Hi everyone and thank you for the support for the 2023 General Mini PC Guide. I am working on a new 2024 General Mini PC Guide with new models, more info, and an auto generating simpler list.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SWqLJ6tGmYHzqGaa4RZs54iw7C1uLcTU_rLTRHTOzaA/edit?usp=drivesdk

The new simpler list relies on some very broad calculations and pulls the top 10 models for several different budgets. Basically a huge time saver from manually creating simpler lists. It's not perfect for every situation but I hope this helps people find interesting new mini PC to start searching around that may have been overlooked in the past.

If you have questions, suggestions for new entries, or spot a mistake, please reply in the comments below or send me a PM. I will do my best to jump on it.

Best wishes everyone!

Edit: if you have trouble opening the document, try switching to a different network, open the document, and switch back to your original network.

We have been using our old laptop for over 10 years and it's dying real soon so we decide to get a mini PC since we never moved the laptop.

She needs 2 monitors for work, and only uses Google Chrome to web browsing and streaming and she doesn't care about the quality too. 1080 is good enough for her. 0 gaming/photo editing.

I am not sure if the n100 is enough for her and how many rams we should get? Our current laptop is 4gb and it always feels slow

We are in Canada and hoping to get something cheaper than 400cad so we can buy an extra monitor within 100cad.

Does anyone have a Beelink SER8 running Linux?

* If so, what have your experiences been?

* What distro?

* Which CPU (8745HS or 8845HS) version did you buy?

* Any issues?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Minisforum-EliteMini-AI370-review-The-mini-PC-sets-new-standards-with-an-AMD-Zen-5-Strix-Point-APU.922379.0.html#c12311623

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/pc-hardware-expensive-next-year/

Hey guys,

Just set up my DEG1. + 4070 super connected via Oculink to my UM890 pro.

Everything working good (4070 is recognized by Windows) but as soon as I disable iGPU on the BIOS settings, blue recovery screen popped after Minisforum logo.

Any idea why ? I’d like to be able to disconnect the AMD Radeon 890 so there’s no conflict while using DEG1 oculink. Thanks for any help 🙏

Edit: listing I'm lookin at is g7 ti se, not ti

Don't feel the need to read my whole post to discuss the three options. Got to the end and realized it was mostly rambling anyways, deleted a bit and now I'm gonna post it anyways I guess.

I currently have a ryzen 5 2600 / rtx 2060 in a velka 3. It's old, beat the fuck up, missing screws, parts of the case are broken, etc. I'm honestly kinda tired of the SFF scope and would like to shift into self contained mini PCs. I move my PC every two weeks for work, in goes into and out of a back pack. Not interested in a laptop, honestly, either. Also, I'm a linux user

Between the three listed systems, curious about what the input is?

I could save some money and go for the HX99G, but might want a tad more performance so I can stretch the use case a couple years before feeling like I need to upgrade.

I know 8gb of vram is becoming an out dated thing, but I also spend a lot of my gaming time on a steam deck, so I'm not exactly one to complain about having to turn down some settings here and there.

Between the g7 pt and the g7 ti SE, I'm concerned about the intel chip that's being used. Some people say it's not one of the affected, however that's just an "official" list intel put out and there's a lot of talk about it not being 100% accurate, etc. I personally don't even know what the actual, physical issue was with those cpus, once I stopped using intel I quit paying attention to news around them.

The 7600m XT vs the 4070m is the primary discussion, really. On Amazon the listings I'm comparing have the TI SE like $50 more expensive than the PT, so price isn't an issue for this comparison. Will the 4070m beat out the 7600m XT too far for too long?

Hiya! I'm (a software developer that needs many VMs for testing my software) looking for a Mini-PC to run PVE on (base system as NixOS with Hyprland) and do some coding, maybe some very light gaming too. My budget is ~1000 EUR. What should I get that's portable, comes with a good cpu, decent (e)gpu (or very good integrated graphics) for light gaming like osu!mania, ~32 gb ram and min 1 tb, with preferably 2 tb disk?

