For context, I’m a computer science student learning IT on the side and am currently on the search for a decent mini pc to get started with learning sysadmin related tasks. So spinning up vm’s and learning active directory, networking, some cli and powershell scripting, etc, etc. Is this mini pc a good starting point in terms of it’s CPU to which I can eventually upgrade the ram and hard disk space.
I’m also on the fence about selling my MBP and using those funds (about 1k usd) to buy a decent spec’d thinkpad or a dell latitude. Would this be a better idea or would I be utilizing a company laptop anyway? Any laptop suggestions will also be appreciated. Thank You.
I’d probably not go with a T-Version, as those are capped to a specific TDP. So if you need more compute power, it’ll limit you fast earlier than a non-T CPU. Idle draw is basically the same, and usually the state of my hosts is idle or full throttle.
Also T-Variants tend to be more expensive.
Storage is a thing to consider as well. At best those machines offer a single NVMe and SATA, a lot even only one or the other.
Servethehome does have a nice series about those mini PCs, so best to take a look there which one to pick for your needs.
would it be better to pass up on 6 cores for 4 cores on a non T cpu?