Acer via eBay has
Acer Aspire XC Desktop (Refurbished, DT.BHFAA.001) for
$87.99 (price reflected in cart).
Shipping is free.
Thanks to community member
cgigate for finding this deal.
Note, must add to cart for the sale price.
Specs
- Intel Celeron J4125 2.00 GHz Processor
- 4GB RAM
- 256GB Solid State Drive
- Intel UHD Graphics 600
- Includes Keyboard & Mouse
- Windows 10 Home
Top Comments
*Added another 8Gig of memory [amazon.com]to make it 12Gig total
*spliced power so I can get 2 SATA power header [ebay.com]
*spliced fan header [ebay.com]and added an 140mm fan [amazon.com]
*added a WD 80TB Red plus
*added a DVD caddy 3.5 9.7mm bay [amazon.com].
Runs absolutely like a dream at 25Ws.
Copied suggestions below for various uses.
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I have been working with this little SFF for a day now and I really enjoy using this thing and I am replying to this message on the system right now. The fan is virtually silent and power draw is max 15W on my killawatt (I removed DVD drive).
I have seen a lot of questions on this forum about what this thing is good for. I thought to provide my perspective on the subject and elaborate on various use cases for this little thing. Again, this is one person's opinion.
Desktop replacement, Rating: Medicore
This is a mediocre use case as a desktop replacement because the limited CPU capability and memory. The system comes with 4Gig standard which will mean a lot of swapping on Windows 10 in default configuration. If you can up the memory to 8Gig, I think the use case becomes fair. It is a reasonable system for lite web page browsing, spreadsheets, email, YouTube and Netflix at 1080P. ie, this is a good system for your grandparents if usage case isn't aggressive.
Gaming setup, Rating: Poor
Expansion slot is half height, power supply is 65W, there is only a CPU fan. ie, if you want to game other than minesweeper, you should look for a beefier system, such as the one with I3 and 250W power?. Again, if you go that route, maybe Acer small form factor shouldn't be what you should consider. For reference, my current game setup has a 850w ps and about 7 fans.
NAS, Rating: Good
This thing draws less power and is quieter than my Synology 2 bay. CPU will be more powerful than my Synology with more possibility of expanding via standard PC peripherals. A two bay Synology is about $200 right now which means you can use this thing at about half the cost. With this said, there are only 2 SATA ports and no additional cooling fans and will only accommodate 1 3.5" and 1 2.5" drive without additional engineering. If you are okay dropping in a 10TB 3.5 WD Red Plus and call it good, you have an excellent use case here. If you are desperate, I suppose you can always use external USB 3.0 enclosures for additional drives. Hardware transcoding via Plex for a single 4K stream shouldn't be a huge issue since this Celeron has a UHD600 onboard.
pFsense, Gateway replacement, VPN server, PiHole etc, Rating: Excellent
What this system really excels is as an always on, minimal power, minimal noise internet relay device. I listed a couple use cases above. I am thinking moving my VPN server (both up and down streams), PiHole, and Firewall server into this thing. As given the system has more than enough resource to run Debian or BSD, never sipes more than 15Ws, generates no heat, and is virtually silent, I can see this thing sitting next to my cable modem and be the consolidating gateway machine that is currently being taken up by a Synology, a number of Rasperberri Pis. For $100, this is just a bargain you can't find equivalent elsewhere. Now the only decision is to buy another one as a backup in case this breaks. :-)
Anyways, enjoy my wall of text.
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https://slickdeals.net/f/15861442-acer-recertified-xc-830-uw91-slim-desktop-j4125-quad-core-4gb-ddr4-256gb-pcie-ssd-802-11ac-4k-hdmi-105-59
In general, this is definitely usable as a desktop for standard users who don't need much processing power. It has a good SSD and two DDR4 SODIMM slots (up to 2400 MHz) that actually seem to support a total of 32GB RAM (even though 8GB is the official limit).
However, as an energy-efficient, always-on NAS, network server, or other appliance is where this computer really shines.
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207 Comments
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Do I need to remove DVD drive to put 2.5" dravie?
Do I need to remove DVD drive to put 2.5" dravie?
Behind the cage shoved in the corner there is a power cable for the 3.5". The data cable comes from the motherboard (just like the one going from mobo to DVD drive). Mine only had a single data cable, but i had one laying around.
For a 2.5" drive, your best bet is to buy a caddy like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...UTF8&
Then throw that in place of the dvd drive. Hope this helps!
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Board is DTX with standard audio, sata, usb 3.0 and even front panel headers. Next to the 3.0 header is a custom connector that leads to sata power. IO shield looks like standard removable stuff. You can absolutely transplant this in a normal case. I bet you coupd also add a hugher wattage Power adaptor and get a SATA PCI-E card to make a crazy 5+ drice NAS.
it includes 2x SATA sockets on the mainboard. you can get M.2 to SATA adapter for additional 2xSATA port to build 4-Bay NAS.... ​
it includes 2x SATA sockets on the mainboard. you can get M.2 to SATA adapter for additional 2xSATA port to build 4-Bay NAS.... ​
If you're willing to sacrifice the NVMe M.2 slot, you could add up to 5 SATA ports [amazon.com] there.
Each SATA port could take 2 SATA disks [amazon.com] or more [amazon.com]; apparently most SATA controllers do not support port multipliers, but some of these devices could present all connected disks as a single disk using RAID.
So, if you could figure out how to contain and power all these disks... you've got a multi-disk monster. The only downside is the lack of support for ECC memory, which you might want for all that storage.
Wifi module in mine is an KE11A0L001, not a Wifi 6 module. IO shield is a standard size. All just fits in a standard case with standard plugs.
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Here is my USERBENCHTEST. below:
This is with 12gb ram installed
p.s. I added my Userbenchmark test from my Acer i5-11th gen too (300 dollar acer refurb).
and lastly my Acer i3-10th gen ... (200 dollars acer refurb).
1st snapshot of the PC in this thread the 88 dollar one.
2nd snapshot is Acer refurb i5-11th gen for 299 dollars.
3rd snapshot is Acer refurb i3-10th gen for 199 dollars.
Hope that helps.
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