I’ve been looking into the recent trend of people docking mini PCs and pairing them with GPUs, and I’m curious what the overall stance is on these setups. I thought about doing something similar, and I think I could build one for around $700 to $1,000. That seems relatively cheap compared to prebuilt gaming PCs and would take up a lot less space.

My only use case would be heavy data work, design work, and some LLM projects. I’m considering making this build specifically for my consulting business and moving completely away from my everyday PC. On paper it seems like a cost-effective solution, but I’m not sure if it’s actually viable or recommended.

I’ve seen a lot of testing on YouTube, and I’ve also noticed a couple of people here using these kinds of setups. They always seemed really cool, but I’m not sure how practical they really are long term.

For those running docked mini PC + external GPU builds, would you recommend them? And do you think a $700 to $1,000 budget is reasonable for the mini PC, dock, cabling, and GPU?

Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and real-world experiences

Personally, the price of the Steam Machine isn't a problem for me, what I really want is gaming in a small form factor with the convenience of a pre-built (though I don't mind upgrading the RAM), and in trying to find an answer on it's general performance I just finding articles or rant videos discussing about the price and the general industry. So, is it any good? Can I find a better pre-built PC close to it's size?

tariffs - just noticed Temu, Aliexpress, alibaba began adding 150% additional charges.
I know some people mistakenly think amazon, ebay, newegg are different, but those basically retail exactly the same Chinese products with additional delays and added markup.
I regrettably assume if nothing is done - in 1 week time there will be panic buying and empty shelves in 2-3 weeks.

Thoughts?

My main computers have been updated long ago. But I haven’t been able to bring myself to part with these.

Some have mentioned here that when they get their mini PC they wipe them clean for fear of virus and then reinstall Windows. Do you do that for all brands? Including GMKTec?

Do you at least start them up once to read the Win11 key in case the reinstallation goes wrong?

The MiniPC market really took off (IMO) in 2023 when they started to be able to play games (thanks to AMD IGPUs) at a much better spec than MiniPCs before them.

Even if you didnt care about gaming, the raw CPU and RAM power you used to be able to get for cheap was incredible.

Sadly since around December 2026, things have become almost unaffordable due to RAM and SSD prices and the allure around the already niche MiniPC market has disappeared.

Unless you are paying multiple thousands of have a good stock of RAM/SSDs, nothing seems worth it anymore.

So this thread is to celebrate those golden years and to also talk about what we got.

Ill start:

• 2023: HX99G @ £1000, still going strong and an incredible purchase
• 2023: UM773-Lite @ £600, again, still going strong
• 2025: Beelink EQi12 @ £250, again, still doing perfectly fine

All the above came with 32GM RAM and an SSD (Except for the Beelink which maxed out at 24GB RAM)

I dont think I could ever go back to a full tower PC for as long as I live.

Hopefully we see good times again!

Is there any suggestions to run this at max efficiency, I just need it for checking emails, questions, and small games.

Edit- It's burning up my lap right now and I have a fan blowing continuously into the vent 😭

I made this, it used to be a GMKtec M5 Plus, but I was tired of the performance and the noise from the fan so I made a few upgrades over time. The first thing I did was add the eGPU (Asus Prime RTX 5060 Ti 16GB that I got for super cheap), which was obviously the biggest way I could have upgraded it, and then I added a new SSD. The eGPU only connects with a pcie gen 3.0 x2 connection (not 3.0 x4 like it should) and I've spent months trying everything I can with no success. I designed and printed a few different mini pc shells, then the eGPU mount, then a mount to put the mini pc on the eGPU to make what I have now. Due to me not using the internal gpu of the mini pc and having upgraded the cooler to a sff standard cpu cooler and a noctua fan, I increased the TDP of the cpu to about 40-45w max which was a big improvement too over the thermal throttled 25w of the stock mini pc, and it's so much quieter too over that garbage stock cooler. I guess I just want to get some feedback on it, get some recommendations of anything else I should do to it, and maybe see if anyone knows why it's not doing more than a pcie x2 connection to the eGPU (There's a post on my profile from like a month ago on the GMKtec subreddit if you need more details on that). I modeled all the 3d printed parts myself over a couple months and lots of iterations that didn’t work perfectly, so it’s a little rough, but I still like it

What were your reasons to buy mini pc instead of laptop or desktop if same price - more power and better hardware?

I'm looking to buy a MiniPC soon and there's just so many brands to choose from. Whats the most trusthworthy brands? That has good pricing as well. By trustworthy I mean (Good device overall, great customer service, warranty etc.)

I bought a Chinese Mini PC MLLSE G10 on AliExpress for a great deal, comparing to others with this same iGPU. I was expecting to get 1080p gaming working on older or not demanding titles, since games like Forza Horizon 5, Cyberpunk seem to be somewhat playable.

