# HP EliteDesk

15 Hacker News commenters recommended HP EliteDesk and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a quiet, low-power home server for self-hosted apps, and it is cheap used. Critics say it can only run basic AI models, not worth using.

## Why people recommend it

- Quiet with low power draw (5 comments): "It's quiet, power efficient, has space for 2 HDDs plus additional nvme slots" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46099016)) "much more stable, quite low power, and can also use it as a true node" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48997555)) "a pretty solid HP EliteDesk (my own homelab) which uses 100 kWh/year" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47300257))
- Handles self-hosted apps well (3 comments): "If you just want an app server pick up an hp elitedesk off ebay" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47121621)) "it runs all my self hosted stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48544881)) "is handling my stack nicely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960159))
- Cheap, especially used (3 comments): "If you just want an app server pick up an hp elitedesk off ebay" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47121621)) "You can get HP EliteDesk w/ i5 and 16gb for cheaper than a pi5" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47607588)) "works just fine. Cost me maybe $50 US." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359751))
- Room for drives and NVMe (2 comments): "It's quiet, power efficient, has space for 2 HDDs plus additional nvme slots" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46099016)) "My EliteDesk G4 idles at 11W with 4 drives, so it's not too bad." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46615867))

## What people warn about

- Runs only basic AI models (1 comments): "can run the most basic of models, but it doesn't feel like it's worth it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48300456))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apple Mac mini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mac-mini.md): 390 recommend
- [NVIDIA DGX Spark](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-dgx-spark.md): 170 recommend
- [AMD Strix Halo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-strix-halo.md): 130 recommend
- [Framework Desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/framework-desktop.md): 93 recommend
- [Intel NUC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intel-nuc.md): 42 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=HP+EliteDesk+800+G6+Mini+PC&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "HP EliteDesk", https://hackerapproved.com/p/hp-elitedesk/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).