I was looking at one of the cheaper minis, but between educational discount and wanting a bit of RAM (and cores) for some map tile rendering stuff I want to play with over winter, I nudged it up... I'm hoping for a lot-of-years life out of this, so another $1K or so really isn't that bad.
I looked into the display conversion idea, but that just felt kinda meh. I could sell the old computer for a bit less than $200, or pay about $300 to make a so-so display. While the panel would be nice, the cables just hanging out the back, coupled with the rather-meh controller board just felt kinda hacky.
Instead paying $800 for a purpose-built display that should be sleek and nice... I'm okay with that.
I looked into the display conversion idea, but that just felt kinda meh. I could sell the old computer for a bit less than $200, or pay about $300 to make a so-so display. While the panel would be nice, the cables just hanging out the back, coupled with the rather-meh controller board just felt kinda hacky.
Instead paying $800 for a purpose-built display that should be sleek and nice... I'm okay with that.