Why Are Mini PCs Everywhere in 2024? | What Mini PC is Worth Buying? | Mini PCs Taking Over

[@EVOTech1]

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[@brokeandtired]

Because smart TV's suck? I use a normal PC to run all my streaming.

[@danielgriffith8911]

You should review Minisforum mid-priced Mini-pcs like the UM780 XTX AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS

[@bobbarker1476]

The future is mini pc’s with discreet graphics. Mid to high end laptop parts in a small box without a screen display. Easier to cool than laptops.

[@mrgomelonsolaris]

sth like hx100g, but it's double as expensive as sth with an iGPU.

[@doomboh]

such a no brainer to sacrifice 4k for 1080p gaming, especially when tv's are upscaling anyways.

[@danielgriffith8911]

future is Oculink external graphics for gaming... disconnect for average uses.

[@fubufb420]

So true.....🎉😂 Most I ever use is 3 things...😂 Tube,browser,word.... That's it....🎉 Maybe a small game like 8 ball pool....😂 I'm a very simple man😂😂

[@mavfan1]

I replaced my 88 yr old mom’s 10+ yr old Dell tower with a low spec Trigkey about 18 months ago and it’s been great.

[@akarna69]

Thanks for that incredibly useful, life-changing information. 🤣

[@naenre21]

I've been thinking about just replacing my mother's All in One with an old monitor of mine with a mini PC. She just browses Facebook and KZbin.

[@martinojep]

First thought you wrote a 88 year old computer :D

[@Grogueman]

@@martinojep Uh oh, he outed himself as a time traveller 😂😂😂😂

[@Iamrjayhd]

Did you check it for malware ?

[@flashbak01]

Just got got a Minis Forum UM790-Pro unit last week and there's no way I'm going to revert back to building a medium size tower PC as I've been doing for many, many years! Love these😀 Mini PC's!

[@jiffonbuffo]

Same. Waiting for mainstream to bandwagon on these just like how they did with the Steam Deck.

[@yissnakklives8866]

There's a place for a regular PC - I won't be playing many of my regular games on it, but for the home entertainment center is dead on. The 690S works great but I just want that extra power from the 780m and 5600MT memory for the living room and emulations - I think that some of my Wii games are just a little bit jittery at 1440p...the 780m should take care of that nicely 😁

[@yissnakklives8866]

The um790 Pro can run Fallout 4 medium quality at 4K @48 fps average, just fyi. No upscaling, and yes, performance dips under that but stays over 30. At 1440p it stays pegged at 60fps.

[@Iamrjayhd]

Did you check it for malware ? I saw that. A lot of them have malware on it

[@Dryde85]

Same. Mounted on back of a ultrawide.

[@deersakamoto2167]

Tech reviewers have been saying, "if you don't game or edit videos, this machine is good enough for everything" for most low-mid tier PCs for like 20 YEARS. It's not a particularly useful review because different games or video files demand different specs. They need to have some objective measures to do actual comparisons.

[@ojmachine9545]

but if you just web browse and netflix you aint gaming and the n100 is enough for anyone rocking 1080p in general computing

[@deersakamoto2167]

@@ojmachine9545 Yeah sure or people could just get a 3 year old Thinkpad with a Ryzen chip from eBay for cheap with 3x performance

[@deersakamoto2167]

Yea or a 3yo Thinkpad

[@TohTomajohs]

All I'm interested in is working and learning programming

[@zacharyberridge7239]

​​@@TohTomajohsthen a mini pc may be all you need. My only gripe with them is the general lack of upgradability. Yeah, they're extremely less expensive than a custom route, but you're stuck with exactly what you've got. Then again, may be cheaper to just buy a new mini pc. Did I just talk myself out of my stance? Shit.

[@Sully365]

Used an n100 to replace a desktop for my media pc. Runs plex, jellyfin, radarr, sonarr, 10TB of hard drives... At about 20 watts with two tv streams going at once. I'm happy.

[@janbiker]

how you have connected hard drivers?

[@clou09]

​@@janbikerLikely usb hdd enclosures.

[@janbiker]

@@clou09 thnx

[@Sully365]

@@janbiker yes, USB enclosures. i did find that i cannot make 3 spinning disks run at hte same time, though, so i now have the pc connected to a monitor that has powered USB buses. It ups the wattage a tiny bit but nothing even close to what my old laptop media center ran. i think everything idles around 6 watts, peaks at 25 if we are each watching a stream from a Different HD, and even then, everything is just smooth. It's so amazing for the price/power/perf.

