...not sure whether Mark went ahead with/completed his project.
Having, in an emergency, sent one of my machines to my S-i-L to replace a failed one I built 7 years ago for her*, I felt the need to "refresh the estate".
I've always been intrigued by the Intel NUC concept, and it being a second m/c, I can overlook the (few) drawbacks in owning one. Accordingly, I went ahead with a build.
So, I now have a core-i5 CPU, decent integrated graphics, 16GB of dual-channel memory, a 512GB NVMe SSD, a 1TB HDD, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc., all in a 4"x4"x2" case that mounts on the back of a (pre-existing) monitor's VESA mounts, and is as powerful as my main machine. If you don't want/need the HDD, the case can be only 1" high.
The build was a matter of minutes. 4 screws out, move the HDD enclosure to one side, snap-in two banks of SODIMM (laptop) memory, remove a retaining screw, slot in the NVMe drive, replace the screw, drop the HDD into its enclosure and add two mounting screws, drop the enclosure back in the case, tighten four screws and job's a good 'un.
Installing the OS (Win10) and drivers was a little bit more "interesting", but no great problem.
I'm very impressed with the result. The only real downside is that any expandability is essentially via USB (though, after a USB keyboard dongle there are still three USB 3 ports free, and a Thunderbolt port - which is ample for my needs). Mounted on the back of the monitor (VESA bracket supplied) it's essentially like a powerful "all-in-one", and quiet in use.
Not over-expensive either, as 8th gen NUCs have dropped in price a lot.
*The failed PC is, I suspect, as a result of over-heating, having seen a picture of the inside being entirely choked with dust. I suspect I might be able to resurrect it given access to give it a real clean out, but, after a tsunami of Microsoft/AMD and Intel crap trying to recover it, getting the data off and sending a cleanly configured replacement via Parcelfarce was the best option (even that wasn't as simple as it should have been). 10 days after failure a restored and working machine was available.
My S-i-L is not bad at working to 'phone instructions, but (once a working machine was re-available) I can vouch for the usefulness of Chrome Remote Desktop which, though not perfect - the shortcomings still require local intervention - makes remote support much more viable, and is (very) simple to invoke if both ends have the Chrome browser.
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