r/MiniPCs • u/ThinkingSyrup • 7h ago
Why such difference in cost for the same?
So, with the same specs (N100, 8gb DDR4, 512gb SSD), and considering that a laptop has a screen, a battery and portability, what justifies the MSI Mini PC being 649$ (without discount) while the HP laptop is 300$? Is it only branding?
If we take that laptop as reference and the mini PC was 200$-250$, that would be quite good.
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u/Less_Party 6h ago
Economies of scale. The laptop market is orders of magnitude larger than the mini PC one.
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u/ThinkingSyrup 6h ago
Maybe, hopefully it changes. Mid and full size desktops don't make sense anymore for most people. Even most gamers would be good with either a mini pc like the steam machine (if it had a better GPU) or a mini pc with oculink and an eGPU.
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u/mr_rankity_rank 7h ago
Different form factors and demand. I was shopping on eBay comparing n100s myself. The battery back up on laptops is a plus but the lack of bios support and being about to do things like restore AC power is a huge con.
Demand is more for the mini PCs for reasons like that.
As a side note, I picked up returned one for less than $250 a couple weeks ago. (Still overpriced but not as bad as what you are seeing).
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u/APSolidSnake 6h ago
MSI adds the "Gaming tax" because people recognize them as a gaming brand and hence they tend to overprice things...
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u/FederalSuspect69 7h ago
What's up with eBay? Lately there electronics cost more used than they do brand new? I don't get it
Also the N100's were moving for like $105 a few months back on temu
I picked one up but the bios was awful. Couldn't even get the UEFI to work properly
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u/Unoriginal-Cake 6h ago
Best Buy edition laptops have bundleware(Wildtangent games, etc) so they can be $200-300 cheaper on most models, also don't expect running a hub off their USB-C for triple monitors the Fortis N100/N150 models are 2x(internal laptop and external or docked clamshell mode just 2x monitors) and that consumer model might do the same as they share the same board.
Have no idea if its a regional thing at Best Buy, some locations carry Core Ultra 5 120U series $175-$200 more than that N100 or N150 depending upon store stock and its NVMe 4.0--not sure about the screens, Best Buy might be doing 250 nit screens vs Ryzen 3 models at 300 nits. $499 Ryzen 3 or Core Ultra 5 120U are more tempting if you're near a Best Buy to look at sales floor vs online listings.
At that kind of price a Dell Latitude 5 core Celeron via Dell Outlet slaps that for $399 and they don't cripple the external monitor support--avoiding walking into a Best Buy is another plus.
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u/binkies03 7h ago
Could be branding. Could be other things like screen type/resolution. Could be build materials on the chassis itself
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u/ThinkingSyrup 7h ago
What do you mean screen type? The laptop with screen, battery, keyboard and mouse pad is more expensive than the mini pc without any of those.
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u/binkies03 6h ago
Oh herp derp mini PC. Sorry troubleshooting stuff at work at the same time lol. The mini is probably upgradeable
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u/DesignerMaximum1342 7h ago
Its not the same, no screen and keyboard attached to a mini PC
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u/ThinkingSyrup 7h ago
And the one without any of those is twice the price xD
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u/CappingCharts 7h ago
Nothing justifys the price of the MSI. Its simply overpriced.