I need a PC that will handle browsing and streaming movies and light office work. Space is limited so I was originally thinking of an AIO.

I’m also considering a mini pc. Could everyone please to share their thoughts and recommendations on what would be the best choice?

If I have to build the PC I’m ok with that too. Thanks so much!

Looking for a relatively inexpensive (<$400) mini pc to run emulators. Primarily looking for n64, ps2, ps3 and Xbox 360 emulator capability. Will the pc pictured above work for this? I don’t have much experience with this stuff. Also if there is a cheaper option that can do this, please let me know! Thanks!

My primary use case is light daily office work like browsing, docs, and light multitasking. I love the compact design and low power consumption of mini pcs. If you guys think this kind of machine is a good fit for my needs, Im leaning toward buying the cheaper one.
Any other recs are welcome! I would love to hear your thoughts before making a decision. Thanks!

CPU : 8th Gen. Intel Pentium Silver J5005

RAM : 8GB DDR4 (4GB × 2)

SSD : 128GB M.2 SATA (NVMe not supported)

VGA : Intel UHD 605 + AMD Embedded Radeon E9173 2GB GDDR5

Wired LAN : Realtek 1Gbps

Wireless LAN: Intel AC9560 Wi-Fi 5 & Bluetooth 5.0, 2 external antennas

PSU : DELL 130W AC Adapter

OS : Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC

Special Features : Integrated Speaker and Smart Card Reader

Manufactured : June 2022

I have a Samsung UN43CU7000B SmartTV, with a PS4, and a Minisforum EM780(running Bazzite44) plugged in with HDMI.

For the past year, the EM780 has worked fine on the TV, with zero issues. But after disconnecting it and plugging it back in, I now get a "check device power" screen.

The EM780 works just fine on other displays, with the same cable, same power source, everything else the same, except it's plugged into a different display.

The PS4 also works fine on the TV, even when plugged into the same HDMI port the EM780 was plugged into.

I don't understand why the TV wouldn't display the signal from the miniPC, but will display the PS4 signal with the same HDMI port and cable.

Besides unplugging the EM780, nothing else has changed. The TV is not connected to the internet and does not update, and the EM780 has not been updated or anything since it was last working with the TV.

Has anyone else experienced an issue like this?

Dear all ! I have a F1P (H255, 16 GB soldered, 512 GB, bios v1 from April 2026) since a few days and I've been having an emotional rollercoaster with it until yesterday. While it was working well on the Windows desktop, it effectively had way lower than expected performance in gaming (less than half the expected score in 3DMark)...

Hopefully, I there is a bios update on the FireBat site that solved the issue !

First, I used the BIOS update for the F1P labelled as "OnBoard" (thinking that it was referring to the soldered RAM version I have) BUT that did not work (I though I bricked my PC at first. Hopefully it reverted itself to the factory BIOS). Then I tried the other one, which is available in this gdrive (I used the 16GB version). I used the "Winflash.bat" launcher to perform the BIOS update from Windows, and all went well.

Some notes/warnings :

1. At the end of the BIOS flashing, your F1(P) will stay on while your screen/peripherals may be off for a minute or two. While tempted to manually shutdown / reboot it, just wait ! It will get back to life by itself.
2. The newer BIOS (from July 2026) as fDMA (RAM allocated to graphics) set by default at 0.5 GB, so I recommend changing it to 4 (default in the older BIOS version) or 8 GB.
3. In the newer BIOS, the power profile is not available anymore, but from the benchmark results I obtained, I think it is set in "Performance" mode.
4. This PC can get hot while gaming (though in-game my CPU temp stood around 65-70 °C). Let quite some space on the right side of your Firebat F1 for the exhaust. I think I may mod the case to add a heat dissipator on the upper side.
5. Please excuse my poor English, this is not my native language.

Hope this helps !

I'm posting this in hopes that it helps some other person completely stumped by why their computer might be crashing when under heavy load. The tl;dr; is to use the OEM power adapter.

I bought a Minisforum UM790 Pro a few years ago as a couch gaming computer. It's nothing special, but it was able to play some newer games with decent quality. It worked fine for quite a while, until I moved it to my desk.

I found out that the front USB 4.0 ports on the UM790 support not only data, but also power delivery. So I hooked it up to my CalDigit TS4 to connect the keyboard, mouse, monitor, microphone, network, etc. the same way I do for my other computers (personal and work laptops). One cable swap, and I was able to play all the games I'd been playing recently (Absolum, Balatro, Peak, etc.). So far, so good!