[@MrPir84free]

I use mini-PC's since I really discovered how NOISEY even regular Desktops are; I turned off a regular Dell desktop and was completely shocked how quiet the room was without it; I use one connected to a 50 inch TV; a couple in different rooms, and some for home lab machines/servers. The other defining trait is the lower power bill from using mini-PC's. Will I ever buy another desktop or better yet build a regular PC; maybe, but by and large, day to day can be handled quite easily by a cheaper mini-PC for most normal tasks. I do use laptops for work, but by and large, I only use mini-PC's at the house for personal stuff.

[@oneijack98]

One way to look at the mini pc's in the $500 range is if they have a AMD chip with the 780 igpu you more or less have a steam deck so for some that might be more compelling. And lets not forget that Oculink port for upgrades.

[@utubeape]

is the Oculink for something like if you bought a mini pc for general computing but then decide you need a dedicated graphis cars it enables the upgrade?

[@oneijack98]

@@utubeape I bought mine because of the Oculink. With that I have a full blown computer with a real GPU I bought a Minisfourm EliteMini UM780 XTX. I'm waiting to build my next high-end gaming PC with the next new AMD chips that drop at the end of this year. This is my gaming rig for now. I got this as a toy and found out it has way more bang for the buck I also got it and a few others because I'm getting rid of all my old win 10 stuff that can't be upgraded anymore. My plan is to toss a rx7900xt on it and have built my own eGPU dock. Another reason I went with Oculink is I have a highend monitor 49" 240hz and the 780m igpu isn't going to hang with that in gaming.

[@bnolsen]

Steam deck uses a 680m, the mini PCs have a much faster GPU that like 32gigs of ram

[@CrazyProcess-9999]

​@@utubeapeYes.

[@bryans8656]

I'm part of the mini PC crowd, recently picked up the GMKtec with the N100. I'm surprised how capable it is.

[@StevieRayLou]

Me too,. I got the G3.

[@musiqologist]

How long have you had it. I've heard horror stories of them randomly stop working after a few months.

[@bryans8656]

@@musiqologist I bought it last November, so almost a year, and it hasn't given me any trouble yet.

[@JeredtheShy]

We ended up getting my mom one of these for all her casual browsing, replacing the tower she had and freeing up a bunch of desk space, it's just perfect for that.

[@yissnakklives8866]

They're overrunning my house right this minute, that's for sure! Picked up a UM690S and then couldn't help myself and had to have a UM790Pro...living room and bedroom covered...

[@brads2041]

I feel you. I have 6 minis

[@samuelndegwa8077]

Hi brads.. could you be selling one of them at a good price? I need one to upgrade my work laptop that I mainly use to design leathercraft stuff on illustrator and play last decade games but it's to slow.

[@CJinMono]

Mini PC's nowadays are capable enough to perform at a rate similar to powerful hardware of a few years ago, which, for the vast majority of people, is more than adequate for daily use, including 720p@high/1080p@medium gaming.

[@TohTomajohs]

If it can hold at least 200 tabs on any given usage then I'll get it

[@kaisersolo76]

Got a Firebat P8 Pro plus with n100, 16gb ddr5 ram and 512gb ssd. A Total gamechanger @ 6w-7watts, sold my 2 pi4s for profit and got rid of my old powerhungry pc from 2015. I can uses this mini pc in many different ways for years to come. And it was only £115. if the highend mini pcs get better graphics i will totally jump on board. will go amd next time probably.

[@chrimony]

I went with the 35W Blink Ser5 with AMD 5700U, because it can handle games just fine if you don't ask too much of it. You're not going to play at ultra settings 60fps on your 4k monitor, but 720p at medium or low settings and 30-60 fps is completely doable. I was playing Bioshock Infinite (I know, it's old, but still a good looking game) on 1080p with medium settings, no problem.

[@cheapskateaquatics7103]

Im surprised it's taken this long for mini pc's to hit the consumer market. A lot of companies have switched to micro PC's. As long as a user doesn't need to run anything super heavy, a micro pc works fine. They are cheaper than laptops and smaller than a tower. The company I used to work for started transitioning all their at home employees to micros.

[@Biaanca5036]

Half of the general population just keep the same family PC for over a decade and a lot of these mini PCs are multiple generations FASTER than a 2013 desktop PC anyways --snip-- .. 8 watts under load instead of 200.. replacing a custom built gaming-rig every three years when only one single family member actually plays games is what's truly jank

[@shlomomarkman6374]

You can't compare a mini-pc to a gaming rig, even a decade old gaming rig. If I try compare those 11th gen Celeron chips to something like the 4720 I have on a decade-old laptop then it's 30% slower then the laptop and you can buy such laptop from e-bay for 250-300 dollars. You also get a screen when you buy the laptop. Yes, power consumption in the laptop is 60w average but the computer is not a significant part of the power bill. The AC is.

