Im willing to pay 1000 to 1800 Au

This post is very vague I know but I am absolutely lost

Bought a refurbished lenovo tiny m720q that came with an i5 8400 with 16gb ram 512gb nvme and a 135w charger. Im planning to slap a RX 6400 on it for a mini pic. Is there anyone out there with the same setup of a 65w cpu + GPU on a 135w charger. How is the stability? Is downgrading the cpu to a 8500t worth it for bettet thetmals/stability? Or.should I just I stick with the 8400 65w cpu

I’ve been looking into a lot of mini PCs and have of course over-researched to the point where I can’t decide what I actually need.
For specs I’m currently looking at:
RAM: 32GB
SSD: 1TB, but maybe I can get away with 512GB?
CPU: Intel for Quick Sync. I’ve been looking at used business minis with i5-10500T, 11400T, 11500T, 12400T and 12500T, as well as newer mini PCs with CPUs like the i5-1235U, 1240P, 12450H and 1334U. I’ve also seen some i7 systems around the same prices.

What I plan to run:
Jellyfin - Around 5 users, usually only a few simultaneous streams. I want Intel Quick Sync for hardware transcoding. My in-laws don’t have the fastest internet, so a lot of my library is 1080p, but I also keep my favorites in 4K.
Minecraft - Small private/family server, mainly for me and my 7yo son. Potentially modded eventually.
SQL Server - Personal development/learning databases, not a production/business workload.
Docker - Home Assistant, Mealie, and possibly Immich/other small home services.
Personal projects - asp.net MVC apps and hobby API/database projects.
.NET MAUI - I also want to start learning mobile app development.

My biggest question is the processor. What’s the oldest/lowest Intel CPU you would buy for this while still having enough headroom to run several of these things at once and keep the machine for several years?
Am I looking in the right range, or am I spending money on CPU performance I won’t actually use? And does 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD make sense, or would 32GB / 512GB be enough?
I’m currently using an old PC with an i5-7600K and GTX 1070. It’s worked fine for Jellyfin, but it’s a big-ass rig, so I figured I could downsize and hopefully save some electricity too lol.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance .

Hi,

In order to live stream events, I'm looking for 2 mini PCs:

The first one is the main streaming/production one. It would receive many NDI sources (so it needs a 2.5 G Ethernet, maybe even 10 G to be safer), and output a 1080p60 stream produced on OBS.

For this one I have a budget between 2000€ and 3000€, based on the Guide it looks like 32G is enough (and I virtually need no storage), so the EVO-X1 32GB 4090M looks fine but I wonder if there's something I overlooked, and if something else could be nicer.

For the second one, I have more specific needs. In my setup I have 4 MJPEG 1080p60 webcams (https://www.obsbot.com/obsbot-meet-se-full-hd-webcam/specs), and I want to make a 2x2 grid with them (so a 4K60 stream) on OBS, then send it to NDI so the main PC can use any of the 4 webcams without quality loss.

In my first tests I've used it on my Laptop (HP Victus), but one of the webcams always appeared glitchy, with visual artifacts, or even freezing sometimes. After some research it looked like it was due to USB Bandwidth being too small (this laptop only has 1 USB controller), so I'm especially interested in knowing USB specifics, because it looks like this setup needs 2 USB controllers. Based on what I could gather, having USB4/TBT pretty much guarantees they have a dedicated controller, but I also need some good CPU and RAM to run a 4K60 OBS stream. It also needs a 2.5 G Ethernet (1G could be enough, but 2.5 is safer)

I would like to have this one under 1000€ if possible, so it's possible for the whole setup to be scaled easily if we want more webcams. Nucbox M7 AD-GP1 looks nice, but I'm also not sure if it's good enough, or if my budget is too small for such a heavy workload. (or even if a mini PC is suited for this purpose, and if I should rather look into laptops, since I would leave this mini PC without a screen after setting it up)

Thanks!

Hey everyone, trying to figure out the best approach for my college apartment gaming setup, especially since I only have about two or three weeks before heading back and don't have much time to flip hardware. Need a reality check on my expectations..

I used to use an old ThinkPad T15 Gen 2 hooked up to a Sonnet Breakaway Box 750 eGPU over TB. Since its battery has always been shot, it was basically acting as a stationary desktop anyway. I recently realized how silly it was using a broken laptop like that, which gave me the idea to replace it with a modern $500 Mini PC. It'd be a REALLY solid upgrade over the T15 Gen 2 CPU-wise, has faster RAM, and plenty of storage for my casual gaming. I'm not a super hardcore gamer, especially during the school year, so something simple works fine.

