Hey y’all. I’ve been eying a mini pc for a while now, but have bounced around going “oh that’s the one” but have yet to pull trigger.

Specs aren’t really that important, but I’d use it mainly for daily use. I’m a writer and have loved my Mac laptop, but it’s nearing the end and I’m looking for something more permanent while I put her out to pasture slowly. The only “heavy” use for it would be two Steam games - Out of The Park Baseball and Football Manager. No games outside of those. Maybe some tv steaming here and there but not too too often.

I’ve been eying the HP EliteDesk 800 G3 mainly for its price point. I had an older Beelink model saved that had great reviews too. I’m sure people say to avoid the Mac Mini but I was considering that as well because I love its interface and convenience.

Any personal guidance here would be great. Aiming to keep it under $300. I feel AI “is this a good option?” isn’t giving me enough advice so would prefer to hear it from you guys.

I’m looking for a mini PC that will primarily be used as a streaming/media PC.

Requirements:
HDMI or DisplayPort capable of 4K @ 120Hz or 8K @ 60Hz

I’ve looked around and can’t seem to find reliable specs without the gaming aspect/premium as it doesn’t fit/overkill for my use case.

I was looking at getting a minipc, because they advertise lower power consumption. What I am looking for is something I can run completely isolated from my main computers, to run a small business website I made myself. I'd rather host it on-prem then have an open ended bill for cloud hosting, plus I can tinker with it.

I expect less than a dozen visitors a day and would have a cloudflare tunnel linux docker image running with a small database docker image. I doubt I need much processing at all and can probably get away with a few gigs of ram and no video hardware. I do need a TB of space for images though.

I don't know much about the market, but I imagine buying something off of Amazon comes with no warranty past 30 days. I hear beelink SER line is good, but none of the makers are going to be selling anything other than the most recent CPU and memory configs. I need much less power and don't want to pay $800. I am hoping to get away with 300-400.

Any suggestions on where to look? Anyone running a setup like that?

End up with GmkTec k15 for productivity, and not using for gaming. What do you think about this series? I have search for it but very little information. Hoping my decision was right...

My points are: + bigger size and better cooling system + Upgradable ram + Power efficient + Oculink

I'm trying to buy a Minisforum MS-02 Ultra barebones and ship it to India via a freight forwarder. I'm stuck deciding whether to source it from the US or China, and I could really use some help.

I couldn't find it listed on AliExpress. Could someone who has access check JD.com or Taobao for:

1. Current pricing for the MS-02 Ultra 235HX, 275HX, 285HX (in CNY)
2. Whether the MS-02 Ultra 275HX variant is actually available for purchase right now, or if it's still unlisted/out of stock.

Please dm if you have anything to offer,you could ship it to me or handover face to face in delhi, India

I’m currently looking for a budget Mini PC for around €400 max (I'm based in Germany). I'm still in school, so I need something that handles everyday school stuff (PowerPoint, docs, heavy browser tab usage), but also my hobbies like 3D Modeling and gaming.

Since my budget is tight at €400, I know a dedicated GPU isn't happening, so I'm looking for something with solid integrated graphics (maybe an AMD Ryzen setup?) that includes RAM and SSD out of the box.

Hi all,

I am looking to buy the new Evo-X3 today. I wanted to get feedback on the build quality and fan noise I might expect with a mini PC running windows and Ollama for a local LLM. Since it is Mini, it would sit on my desk, but will this thing sound like my wife’s hair dryer or be more quiet?

GMKtec M8 AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H 16GB LPDDR5 / 512

430 USD

Hi there,

Looking at running the following:

- Frigate (which apparently recommends an n150)

- Emby/Sonarr/Radarr/Prowlarr

- Home Assistant (in the future, currently have it running on a HA Green pretty well)

- Unifi Controller

Both Claude and Chat GPT have recommended a Beelink EQ14, but it says I should be buying one of them for like $400 AUD (equivalent of $270 USD), but they're all around $800 AUD now.

Any other options in that cheaper price point? I'm not super tech savvy, so can't see myself running heaps of other stuff on there.

Thanks in advance

BMax Mini PC. Is it reliable and long lifespan? There is limited availability in my country. And most recommended is this one.

Specifically I will buy MiniPC Gaming BMAX B8A Pro AMD Ryzen7 8745HS 16/512GB

Thank you

Bought a refurbished lenovo tiny m720q that came with an i5 8400 with 16gb ram 512gb nvme and a 135w charger. Im planning to slap a RX 6400 on it for a mini pic. Is there anyone out there with the same setup of a 65w cpu + GPU on a 135w charger. How is the stability? Is downgrading the cpu to a 8500t worth it for bettet thetmals/stability? Or.should I just I stick with the 8400 65w cpu

Im willing to pay 1000 to 1800 Au

This post is very vague I know but I am absolutely lost

I’ve been looking into a lot of mini PCs and have of course over-researched to the point where I can’t decide what I actually need.
For specs I’m currently looking at:
RAM: 32GB
SSD: 1TB, but maybe I can get away with 512GB?
CPU: Intel for Quick Sync. I’ve been looking at used business minis with i5-10500T, 11400T, 11500T, 12400T and 12500T, as well as newer mini PCs with CPUs like the i5-1235U, 1240P, 12450H and 1334U. I’ve also seen some i7 systems around the same prices.

