Micro PCs for a workshop environment.

[MyHD4870x2Melted]

Over at my shop we have been having some issues with our Thin Clients.
A few weeks ago all but a few stopped working.
Turns out the ones that were working were not thin clients at all, but micro PCs.
After much debate it was decided that having only 8 thin clients (originally thought to be close to 20) wasn't cost effective.
Unfortunately we can't just buy more of the same micro PCs we already have because they are extremely weak Atom processors and only used to run a status update screen.
I need a mini PC that can run Microsoft Office (mostly just Access), view PDFs and pull up web pages (standard office type stuff) but most importantly survive in a dusty environment.

Here is what I've been looking at...
-HP 260 G1 Desktop Mini PC $350, comes with an i3-4030U, 4gb RAM and 500GB HDD.
It has FreeDOS so I am unsure if it can run Windows 7 Pro.

-Inspiron Micro Desktop $270, comes with Pentium J2900, 2gb RAM and a 32GB SSD.
It uses Windows 10, which we would have to re-image to 7, but our image is 60gb.

-ASUS Vivo PC VM42 - $258, Celeron 2957U / 1.4 GHz, RAM 4gb, HDD 500 GB
I has Windows 8.1

-Bare Bones ASUS Vivo PCs, no ram, no HDD
Core i3-4030U $314
ASUS VivoMini $358

Any suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[g-unit1111]

You might be able to build your own for not too much more than what you can get for any of those prebuilts. Maybe try something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Silverstone Sugo SG13B Mini ITX Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $335.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 15:51 EST-0500

That's a bit better than most of those and can run MS Office and Windows 7 Pro.

 

[MyHD4870x2Melted]

You might be able to build your own for not too much more than what you can get for any of those prebuilts. Maybe try something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Silverstone Sugo SG13B Mini ITX Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $335.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 15:51 EST-0500

That's a bit better than most of those and can run MS Office and Windows 7 Pro.

I looked into building my own but unfortunately they are too big.
ideally we need something that mounts to the back of the monitor like we have now.
I would love to go back to building PCs, but I need something tinny that I can image and throw out on the floor.

 

[g-unit1111]

I looked into building my own but unfortunately they are too big.
ideally we need something that mounts to the back of the monitor like we have now.
I would love to go back to building PCs, but I need something tinny that I can image and throw out on the floor.

There's definitely smaller cases you can get like the Silverstone RVZ02B or the Fractal Design Node 202:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($42.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: Fractal Design Node 202 + Integra 450W SFX PSU ($139.99)
Total: $381.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 16:06 EST-0500

That's about as small as it gets for mITX. You can see the Node 202 here: http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-202