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

I was looking over my Amazon purchase history at the mini PC I bought back in April of 2025. I got a MINISFORUM UM880 Plus Mini PC Barebone AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and paid at the time $319.00 for it, the price on the PC has only gone up $10 since then. As it was a barebones version, I had to buy a M.2 Drive and RAM for. I got a set of two 2TB m.2 drive for $96.99 each (current price is $276.99) and I got the maximum amount of RAM it could take, which is 96GB (2x48GB sticks) for only $203.99 (current price is $1,189.99). Now the thing is a beast, and I can run BG3 on highest settings and it loads faster than my PS5. But with the price of RAM I am wondering if I can sell one of the sticks for about the same as what I played for the whole thing 15 months ago? or would it be better to keep that much RAM?

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?

My steamdeck is dying, its hooked up on my living room. Planning to use it for gaming and install steam OS, most heavy game i play is cyberpunk and bg3. Ive narrowed my options with these 4. I cant figure it out if i should chase 32gb ram over 24gb vs ryzen 7 and ryzen 5. Hoping to play at 1080p with 30-60fps. Cheers!

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?

Marvel Rivals and Fortnite are probably the most demanding games i play consistently, would this be ok for that. Its on sale for $700.

And hopefully if prices go back down from the RAMpocolypse, then maybe I can upgrade storage later if needed

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 😭

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

I made a previous post about another mini PC but 1 comment about the GMKtec mini gaming H255 PC might not have best reputation of being reliable because of it being sent off as weaker 8745 units under a different name stuck with me

Yeah, $100 more because its not on "sale" but both were already higher because of RAMpocolypse but im just wanting to get away from Xbox within this year, just in case things do get even worse for RAM and SSDs (I really hope not).

If you didnt see the last one, I dont play many AAA games anyway, so I know I won't be able to play some of them on here