As a volunteer, I administer several desktop computers in a community center of retirees. I am working to provide users with diskless desktops so that they can use a persistent Linux Mint USB key, or an external drive with our hardware. For privacy and maintenance reasons, this is our best long term solution. My question is, how large a power unit (watts) and fan needed for the below listed hardware? The power requirements are for the CPU and cooling fan, motherboard, case cooling fan, USB3 hub, 22" monitor, mouse, keyboard, video camera, and bluetooth. This determines the computer case. I've done weeks of research and tests with my desktop, which a 3.90Ghz 7th generation Intel Pentium, and various other desktops and laptops. Using Sandisk 3.1, version 1 64Gb USB key, I concluded, that to provide satisfactory boot and processing speed, this idea requires the following hardware: A Mini ITX motherboard, with socket 1200 with USB 3.2 (version 2x2) and eSATA connection. Intel Pentium Gold G6405 4.1GHz CPU and 8Gb RAM and USB 3.2 + socket A. A USB drive 3.2 version 2x2, (or an external SSD drive, preferably eSATA) This is the only USB version that can match the bus speed of a current generation motherboard. The minimum capacity of currently available USB3.2 is 256Gb, which is a lot more than required. A fully installed Linux Mint Cinnamon 21 OS with all apps is less than 17Gb.
