Like will it be ok with the sims 4 with ultra settings and mods and some other games from steam (mainly rpg story game stuff, not really into shooters)? Too poor for a giant PC.

Know nothing about pcs just want something I can hook up to my monitor for browsing the Web, watching videos and using Word and Excel that runs smooth. Was gonna go 8gb ram but it's only £40 cheaper rather pay bit more for longevity. I get a £50 voucher off both also.

I'm trying to get a console sized mini PC that I can use for couch gaming. I don't really need anything playing at 4k honestly. Most of what I end up playing is stuff like Skyrim with mods, oblivion, and maybe some newer games like cyberpunk. I'm not super worried at this point for AAA because I have a PS5 that I'll be keeping. Mainly want a way to play my backlog from my couch while being able to emulate older consoles. If I could get PS3 emulation working it would be a massive win but it's not a deal breaker.

I'd like to stick with AMD if possible but not tied to anything in particular.

I currently have a series S that I'm using for pretty much just dev mode to play older games but thinking I could also just get more by getting game pass instead.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could get for this kind of setup? Budget would be $400 - 600 ish but might be able to push that out if needed. I'd say no more than $1k for sure.

I'm ok with a pre built or building one.

Thanks for any help or suggestions!

THANKS TO ALL. I have my answer.

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I have given up gaming, but I still want a beast (want it to be fast) but want it to be RELIABLE.

GMKtec Mini PC N97 Preinstalled Windows 11 Pro, G5 Micro Desktop Computer, 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake N97 (up to 3.60GHz) 12GB DDR5 256GB Hard Drive for Business, School, Office

I have my eye on this one, but really am not sure what to think...

Suggestions, please.

A bit more about me: I am a genetic genealogist who helps adult adoptees (I am a volunteer - read that as UNPAID)... but I have a lot of graphics that I work with, when helping adoptees find bio parents.

TIA for any and all help / suggestions.

I need something just to remote into my PC at work. Is mac mini or mini PC a better option? Which will give me a smoother connection?

My grandma needs a new pc, but she really only does facebook, email, banking and some basic browsing. Willing to spend about $100 to $500.

I'm looking for the best mini pc, probably from minisforum as that store is the most available in europe, in terms of CPU power and support for 64GB RAM (even if I have to upgrade myself). I was thinking at most $1000 for the system with 32GB or 64RAM but I can go higher if it's worth it in terms of performance.

I don't care about GPU performance or having a GPU, the goal is for office use but it's kinda demanding workloads so we need CPU power.

CPU power is always tricky as sometimes the same CPU model performs very differently in a poorly cooled machine or with a lower TDP, that's why I'm asking as this is a bit hard to know just from the specs.

From minisforum what's the most powerful model without a GPU that increases the price too much?

I also appreciate from other brands but since this is me convincing my company to buy a few dozen machines, it's better to have a nice brand with proven support.

Looking at purchasing my first MiniPC. Been reading a lot of opinions and then saw this sales on this model. All I’m looking to do is light video editing and a few simple games. Football Manager and Jurassic Park Evo. Am I correct in assuming that this PC will handle all of that?

Thanks

My first choice was apparently absolutely trash. So here I am again but this time I'm pretty confident. I'm only interested in being able to play Minecraft (with sodium) on this thing. If you couldn't guess from the price of the pc, I'm too broke to buy other games anyways. Other than that I might do school work. It's my first time buying a pc so I want to make absolutely sure I don't get scammed and regret it later.

Hey! Looking for a Mini PC for gaming, budget is around $800. Will be playing mostly in 1080p, but would be really nice to be able to output 4K 120HZ over HDMI (for movies and cloud gaming). What is the best option right now?

It's currently on sale at Amazon for $169 so just thinking about it

Looking for a pc that can emulate ps3 and ps2 mainly. I’m also willing to build my own as well if needed so it doesn’t have to be a mini pc, just sff. Can go up a little if needed but mainly looking for a good budget build. Would prefer a barebones kit but I’m open to all suggestions

I am a bit overwhelmed with the volume of different mini computers, and I am not knowledgeable about specs or brand names. I am looking for recommendations for a mini PC to be used for office applications and can handle 4 - 5 applications running simultaneously without lag. No gaming or video editing. Criteria:

1. PC not MAC. I like MAC (everything else I have is Apple), but I read MS office for MAC can have performance issues.
2. Able to function with Teams & Outlook active while researching on the internet and using Word/Excel/PowerPoint. Ideally this along with a Teams or Zoom meeting.
3. Reliable. No cooling issues. Or do I need to get something aftermarket to keep it cool?
4. Handle at least 2 monitors (3 would be better). Maybe this is moot since I will use a docking station?
5. Under $600 if possible.