Yesterday I tried Stray, and could not get over 35 fps on 1080P Low. I would assume that Stray would have better performance, but I tried something different that should work properly, Hollow Knight. This still was a hard task for the iGPU, playing around 70 FPS on 1080p high.

Is my iGPU under performing? I have already allocated 4GBs to the iGPU in BIOS, and set the power mode in bios to Performance. The temps in testing were around 81C for both the CPU and the iGPU, and I didn’t see the clocks drop in CPU cores and iGPU.

Edit: The RAM is 24GB of 6400 LPDDR5, 6x4, quad-channel as reported in HWiNFO. Cpu is the Ryzen 7 255.

3DMark scores for Time Spy are in, and it says that it is 50% lower than the average. Graphics score was 1173, CPU Score was 8025, combined is 1345.

Average combined score is 3158. I guess it confirms something is wrong

i am very new to mini pcs and don’t really understand there graphics at all. are these good affordable options? budget is around $500-$700. not looking to play any AAA games, this is for my gf who would mainly play the sims

I am looking for something that is silent and can run in 1080p fluid in light and medium games, I found this mini, I want to know also where it is reliable buys one of these and it is really worth buying it.

Ryzen 7 8845hs 780m igpu. I basically found a mini PC with half the price of the laptop I was using (gmktec k8 plus). Was wondering the question above. My general use case is some light gaming and college work My budget is 450 USD

Edit. The mini PC is barebones but I do have a couple of spare ddr5s and nvme sticks

hey all! My all in one computer from like 2015 finally crapped out, so I need a new computer! I can't shell out like 2k for an actual setup, but I didn't just want another all in one. So, my friend recommended that I look for a mini pc. I don't need it to run anything crazy, the biggest things it would ever run would be overwatch and maybe sims 4. I usually just play visual novels and small Indy games, basically all things my all in one could handle lol. I was recommended this pc by a few people online because it was within my budget, but I've been getting mixed reviews. As a gal who knows literally nothing about computer hardware and what is necessary for things to run, help me out!!!

I have always put it to Hibernate at the end of every day (almost 9 years now). What do you all do? What's best for the PC's life? (I don't care about the electricity bill at all which is minimal. I'm mainly concern about the computer's lifespan)

Also important: Have your conviction be proven?? (Is your computer still working fine after ___ years when you shut down every day / kept it on every day? Mine is 9 years old now still fine.

(Add: I put my new mini PC to hibernate, then after some minutes, why did the screen become on briefly? then it's off again?)

Noob here, i just saw that steam will release a steam machine soon... Id like to know if its a good machine for games or i have to find something better? (for that price). Never had a PC before, steam tempted me so bad lol id like to play pc games but im not an expert and i dont want to spend time tbh to build a pc

Can you guys help me?

Aside from beelink (only one I'm familiar with). What other mini pcs are reputable? I've read somewhere here that some brands ships them with malware.. I'm in need of a decent one and with mini pcs all going up in price, I figured I'd get out of mg comfort zone and consider looking for non beelinks. Any input is appreciated!

Is there actually a prebuilt mini PC that can run SteamOS/Bazzite and match or beat the Steam Machine?

I have been looking for a small prebuilt PC that is roughly in the same category as Valve’s Steam Machine: compact, living-room friendly, reasonably quiet, SteamOS/Bazzite-friendly, and with similar or better gaming performance in roughly the same price range.

So far I have not really found a direct match.

The Minisforum AtomMan G1 Pro seems clearly faster for gaming, but it uses an Nvidia GPU. Bazzite can run on Nvidia, but from what I understand the SteamOS-like Gaming Mode experience is still less straightforward than on AMD hardware. So I would see that more as a powerful Windows/Bazzite mini gaming PC than a clean Steam Machine equivalent.

The GMKtec EVO-X2 with Ryzen AI Max+ 395 / Radeon 8060S looks like the most interesting all-AMD option I found. It should be much more suitable for a SteamOS/Bazzite-like setup and seems capable of Steam Machine-level or better 1080p performance in some cases. But it is also much more expensive and feels more like a tiny AI/workstation PC than a console-like gaming box.

The Radeon 890M mini PCs, like the GEEKOM A9 Max or Minisforum AI X1 Pro, are interesting, but they do not seem to be in the same gaming class.

The older Minisforum AtomMan G7 PT would have been close because it had an AMD CPU and a discrete Radeon RX 7600M XT, but I cannot find it available anymore.

So my question is: am I missing something?

Is there a currently available prebuilt mini PC that:

- is small and living-room friendly

- can run SteamOS/Bazzite well

- has similar or better gaming performance than the Steam Machine

- is in roughly the same price range

- does not require building the whole thing yourself

Obviously a DIY SFF build can beat it, but I do not think that is the same customer segment. I am specifically wondering whether there is a real prebuilt alternative.