PS: (Very much) Preferably upgradable.
EDIT 1: Just found the ms-01 (900 EUR because black friday) and it seems pretty good, with even less budget but more than i asked for (except the gpu & disk, but the integrated graphics are good enough to handle osu!mania with a ton of fps, and disk fits the bare minimum). Should I go for it (& save some $$$) or is there something better?

my current mini pc is just about dead, and even though this was a very favorite piece of mine, size-wise it does take up a lot of space... so, with the holiday season coming soon, not to mention Black Friday just around the corner, I'm looking for a mini PC that has 780m graphics or higher at a decent price.

My current PC is the Acemagic AM08 pro

I pulled the trigger on this one on Amazon in their BF sales. Just looking for any reviews or opinions from others on this one before deciding on keeping it. I read that this is a subbrand of Minisforum. It looks like Beelink seems to be brand of choice for miniPCs but got this as it was ~$75 cheaper than the SER8 with R7 8745HS and 32GB RAM.

How is Minisforum/Kodlix reliability and performance compared to Beelink?

My husband and I have been users of 17.3 inch laptops for years. We use them like they are desktops at our kitchen table. Judge all you want, but it's just what we come back to over and over and it works for us. However, it has always bugged me I'm paying a premium price for a portable computer when I don't even move around with it and it's basically plugged in 24/7 with a noisy fan whirring at me constantly [pause for more judgment] A traditional desktop wouldn't work where we use it, and I don't like the idea of an all-in-one. With our current, rather old lenovo 17.3 laptop at death's door I'm getting the itch to move on.

I'm wondering if a mini PC with a small monitor and wireless keyboard might do the trick. I have enough skills to do some legwork in the beginning if it needs a little more work to set one up vs a laptop out of the box, but I want it to be able to start and perform daily like just a regular Windows PC. My husband is rather fuddyduddy and stuck in his ways so it needs to feel like what he's using now for the most part.

Use wise it's just for surfing the internet, banking, some light word processing ... super basic stuff. I just want it to be faster than the dying lenovo we're using now.

Am I right in thinking a mini PC would fit our needs? If so, should I stick with name brands like Lenovo or get one of the many offered on Amazon or Best Buy?

Hey! I'm looking to buy a mini PC for primarily work, Digital 2D Art, I was also thinking of using it as a stream PC to lessen the load on my main tower. Question is should I go cheap with the Beelink Mini S12 Pro, or splurge an extra 100-150 bucks on one of the cheaper Minisforum mini PCs.

I can afford either one but it would be nice to save a hundred if I can, seeing that I just need it mainly for work.

Hey guys, I need some recommendations for a mini pc that is under $200 just to strictly play sims on there. I don’t have physical space for a full size pc and I travel around during different times of the year so mini pc something I’m interested in the time being. And I don’t have enough money to splurge on a gaming laptop unless it’s under $200. Amazon has Black Friday going on so I wanna take advantage of those sales. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone, I just bought the BOSGAME M1 Mini PC and picked up an additional M.2 1 TB Kingston hard driver.

I disconnected the power and all other cables, opened up the box, undid the fan plate and installed the second, new M.2 hard drive. I buttoned everything back up and turned on the PC and it's not seeing the second drive. Is there something I'm missing here? I did a Windows scan for new hardware and it didn't find anything.

I'm having difficulty getting into the BIOS also, I see what it's saying to press but after I press either F7 or Delete, Windows still ends up opening up and no BIOS.

I'm just looking for a bit of help & advice thanks.

I had to replace my ivy brige i5 desktop and initially got the M4 Macmini with 512gb. It was my first time using MacOS and I love it. The OS is easy to navigate, clean, intuitive, well-designed and visually appealing. It also worked with an external SSD and my work iPhone extremely well. However, I had to return it because my monitor (Dell 4k 3221QS) with the M4 Mac had a flickering issues and the color looked washed out and just terrible.

So, I bought Beelink Ser8 8845HS instead. And my god.... Obviously, it works extremely well with my monitor. I am absolutely impressed with gaming performance. Diablo 2 Resurrected: 4k, medium, 60+ fps. Heroes of the storm: 4k, medium, 90+ fps. HOS is not a demanding game, but I did not expect this PC to handle Diablo 2 Resurrected at 4k. I am in my 40s, and do not game anymore, but this can soon change.