[@manoo2056]

​@shlomomarkman6374 if you leave it running all the time (possible with linux) it is something to take into consideration. Now the question is the hardware reliable to leave it on 24h for long periods??

[@lordwiadro83]

​​@@shlomomarkman6374The problem with buying old laptops is the display quality. There are people obsessing about a decade old Thinkpads, but no one mentions that they always had terrible screens.

[@judenihal]

because they are powerful enough to run email word processing, web browsing, video streaming and light games, at an affordable price. we didn't have cheap mini pcs like this 10 years ago.

[@lettmons]

My zotac zbox mini pc is almost 10 years old, it has haswell celeron and I use it as my projector pc to watch youtube.

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

Small desk footprint, low power consumption, but... power enough to do almost everything. Also early generations of these with i3/i5/i7 cpus or equivalent are on the refurb/2nd hand market and at reasonable prices. So basic gaming is within reach (I play a LOT of DayZ on mine despite NOT having a GPU).

[@nadtz]

Mini's cover all the bases for a lot of people who don't need a high end PC in a home or office environment and to be honest they aren't that far away from being able to replace low end gaming machines either. As long as you go with a good brand kind of a no brainer for a lot of people.

[@MrBobWareham]

I love my Lenovo Thinkcentre with i5, 200Gb drive and 8gb of memory, and CD drive it so good and works well and cost me £45.00 plus postage now my daily drive with Linux Mint.

[@saddletramp9714]

I got the Beelink SER5 just before christmas,i love this thing, i got it with the Ryzen 7 5800 H, it runs games fine and does everything i could want for under $400.

[@saddletramp9714]

I play world of war planes, and nascar, thats mostly it for me,,but it plays them just fine

[@steroidsR4losers]

Pong

[@camcommute]

does it still works? saw that they usually died after some time

[@FlintG]

I am using the ser5 max as my main pc for now till my gaming pc is upgraded but for now its been great it sure can handle some good games too.

[@praetorxyn]

I've considered getting one to use as a Handbrake machine so it can quietly re-encode my Blu-Ray rips in the background without bogging down my desktop, but I'm an OCD fuck and can't decide what encoding settings I want to use anyway, so until I actually start running out of space on my NAS, I'm just sticking to the full fat rips lmao.

[@WaynesWorldUnlimited]

I had a mini PC about three years ago, and it was no bigger than a tea coaster… crap memory, though only four gigs of ram with 64 gig, SSD. And you couldn’t upgrade it. It was okay bit slow though

[@JeremyLeePotocki]

I always recommend the N95/N100 mini PCs to those that want to mostly Stream due to the AV1 decoding especially if your wanting to do it in 4K as well as basic IoT stuff. I also recommend them for emulation up to PSP (anything newer will need a Mini PC with a Radeon 680M). For Home Servers I agree those Ryzen 5000 series Mini PCs are a smart choice. I do know of one reason to have a expensive Mini PC, and that is in dorms I've seen some were they are mounted in their bunk beds (the dorms are the size of a prison cell). There are some you can get on Alliexpress with RTX4060s in them so they are great at gaming while still being smaller than a ITX build. Other than that I would just recommend a 4~5L ITX Build if you want a small PC.

[@granttaylor8179]

I am running a trio of Intel NUC's. 7th through 9th Gen between 32GB & 64GB of RAM & 1 to 2 TB drives in them. I run Windows Server 2019 on 2 of them and the other is running Windows 11 Pro. I like the fact they are easy to upgrade for memory and storage. They are quiet and space efficient and sit on shelves taking no desk space at all.

[@yissnakklives8866]

I've been kind of spamming the usual suspect channels that kind of cater to the mini pc community, begging for some sort of consistency with reviews and benchmarks as well as comparisons - such as, when reviewing a new model, have a chart with previous reviews numbers ready to show where the review subject stands with regard to other items that have been reviewed. I mean, this isn't ETA PRIME here, just looking to hawk some affiliate link goods on whoever drops by, right?

[@doubleclick21]

God, ETA Prime was such a waste of time.

[@dauntae24]

I’m connecting my SER 5 max to a 4070ti. I’m curious to see how it bottlenecks.

[@Genero90]

I own the Beelink SER5 with a Ryzen 5 5560U / 16 / 512. This thing is extremely snappy with W11 and Ubuntu based distros. Really that’s amazing the amount of power / silence / efficiency you get from a tiny box at 290€ on Amazon! Not a chance I’m getting back to a full size desktop anymore. Just no way.

