More then 5 years ago I upgraded my PC, to last 5 years. It was not a full upgrade, just the CPU, Memory and motherboard.

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo: E8400
• Motherboard: Asus P5QL pro
• Memory: 16Gb

Later I had to update the video-card, because the old one overheated. I replaced the hard-drive by a SSD when they became affordable. But the gross of the PC is five year or more old. So slowly things started itching and I feel like replacing it.

Requirements

For the new PC I have a set of requirements. I would like it to be:

• Better then the current PC.
• So, faster CPU with more cores then the current CPU.
• More memory (16 Gb or more ).
• Small case, preferable passively cooled.
• Preferable sold in local store. You do not know how many times I had to get back last time to get a complete set of working components.

So I looked at the Intel NUC, but it turns out the configuration sold is actually slower then my 5 year old PC and more expensive. The higher end models are very very expensive. The cirrus7 nimbus looks very interesting. But not yet for sale.

I am up for suggestions, but looking around so far, it is not worth upgrading.