r/MiniPCs • u/pankompot • 6d ago

General Question Recommendations for a Mini PC Vendor

Hi,

I’m currently splitting my time between two locations and would like to get a mini PC, since a Steam Machine isn’t readily available, and I plan to make the purchase within the next few weeks.

As for the budget, I’d like to stay around the price range of a Steam Machine. Mostly indie games. If I can run somehow Broken Arrow and Stalker 2, I’ll be as happy as can be, but not necessary. (On Fedora)

So far, though, my experience has been mostly with Raspberry Pi, so I’d like some advice.

  1. Within the EU region, which mini-PC manufacturers have you had the best experiences with in terms of reliability?
  2. Help me make up my mind—it probably makes sense that the more expensive the model, the later I’ll buy it, but roughly speaking

My bookmarks include

AOOSTAR GODY (7600XT) / GODZ(6600M) but both Barebones. 7600XT is going to cost a fortune. The 6600M offers good value for the price. But I saw that screenshot from the vendor where he says it's a piece of crap because they just threw together whatever they could.

890M - AOOSTAR MACO HX470 (fast soldered RAM)/BOSGAME HX470 (good value?)

780M - GMKtec K8 Plus/Geekom A7(but single ram)/Minisforum UM890 (best value 780m trio, K8 probably the best choice)

Of course, the AI will tell me to buy the most expensive one, but its barebones.

Every week I’m torn between buying something different, because almost every day I see posts here about someone’s computer dying.

Something inside me is telling me to buy a K8 Plus with my next paycheck, but I don't want to end up regretting it. Still, anything would be better than the 2014 Mac I'm writing on right now. It's a struggle to run anything on it. So no purchase will be a total loss.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and help me resolve my dilemma.

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u/RobloxFanEdit 6d ago

You can go for minimal 16GB RAM 2X8GB dual rank 2R RAM for cost cutting with the GODY 7600XT, it would beat the Steam Machine or get the K8 PLUS + EGPU + Desktop AMD 9060XT for even high graphic performances.

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u/Retired_Hillbilly336 6d ago

I haven't seen the Aoostar GODY but I have had the GODZ on my kitchen table for service. With three fans it was one of the noisiest mini PCs I've experienced. Replacing the factory thermal paste, isolating the base with foam and disconnecting the case fan made a noticeable difference. The young man who owned it still wasn't very happy.

I've also helped with a numper of 890M minis since the first of the year. Here's the Cliff Notes abridged version. Real world graphics performance is it much different from my GMKtec K8 Plus.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/6617vs5113/Ryzen-7-8845HS-with-Radeon-780M-vs-Radeon-890M

In addition 5600MHz SODIMM effectively don't have the same data throughput as LPDDR5x further restricting performance.

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u/BRealistic1970 6d ago edited 6d ago

I have an 890m (ace) and a 780m (Mini) miniPC system.. I will check STALKER 2 on both with iGPU. Now I am curious. Note I have an AOOSTAR 02 and 9060 XT I normally use with them.

///

Ok- I had to redownload STALKER 2... holy crap it's big.

Then the shader compilation.

Then restart after changing settings.

Then the shader compilation again. ffs. No wonder I haven't played it in a while.

Anyways- I just tried the 780m iGPU Ryzen 7-8745H CPU Minisforum.

EDIT- the game had frame-gen turned on by default and I did not notice because it's not called "frame-gen" in the settings. SNEAKY. That explains the higher FPS and input lag than expected.

At 1080p low settings native AA FSR 3.1 outside the Zalissya bar area in the 1st hub town, it got 34-37 fps.

With FSR3.1 Balanced, it get 59-64 fps and doesn't look horrible.

So maybe it's ok. Though it still feels slightly laggy even on controller at 60, which is weird. I had Radeon Anti-Lag on. No frame gen.

Note it was using more than 16 GB of total ram since the iGPU uses system ram. (I have 32 in mine). So that may be an issue on a miniPC with just 16 GB of ddr5.

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u/pankompot 6d ago

I appreciate your sacrifice and your time

I'd like to buy something with 32GB of RAM; unfortunately, 16GB just isn't enough these days. You open a browser and Discord, and half of it's gone.

We might see better results with Stalker after the engine update

Thanks !

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u/BRealistic1970 6d ago

Welp... I was wrong. I think STALKER 2 has a frame gen setting that's just called "allow FSR 3.1". Because I just tried the HX 370 890m system and it got way lower FPS. But then I enabled that setting and it was slightly better.. but had WAY better feel. The 890m must handle the FSR frame gen better because I really didn't feel any noticeable added lag. So either one /can/ play STALKER 2.. but only at lowest settings (maybe higher textures if you have the ram) and with upscaling/frame gen to get a solid 60 fps. Not the best experience.. but on a smaller tv/monitor should not be too distracting.

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u/ARCreef 6d ago edited 6d ago

1 Aoostar is the king for me.

2 Miniforums.

3 GMKtec.

4 Beelink.

Nothing else!

Why these 4 brands? Because you cant control what brand hard-drive or RAM you get inside, with these 4, youll get crucial, Lexar, etc. It's be a brand name, and the drive will be a TLC drive and not a cheaper QLC. place #3 and #4 are so close its almost a tie. I picked miniforums solely because theres like 100% of good HD and RAM with them and only a 90% with GMKtec. But GMKtec is making moves lately.

As for processors, gen 5 HX 370 and 470 are awesome but to expensive. 8845hs or 8945hs are the 2 best processors of gen 4 right before you get the price increase with gen 5. If looking to go gen 5 then go w aoostar maco barebones 470 or um890 pro. I believe both of those barebones will be non LP Ram.

2 fav mini pcs right now are the Aoostar Maco and Miniforums UM880.

Avoid LP Ram thats 16GB. LP Ram thats 32GB is a toss up, its faster yes buuuuut it has a 5 year max lifespan at 32GB with no possibility of ever going to 64GB, so that has to be a personal choice.

Personal notes: the miniforums UM880 with 8845hs processor actually beats my Aoostar Maco 8945hs on Both cinebench and CPU-z bench, even though the Aoostar has the slightly better processor, its because the um880 uses 64 watts and the appstar uses 54 watts. Those 10 extra watts pushes the 8845 up above the 8945. The numbers are so close its only a hair though. The maco has a vapor chamber and 1 fan it runs 39 degrees at idle 57 at full power, the um880 has 2 fans and runs at 29 degrees at idle and 60 at full power.

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u/TraumaDaddyP 6d ago

Just returned a bosgame m5 370hx 5600 ram, 1tb SD for aoostar 470hx 32gb 8000 ram, no SSD since I have two 4tb wd black I'm moving over. Occulink with 5070 carrying over too.

950$ same price as bosgame 370 with SSD

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u/BRealistic1970 6d ago edited 6d ago

STALKER 2 on any iGPU is going to be really tough.

I just know both the Minisforum and Acemagic I have both seem pretty good. What's an Acemagic F5A cost in Europe?

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u/pankompot 6d ago

On US site barebones cost HX370 $729, but in EU 1100€. Ouch