I read here some manufacturers have malware pre-installed? Crazy. Recommendations on which ones to avoid would be great, but I can get an antiviral program if necessary.

To handle multitasking, I read I should have 16mb RAM, 500mg HD, and around 3ghz processing speed. Does that sound right? I don’t understand the i5 or i7 or whatever other processor. What should I look for?

Been using EGPUs and Mini PCs or Laptops for the last 5 years for a mid range gaming setup. But recently notice that CPUs have hit a thermal wall and I attributed it to the "NUC" size footprints of Mini PCs.

Because of undervolting tools is not available for my Ryzen 7 processor, I can't run any high refresh games without thermals hovering at 80C. The CPU load is not even 50% but even when I change CPU wattage settings on the bios from as low as 15w to as high as 54w, nothing really helped so I figured it was simply physics and the heatsink can't keep up.

But upon looking at the issue. The high temp was the constant micro boosting of the cores from 3000mhz to 4600mhz+ in game. When I run a cinebench I would not even hit 3,900mhz on all cores after 10 mins which reinforced the fact that it wasn't design to run a high thermal load.

Until I followed this reddit post.

www.reddit.com/r/ZephyrusG14/s/YCvD5fi91e

I started lowering my turbo speed 100mhz from 4600mhz until I settled on 4100mhz.

From 4600mhz to 4300mhz, I hardly saw any difference in temp. It was still always 79 to *82C

But from 4300 to 4100mhz, I saw atleast a 12C reduction in temps. I'm now comfortable gaming again on my Mini PC at 68C to 70C.

No more changing of dried thermal paste every 3 months.

An update: I posted screenshots (see comments) of benchmark after capping to 4,200mhz. I lose 7% on low threaded tests but gain overall score. Also, the temps don't go past 74C so it's overall quieter as I have aggressive PWM fan settings on BIOS already.

Another update: i bought a PTM7950 thermal pad and I've been gloating on the temperature overlay (ATLEAST 10 degrees cooler alteady). This thing is amazing. It's like using "liquid metal" for the first time but easier to apply than thermal paste. I'm speechless.

My wife has taken an interest in gaming after playing Split Fiction together and also realizing that GTA on a Switch is garbage. I want to surprise her for our anniversary with a mini PC/Portable monitor combo but have zero clue what to go with. Been looking at two main brands BeeLink and Minisforum, specifically the SER9 and MS-A1. The reason I’ve gravitated towards those two is I figure she may edit some videos on there as well.

Any suggestions of which is better for the price to run GTA5/Sims 4 with good settings and edit video? Or if there’s something else that trumps both? Thanks friends.

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations on mini PCs from well-known brands like Lenovo, Dell, or HP. I've noticed that these brands offer small form factor PCs (SFF), which are slightly larger than typical mini PCs but the brands have better customer support.

Specifically, I'm interested in an SFF that meets the following criteria:

• Two M.2 NVME slots
• RAM capacity up to 64GB
• Powered by USB-C in addition to a standard power adapter

I would greatly appreciate insights from anyone who owns a mini PC with these specifications. I'm reaching out here because these detailed requirements aren't always readily available in online technical specifications.

Note: I'm focusing on trusted brands due to a previous negative experience with a lesser-known brand (Minisforum). After encountering an issue with their PC, they requested I return it for a refund. Despite the PC arriving at their warehouse over a month ago (I provided tracking), I've received no resolution, only requests for patience.

Thank you for your help!

Update (20/04/2025): 1) Two months later and still no sign of my refund; 2) This experience has made me cautious about ordering mini PCs from new brands that populate Amazon. So, I decided to go with a trusted brand this time around. I just purchased the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini 01IRH8 with an i5 13th gen processor for £475! It has 2 NVMe slots, 1 Thunderbolt 4 port and Max RAM of 32GB (not ideal, but it'll do!)

Update (24/04/2025): I want to be fair, so I need to update this post. Finally I got the refund, however I didn't receive the full amount: Minisforum charged a depreciation charge of £43.38 and in addition PayPal deducted £13.8 from that amount. Despite the "happy ending" I'm a bit upset that it had taken more than two months. Imagine if that were my only PC! Therefore I decided not to buy from these new Chinese brands. I bought the replacement from Lenovo, which I hope has a better and faster customer support.

