HP EliteDesk
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 10 of 18 mini PCs by recommenders
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.
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.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 94%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 15 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Quiet with low power draw
“It's quiet, power efficient, has space for 2 HDDs plus additional nvme slots”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Don't throw away your old PC–it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy” “much more stable, quite low power, and can also use it as a true node”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Cheap Self-Hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner Cloud” “a pretty solid HP EliteDesk (my own homelab) which uses 100 kWh/year”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “My Homelab Setup” - Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025”
- Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Raspberry Pi Drag Race: Pi 1 to Pi 5 – Performance Comparison”
Handles self-hosted apps well
“If you just want an app server pick up an hp elitedesk off ebay”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Hetzner (European hosting provider) to increase prices by up to 38%” “it runs all my self hosted stuff”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Hetzner increased dedicated server prices 3-4x” “is handling my stack nicely”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Setting up your spare Mac for Claude Code to control, a step-by-step guide” Cheap, especially used
“If you just want an app server pick up an hp elitedesk off ebay”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Hetzner (European hosting provider) to increase prices by up to 38%” “You can get HP EliteDesk w/ i5 and 16gb for cheaper than a pi5”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market” “works just fine. Cost me maybe $50 US.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Personal Computer by Perplexity” Room for drives and NVMe
“It's quiet, power efficient, has space for 2 HDDs plus additional nvme slots”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Don't throw away your old PC–it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy” “My EliteDesk G4 idles at 11W with 4 drives, so it's not too bad.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Runs only basic AI models
“can run the most basic of models, but it doesn't feel like it's worth it”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Claude Code as a Daily Driver: Claude.md, Skills, Subagents, Plugins, and MCPs”
Other mini PCs people recommend
The four most recommended other mini PCs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Mac mini | 390 | 160 | 71% | 13 | 2 yrs42 owners | Approved |
| NVIDIA DGX Spark | 170 | 121 | 58% | 12 | 6 mo16 owners | — |
| AMD Strix Halo | 130 | 83 | 61% | 13 | 11 mo8 owners | — |
| Framework Desktop | 93 | 26 | 78% | 12 | 3 mo9 owners | Approved |
| HP EliteDeskThis page | 15 | 1 | 94% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
15 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the drive decrypts itself!”
“much more stable, quite low power, and can also use it as a true node”
“is handling my stack nicely”
“it runs all my self hosted stuff”
“Those are great if you can surface them!”
“which is what I use for 'lil computer' projects”
“can run the most basic of models, but it doesn't feel like it's worth it”
“You can get HP EliteDesk w/ i5 and 16gb for cheaper than a pi5”
“works just fine. Cost me maybe $50 US.”
“a pretty solid HP EliteDesk (my own homelab) which uses 100 kWh/year”
“If you just want an app server pick up an hp elitedesk off ebay”
“Draws ~15W idle, handles everything I threw at it.”
“My EliteDesk G4 idles at 11W with 4 drives, so it's not too bad.”
“it's more than sufficient to handle this work”
“It's quiet, power efficient, has space for 2 HDDs plus additional nvme slots”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.