[@alekoperr]

What can these do that laptops couldn't 10 years ago tho

[@craigprocter1232]

use about 1/10th of the power, run cooler and be next to silent. Oh and run Windows 11 securely.

[@mikespangler98]

Besides the cool and quiet, you can use a better monitor, better keyboard, better mouse, and usually more ports for connecting things. How long has the Mac Mini been around again? This demand has been around for quite a long time. I had a Gigibyte Brix back in 2014. It ran hot, but it did the job.

[@greenman8]

I keep my Laptop docked to a 1440p Monitor along with a real Keyboard and Mouse by Corsair (also less wear and tear on the laptop). My laptop isn't at the same power level as my PC, but aside from DCS (a flight simulator) my laptop can do anything my PC can. I like having these features- A built in screen (that I can fold down while using the 27" monitor, if I want) a built in UPS (battery life is so-so) and a built in keyboard/trackpad. My Laptop is a Legion 5 from 2020 with an RTX2060. I only got it because I needed to replace a GTX 780ti, and the pricing on cards at the time, would have put me out, at least $1000 for a budget-grade performance boost, at best. (edit) -If I could have found a Mobile R-7 4800H along with a Mobile 2060 in a small case, for less than my laptop, I would have.- Should be- If I could find a mini PC with the mobile parts, equivalent to those in my Laptop, without the added price of a track pad, Keyboard, and Screen (a mini PC)- I would have taken that setup.

[@greenman8]

Aside from the so-so battery life, the only other negative is, when I stress the Laptop, the fans do get loud.

[@greenman8]

@@craigprocter1232 Windows 11 ugh. I had to uninstall and do a fresh install, back to Win10. The operating system that will remind you of the days with Vista.

[@johnstancliff7328]

I accidently scrapped a friends laptop, and so I gave him mine as a replacement, I came across a Dell Wyse 7020 and really love it.... once I upgraded it to 2 SSD's and 8GB of memory, I was able to install W10 pro and use it all the time. runs games with no problems, as well as videos.... really love the small size!

[@mamdouh-Tawadros]

Building your own pc is an art and joy to many, regardless.

[@xellaz]

I have my big-a$$ gaming PC tower on the left of my desk, a Pi 5 underneath my arm-mounted monitor, a mini-PC at center, a Pi4 at the right side of it, and another mini-PC at the far right... all connected to a hub so that I can use just one monitor, keyboard, and mouse to control all these devices. I just have to press the KVM switch buttons. Mini-PCs has come a long way and are very powerful now. For my next gaming build, I'm definitely downsizing and will focus more on power efficiency. My current gaming PC draws too much power. The GPU alone draws 420w+ when playing AAA games (not even a 3DMark GPU stress test!). The CPU draws 80-100w+. Overall power draw is like 600-900w 'coz I have a lot of stuff connected to it. Idle is at 200w+ 🫤

[@Helios.vfx.]

I've got lost into all that text. No offense mate. But what switch or thing do you use to change from one pc to another without having to going back and plug and unplug the devices ?

[@xellaz]

@@Helios.vfx. It's a combination of my monitor that has a built-in kvm switch and a USB Switch 4 in 4 Out, USB Switcher Selector which controls my keyboard, mouse, cam, and gamepad.

[@Helios.vfx.]

@@xellaz Thanks mate! I'll look it up

[@Sheerwinter]

I just love processors like amd strix point, sdxelite, and intel arrow lake. I'm waiting for minis with the specific processors. With high speed ddr5 8555hrz ram. The minis doesn't always have to be 4x4 in size. 6x6 would be good as well. (I can use it as a living room pc + i can carry it to anywhere where i can connect it to a monitor. I do have a portable monitor from asus ...)

[@geoffstrickler]

Because they’re really good, take up little space, and use relatively little power, produce little noise, and they’re less expensive than their larger counterparts. Basically, most of the same reasons laptops and tablets sell more than desktops. They’re not a good option for really high-end gaming, but for most tasks, they’re a great choice.

[@mwales2112]

I replaced my wife's desktop last year with a Beelink ser5 mini PC and was very impressed with the performance of that little box mounted on her monitor. As a gamer and have a water-cooled custom build on my desk I wanted to give one a try for the tasks and gaming I do. I ended up buying a Minisforum UM780 XTX and I'm very impressed how well if plays games and performs tasks. With the Oculink option now I'm thinking of parting with the big tower...

[@TrusteftTech]

Well said. Two things continue to annoy me with mini PCs. First, my lack of money. Second, NONE of them make it easy to get to the part of the machine which has the fans/cooler so that you can easily clean the fan(s) and replace the thermal paste. NONE. Otherwise, I am finding them very attractive as they are the closest to 80s home computers as we can get in 2024.

