You are about to spend twenty minutes reading reviews and talking
yourself out of buying anything. Don't do that.
This is not a complicated purchase. You are buying a small computer
that will sit on your desk, run Linux, and host a Drupal development
environment. It does not need to be fast. It does not need to be
beautiful. It does not need a brand name on the front. It needs
enough memory to run a LAMP stack and enough storage to hold a few
Drupal sites. That is a very low bar and almost everything in your
price range clears it easily.
Here is the only spec that matters: 8 gigabytes of RAM and a 256
gigabyte SSD. That's the whole list. Everything else is noise.
Refurbished is fine. Better than fine — it's smart. Someone else
took the depreciation hit so you don't have to. A refurbished
business-grade mini PC from three or four years ago has already
proven it can run reliably.
If you recognize the brand, you are paying too much.
The sweet spot right now is the category of small form factor
machines that shipped with Windows 10 and are now considered
obsolete by the people who care about running Windows. Microsoft
ended support for Windows 10 in October 2025. Nobody wants these
machines for Windows anymore. That is precisely why they are cheap
and precisely why they are perfect for you. You are not buying them
for Windows. You are wiping Windows the day the box arrives.
The operating system on the machine when it arrives is completely
irrelevant. The brand name is irrelevant. The color is irrelevant.
The stickers are irrelevant. You are buying a small computer with
8 gigabytes of RAM and a 256 gigabyte SSD for somewhere between
$150 and $200. If someone is asking more than $250 for something
that fits this description, keep shopping.
You will find these machines on Amazon, on eBay, and on any number
of refurbished electronics sites. Search for "mini PC 8GB 256GB"
and sort by price. You will have more options than you need. Pick
one that ships quickly and has a return policy. Order it. Close
the browser.
The box is on its way. Go have a conversation with your AI
assistant about what you are about to build.