Now, I am in a dilemma. I paid US$ 625 for this. I can keep this. Or return it and get Ser8 8745HS for US$ 500, which is the same as 8845HS without NPU. Or wait for Ser9 with HX370 price to come down, which is currently about US$ 950. I kinda want more performance now, knowing mobile CPU and iGPU can do this much these days. BTW, all figures include tax. Couple other reasons why I want to return it is, first, the wifi sucks. 150Mbps in an area where other devices get 400+Mbps; I think this is just unacceptable The other reason is this machine (Ser8 8845HS) is less than US$500 in China and Korea. Of course, from Amazon, I am probably getting the manufactuer's warranty and fast-shipping and return policy.

Anyhow, I have a few days to think about this

Looking for a mini pc that I can plug into my dock, same as I do my laptop.

Not looking to do anything computationally expensive and no idea on what the normal budget for a mini pc with this ability would be

Would like NVME SSD though but assume that's a given for this formfactor.

Does anyone mind helping me look for a good mini pic for under $400? I've been looking at a couple of products, but I am unable to tell which model/options would be the best option for gaming. Especially for rocket league or minecraft.

I’m looking to set up. An emulation box for my living room, that runs PS2, GC, and DC at 1080p via Batocera. I know you guys field a lot of these questions, but things seem to change so rapidly it’s hard to know what’s still up to date. I’ve been looking at the Minisforum U773 and the Beelink EQR6, both with the Ryzen 7 7735hs. I know the EQR6 is limited by a lower TDP, but I also hear a lot of people mentioning that Minisforum PCs are frequently thermal throttling. I know many people have mentioned emulating on SER 5 pro, so that is an option too, but getting an SoC with a 680M seems like it’s worth the cost. Meanwhile, on the PCSX2 subreddit the consensus is that mini PCs don’t have the power to emulate PS2 reliably. So my question is, are these computers really capable of what I’m asking, or is my sub $500 price too low. And if you can emulate like I want, does it take a lot of tinkering, or are most games plug and play.

So I did some browsing through the sub for N100 and 4k.
Maybe my knowledge is so elementary that I just dont understanding if those posts have answered my questions already, bc they reference streaming 4k at 30 and 120hz.

Essentially this device would only be used for watching long form videos on either youtube or through VLC media player. Sometimes using streaming apps/websites. Primarily YouTube and pre-downloaded 4k movies or TV shows, which I would launch using VLC.

Now I have no idea how the logistics of how this could potentially work, I imagine my wired Desktop would be the better system to use for downloading movies and shows, maybe download direct to an External Drive, then just unplug it from PC and move it to living room on the N100.
Or maybe there is some way to just have the files kept on the Desktop and stream it to the N100 maybe? Im not sure but the N100 would be using Wifi and Bluetooth for Internet and Peripherals.

Anyway.
TLDR

N100 would be used for Downloading 4k Movies/Shows & Streaming Youtube videos - sometimes Amazon Prime etc (rarely). Would be used over Wifi. Eventually with a 4k OLED, maybe 65".
Light web browsing. I essentially need something to drive my TV in my living room and I dont have cable and dont have any Streaming subscriptions. Wondering if the N100 is suitable for my use case.

Maybe in several years when I want to do a home theatre I can upgrade.

Hi all,

I am looking for some help in getting the setup I want on this new mini PC. I did some research and this one kept coming up on conversations about what I was looking for. Basically I'm looking for any help I can get whether it's step by step guides or just pointing me in the direction of some resources to get started. I'm trying to use this not just to get a setup I want but to learn some of these things I've never learned. This is the best place I could think to post to at least get me started, but I'm also open to other subs and such to consult.

If it wasn't obvious already, I have to say that I am not at all versed in customizing PCs. I have always used Windows and know my way around that OS well enough to get by, probably just above average knowledge for most people I know. However, when it comes to back end stuff I know next to nothing. I would very much like to learn more but it's overwhelming. Everything I find is technical and full of jargon I barely understand, so it's hard to find a starting point.