[@mrman6035]

You could get a fanless mini which is much more dustproof

[@TrusteftTech]

@@mrman6035 And completely nerf the performance. Plus, it will only limit one of the issues (dust/dirt), but it will not help with the other (repasting/repairing).

[@northyland1157]

You don't need a full size computer unless your doing high end work or games.

[@Megatog615]

The problem for me is that they are essentially unable to be upgraded, other than the ram and storage. I consider these when I occasionally think about upgrading or buying a new PC but always come to the conclusion that they are stuck with the CPU and graphics capability they have and would make for a bad investment if I want to upgrade down the line. I just upgraded my X470-chipset build(X470 being from 2018!!) to a Ryzen 7 5700X up from a 3700X. I don't think these mini PCs will have upgradability like this. If I wanted to, I could get a new graphics card. Can't do that with these mini PCs.

[@VRNocturne]

So far that's my thoughts as well as well as reading comments about "low end" this and that. Sounds like if you want to do more than just check email and watch videos, you need more than a mini-PC.

[@Megatog615]

@@VRNocturne that's why i think mini itx actually works great if you want power in a small package.

[@gipgap4]

That’s the PC mindset coming out. You can’t upgrade PlayStations or Xbox’s either. They have a generational life of 5-10 years then you get another one. You can apply the same philosophy here.

[@contentsdiffer5958]

@@gipgap4 And if you use them just as a low end gaming rig, that's fine.

[@UndeadStoryteller]

Is a mini pc a realistic option if you ARE doing content creation though, and I think I speak for a lot of people who are considering doing content creation but want answers to that question. Obviously we all want a computer that's powerful enough to stream, game, do basic office work, have multiple windows open. That's the basic ground level of expectation for tech these days period. Can it do audio cutting, can mini pc's successfully multitask audio and video editing while potentially gaming or running Microsoft word while exporting? Are mini pc's capable of that level of output without there being major overheating problems and have you personally tested products that boast such capability? If so can you please give links to those videos?

[@SirGriefALot]

You could build some Frankenstein PC from old parts that would preform better than a good mini-pc if you want to play the newest games, but it's not a tiny box you can take with you. You could take it on vacation or to a friends house and have your entire emulation and movie collection.

[@richardbryanesq]

Why do you say that? You think a 2012(?) box with the same amount of memory, but running at DDR3 speeds, and on-board video is going to out-perform one of these newer i5 or i7 minis?

[@StevieRayLou]

Depends on use case. I had created a NAS with a Raspberry Pi4B, but got tired of issues with Raspberry OS, and other ARM issues. I bought a GMKtec Nucbox G3 to use debian12 amd64. I shrunk the win 11 partition and installed debian12. I can't get debian12 to turn on Bluetooth, but I added a keyboard under win 11. The BIOS has too many settings related to Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. But since win 11 worked, Bluetooth must be on in bios. Perhaps debian12 doesn’t have a driver for it. I tried lsusb and lspci, but couldn't find a bluetooth device listed. Solved by installing realtek-firmware or is it firmware-realtek. 8o) I'm quite happy with my g3, even though it's only an N100, it was only $155 and is powerful enough for MY use case.

[@blackbeanburger3357]

i think they totally replace any notion of a budget... or perhaps even a medium build tower. the new ryzen8 igpus are very impressive according to testers already. not as powerful as discreet gpus... but they are at or surpassing budget discreet gpus

[@mr.dilanger]

I stopped building large PC cases 10 years ago. I play video games and I dont need max setting to have fun. I'm always on the go so the gaming laptop was more viable.

[@doomboh]

My new minisforum neptune HX99G is literally running brand new games in ultra at 60fps 1080p with 4k upscaling on tv, and it's actually loading shit several times faster than my skytech prism 2 that cost 5x as much. I honestly was not expecting this machine to blow me away and it was on sale on amazon with a 300 dollar discount.

[@darkenaxe]

The number 1 reason for me is by far the price. You can have a complete mini pc for the price of an itx motherboard. I actually thought the video would explain this as it makes no sense to me right now.

[@TareqAstroPhoton]

For 1 year and so i am now using my 2 mini PCs completely, i even forgot what are the specs of my laptops and Mac Mini and even my so old desktop PCs. I am planning to buy more mini PCs in future, one of my mini PCs i use it for astrophotography, the other one is Minisforum with Ryzen 9 5900HX and upgraded all the way to 64GB RAM and i think 2.5TB SSDs [1TB + 1TB +500GB].