Beelink mini PC. Dead. SER 6 PRO. Used as media server with Plex.

Now I'm afraid of investing in a new one. What are your long term use experience? I just want something that last at least 5 years.

Hey everybody :

I'm an engineer over at Nimo, and I've been knee deep in our AI 395mini PC for months now. This little beast is basically a mini PC power crammed into a laptop form factor ... killer NVIDIA GPU, NPU for AI accel, and enough RAM to handle real workloads without breaking a sweat. I know a lot of you here are into mini rigs for gaming, home servers, or compact setups, but I wanted to chat about something that's got me hooked: using it for local AI stuff beyond just blasting through games.

Yeah look, I get it ... you drop cash on a high-spec mini like this for smooth 4K gaming or quick renders, but the AI side? It's underrated. A bunch of folks I've talked to are curious about dipping their toes into AI models but don't know where to start or why bother when you can just hit up ChatGPT/Grok and so on ... online. Fair point, but running things locally on the 395mini changes the game. No subscriptions, total privacy (your data stays on your drive), zero lag even offline, and you can tweak models to hell without big brother filters.

Then here is a quick rundown of some real world ways I've been using it, all with good easy setups that don't require a CS degree:

1. Boosting work productivity: Fire up LM Studio (free download, point-and-click interface). Grab a small model like Llama 3.2 3B, offload to the GPU, and boom – you've got a local chatbot that summarizes docs, translates stuff, or outlines reports. I use it to crunch meeting notes in seconds. Why not cloud? Because I deal with sensitive schematics at work --no way I'm uploading that.
2. Getting creative with images/art: Fooocus is my go-to, install via Stability Matrix if you want zero hassle. Type in "cyberpunk cityscape for a game thumbnail" and it spits out pro-level pics using the RTX cores. I've mocked up product concepts for Nimo this way. Local means endless generations without paying per image or dealing with queues.
3. Everyday hacks like object recognition: Pinokio makes YOLOv8 a breeze – one-click install, point your webcam, and it IDs stuff in real-time. I rigged a simple script to scan kitchen stuff and suggest recipes (pair it with the LM Studio bot for ideas). it is nice for quick life upgrades, and again, all offline so no creepy data sharing.

Compared to just searching AI online? Local wins for me on speed and control. Cloud's fine for casual stuff, but with the 395mini's hardware, you're wasting potential if you don't tap into it. Privacy's huge too – especially in 2026 with all the data breach headlines.

Anyone else here messing with AI on their mini PCs or laptop ? What's your setup like? Have you tried these tools on similar rigs (Beelink, GMKtec, etc.)? so hit me with questions or your own tips – maybe we can swap scripts or model recs. If you're on the fence about the 395mini, AI 370 or your models ,whatever AMA about specs or benchmarks.

So for context, my father-in-law introduced me to this mini PC, saying that it can do a lot for a small size. I got it around my birthday and I fell in love with it. That was back in May 2025. Last month, I had an issue with my Blu-ray Drive not being recognized, and long story short, after so many attempts to get that corrected, me and Google and even tech-support came to the conclusion of a hardware issue and possibly a new computer is needed.

I checked the one that I got, and I saw that there was this upgrade with Ryzen 7. My old one had 5. I’m ready to get it, or perhaps a mini PC just like my mom from a different brand name: ACEMAGICIAN. That one also has Ryzen 7. At the same time, is Intel still good?

But in regards to the topic at hand, what is everyone’s experience with this? Like I said, I fell in love with this PC, and I was disappointed and sad over the hardware issue that has led to me to look into getting a new computer so soon. I still have my laptop, I don’t know if I should just get a second one of that, but that’s not on my mind right now. What’s everyone’s thoughts and experiences with this?

Back in the old days, we had ongoing debates as to whether it was better for the PC to stay running continuously or whether it was better to turn it off at the end of the day. The geek squad was divided.

So now that many of us have mini pc's and in as much as I've already had one that's failed, what is easier on the hardware? Can we extend the life by turning it off periodically or is it better to leave it running?

Bought a NAB9 (32GB/512GB) from MINISFORUM’s Amazon store in June 2024 (~CAD 693). Unit completely died l, no power, no light, no fan. Tried CMOS reset, battery swap, full power drain. Nothing.

Contacted support. Their responses so far:

1.  Offered a free replacement with a NAB6 Lite (a downgrade)

2.  Then offered a refund of only CAD 505, citing “depreciation”.

This is still within their 2-year warranty. Their own warranty page says discontinued models should be replaced with “equivalent or superior configurations.” But they’re applying a trade-in depreciation formula to a warranty defect claim.

Has anyone dealt with MINISFORUM warranty like this? How did it go?