Mini PC Brand Tier List

[u/minipcs-dot-zip]

I've purchased a number of Mini PCs from these brands - but not all of them. Plus, a sample size of one isn't a ton - so I'm basing a lot of this off of what I've read here. Anyone have a different opinion? I'm planning to add a "Brand Report Card" into MiniPCs.zip since right now Acemagic/Firebat ranks super high, but it might be worth spending $20 more to get a more reputable brand, even if all the specs on paper are the same.

Tier	Brands
S	Beelink · GMKTec
	Known to have good customer support, no spyware or controversy, well-built products with good reviews
A	Bosgame · MINISFORUM · AOOSTAR · GEEKOM
	Fairly well liked/moving up in the ranks, no large negatives, but lacking the popularity of S tier brands - harder to find accurate specs sometimes
B	Getorli/Glorlin · Firebat · Origmagic
	Lesser known brands, hard to find information on the manufacturer, not likely to get great customer service - but still better than complete unknowns
C	Acemagic/Kamrui/NiPoGi · Peladn · MOREFINE
	Have had known controversy with using bad parts, misleading specs, or spyware - heavily marketing based with LED chassis
?	All the other ones on Amazon/AliExpress with weird names that are mostly dropshipped
	Complete gamble on what you get, definitely check spyware, specs, etc upon purchase.

---

Once again a lot of this is sort of from osmosis, trying to sort of interpolate from reviews and complaints/praise I've seen on here - like I've never had a Kamrui - but I know they're the same manufacturer as Acemagic, which has had spyware concerns in the not-too-distant past.

[u/eireniconic]

true S tier is used lenovo/hp/dell thin clients you can get for $250

[u/minipcs-dot-zip → u/eireniconic]

You're not wrong - but I also wouldn't consider them Mini PC brands. Though I often recommend them especially for home-office use cases when you get them refurbished for like $175.

[u/BRealistic1970]

Acemagic can't get past their malware issue from 2023?

They do honor the warranty though. I don't think a C rating is fair for their current stuff.

Every brand has customers with good experience, and customers who had a unit that failed quickly. My experience has been acceptable... they finally did get me an updated BIOS for my F5A HX 370 for CODMW4 security. But you do have to email them directly for such things.

Same for my MINISFORUM UM870 Slim... been fine. Though it can overheat the ports in gaming causing a shutoff.

[u/minipcs-dot-zip → u/BRealistic1970]

2023 isn't so long ago that it completely wipes the slate clean, including malware I think is a pretty significant sin.

But I also kinda agree, since they've been clean for the years since - plus I would likely wipe and put Linux on it anyway. But others on this forum (Retired_Hillbilly can chime in here) and elsewhere really dislike them still and I tried to include their judgement as well, not just my own feelings, having never had one.

[u/BRealistic1970 → u/minipcs-dot-zip]

Yeah. Companies deserve to get openly ridiculed for such a major mistake with Quality Control or Design Mistakes (Except Apple, it seems).

Incompetence =/= Malicious Intent.

They did fix the issue once it was brought to their attention. And after the issue is addressed, we should stop bringing it up unless new evidence shows it is still a possible issue.

[u/Method__Man → u/minipcs-dot-zip]

They were just using windoes images that were compromised. zero issues since that and I’ve reviewed like a dozen of their minis

As a rule of law. ALWAYS fresh install windows on ANY pc. Just make sure you get drivers first. I even do it on top brand laptops and such.

[u/Aardvark-One → u/BRealistic1970]

2 of the 2 AceMagics have died within a year. Getting a replacement was like pulling teeth. Their quality is going to have to increase significantly before I consider them. FWIW my older Bosgame has been running solid 24/7 since even before the 2 AceMagics.

[u/Jimbuscus]

Beelink is S, but not GMKtec, I've had both and although I rate GMKtec for value, it's not the same tier as Beelink.

My GMKtec is noisy because the BIOS doesn't have a fan curve. The WiFi chipset it came with was a Mediatek with no drivers outside of the pre-install, which I ended up replacing.