[@tonyg.7999]

You are the truth! Great information! I do have a question as I’m a rookie at PC’s. I’m only interested in emulation gaming some native gaming in future but primarily emulation. RPCS3 to be exact. Any Beelink can get 4K emulation? Perhaps 1440p? Would you recommend the Ser6 or Ser7? Or would something like a….. Dell - G15 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 - 16GB Memory - 1TB SSD - Dark Shadow Gray The Dell is something that caught my eye at local Best Buy. Would love thoughts on this! Thank you! 👍

[@Johnsmith-p1v]

Im currently trying to decide on a new system and they seem to make less sense the higher in price you get. If you are currently parking a laptop in the corner and need a decent screen and don't need the battery these seem tobe a good option.

[@joesworld396]

Liked for mentioning Intel 4th gen. The Haswells are legendary, and I still game on them today. They may not be the fastest, but they're good enough, which also describes the appeal of the mini-pcs today.

[@rogerrowsell5926]

My ipad 8, using $1 reading glasses works great for me.

[@LeeMaiden]

I chose the Beelink EQ12 with the N100 CPU 16GB RAM, Dual 2.5GbE ethernet ports and a 512GB NVMe. It had WinBlows 11 Pro on it, which I fired it up to put the Winn 11 on my M$ account for easy activation later. I pulled that 512GB NVMe out, tossed in a 1TB Silicon Power NVMe and installed Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon then a fresh of Mint 22 Cinnamon, runs like a champ. I had actually bought it to put pfSense firewall on it, that's why I wanted the dual port 2.5GbE on it. I may still do that, but I like it with Mint 22 Cinnamon on it. Oh I put a 2TB Silicon Power SSD in that spot under the cover. I paid $209 for it, two days later price went to $273, glad I got it when I did. Great little machine.Oh, I also took out the AX101 wireless card and put a WiFi 7 Intel BE200 in it, $29 for some blistering wireless speeds.

[@eyeinidas]

I just bought one for Mom. It has more power than her old oversized beast. I wiped Windows 11 and loaded MX23 KDE on it. It really works well. I hope it lasts as long as the old one.

[@cfbmoo1]

Last year I got a Beelink SER5 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 5 5560U for my mother. Thing works like a charm and I installed Linux on the thing with next to no issues. It's got performance, upgrade options, even does gaming quite nicely for the more causal side of modern gaming and handles most anything you throw at it older. Best of all no crazy huge power draws and heat generation. I may actually switch to one of these after my desktop gets old enough and by then the newer versions of these will be even better.

[@nickvirgili2969]

But ive always loved mini pcs, but im ahead of this, putting the possibilty of 4080 graphical power with topline amd 16core min. chips, crazy interesting small liquid cooled units for the chips. Its a fun puzzle.

[@Brrunoc1]

A year ago I bought a Beelink with an Intel i5 CPU and 16 gig of Ram. It works great but when I tried to run video editing software it would not load. The main concern was it came with win11 pro pre installed and I was unable to see any admin user name and password. This concerned me so I wiped it and installed win11 home which I purchased elsewhere.

[@TohTomajohs]

I want to get a mini pc. I have monitor, keyboard and mouse. Is that all I need to have?

[@CDubya.82]

Can't get enough of these things. For everything from Emulation systems, Media players, Servers and basic desktops. Love a good mini pc

[@chromerims]

9:07 -- helpful info about AZW, the OEM. Thank you 👍

[@alexandrezapponi8411]

can be operated 24x7 , allways ??

[@AAstebs]

I actually downsized to a NUC 11 Enthusiast. I love it and it games well. I use a NUC N100 for a plex server and another one for a NAS.

[@ArtyCollectz]

I've had a high end gaming laptop, a desktop, and now a Mini PC. I have to say, in a world increasingly more expensive and space limited. Mini PC's are extraordinary. Great for light gaming, indie games, cozy games especially. Great for browsing, editing, entertainment all in a small form factor and get fit on a minimalist desk setup. Fantastic stuff.

[@ogremgtow990]

Short Answer. There cheap and work well .

[@Helios.vfx.]

From about 900/1000 watts down to 60 to prototype some work and only then sending back to workstation. I think saving up energy pays it off lol.

[@lordcron]

I have 4 of these in my home. They're great for Streaming services!

[@Burrier82]

I have 2 low spec mini pcs they are a lot of fun. AMD dual core A9400. and another with Intel N5095 4 core both are 8GB ram.

[@digitizer3627]

Awesome video. I really admire that you are fair and honest about these systems. Keep up the great work. Fyi i have a Trigkey R7 5800H and i love it.

