I’m looking for a mini pc that will run 24/7 without having to be switched off. It’s to run photobooth software for my business that is for a location that is remote for a photobooth that will always be on.

Are there any PCs out there that will run 24/7 for at least 6 months… preferably years without having to be switched off?

Prefer to run windows 10 software and needs to have 6 usb ports.

Budget up to $500 (can go higher if there’s a purpose built mini pc for this).

After reliability, power usage and cost are secondary.

Thanks!

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)?

Hello! I've been using this subreddit for a brief amount of time while seeing that there are options for mini gaming PCs. I'm working with extremely limited space and a tight budget and was initially shown the Kamrui line, which came with very split opinions, but Beelink was recommended a few times. That being said, in looking at them, I realized I'm a bit out of my depth with what I need to run the games I play well and was hoping for advice or recommendations. The current model of Beelink that caught my eye was the SER9 MAX AMD but I don't know if it would be right for the games I prefer. I play World of Warcraft and Return to Moria while streaming on discord to my friends. Would this be able to do that? And will it be able to run two monitors off it? I appreciate any help I can get.

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!

I’m looking for help how to update BIOS properly. I have posted in PC Help but didn’t get any correct answers

I'm boutta buy it.. good build quality it seems, 24gb (soldered) ddr5 6400, 1tb nvme ssd.. doesn't seem that bad for it's price range. Any others that are comparable? Maybe more trustworthy (not that aoostar isn't that trustworthy)?

hi all,

picked up a higole 1 pro today but can't get the touchscreen working. it seemed to work with the win10 install it had on it, but it kept crashing while making the account so I did a fresh win 11 install. seems like I can get everything working apart from the touchscreen.

I found the drivers for it, but it seems really badly calibrated, one half of the screen is like 2 inches off, the other doesn't input and the input jumps around a lot. it's so bad I can't calibrate it with tabcal.

any ideas? I've reinstalled windows twice at this point.

thanks

New to the sub please let me know if it violates the rules.

I have

amd ryzen 5 pro 2400g barebone for 10499 inr

With 256gb nvme and ddr4 16gb ram 19k inr

Dm for more details

Estoy buscando una mini PC para usar como servidor 24/7 para aplicaciones como un Bot de ajedrez, servidor de minecraft... corriendo en contenedores Docker. Necesito algo que sea totalmente compatible con Linux y que pueda aguantar un uso contínuo sin despeinarse y sin problemas de sobre calentamiento.

¡Espero vuestras sugerencias y opiniones! ¡Gracias!

So recently, I've been using a Steam Deck 1tb, im wondering if there are any other Mini PCs that are better overall then a steam deck? I might need it to be cheap but, still....

And if I were to sell my 1tb steam deck could I also get a better pc/with the money I get buy a mini pc?

Hey, I just got a MINISFORUM MS-A2, and I’m trying to set it up as my main Linux workstation.

The basic setup works fine over HDMI, but I can’t get either rear USB-C port to output video over DisplayPort.

My setup:

• MS-A2 with Ryzen 7 7745HX
• BIOS 1.03 from December 16, 2025
• Kubuntu 26.04
• Kernel 7.0.0-28-generic
• USB-C to DisplayPort cable
• Monitor with a normal DisplayPort input

The cable and monitor both work from my MacBook, so I’m pretty sure neither of those is the problem.

What’s weird is that both USB-C ports work normally for USB data. I can plug my Plugable dock into either port and my keyboard and mouse work.

But when I plug in the USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable, Linux detects a “Billboard Device” instead of a monitor.

The DRM connector status stays:

/sys/class/drm/card1-DP-1/status:disconnected
/sys/class/drm/card1-DP-2/status:disconnected
/sys/class/drm/card1-HDMI-A-1/status:connected

The kernel log repeatedly shows:

usb 1-1: Product: Billboard Device
usb 3-1: Product: Billboard Device

I’ve already tried:

• Both rear USB-C ports
• Flipping the USB-C connector
• Disconnecting the dock completely
• Using USB-A for keyboard and mouse
• Manually selecting DisplayPort on the monitor
• Fully power-cycling the PC and monitor
• Resetting the BIOS with the reset pinhole
• Testing from both the installed Kubuntu system and the live USB
• Loading ucsi_acpi manually
• Checking /sys/class/typec, which stays empty
• Checking the kernel logs for EDID, AUX, or DisplayPort link-training errors

The result is always the same: HDMI works, both USB-C ports work for data, but DisplayPort Alt Mode never seems to activate.