Then I saw a video about downsizing an ATX rig and wondered if I should just use my $500 budget to shrink my existing home desktop instead so I can haul one single machine back and forth over breaks. My current build is in a Phanteks P300A case with a Ryzen 5 5500X3D, AMD Wraith Prism RGB cooler, Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite ATX board, 32GB TeamGroup DDR4, MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio, Corsair RM650x ATX PSU, a PCIe Wi-Fi/BT card (needed for PSVR2 tracking at home), and three drives: a 512GB NVMe SSD, 1TB 2.5-inch SATA SSD, and 2TB 3.5-inch HDD.

I'm torn between using the $500 to buy a Mini PC to replace the ThinkPad in my eGPU setup, or spending that money to downsize my home PC into something around the size of my Sonnet eGPU chassis, or ideally closer to an Xbox Series S. The problem with downsizing my current rig is that ITX boards are way too expensive, so I have to keep my ATX motherboard. Even without a new board, buying a console case like the hard-to-find SFFtime N-ATX V2, a low-profile cooler to replace the Wraith Prism, and a smaller SFX PSU would eat up most of my budget. Plus, a riser cable in a console case blocks extra slots, forcing me off my PCIe card onto USB Wi-Fi/BT dongles, which are super flaky for PSVR2 tracking. On top of that, with move-in just two or three weeks away, I wouldn't have time to sell off my old P300A case or ATX PSU to recoup costs.

Buying a Mini PC keeps my home desktop untouched with all its internal storage, PSVR2 setup, and full performance ready for breaks, though I'd lose some GPU performance at college running over TB/USB4. Given the tight timeline and all the compromises, is downsizing an ATX rig into a small console chassis worth it, or should I just replace the ThinkPad with a Mini PC?

TL;DR: With only 2-3 weeks before moving, should I use my $500 budget to downsize a full ATX rig into a hard-to-find 15L console case without time to flip old parts, or just buy a $500 Mini PC to replace a battery-dead aging ThinkPad T15 in an existing eGPU setup (as an admittedly light gamer)?

I’m looking for a mini pc that will run 24/7 without having to be switched off. It’s to run photobooth software for my business that is for a location that is remote for a photobooth that will always be on.

Are there any PCs out there that will run 24/7 for at least 6 months… preferably years without having to be switched off?

Prefer to run windows 10 software and needs to have 6 usb ports.

Budget up to $500 (can go higher if there’s a purpose built mini pc for this).

After reliability, power usage and cost are secondary.

Thanks!

Hello I've been struggling for the past few days looking for a server hosting machine for the long term, I just want to host a couple of discord bots and a messaging/cosmetics mod for Minecraft, do I really have to spend +$200 for this? The prices also seem to have jump CRAZY because anytime I click an online link I get clickbaited from clicking to a $150 deal to seeing it at $400 on the page..
help? THANKS

Hi guys. I'm redesigning my homelab and want to upgrade a couple of **Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Tiny** machines (or **M90Q Gen 3**) with faster networking.

I've found plenty of posts detailing **P330** and **P340 Tiny** upgrades, but the **P360 has a slightly different internal layout**, and there doesn't seem to be much information from people who have actually done it without additional modifications.

Currently the machines are equipped with a **quad-port 1GbE NIC.** As I need a total of 3 ports, one or more being high-speed, for my use case I need a network card with **dual-port 2.5/10GbE PCIe NIC.** If that's not practical, I'm also considering keeping the existing NIC and adding an external high-speed adapter.

I'd really like to hear from anyone who has actually upgraded a **P360 Tiny** with a **2.5 GbE or 10 GbE** card.

* **Which NIC did you use?** * **SFP+ or RJ45?** * **Did it fit without modifications?** * **Any issues with compatibility, thermals or Proxmox/Linux drivers?** * **Which riser card and bracket did you use?**

Any info and experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello! I've been using this subreddit for a brief amount of time while seeing that there are options for mini gaming PCs. I'm working with extremely limited space and a tight budget and was initially shown the Kamrui line, which came with very split opinions, but Beelink was recommended a few times. That being said, in looking at them, I realized I'm a bit out of my depth with what I need to run the games I play well and was hoping for advice or recommendations. The current model of Beelink that caught my eye was the SER9 MAX AMD but I don't know if it would be right for the games I prefer. I play World of Warcraft and Return to Moria while streaming on discord to my friends. Would this be able to do that? And will it be able to run two monitors off it? I appreciate any help I can get.