[@trevor_mounts_music]

These make great machines for music production/djing in the studio. Takes up zero space, really quiet, lots of grunt for the money...what's not to like right? I'm not trying to record a movie score with 100 tracks and 1000 plugins and I'm sure most people are in the same boat.

[@stephenlumpkin6879]

So are these good for like Geforce Now

[@EVOTech1]

yes, these do great on GeForce Now, provided you have an ethernet connection. Over wifi, it really depends on your home network and the specific wifi chip the system you get comes with. for best results, ethernet is the way to go.

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

the reason manufacturers spam so many promo units to anyone who will give them publicity is because there's really very little to distinguish one brand from the next beyond how they are promoted. all the manufacturers are ultimately buying the same parts for the same price, and so it's marketing that makes the difference between their success and failure more than anything else. this is often the case with products that are heavily advertised, generally speaking.

[@andrebradley1924]

Can you please recommend a mini pc that I can use for streaming video and gaming. Iptv service dolby vision and dolby atmos

[@omarguerrero6417]

I use my mini pc as mini gamecube

[@999fine5]

Just picked up the trig key S6 with the Ryzen n 9 series 6900 HX

[@Tmanstomp100]

Im so confused as to why they dont offer a slightly bigger one with like a RTX 3050 low profile in there, literally would be the perfect console replacement especially if they made it look gamerish

[@teamskeet2006]

lower power consumption, small size and you can even find some void of the Windows tax, which is reason enough to choose one of these

[@mdoerkse]

One thing I am concerned about with mini PCs is having enough USB ports and audio ins and outs and ideally an SD card reader.

[@wwrye929]

Will thise min pc with a egpu be good for gaming

[@iamrocketray]

Mine is 🤣I have a minisforum UM790 pro and I had a left over 650 watt PSU and a RX6900XT, bought an oculink board for £37 and an oculink adapter(£10) to replace one of the M.2 drives. The other M.2 is a 4 terabyte job. I have it set up so that for netflix or web browsing I just have the UM790 running and when I want to play a game I just restart but power on the PSU first. Its a little bit DIY messy, but is so close to my gaming rig in performance makes no difference. I wont be going back to a full tower again, although next year I might go ITX, but no hurry because what I have now is fine.

[@tonysofla]

I plan to get two minipc's, one for office and one for home as I don't like laptops. Synch both with the cloud. Done with work, just press power button and leave.

[@neovincibeats]

Has anyone used theese for audio production

[@phil7121]

Do these mini pcs come with windows and a legit windows key so i can reformat whenever i want and put a clean windoes install on there?

[@StevieRayLou]

Not all. Be careful.

[@PIXELMcGeeGames]

Often pre-installed with local account option giving me the impression they don't want the product number to register imo. Some bios are locked up pretty tight but you can wipe and install your own OS. I'd do that anyway- bloatware malware keyloggers they do come from various places . Known name brands would be choice for assurance but the lower cost ones are 50/50. Do research and reviews on any you choose

[@mrman6035]

Most of these are Chinese brands so you know what you're dealing with. Besides it's not as if it's necessary to use a windows key to use them.

[@Boohooooo]

I just need one for that will run obs efficiently

[@Helios.vfx.]

A portable monitor would be a great addition to these mini pc

[@padrecharles_]

the pc scene will radically change when we will achieve good price-performance ratio for gaming mini pc (as of now its still too high) but as things are going, a couple of year and minisforum will be one of the top brands in the pc market

[@mrman6035]

With the next apu from amd it can possibly compete with high end gpus since it can use ai tech

[@mikejpete]

Whats the best one with a ryzen apu for havkintosh lol

[@Anthonyelmio2]

I have a Steam Deck, Legion Go, 3080 pc, and a Beelink mini pc 5800H with 64gb ram and 2tb ssd and external 8tb hdd for roms I just use the mini for retro games and it plays games but i don't recommend it to play anything modern in high settings above 30 fps, Great mini pc though 👍🏼 Do i recommend it for gaming sure but if you are staying in pc gaming i recommend a low end desktops since you can carry over parts like psus, HDDs, SDDs that you can upgrade later on

[@Helios.vfx.]

Good enough for 98% of people out there and saving you up bucks in energy

[@stevenbliss989]

These are great for the office!

[@JCDay]

I mean I think its a pretty good deal for people who only use it for classwork and probably even small games, like roblox, die in the dungeon, and other small size games, or you could just buy a laptop

[@danielgriffith8911]

If it doesnt have Oculink, its not worth buying. Best on the market right now is the Minisforum MS-A1 because it has Oculink and an unsoldered Ryzen CPU. This means you can buy it CPU/Memory/storage-less for less than 300 bucks. The bundled CPU is worth it, imo.