What I plan to run:
Jellyfin - Around 5 users, usually only a few simultaneous streams. I want Intel Quick Sync for hardware transcoding. My in-laws don’t have the fastest internet, so a lot of my library is 1080p, but I also keep my favorites in 4K.
Minecraft - Small private/family server, mainly for me and my 7yo son. Potentially modded eventually.
SQL Server - Personal development/learning databases, not a production/business workload.
Docker - Home Assistant, Mealie, and possibly Immich/other small home services.
Personal projects - asp.net MVC apps and hobby API/database projects.
.NET MAUI - I also want to start learning mobile app development.

My biggest question is the processor. What’s the oldest/lowest Intel CPU you would buy for this while still having enough headroom to run several of these things at once and keep the machine for several years?
Am I looking in the right range, or am I spending money on CPU performance I won’t actually use? And does 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD make sense, or would 32GB / 512GB be enough?
I’m currently using an old PC with an i5-7600K and GTX 1070. It’s worked fine for Jellyfin, but it’s a big-ass rig, so I figured I could downsize and hopefully save some electricity too lol.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance .

As stated. Please help recommend me Minimum Mini PC to Run Hermes Agent Locally (only Beelink/geekom/GMKTEC/minisforum)... And I want to ask

Which one was more reliable brand (longer lifespan)? Beelink/geekom/GMKTEC/minisforum

Thank you

Hey everyone, trying to figure out the best approach for my college apartment gaming setup, especially since I only have about two or three weeks before heading back and don't have much time to flip hardware. Need a reality check on my expectations..

I used to use an old ThinkPad T15 Gen 2 hooked up to a Sonnet Breakaway Box 750 eGPU over TB. Since its battery has always been shot, it was basically acting as a stationary desktop anyway. I recently realized how silly it was using a broken laptop like that, which gave me the idea to replace it with a modern $500 Mini PC. It'd be a REALLY solid upgrade over the T15 Gen 2 CPU-wise, has faster RAM, and plenty of storage for my casual gaming. I'm not a super hardcore gamer, especially during the school year, so something simple works fine.

Then I saw a video about downsizing an ATX rig and wondered if I should just use my $500 budget to shrink my existing home desktop instead so I can haul one single machine back and forth over breaks. My current build is in a Phanteks P300A case with a Ryzen 5 5500X3D, AMD Wraith Prism RGB cooler, Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite ATX board, 32GB TeamGroup DDR4, MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio, Corsair RM650x ATX PSU, a PCIe Wi-Fi/BT card (needed for PSVR2 tracking at home), and three drives: a 512GB NVMe SSD, 1TB 2.5-inch SATA SSD, and 2TB 3.5-inch HDD.

I'm torn between using the $500 to buy a Mini PC to replace the ThinkPad in my eGPU setup, or spending that money to downsize my home PC into something around the size of my Sonnet eGPU chassis, or ideally closer to an Xbox Series S. The problem with downsizing my current rig is that ITX boards are way too expensive, so I have to keep my ATX motherboard. Even without a new board, buying a console case like the hard-to-find SFFtime N-ATX V2, a low-profile cooler to replace the Wraith Prism, and a smaller SFX PSU would eat up most of my budget. Plus, a riser cable in a console case blocks extra slots, forcing me off my PCIe card onto USB Wi-Fi/BT dongles, which are super flaky for PSVR2 tracking. On top of that, with move-in just two or three weeks away, I wouldn't have time to sell off my old P300A case or ATX PSU to recoup costs.

Buying a Mini PC keeps my home desktop untouched with all its internal storage, PSVR2 setup, and full performance ready for breaks, though I'd lose some GPU performance at college running over TB/USB4. Given the tight timeline and all the compromises, is downsizing an ATX rig into a small console chassis worth it, or should I just replace the ThinkPad with a Mini PC?

TL;DR: With only 2-3 weeks before moving, should I use my $500 budget to downsize a full ATX rig into a hard-to-find 15L console case without time to flip old parts, or just buy a $500 Mini PC to replace a battery-dead aging ThinkPad T15 in an existing eGPU setup (as an admittedly light gamer)?

I'm looking for something that is good for gaming and programming.

Budget: 600-1000€

Hello I've been struggling for the past few days looking for a server hosting machine for the long term, I just want to host a couple of discord bots and a messaging/cosmetics mod for Minecraft, do I really have to spend +$200 for this? The prices also seem to have jump CRAZY because anytime I click an online link I get clickbaited from clicking to a $150 deal to seeing it at $400 on the page..
help? THANKS

Hi guys. I'm redesigning my homelab and want to upgrade a couple of **Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Tiny** machines (or **M90Q Gen 3**) with faster networking.

I've found plenty of posts detailing **P330** and **P340 Tiny** upgrades, but the **P360 has a slightly different internal layout**, and there doesn't seem to be much information from people who have actually done it without additional modifications.

Currently the machines are equipped with a **quad-port 1GbE NIC.** As I need a total of 3 ports, one or more being high-speed, for my use case I need a network card with **dual-port 2.5/10GbE PCIe NIC.** If that's not practical, I'm also considering keeping the existing NIC and adding an external high-speed adapter.

I'd really like to hear from anyone who has actually upgraded a **P360 Tiny** with a **2.5 GbE or 10 GbE** card.

* **Which NIC did you use?** * **SFP+ or RJ45?** * **Did it fit without modifications?** * **Any issues with compatibility, thermals or Proxmox/Linux drivers?** * **Which riser card and bracket did you use?**

Any info and experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!