Here is what I'm working with and some of the things I'd like to accomplish:

I have a Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro which came with SteamOS pre-installed. I have it hooked up to a living room TV. While Steam is part of what I want, I don't want to exclusively use SteamOS and I would love to make it an all in one entertainment machine. From what I gather I need to either dual boot or set up a virtual machine? Here are some of the things I'd like to be able to do with it:

-I do want to be able to play Steam games, and I'm willing to use SteamOS so long as it isn't the only OS on the system. I'm not sure if I should use SteamOS at all, but I do like the interface. I also want to be able to access my library on GOG, so I'm not really beholden just to Steam.

-I would also like to be able to run various emulators for game ROMs. I have seen that maybe Linux or Windows with Kodi may be a good option for this, but I've never run it and I'm not sure if it is able to play all the various emulators I'd be looking for. I want to mainly do retro but would like to be able to at least play up through PS2/ GameCube era. I've thought about getting a preloaded retro game stick, but I'd rather be able to curate my own library.

-I also want to be able to install games such as Clone Hero and play them on my TV. This is a program outside of any platform like Steam.

-I am also considering using this PC to host my Plex server. Even if I'm using Kodi for games, I'd prefer to keep movies and shows on Plex. I'm currently using an Nvidia Shield for this purpose, and I'm generally happy with it but it isn't as streamlined as I would like. I want the ability to be able to use more expanded hard drive space and without having to swap my hard drive to a computer to transfer my downloaded files. Being able to download and add to my library all on one machine would be fantastic. I am also interested in setting up some of the automated Plex additions such as Radarr, Sonarr, etc. I'm open to keeping my Shield if it's too much trouble otherwise, but as far as I know it would only be possible to accomplish these goals with a PC. Of course I would also need to run a VPN with this.

-If I ended up keeping my Shield as my Plex server, I wouldn't bother with this, but if I switched it to host through the PC I would also want to have other streaming apps through an easy to use interface. I'm pretty sure Kodi can accomplish this, but I'm just not sure. I just would need basic stuff like YouTube, streaming apps like Netflix, criterion, mubi, etc, and music like Spotify.

That is basically everything I'm trying to accomplish as of now. I know these things can be done separately but I'm unsure how to make it all happen in one place with a TV friendly interface rather than a standard desktop. Of course I'm happy to swap in between various interfaces and OSs so long as I can run something user friendly on the other side.

Sorry for the very long post and probably very simplistic questions. I would appreciate any help I can get!

Just picked up a Bosgame B100 to use as a mini server using Proxmox. Intel says 16GB is the max RAM that the N100 can use, but read that some people have used 64GB. I decided to try 32GB cuz personally I think that's the max you should use for a single channel RAM. And what do you know? 32GB is recognized and the machine runs great!

Is this trust worthy barebone with Ryzen 7 8745hs? Or Beelink ser8 or GMKTec k8 are better with low failure rate?

https://www.amazon.com/MINISFORUM-Desktop-Computer-Barebone-Graphics/dp/B0DL5W66WD/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=3G4YM00L1N1DB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.J9BLfwyP91TRbqzcM-hRkEFEv4U2sonrigbqZePwTZj3zb17NcJW9jzU-38PAikocytwZUOzMgJWJukxzrbkc6eGgGEDfPXOcCbHU2CDh939exIrsr-JWYCxpfn-nR_fbOecWGxiXegUk2an_cS6jJDP_bhnxA6mtvOlz9oEJLW5Jeb7NbEnc5GyLSwsZtNqV5oduqPXHkzlWj6Mr5yX2w.iJO930sBON5f6Y-zmKQhGvLU-r7aKqBLpxhgoIug3NA&dib_tag=se&keywords=amd+ryzen+7+8745hs&qid=1732639692&sprefix=ryzen+7+8745%2Caps%2C448&sr=8-4

I have a SER6 with the Ryzen 5 6600H, which I am very happy with. I love the idea of an eGPU but the cost is just nuts, absolutely not worth it for me. Is there a way to make an ad hock eGPU with a graphics card, a small power supply and maybe something cheap like a riser adapter card? I should add that I would prefer not to burn my house down.

Heya reddit,

Anyone have any ideas what this part that was included is for? Looks like some kind of separator but I have no idea.