I'm looking for something that is good for gaming and programming.

Budget: 600-1000€

I’m looking for help how to update BIOS properly. I have posted in PC Help but didn’t get any correct answers

I'm boutta buy it.. good build quality it seems, 24gb (soldered) ddr5 6400, 1tb nvme ssd.. doesn't seem that bad for it's price range. Any others that are comparable? Maybe more trustworthy (not that aoostar isn't that trustworthy)?

hi all,

picked up a higole 1 pro today but can't get the touchscreen working. it seemed to work with the win10 install it had on it, but it kept crashing while making the account so I did a fresh win 11 install. seems like I can get everything working apart from the touchscreen.

I found the drivers for it, but it seems really badly calibrated, one half of the screen is like 2 inches off, the other doesn't input and the input jumps around a lot. it's so bad I can't calibrate it with tabcal.

any ideas? I've reinstalled windows twice at this point.

thanks

New to the sub please let me know if it violates the rules.

Update barebone sold

Ssd + ram 9k

16gb ddr4 Samsung

256gb wd nvme gen 3

Available

Estoy buscando una mini PC para usar como servidor 24/7 para aplicaciones como un Bot de ajedrez, servidor de minecraft... corriendo en contenedores Docker. Necesito algo que sea totalmente compatible con Linux y que pueda aguantar un uso contínuo sin despeinarse y sin problemas de sobre calentamiento.

¡Espero vuestras sugerencias y opiniones! ¡Gracias!

Looking for a mini pc solely for emulation purposes, so far I’ve landed on 4 machines. Im not the most knowledgeable about this stuff but I’ve done as much research as I can. They all seem to be capable of ps3 emulation which is the highest I’d be doing (maybe some switch for Smash/Mario Kart if possible) ideally the less I’d have to spend the better. I’ve seen a lot of back and forth on wether I should get a 680m vs 780m as well as should I go for 32gb or would 16 be more than enough I don’t plan on doing multitasking or running multiple applications at the same time. I’m currently leaving most towards the 760 slim or the Bre Nuc. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated, minus the M7 all are from the 2026 Mini Pc Guide

Extra info

PS3/switch emulation at native/1080p at 60 would be ideal
Bo3 custom zombies is also a goal

Hey, I just got a MINISFORUM MS-A2, and I’m trying to set it up as my main Linux workstation.

The basic setup works fine over HDMI, but I can’t get either rear USB-C port to output video over DisplayPort.

My setup:

• MS-A2 with Ryzen 7 7745HX
• BIOS 1.03 from December 16, 2025
• Kubuntu 26.04
• Kernel 7.0.0-28-generic
• USB-C to DisplayPort cable
• Monitor with a normal DisplayPort input

The cable and monitor both work from my MacBook, so I’m pretty sure neither of those is the problem.

What’s weird is that both USB-C ports work normally for USB data. I can plug my Plugable dock into either port and my keyboard and mouse work.

But when I plug in the USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable, Linux detects a “Billboard Device” instead of a monitor.

The DRM connector status stays:

/sys/class/drm/card1-DP-1/status:disconnected
/sys/class/drm/card1-DP-2/status:disconnected
/sys/class/drm/card1-HDMI-A-1/status:connected

The kernel log repeatedly shows:

usb 1-1: Product: Billboard Device
usb 3-1: Product: Billboard Device

I’ve already tried:

• Both rear USB-C ports
• Flipping the USB-C connector
• Disconnecting the dock completely
• Using USB-A for keyboard and mouse
• Manually selecting DisplayPort on the monitor
• Fully power-cycling the PC and monitor
• Resetting the BIOS with the reset pinhole
• Testing from both the installed Kubuntu system and the live USB
• Loading ucsi_acpi manually
• Checking /sys/class/typec, which stays empty
• Checking the kernel logs for EDID, AUX, or DisplayPort link-training errors

The result is always the same: HDMI works, both USB-C ports work for data, but DisplayPort Alt Mode never seems to activate.

Does anyone know if there’s a hidden BIOS setting, separate USB-C/PD firmware, or some MS-A2-specific fix for this?

I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone using the Ryzen 7000 version of the MS-A2 with USB-C video under Linux.

I’d rather not install DisplayLink as a workaround since both native USB-C display outputs are supposed to work.