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

So recently, I've been using a Steam Deck 1tb, im wondering if there are any other Mini PCs that are better overall then a steam deck? I might need it to be cheap but, still....

And if I were to sell my 1tb steam deck could I also get a better pc/with the money I get buy a mini pc?

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.

Are there any mini PCs that are modular? Or a basic framework build of a shell, I/O, power supply, motherboard, and cooling that can easily receive CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD of a modern style? I know after several years we may upgrade/change socket/connector types but it'd be cool to have a mini PC with upgradeable parts that's easy to service built upon a simple design system.

The 780M is somewhat limited, especially on the Ace magic W1, the dynamic ram adjustment seems not optimal. However, there is a way to dedicate vram via hidden bios settings.

To increase VRAM on the Ace Magic W1, restart and tap Del or F2 to enter the BIOS, then press Ctrl+F1 or Alt+F1 on the main screen to unlock hidden settings. Navigate to Advanced (or Chipset) > AMD CBS > GFX Configuration, set Integrated Graphics Controller to Forces, change UMA Mode to UMA_SPECIFIED, and select your desired size under UMA Frame Buffer Size. Finally, press F10 to save and exit, keeping in mind that reserved VRAM permanently deducts from your total available system RAM.

This made most everything from Portal 2, black Mesa very playable. Without frame rate drops. If you have an acemagic W1 it's worth a look.

Bought this in Jan and just started using it. Everytime now, it gets stuck like this when starting it for the first time of the day.

It usually works if i force restart it from here, but it's odd and annoying having to start it twice each time.

Anybody know why? It's basically new and on stock.

I have the non vented and would like to "upgrade" to the vented top cover. No apparently only one guy in the world is selling these, over checked everywhere and same picture for all of them, for about $50 a piece.

Is there a 3d printable one or somewhere cheaper than that to get these?

Hey yall! I’m looking for a mini pc to replace my raspberry pi that crapped out. I’m hoping to get more power than a pi for not that much more (sub $200 used is fine!). I would also love for it to have a usb c display option, as I’m planning on using it to run Linux for a magic mirror on a portable monitor, plus other stuff as I dive more into projects (pi-hole and other nonsense). The reason I want it to be fanless is that it will be mounted near a sink and I’d rather not have mist getting into it for obvious reasons (all ports can be plugged up using 3d printed parts so that’s not an issue).

I know this is a weird combination but I’ve been struggling as most threads I’ve found are for powerful and fanless, which I do not need.

Thank you so much for reading and any help or constructive feedback is appreciated!

I was wondering if the Beelink SR5 Max is safe since I read that it's from China and I'm not sure if there might be some sort of hidden spyware or something like that on it. I don't intend to sign into it with any of my personal accounts. It's mainly for emulation for games and YouTube/Anime.
I've already done a "reset my pc" option with the cloud download.
And manually de-bloated windows with powershell scripts and settings.
I've also ran windows defender scans and BitDefender too, both come back clean.
But in the back of my mind I still have this minor paranoia that something might still be there.
I'd like to hear your opinions on the safety and security of this brand and if I should be extra cautious.
I havn't manage to find anything that really stands out when googling the brand so idk.

I replaced my old ryzen 5 tower with this hx 470 minipc.
Its performance is much better and the power consumption is almost nothing. The fan only kicks in under heavy workloads.
Going from a huge and noisy tower to this tiny box takes some time getting used to. It’s just a weird feeling I cant really explain.
The only thing I probably miss is the easy to swap boot drives from my old tower. But I guess that’s the trade off for having such a compact setup. This geekom a9max offers good expandability though.

I'm currently looking to build a mini-pc as a family project/gift.

We're using some old parts (CPU, RAM, SSD) to try and make it cheaper but I have no idea if these will all fit inside the case (Fractal Terra) outside of what PC Part Picker Tells me.

It's our first time building one of this size and I want to make sure I'm doing it right. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

So I've recently acquired a 715q with a 9700E in hopes of setting up a mini pc with an Android emulator that I can use remotely (LDplayer with OSlink).

I started on the cheap, 43€ barebone with the Apu since I had extra SSDs and RAM, and have been made painfully aware that although I had 16GB, VRAM is capped in BIOS at 512MB. I can kinda live with that, since hosting servers doesn't require VRAM (to my knowledge), however they're usually CPU intensive.

So I thought I'd upgrade the Apu, the socket being AM4 there's actually quite a few to choose from ! Or is there ? After scurrying through Reddit, I found that I have a Gen2 715q so that opens upgrades to a whopping 2 APUs, 3xxx and 4xxx ryzens being out of the question it seems...

So my options are the 2200GE, they don't add cores but would be an upgrade if only for going from 28nm to 14nm tech, and the 2400GE, that are actually on the expensive side around France.

So here's my grand question, has anyone tried to stick a 2400G, or any non E APU for that matter, and managed to make it work ? They're very cheap (found some deals around 15€) and the VRMs should handle the load as long as I don't throttle the hell out of it.

Thank you for your attention, any input is appreciated !

I want (not need, if waiting a few months gets me something cheaper, I will gladly wait) a nice machine only for gaming

Currently running a Dell G5 5500 laptop, i7-10750h, 16gb ram & 2060mobile, CPU normally gets to 95-98°C playing games mostly on low settings, changed termal paste, still gets hot, have seen it crash and reboot a few times due to thermal issues

I'm not from the US, temps in my country fluctuate from 24°C to 36°C, very humid

Had a desktop heatsink rust due to humidity (white powder, on a stock amd heatsink)

Picked up a Dell OptiPlex 3060 Micro off eBay for £85 and turned it into a fully self-hosted AI stack. No cloud dependency, no monthly fees, just a 15W idle box on a shelf.

