Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.There are two ways PC makers can offer low-cost computers. One is to use newer components that are designed to be cheap. Another is to select older components that used to cost a lot of money, but which can now be purchased at a discount.So while many companies offering budget laptops and mini PCs have opted for modern low-cost chips based on Intel Alder Lake-N, Twin Lake, or Wildcat Lake architecture, the folks who designed the Rmatamini P99s took a different approach. This little computer is available from Newegg for $239 and up, and it features and old Intel Xeon server processor paired with an old discrete GPU from NVIDIA. It’s… an interesting option.Measuring 201 x 201 x 142mm (7.9″ x 7.9″ x 5.6″), the P99s is larger than a lot of modern mini PCs, but it’s still smaller than a typical desktop tower. Inside there’s a mini ITX motherboard with an Intel Xeon E5-2698v3 processor.That’s a chip from 2014 that was officially discontinued at the end of 2021. But it’s still a pretty capable processor all these years later, because this was designed to be a server processor. It’s a 16-core, 32-thread chip with support for CPU frequencies of up to 3.6 GHz and 40MB of cache. While it doesn’t have integrated graphics, the Rmatamini P99s is available with three discrete GPU options:With NVIDIA GTS 450 for $239With NVIDIA GTX 850M for $339With NVIDIA GTX 1650M for $369There’s also a separate listing for a nearly identical model called the P99X, which has RTX 1050 graphics and sells for $329.So… does that make the P99s/x a good deal? That’s sort of hard to say. On the one hand it’s a pretty cheap way to get your hands on a 16-core, 32-thread system that should offer pretty good performance for multitasking and multi-threaded applications.On the other hand, the Xeon E5-2698v3 is a 12-year old chip that isn’t officially supported by Windows 11 (even though that’s what ships with this computer), and which consumes a lot more power than modern chips with similar performance.According to PassMark’s database, the Xeon E5-2698v3 offers multi-core performance similar to what you’d expect from a 25-watt AMD Ryzen 6600U processor from 2022 or a 15-watt Intel Core 7 350 chip from 2026. But the Xeon processor is a 135W chip that’s going to generate a lot more heat and have a bigger impact on your electric bill.It also lags far behind those newer chips in single-core performance. In fact, even a 6-watt Intel N150 Twin Lake processor scores higher in single-core benchmarks.A few other things to keep in mind? Even the best graphics card on offer here isn’t all that impressive by 2026 standards. You can get better performance from recent Intel and AMD chips with Radeon 780M or Intel Arc graphics… although not likely at this price range. And since this is an older chip, it has limited support for newer components.For example, instead of DDR5 memory, the system only supports up to 16GB of DDR4-2133 memory, and it appears it may actually ship with DDR3 RAM. And while it supports PCIe NVMe SSDs, it tops out at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds.Ports include:4 x USB 3.2 Type-A2 x USB 2.0 Type-A1 x 3.5mm mic input1 x 3.5mm line output1 x Gigabit EthernetThere should be at least three video outputs, although it doesn’t look like they’re actually DisplayPort connectors as described in the image above. It seems more likely that you’ll get at least one HDMI port and two other video outputs.The computer also has an internal 450W power supply and a wireless card with support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2.Ultimately, I’m not convinced that the P99s is a good deal, even at $239. But it’s certainly an interesting mix of new and old hardware that helps provide a balance of decent performance at a low price.If you’re looking for a similarly-sized system with better performance-per-watt, the company does offer models like the Rmatamini P12 that have newer hardware. That model features an Intel Core i5-12490F processor, NVIDIA RTX 5060 graphics, and support for DDR4-3200 memory. But with an $899 price tag, it also costs more than twice as much as the most expensive P99s/x model.via TechRadar