[@toni4729]

My huge box (as you seem to describe them) makes absolutely no sound at all. Either I'm dead lucky or it was very well made but it's putting me right off buying a mini because everyone talks about the noise they make.

[@jank_frank]

Beelink mini PCs are trash. The USB ports are on 100% of the time, even when shutdown. There's no way to disable this in BIOS - Beelink states it's required for Wake-on-LAN. This is the only mfg that has this problem.

[@joemann7971]

There should be an option to disable WoL as well. Most PCs do. If you dont need WoL, then turning it off should disable the USB ports as well, unless of course, Beelink is lying and it's simply a engineering flaw.

[@joemann7971]

Also, if you can't disable WoL, that also a flaw, since that means anyone with access to your network can potentially wake your PC.

[@cheetor5923]

I ended up finding these looking for a replacement for my old Rasbberry Pi 3, which no longher has enough RAM to deal with running Homeassistant... For the same price as a Model 5 8GB.. I can get one of these and make it do way more... Then I got to thinking... Why am I running my big fat ass Ryzen 7800X, OC'd to all buggery with its RTX4080 Super and watercooling.. Pulling a shattering 320watts at idle all up.. Just to watch youtube videos and do boring every day stuff... Heating my room up in summer so much. Why not shove one of these on the back of my display.. use it as a low power daily driver, and only use the gaming PC for when I want to (or can find time to) game hard... Looking like a real appealing option

[@billbeam9553]

What is the purpose of these mini PC's? I have a two year old laptop and don't have very good wi-fi signal. I can get one of these mini-PC's for free. But I'm not sure what benefit a mini-PC would do for me? Would it boost my wi-fi signal? I'm using someone else's signal, so I don't know what it would do for me?

[@iamrocketray]

Its not very expensive to buy a wi fi booster that just plugs into a spare plug socket. And mini PC's have come on in leaps and bounds in just the last 12 months, It would make your laptop feel ancient. Read the latest reviews from about the last 4 to 6 months to get a feel for what they can do. Oh and avoid the cheapo ones if you intend to do any gaming!

[@mrman6035]

It's useful as a media box on the lower end and it can possibly replace your desktop when you buy high end compared to laptops that live or die on its battery life.

[@machone539]

I still do not know why not pickup a used Mac Air. They are less than $300 and it comes complete. Now you have something that can do EVERYTHING a mini-pc that is also portable.

[@colinstock325]

Used Mac Airs, at least those valued at $300, will likely be based on an outdated Intel chipset, which do not support the latest operating system. Also Windows based systems are more flexible. They run more software and are compatible with more external hardware.

[@machone539]

@@colinstock325 If you do not mind the weight, you can still get a under $500 Windows laptop that gets the job done. It is still more portable and usable than a mini PC. If you buy a $1k laptop, now you have both a mini PC and a portable PC.

[@iamrocketray]

What colin just said🤣🤣😎😎

[@machone539]

@@iamrocketray have you seen the specs for Win 11 support? Please. An outdated Mac air for under $100 with Catalina is much better.

[@sirdee9607]

I love my Minis

[@Artofcarissa]

Honestly some of these mini pcs are being used by creative professionals and have 32 gb of ram. If Mac minis can be used for design and editing work I don’t see why mini pc’s with similar or better specs as them can’t also be used for the same things

[@jonathont5570]

bought beelink 7 se on amazon, there is no real option in the 400-500 range really... Runs great, Igpu plays most games at 1080.... I dont need a 4090, heck most people dont. I need a small desktop to allow me to consume some media and play some games when I feel like it.

[@MrSamadolfo]

🙂 its just Hype, the reason its pushed because its small, you can fit alot more of them into a shipping container, then into a trailer, u can imagine how much money is in each container, the same idea is why they love u to buy smartphones and laptops.

[@arondolfo]

If a mini pc can do what you want in a high end pc then why not? It also take less space in your table too.

[@2cars10]

I just don't understand the point of mini PCs. The odds of someone not having the room for a full tower, but the space for one of these has to be such a small amount. It's not portable due to the rest of the setup with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. They aren't any more upgradable than a laptop and use laptop parts so you may as well get a laptop. A laptop genuinely uses less space than a desktop and IS portable. I just can't wrap my head around who these are really for.

[@luck9837]

Never had to share a room i see? Lol theres tons up people this may be perfect for, people who move alot etc, i agree that a laptop may be better, but these seem to consume less power also and are way smaller that can be mounted on the back of a monitor

[@joshhardin666]

Me: watching this whole editing 4k video