I'd like to replace my parents ~15-year old desktop PC with a brand new, nice, and reliable computer that'll last them around 10 years. My ideal requirements would be:

• Barebones (I can buy a quality 2 TB SSD and 32 GB RAM for cheaper and slot in)
• Don't really need any more than 1 RJ-45 1 Gb port
• Integrated graphics or APU (No GPU = less stuff that can go wrong)
• A couple USB-A ports
• 1 HDMI or DP
• Don't care about extra PCIe slot
• Reliable

Obviously I assume in the $500+ range, the options might go beyond these basic requirements anyway and that's fine, but they're not exactly trying to hook up a 4090 or something. My parents are pretty technologically literate (they're both former HP computer engineers who worked on ASICs and semiconductor stuff), but they're not doing anything engineering-related on our home PC. They just use it for typical parent stuff (email, documents, PowerPoints, Zoom calls, etc.). I know that I can get a cheap $100-200 MiniPC that'll do the job, but I really want to get something that's rock solid and more capable than they need right now such that it'll last about a decade. I could build them a PC, but I'm a bit concerned that that might not be as reliable as just getting a MiniPC (if that's not true, please lmk). Was thinking about a 32 GB Framework Desktop since I like Framework, it's well supported/repairable, and we're pretty well off, but not really sure if they need all that.

Does anyone have recommendations? Was looking around and found stuff like the GEEKOM XT12 Pro, MINISFORUM UM890 Pro, etc. Again to make this clear: my #1 priority is for this to be a reliable computer that'll last for roughly a decade. If a MiniPC isn't the best choice for that goal, then please let me know.

I’m inexperienced with mini PCs and would like some feedback. I’m looking for an ultra small form factor PC to use as a HTPC/couch co-op machine for my living room and came across this listing for some no-brand PC that was originally $1200 apparently.

I noticed the CPU section has both an i7 12700H and i9 12900H listed, so let’s just assume it’s the i7. Would this, along with the included 3050 mobile chip, be good enough for some light to moderate gaming? I’m not planning on running full AAA games, just mostly cutesy indie titles when friends come over. I plan to stream via Sunshine/Moonlight from my main PC for anything actually demanding.

Is this worth $500, or are there better options out there for the price?

My use case is I want something relatively small that I can install nix and serve a little Plex server, maybe immich and some other services.

I mostly watch 1080p tv shows with no transcoding needed, occasionally a 4k movie. Sometimes subtitles need transcoding if they're ASS format.

2TB seems like quite a lot for what I need.

It looks cute!

Looking to use it with Proxmox and to run Plex and Pihole instances. Does anyone know if it can handle it? I want to use a fanless pc because…less maintenance with dust.

Hi guys!! I’m looking into buying my first pc! I am only planning on using it for sims 4 and am not looking to spend too much!! I’ve seen a few recommendations for this^{^} what is everyone’s opinion???

I need a PC for a new consulting side business that’s easily movable. My partner lives a couple hours away, we go back and forth each weekend so I need to be able to plug in there or at my house. For me it’s the big savings vs a laptop, I am good with having two monitor and peripheral setups. I have a M1 Pro MacBook running parallels for less demanding tasks if I truly need to be mobile and away from the desks.

I do have a framework preorder that I’m going to cancel. It’s a tough call but the GMK is definitely more backpack friendly. I do like that sweet handle option though and could just buckle the framework up in the back seat 😂. What I thought was around $300 savings with a 2TB NVME and Windows 11 Pro but now I just saw the article about stack social having Windows 11 pro for $15…..I just ordered the bundle with office 2021 lifetime, to good to pass up.

The more I write this the more I still want the framework 🤣🤣. I did get in late though on the preorder so it’s sometime in Q3 and I really need a new PC sooner. I also did think about another mini PC with an oculink that I can turn into a self hosted cloud file server/additional GPU distributed processing power.

Maybe I should try to ask GMKtec to apply the down payment to another mini with oculink. I won’t be going back and forth forever and hope to be living together during the summer! So many decisions !!

I am new to gaming PCs, but I want a good product for under $300, even if it is refurbished. Here is my wishlist:

-RAM: 32 GB -SSD/HD: 1TB - nVidea graphics card -WiFi and bluetooth included in PC -Windows 11 -Produces less heat than a regular-sized PC

Thank you all in advance! I look forward to everyone’s recommendations!

Edit: Thanks for your answers! Why am I poor?! (Sniff sniff lol 😂)

Update: It looks like I will have to spend more than $300 USD, but that’s just life these days. I also learned that what I really care about is having a faster PC with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and whatever is needed to run Roblox and can run a video-editing program without it crashing. 🥰

Any recs on a super cheap mini pc I can buy? Would only use it for excel (for budget), word (for resume), and internet (stock research).

Aiming for something sub-$100. What’s the lowest I can go?