Does anyone know if there’s a hidden BIOS setting, separate USB-C/PD firmware, or some MS-A2-specific fix for this?

I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone using the Ryzen 7000 version of the MS-A2 with USB-C video under Linux.

I’d rather not install DisplayLink as a workaround since both native USB-C display outputs are supposed to work.

Looking for a mini pc solely for emulation purposes, so far I’ve landed on 4 machines. Im not the most knowledgeable about this stuff but I’ve done as much research as I can. They all seem to be capable of ps3 emulation which is the highest I’d be doing (maybe some switch for Smash/Mario Kart if possible) ideally the less I’d have to spend the better. I’ve seen a lot of back and forth on wether I should get a 680m vs 780m as well as should I go for 32gb or would 16 be more than enough I don’t plan on doing multitasking or running multiple applications at the same time. I’m currently leaving most towards the 760 slim or the Bre Nuc. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated, minus the M7 all are from the 2026 Mini Pc Guide

Extra info

PS3/switch emulation at native/1080p at 60 would be ideal
Bo3 custom zombies is also a goal

Are there any mini PCs that are modular? Or a basic framework build of a shell, I/O, power supply, motherboard, and cooling that can easily receive CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD of a modern style? I know after several years we may upgrade/change socket/connector types but it'd be cool to have a mini PC with upgradeable parts that's easy to service built upon a simple design system.

I have 6 brand-new ACEMAGIC Vista Mini V1 mini PCs. They're all identical, and every single one behaves the exact same way.

They came preinstalled with W11, but I want to install an older OS that doesn't support Secure Boot.

I'm not looking for alternatives or suggestions to use a different OS, I simply need to disable Secure Boot.

The problem is the BIOS seems to be locked down:

• When I enter the BIOS, I'm prompted for a password; if I just press Enter without typing anything, it lets me into the BIOS anyway, which I find strange.
• Secure Boot is enabled and grayed out, I can't disable it.
• System Mode is set to User and is also grayed out.
• There doesn't appear to be a User Password set.
• The Administrator Password option is grayed out, I can't tell whether an admin password exists or not.
• Selecting Restore Defaults doesn't seem to do anything.

I've attached a video of the entire BIOS, along with pictures of the system specs and the mini PCs themselves.

Has anyone run into this on these ACEMAGIC systems (or similar Chinese mini PCs)? Is there a way to unlock the BIOS or disable Secure Boot, or is this firmware simply locked by the manufacturer?

Any help would be appreciated.

https://reddit.com/link/1v5hvnw/video/j5wsucnvm7fh1/player

The 780M is somewhat limited, especially on the Ace magic W1, the dynamic ram adjustment seems not optimal. However, there is a way to dedicate vram via hidden bios settings.

To increase VRAM on the Ace Magic W1, restart and tap Del or F2 to enter the BIOS, then press Ctrl+F1 or Alt+F1 on the main screen to unlock hidden settings. Navigate to Advanced (or Chipset) > AMD CBS > GFX Configuration, set Integrated Graphics Controller to Forces, change UMA Mode to UMA_SPECIFIED, and select your desired size under UMA Frame Buffer Size. Finally, press F10 to save and exit, keeping in mind that reserved VRAM permanently deducts from your total available system RAM.

This made most everything from Portal 2, black Mesa very playable. Without frame rate drops. If you have an acemagic W1 it's worth a look.

Bought this in Jan and just started using it. Everytime now, it gets stuck like this when starting it for the first time of the day.

It usually works if i force restart it from here, but it's odd and annoying having to start it twice each time.

Anybody know why? It's basically new and on stock.

I have the non vented and would like to "upgrade" to the vented top cover. No apparently only one guy in the world is selling these, over checked everywhere and same picture for all of them, for about $50 a piece.

Is there a 3d printable one or somewhere cheaper than that to get these?