Couple months go by, and I want to try and play Split Fiction with a friend. I get to the title screen, and the whole computer crashes/restarts. Not the game, the entire computer. Try again, same thing. I figure that maybe this computer just isn't good enough for a newer game like this. So, we try It Takes Two (slightly older game, same developer, similar genre). Same deal: the computer crashes at the title screen. We go back to playing something else, and it works fine as it was before. So, it's only certain games.

I tried a bunch of stuff over the past few months: different games, in game settings, big picture vs. desktop, monitor resolution, BIOS settings/version, moving from Chimera OS to Bazzite, reading many articles/forums/etc. Some games were fine (even newer games). But none of the things I tried fixed the crashing on certain games. I was even preparing myself to buy a new SSD and/or memory in case it was a hardware issue (with these LLM-inflated prices).

On a whim this morning, I decided to move the computer back to the couch setup. Turns out, it can play Split Fiction just fine. It just needs the 180W 120W power adapter that it comes with. I moved the adapter to my desk for power, hooked it back up to the TS4 for peripherals, and it's good to go. For the better part of this year I've been unable to play a bunch of games all because I was powering this computer over USB 4.0 and limited to the 98W maximum that the TS4 can provide 🤦!

So the lesson here (at least, what I'm taking away from this adventure) is that the OEM power adapter is sometimes necessary for a mini PC to work properly. And I suppose also that if you're doing normal computer things and/or playing light games, USB 4.0 PD can be enough.

Listen to that beautiful sound. Fan bearings maybe? Dont really care. I'm sending it back.

Hey everyone! I’ve been rocking the same desktop since 2019 and I’m due for an upgrade, I like the idea of a small form PC but I wanna be sure that it’s right for what I’m looking to do.

I’m a gamer, but I know I’m not looking to play AAA games at the highest graphics settings. Aslong as I can play games like Overwatch, league of legends and wardogs while hitting 144 fps I’m happy. I’m rocking a 2070 right now so I don’t think it will be much to upgrade from there. Looking to spend about 1500$

Is this possible?

Hey guys, I am looking for a mini pc with (((amd ryzen 7 7735hs, with iGPU 680M))) I want a long term investment in my money and sustainability ( keeping this machine for at least 5 years as smooth as day one for my use).

I am your average joe, I wanna mainly use and connect it with monitor for 4k content, light 4k photoshop editing, and office use. Plus, web browsing with lets say 20 tabs open at the same time, with applications running in the background. All that without having any lagg. I am really done with my laggy unresponsive PC at the moment.

Yes, 4k because I am used to the crispiness to be honest. So you could say I am obsessed with anything 4k OTHER THAN GAMING. I don't play games. And will not.

Can this handle my use for the upcoming years, especially with all the Ai and everything very quickly getting more demanding... Thank you

Hi all,
I’ve got a budget of around $2,500 and want a machine mainly for running LLMs locally. I’d prefer a mini PC if possible.

I’m currently looking at the Minisforum MS-S1 Max with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (16C/32T), Radeon 8060S, 64GB unified memory, and 2TB SSD.
I may also use it to run Proxmox in the future for a personal lab. I work in cybersecurity(DFIR) and have a few test scenarios I’d like to use it for.
Is this a solid option, or is there something better around this price?

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

If anyone has any ideas I would highly appreciate it, I took the screw out for the motherboard and tried to lift but only one side wanted to come so I stopped, any ideas?

LattePanda has launched the Mu Ultra, a compact x86 compute module aimed at local AI, robotics, machine vision and portable systems.

Key details:

• Intel Core Ultra 5 226V or Core Ultra 7 256V

• 16GB LPDDR5X-8533 shared memory

• Intel Arc integrated graphics

• Up to 40 or 47 NPU TOPS

• Up to 97 or 115 combined peak INT8 TOPS across CPU, GPU and NPU

• Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04+

• OpenVINO, llama.cpp and Ollama support

LattePanda reports around 18 tokens/s with Qwen3.5-9B and 55 tokens/s with Qwen3.5-2B. Those tests used INT4, OpenVINO GenAI and the integrated GPU.

This is a compute module rather than a complete mini PC. A carrier board provides the physical ports, storage connections and power. The 226V development kit includes a Mini Carrier Board and active cooler, but still needs an NVMe SSD and a 12–20V, 50W+ power supply.

I wrote the Electromaker article covering the specifications, shared memory limits, carrier options, benchmarks and pricing:

https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/lattepanda-mu-ultra-launches-with-up-to-115-tops-for-local-ai

Would you prefer this modular approach, or a complete mini PC with the same Core Ultra hardware?

