Refurbished Asus Mini PC Setup and experience

Six months ago, my son’s laptop had a hardware issue, and the replacement parts needed several months to arrive from China via Singapore. To keep him going in the meantime, I decided on buying a refurbished desktop PC, aiming to manage costs since it was intended for temporary use. His primary needs were limited to productivity tasks and entertainment, and importantly, he wanted something compact to save table space.

After searching online, I found an Asus Mini PC (Model: Chromebox CN65) listed on Amazon India for ₹19,999 (approximately USD 230). The price was slightly higher than what I initially planned, but the specifications were appealing enough that I felt the PC could serve additional purposes later. Here’s what we got:

• Intel Core i7 (8th Gen)
• 16GB DDR4 RAM
• 512GB SSD
• Windows 11 pre-installed
• Microsoft Office
• WiFi, Ethernet, HDMI 4K, Audio Port
• USB Type-C and five USB-A ports

The Mini PC was delivered quickly. As expected, being refurbished, it showed signs of wear and tear—scratches and minor marks were clearly visible. Interestingly, the model was originally designed for ChromeOS (hence “Chromebox”), but the seller had loaded Windows 11. Concerned about potential licensing and safety issues, I reformatted it immediately and installed a fresh, licensed copy of Windows 11 myself.

Disclosure: I write reviews about products that I have bought for my usage and paid in full. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post.

Given the hardware was more than five years old, it didn’t meet Microsoft’s TPM 2.0 requirement for Windows 11. I overcame this by using Rufus, an open-source tool that bypasses these checks. However, it’s essential to note this isn’t officially recommended by Microsoft and could potentially affect licensing or stability. For most users, staying with Windows 10 or switching to a reliable Linux distribution might be safer options. Due to the original ChromeOS design, sourcing the right Windows drivers was challenging. Thankfully, I found suitable drivers through sites like Coolstar and Asus‘s official support pages after considerable effort.

With everything set up, my son was thrilled—especially enjoying the larger screen provided by a 32-inch BenQ 4K monitor along with a comfortable keyboard and mouse. Overall, the system performed acceptably for productivity tasks. While it supports 4K resolution comfortably, graphics-intensive tasks like gaming struggled due to the integrated Intel GPU.

A few weeks in, however, my son encountered unexpected shutdowns. After confirming there were no issues with our power supply or earthing, I contacted the refurbished seller since there was a six-month warranty. After several weeks of email reminders and phone calls, they insisted on remotely accessing the system for diagnosis. Reluctantly, I agreed but closely monitored the session. They installed Avast Driver Updater, which promptly updated several drivers, including the motherboard and chipset drivers, resolving the shutdown issue entirely. Immediately afterward, I removed their remote access software—a crucial security step.

Now, after six months of consistent use, the Mini PC is performing very well. In fact, my son prefers it so much that even though his laptop was repaired and returned, he’s chosen to continue using this setup.

In conclusion, I’d recommend this Mini PC only if you’re technically proficient enough to handle potential issues. Remember, it’s an older generation device (8th Gen processor, seven generations behind current models), so hardware issues and compatibility concerns may surface. After the warranty period, support from sellers tends to diminish, and sourcing spare parts externally becomes difficult. For most users, buying a new or relatively recent machine might be safer. Mid-level laptops with modern specs (Intel Core i5, 16GB RAM, SSD) now sell around ₹40,000—roughly twice what I paid—but this figure becomes comparable once you factor in peripherals (UPS, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse) and the inherent risks of refurbished PCs.