I have been looking for a small form factor (mini or micro) PC that would be capable of running my music production software. I found one last week that fits all my needs, a refurbished Dell Optiplex 9020 i7 Micro, 8gb Ram and 128gb SSD, for $289. And it came with WIN10 Pro loaded, but no other software -which is good.
Initially I had been looking for a new Micro but they are pretty expensive. I already have a big screen, so another laptop seemed overkill. A refurbished PC, is ideal, as the small form factor machines are now appearing in the secondary market. Many of these machines are coming off IT leases or have been auctioned off to refurbishers.
When I got the Dell, I disassembled it to inspect and find out just what refurbished meant, and was pleasantly surprised by the internal cleanliness of the PC, it was like new. Sure it could use a RAM upgrade at some point (a $40 cost), and I was not worried about the 128gb SSD as I have a big 3TB external drive. It had heaps of USB3 sockets, a few different display interfaces, Wi-Fi, etc.
I have it standing on my desk, like a book, at the moment, but have plans to tuck it under the desk on a small shelf, out of site.
Seemed to me that these units are a great alternative for folks looking for maybe an observatory based PC.
I bought mine through MyDeals, but it was supplied by a company called RebootIT. Btw it came with a three month warranty.