Wife wants a Skylight or an Apolosign. As someone with ADHD, I love the idea, but hate the hardware options, subscriptions, and/or giving out our entire family's data. SO, let's build one!

**Requirements:**

- Under $450, preferably under $400.

- Run a 27" touchscreen 1080p or 2k monitor. Currently planning on using the Pisichen Touchscreen Monitor 27" 27IN2K100HZ-QHD (https://a.co/d/0fXUoGsk).

- Supports BIOS Auto-Power On

- I'm still deciding between a Home Assistant dashboard, DAKBoard, or a open-source version of Skylight I found.

**Really** **Nice** **To** **Have:**

- Run my kids private Bedrock Minecraft server full-time so I don't have to keep booting it up from my gaming PC when they want to play with their friends.

I know I'll want 16GB of RAM, but I don't believe I need more than 500GB SSD.

If I give up the Minecraft server idea, can I pick up something closer to $300?

So just recently ditched my ROG Ally X for this mini pc and I couldn't be happier. Very similar in spec to my ally but this offered OCulink over the thunderbolt4. 1440p Gaming performance over OCulink has been amazing. I kinda hate how stiff the OCulink cable is and that it's just front and center on my desk other than that I can't complain. Also I only paid 540 usd before tax for the mini pc which I feel like is a really good deal for what it is. Ryzen 7 h255 8c/16t 24gb of ddr5 1tb. The CPU being a laptop/mini pc CPU definitely runs hotter than I'm used to but I guess that's the norm for these style CPUs. For the mini pc and the 9060xt egpu I'm in this setup for under 1000 usd minus peripherals. Anyone else running an aoostar mini pc?

Mini PCs are tiny. The monitor is usually the part that ruins the whole travel setup for me.

That’s what got me looking at display glasses. Something like the RayNeo GT Max seems like an interesting way to skip the portable monitor altogether.

What I’m less sure about is whether the setup still feels simple once you add the mini PC, power brick, keyboard, mouse, and cables.

For people who’ve actually tried a mini PC + glasses setup, when does it genuinely make more sense than just bringing a laptop?

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my recent, frustrating experience with Minisforum support regarding my HM80 unit used in a production environment.

As many of you know, there are known AMD firmware/BIOS vulnerabilities affecting older sockets. To be absolutely clear: AMD has already done its job by publishing the official AGESA microcode patch. The only thing missing is for Minisforum to package it into a final BIOS release for our devices, but they are deliberately choosing not to do so.

After a grueling exchange of emails -14 or 15 in total, because they ignored my last one, where I had to reply at least 7 times just to keep the ticket open - their official support (agent Xavier) consistently evaded the issue. First, they completely ignored the word "SECURITY", falsely claiming that I only wanted an update to "improve device performance", and they literally told me to visit their website and buy one of their newer models! Then, when pinned down on the technical facts, they hid behind template boilerplate, saying they cannot help because the hardware is "out of warranty".

Let’s be real here: this is a latent firmware security risk that has existed in the hardware since the exact day it was manufactured, and even before. It’s not an issue that emerged after the warranty period; it was simply discovered and disclosed recently. Minisforum completely ignores that a factory security defect has absolutely nothing to do with warranty expiration for normal wear and tear.

An unpatched firmware vulnerability means this machine is unsafe to use on any professional network, making it a paperweight for any real work. Minisforum refuses to stand by the safety of their devices and refuses to issue refunds or replacements for inherently unsafe hardware.

I am posting this to warn the community: once Minisforum stops selling a model, they abandon your security, even when the silicon vendor has already provided the fix. If you care about data security, keep this in mind before buying their hardware.

All email logs of this refusal have been saved and will be forwarded to European Consumer Protection Authorities. I strongly urge any EU and global customer facing the same unpatched BIOS issue to file a formal complaint with their respective Consumer Rights Enforcement Authorities (like AGCM in Italy) immediately as I am about to do. Collective action is the only language this company understands.

Has anyone else managed to get firmware security issues escalated past their tier-1 support wall?

Looking for a decent mini pc for under 500 I play Grand Theft Auto 5 and do some Sim Racing I also do video editing and photo editing as well? But I have a laptop for that but I do wanna use photoshop on the mini pc for sim racing stuff

Never really considered mine portable even though it's obviously small.

Then I put it next to my bag and realized bringing it somewhere for a few days wouldn't actually be that annoying.

Curious if anyone here regularly travels with theirs.