I just completed my first sync on a new $365 Windows mini PC (32 GB RAM, 16 dual cores). It slightly outperformed my big machine (256 GB, 32 dual cores) at 61 minutes to block 840k. And it's capable of AVX512 and SHA-NI, which will make it even faster once those are compiled in. I don't see any reason to work toward lesser machine support given that this is so cheap, and will continue to drop in price.