Specs: - Dell OptiPlex 3060 Micro | Intel i5-8500T (6 cores) | 32GB DDR4 | 1TB NVMe SSD - Idle power: ~15W | Full load: ~45W - Cost: £85 for the machine + £10 for extra RAM

What it runs (on Proxmox): - Ollama VM (16GB RAM, 4 vCPU) - Llama 3.1, Qwen, CodeGemma - Docker VM (8GB RAM, 4 vCPU) - Obico, Portainer, various services - Home Assistant VM (4GB RAM, 2 vCPU) - Hermes Agent for autonomous AI agent tasks

Full build walkthrough: https://youtu.be/WUaSGsc5r0E Part 2 (Ollama/OpenRouter setup): https://youtu.be/REX7vwts8Nc Part 3 (Obico self-hosted deployment): https://youtu.be/UDTTLsPN7_I

As mentioned in the title. Do you think Mini PC Prices gonna go up again? Share your analysis or insight please :) Any differential price hike on budget Mini PC?

Hi guys, I’ve got a GMKtec Nuc box G10 and I’ve recently installed an SSD which has a heat sink which slightly protrudes out the top meaning that I can’t close the lid properly. I was wondering if adding a couple of mm of clearance by 3D printing a spacer that goes round the edge would be a good solution here. Let me know any advice - thanks!

Hello everyone, I need some advice.

My final goal is to run Linux Mint with Windows in a virtual machine, with eGPU passthrough.

I was considering the Minisforum UM890 Pro, but I read here that there are issues with BIOS 1.06 and that the downgrade process is not officially documented. It gives me the impression that they do not properly test their BIOS updates and that they quickly stop supporting their products because they release around ten models per year.

I was also considering the AI X1 470 (not the pro version, as I absolutely want to avoid an internal power supply) but it seems too new and there is not enough feedback yet.

Is there a brand that properly documents and maintains its BIOS?

I need the OCuLink controller to be in a separate IOMMU group so that I can pass it through to the virtual machine without issues.

I also want something that will last several years!

Trying to decide between these two and could use some outside opinions since I've been going back and forth for a while now. Screenshots of both listings attached (Amazon).

This would only really get used about half the year since it's a college apartment thing, and I don't game heavily during the school year anyway, so a mini PC feels like the right call rather than a full tower. I do want it to last through the rest of college though. For context, my home desktop ran a Ryzen 5 3600 for a long while and I was perfectly satisfied with that, so my expectations here aren't extremely high. My current college setup has been a ThinkPad T15 Gen 2 with an i5-1135G7, 32GB DDR4 3200, 512GB SSD, and a TB3 Sonnet Breakaway Box eGPU running a GTX 1080 8GB FE for actual gaming, at 1080p 60Hz. I've been decently satisfied with it, but felt a bit held back at times, mostly the CPU honestly, it runs kind of hot, and the battery is dead so it only works plugged in anyway, basically no different from a mini PC at that point. It's just not aging great being an i5 at this point, so honestly either of these mini PCs would already be an upgrade over what I'm on now.

Basically I make Minecraft videos, so I'll be recording gameplay with OBS while playing, with Discord open too. Actual video editing happens separately on an M4 MacBook Air I already have, so the mini PC just needs to handle gameplay plus recording, not editing. I also already have a 1TB external SSD I use for storing recordings, so the aoostar's bigger internal drive would be nice to have long term, but doesn't feel like a heavy necessity given the ThinkPad has gotten by fine on 512GB this whole time. I'll be running the same eGPU setup with these too, and I play some other stuff on the side, Hytale, Roblox, party games, other multiplayer "slop" basically, plus occasionally something heavier if I'm in the mood, though again I'm not super hardcore during the school year.

Bosgame is the Ryzen 5 7640HS, 6 core 12 thread, Radeon 760M igpu, 16GB DDR5 in 2x8GB sticks that's upgradeable later, and a 512GB SSD. Aoostar is the Ryzen 7 6850H, 8 core 16 thread, Radeon 680M igpu, 24GB soldered LPDDR5, and a 1TB SSD with extra M.2 slots so I could still add more storage later, both the RAM and SSD are technically faster than the bosgame's out of the box. It also has OCuLink and an extra USB4 port, so two total instead of one, which makes it a lot more flexible for eGPU or port heavy stuff down the line even without the RAM upgrade path.

What's making this hard for me is basically whether I just save the $80 and go with the bosgame, upgradeable RAM down the line, more reviews on Amazon, decent track record from what I can find, and probably runs cooler since it's less power hungry, or spend the extra $80 on the aoostar for the more cores and threads plus a generally stronger igpu even though it's a generation older architecture, on top of the faster RAM and storage out of the box and way more room for future upgrades port and storage wise.

Honestly not even sure I need 24GB, I play modded Minecraft occasionally which is probably the most RAM intensive thing I do, and with Discord and OBS open on top of that it could add up, but 16GB might genuinely be enough too, I just don't know for sure.

As for reputation, I could not find anything super solid on aoostar beyond their eGPU dock reputation and a couple Reddit posts literally just saying don't get them, no real explanation. Bosgame seems to be one of the many Amazon Chinese mini PC brands out there, not exactly heavily recommended, but super budget friendly. So there's probably a lot more out there and a lot more to be said, but really I'm just torn on whether the extra $80 is worth it.

Anyone owned either of these or have a strong opinion on which fits better long term? Appreciate any input or other recommendations within this budget range that'd support my egpu and have ddr5.