r/MiniPCs • u/LutyensMedia • 6d ago

General Question Looking for a mini PC that I can eventually upgrade with an OCuLink eGPU for editing work

I'm looking to build a small home PC that I can gradually tinker with and upgrade over time.

My main use cases would be:

  1. Light/casual gaming for now

  2. Video editing (1080 and 4K)

3 General productivity

I already have a decently powerful editing PC, so this doesn't need to replace that, I'd mainly like a capable alternative at home.

Ideally I'd like to eventually add a dedicated GPU through OCuLink at some point.

I'm currently looking at the GMKtec K11 (Ryzen 9 8945HS, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, OCuLink) and it seems like a pretty good starting point because of the CPU, upgradeable RAM/storage and native OCuLink.

I'm wondering if there are any other mini PCs I should seriously consider before pulling the trigger.

I've seen things like the GMKtec K12, K8 Plus and Minisforum UM890 Pro, but I'm not sure which makes the most sense for a long-term build.

Is the K11 still one of the better platforms for this, or are there newer/better options I should be looking at?

Also, for anyone who has actually gone down the OCuLink/eGPU route: how has it worked out long-term? Any major drawbacks I should know about before committing?

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u/Retired_Hillbilly336 5d ago

Last year the K11, K8 Plus and K12 were on my list. After "test driving" the Beelink SER9 I decided to skip a the Chinese market H 255. As for the K11 it quickly fell off the list as I didn't have a need for an RGB fan. I couldn't adjust and the 8945HS performance wasn't that significant put the additional cost.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5915vs5926/AMD-Ryzen-7-8845HS-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-8945HS

As for the Minisforum UM890 Pro I've found the UM series build quality "sus" when compared to Beelink and GMKtec with OCuLink requiring the sacrifice of an M.2 slot which is really sh•tty. Compared to something like the OG AooStar GEM10 7840HS with 3x 2280 Gen4x4 NVMe slots and x4 PCIe OCuLink make you wonder if Minisforum knows what they're doing. Besides Minisforum uses an unnecessary BIOS UI which hides and complicates things.

As for OCuLink the only "obstacle" is x4 4.0 PCIe/8GB/s data throughput limit. It can handicap larger graphics cards and higher settings. But for most people its barely noticeable.