hotter than full-sized PCs and therefor have more/sooner failures than the full-sized units? I had once been told to avoid them for that reason but as many people do buy them I'm wondering whether that warning was true.

Thank you
 
#2
I have a small form factor unit. It's been working fine since Oct. 2009. I dislike it for 2 reasons: the optical drive comes out vertical instead of horizontal and when I had to install additional RAM, it was very hard to work on. (I'm female and don't have large hands so I can imagine some males would have problems trying to install additional components.)

Heat doesn't seem to be a problem and the CPU is AMD which tends to run hotter than Intel.

If you don't plan to upgrade anything then working inside a small unit would not be a problem.
 
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#3
I prefer the larger case.
Ive gone through three PSU since I built her due to not checking for a damaged power cable.
I can easily upgrade/replace hardware in the larger case,self build means you can choose your own hardware so you know whats going in your machine.
Anything goes wrong you can again check which hardware or which RAM is causing the issues.
I used the small form factor in work,they worked fine for general usage,surf the internet,light games...

But if money and space are an issue and you are not a hard core gamer a small form factor is fine,its your choice.

JB.
 
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#4
I have some small factor pc's..old but usuable and they were free..My Dell opitplex's will run warm because they are so tight case wise...I fried one using it to crunch. So my other one i drilled air holes in the side and that one runs cool. I thing tho you have to keep them dust free as possible.
 
#5
Thank you plodr, Jelly Bean and vger for your comments and advice. I will look for Intel not AMD and then see how much of a price difference there is between the two sizes.
 
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