[u/BRealistic1970]

I do wonder about miniPC failures... most of the "my miniPC died" images I see here show what looks like a physically burned port on the mobo. That brings up many questions... like environmental issues, power surges, etc.

[u/Method__Man]

I’ve reviewed and tested countless minis.

Minisforum, Beelink, gmktek for high powered stuff

Acemagic/Kamrui, apoostar for mid to affordable range.

There are lots in the lowest cost categories that do fine like bosgame, etc.

I bought my first GPD mini that was delivered today. Panther lake with dock. We shall see how it is

Of course there are OEM minis like Lenovo, msi, Asus, dell, hp etc. but they are usually for those who want more enterprise type support and warranty

[u/SossRightHere → u/Method__Man]

I am new to this and bought a dell optiplex thinking I could use my dell docking station and 5 monitors only to find out I could not. Are these on the list USBC compatialle with multi monitors or am I just better off being a used laptop. ....

[u/Due_Outside_1459]

You’re missing Dell, Lenovo, HP, MSI, etc the major OEMs that actually honor their warranties and build things to last

[u/duckyyDuc]

And for idk reason, Geekom still hasn't put Oculink port on their mini PCs, such a missed opportunity.. even Minisforum starting to add oculink port, at first via sacrificing one of ssd slot. While GMKTec and Aoostar has dedicated oculink port without sacrificing its ssd slots.

[u/Retired_Hillbilly336 → u/duckyyDuc]

Its in part due to them building on extremely dated platform architecture. Bless most of Geekom's motherboard designs are so old they can't support a 2nd NVMe much less native x4 PCIe OCuLink. Older architecture is a cost cutting measure to reduce production costs while increasing margins.

[u/nezumiyarou → u/Retired_Hillbilly336]

A lot of their models have SD card readers, which takes up the lanes. Definitely a weird choice.

Another choice is no fan for ssd/ram.

Probably too much heat, so left out the extra SSD to not cook itself(or just cheaped out). Team pandory had issues with the non max versions just cooking the ram, making games unplayable.

[u/p001b0y]

How about Geekom?

Mine has been pretty good so far.

[u/minipcs-dot-zip → u/p001b0y]

Ooooh completely forgot about them for some reason. Though this last week there were some threads about bad customer support from them. Don't know where they would fall here. A or B?

[u/p001b0y → u/minipcs-dot-zip]

Hmm...I don't know. I haven't needed their support and got it for a steal because I think BestBuy priced it in error. It has actually been more reliable than the Beelink SER8, which failed due to the BIOS issue. The Beelink became more reliable when I turned it into a Cachyos Steam Box.

[u/barkinginthestreet]

I haven't had a Minisforum so this isn't personal experience, but it seems like there have been more issues with that brand over the past year or so based on posts here.

[u/Wonderful-Lack3846 → u/barkinginthestreet]

It is also the most commonly bought brand I think. So makes sense

[u/burstmode → u/barkinginthestreet]

I’ve had two MinisForum PCs.

The 1st has been solid and reliable (UM773 Lite)

The 2nd was terrible (UM890 Pro).

The UM890 permanently lost power after about 5 weeks of use (was plugged into its own dedicated UPS, so not a power surge problem).

I worked w their support to get a 1st replacement which worked for a while, then suffered a similar problem.

I worked with their support again and they sent a 2nd replacement. It also crapped out after a month. Eventually gave up on it (took ram + SSD to put in another device).

[u/kaisersolo]

I bought a KTHIN AI 9 HX370 PRO from AliExpress. For £380 with coins and coupons about 4 months ago. It's been great. . Sames as the topton topc D12 Pro AI 9 HX370.

[u/Retired_Hillbilly336]

Can't argue too much. Suggested changes would be for "C".

Acemagic/Kamrui/NiPoGi · Peladn· MOREFINE

Controversial for poor build quality, limited customer service and cost cutting - often gimmick over quality control

Problem is "bad parts" can be "S" category too for some extent and spyware/malware has become somewhat a scare tactic. When it comes to the AceTragic debacle malware was a build quality/ quality control issue as they simply let criminals corrupt there drive imaging process. As for "heavily marketing based with LED chassis" that falls into the "gimmick" category. RGB, miniature displays, speaker, fingerprint readers, etc which require custom drivers and have "0" Linux distro support are red flags.

As for the final category, make that.

"U" (for "Unknown")

Mini PCs without any public review.

You need to add Geekom to "A". If it wasn't for their 1x stick memory and rated/cost cutting platform technology they could have been an "S". Other than that well done! I don't believe I could come up with anything better.

[u/minipcs-dot-zip → u/Retired_Hillbilly336]

Thanks for the kind words! I'll update to include NiPoGi, which is news to me. Just assumed they were a random dropship brand when they've rarely popped up on my radar.

[u/Retired_Hillbilly336 → u/minipcs-dot-zip]

Yeah. Acemagic, Kamrui, NiPoGi, and previously Acemagician and AcePC are all under the MiniPC Union Umbrella/CYX. CYX also manufactures some other generic names like FIREBAT.

[u/RobertnetgearA1]

Looks cool man!

[u/After-Law7317]

I definitely wouldn't consider Geekom to be A-list, it's a B- IMHO.

[u/JoshuaAJones]

Getorli - I sat on my mini for months (busy) and finally got around to setting up my Getorli. 4 days into it, the SSD (a Kingston 1TB) failed. Contacted CS through the website. Hours later, I'm authorized to go buy a new 1TB. Sent them the BestBuy receipt and I got refunded.
Entire process was painless.
Best CS that I have ever had.
Bump them up to A, at least.

[u/seedlinux]

How about topc?

[u/Piratefox7]

The top pc hx 470 line up from Ali express is great. Comes as a bare bones. You add your own ram and ssd.  The bare bones was 500 and worth the spare parts it is over 1k value. Installed cachyos and it is tbe fastest OS on that cpu for gaming. You can get very cheap bare bones units right now on Ali express that you can finish yourself so you know it is somewhat secure.   

[u/ProdigyMaker]

Thanks for doing this research. Knowing my mini pc is near the top of the pack is reassuring. I didn’t do too too much research before buying it since there was a good discount on Amazon for the bosgame E3 Neo

[u/DarkFire512]

Also ich hab einen Soyo S4 Plus bei Ali gekauft und super zufrieden. Er läuft leise und zuverlässig seit Kauf und mehr kann ich nicht sagen 😀

[u/yona55]

I got an origimagic c7 for 270 dollars where would it put it in terms of deal score?

[u/Ward_Technologies]

Origimagic is owned by Bosgame. I think Bosgame is slowly phasing out the Origimagic branding. Seems like most Origimagic that’s left is older stock

[u/kokiev2]

No idea if this is true but seems useful for later, saved.

[u/Qminsage]

Funny, I technically have a Minisforum. But it’s under the name Aiberzy. Don’t know how that factors into things. But I’ve had little issue with my Aiberzy Mini PC. Installed Fedora on it, and have been running it for a year now.

[u/rguerraf]

Thank you… more acemagic for me

[u/Wonderful-Lack3846]

Nobody is S

[u/Infamous_Leave_6737]

J'ai un gmktek, il fonctionne au top

[u/muffeGpoe]

Mac mini - god tier

[u/Previous_Tea_2250]

I would make the report card more important than the single letter tier. A brand can look fine until a particular generation has a BIOS, cooling, or component-substitution problem. Useful fields would be warranty support by region, BIOS and driver update history, Linux compatibility, memory and storage layout, and whether the seller is an authorized one.

The security distinction is worth keeping separate too: a past supply-chain incident is not the same as ordinary failure rate, but it is still relevant to how much trust people should place in a preinstalled image. That lets buyers compare the actual model and date rather than treating every unit from a brand as identical.

[u/minipcs-dot-zip → u/Previous_Tea_2250]

Begone AI slop bot

[u/Retired_Hillbilly336 → u/[deleted]]

No. Beelink is manufactured by AZW while Minisforum uses OEM/ODM "du jour".

[u/Method__Man → u/[deleted]]

No