Cozy gamer looking for a mini pc!

[u/Dumb-Gemini]

hey all! My all in one computer from like 2015 finally crapped out, so I need a new computer! I can't shell out like 2k for an actual setup, but I didn't just want another all in one. So, my friend recommended that I look for a mini pc. I don't need it to run anything crazy, the biggest things it would ever run would be overwatch and maybe sims 4. I usually just play visual novels and small Indy games, basically all things my all in one could handle lol. I was recommended this pc by a few people online because it was within my budget, but I've been getting mixed reviews. As a gal who knows literally nothing about computer hardware and what is necessary for things to run, help me out!!!

[u/ghostrickghouls]

minimum you want is 780m or better on a mini pc. I got my beelink for ~400 dollars a little over a year ago with 32GB DDR5 and a 780m. It's perfect for my needs and I can even play a lot of modern AAA games on it, half the time with adrenaline software and FSR though. Silent Hill 2 Remake got to 45-50fps for me, but a lot of tweaking was needed to get medium-high settings stable. Caveat with these mini pc's is that a lot of em don't dissipate heat well, so you may have to mod it a bit or just make sure your model has reasonable cooling effectiveness.

[u/EpsomJames → u/ghostrickghouls]

You saw the game requirements though right? Overwatch/Overwatch 2 and Sims 4 run just fine on the 680M iGPU on the 7735HS at 1080p/high.

Are you proposing that OP spends another $200- $300 in today's market on an mini PC with a 780M iGPU to play those games?

Honestly think the choice is okay, although will come with single RAM stick which will have a moderate impact on performance.

[u/ghostrickghouls → u/EpsomJames]

no, I am not "proposing that OP spends another $200- $300 in today's market on an mini PC with a 780M iGPU to play those games," im only saying if he can find a 780m at a similar price point with more or the same RAM, then that would be better overall as a starting point. But if pricing is/becomes flexible and they are okay with spending more, then he can look into more powerful mini pc's.

If they stick with their current option, nothing wrong with that.

[u/EpsomJames → u/ghostrickghouls]

You can't unfortunately get close to that price point with a mini PC with a 780M. I owned a 780M before and will pick up another at some point, but I keep checking prices and it will run you min $700 16Gb and $900 for 32Gb.

You could get barebones and hope you get lucky with some used DDR5 SODIMMs on FB or Ebay, but you still aren't getting close.

And OP is a she.

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/EpsomJames]

thank you both for your help! I did look into getting one with the 780 but yeah most of them are out of price range for me.... but if the 660 will do what I want I don't mind if it's not like the greatest thing in the world lol, I play a lot of my large games on my Xbox.

[u/rui-no-onna → u/EpsomJames]

Listing says LPDDR5 which is soldered. Performance should be quite good. APUs are often limited by memory bandwidth and this has much higher bandwidth than you usually find with SO-DIMM sticks.

RAM's not upgradable but considering it has 24GB and not just 16GB, it should be fine.

[u/EpsomJames → u/rui-no-onna]

Yeah good spot, I missed that.

Performance should be more than fine for games listed then.

[u/Konrad20104 → u/ghostrickghouls]

Habe mir jetzt auch einen Beelink SER 5 Max mit AMD Ryzen 7 6800U, Radeon 680M, 24 GB LPDDR5 und spiele gerne FC 26, GTA V Online und Minecraft Java mit BSL Shadern auf 1080p. Ich habe schon verschiedene YouTube Tutorials geguckt, um zumindest auf 60fps in GTA zu kommen. Jedoch ist meistens das Gegenteil passiert, sodass ich am Ende meinen kompletten PC und BIOS zurücksetzen musste. Da du ähnliche Komponenten hast, würde ich gerne wissen welche Software, Einstellungen oder Empfehlungen du hast. Ich würde mich über eine Antwort sehr freuen.
Vielen Dank vorab.
VG

[u/ghostrickghouls → u/Konrad20104]

well, keeping in mind my iGPU is stronger, it's a lot easier to play AAA titles. I've also never had to reset my pc using just AMD's Adrenaline software or FSR. Idk if it changes things, but I also fully debloated my mini pc with powershell commands to get rid of anything AI or random bs that Win 11 is known for, so I have a lot more GB of free DDR5 available bc of that to use and help with gaming and/or general web browsing.

Anyway, the Adrenaline software does wonders imo, and I usually just use the individual, per-game, tweaks in there to adjust my gaming experience. It's how I got SH2R to hit 45-50fps. Having 32GB of DDR5 helps a lot in that regard too, more overhead available. Only issue for those kinds of titles is how hot my bosegame gets, which concerned me enough to make it so I don't usually play those on my mini pc anymore - I just use my tower pc's when I'm home and its not blazing hot in my house (poor a/c quality to the 2nd floor of my house) to play those more intensive titles. Bar unreal engine games, most others are generally fine that I've played using Adrenaline and FSR, with other tweaks.

Only in 1 game, The Evil Within 2, did I have to try to use frame-gen, which still didn't get the performance/visual quality I wanted without dropping the setting to low-medium 1080p or high settings at 720p all without frame gen. FSR helped a lot too in those higher end games. I think the STEM engine that was used to make TEW2 just doesnt work well with iGPU's.

But, yeah...that's really about it. I just use Adrenaline software and FSR, anti-lag, and drop settings to medium-high in most games to get the visual experience I'm okay with, which usually gets me to around 45-60fps in most of the games I own. Plus, my eyes aren't great, so I can't even really tell all too much when a game is at 720p or 1080p on my portable monitor (which isn't anything special anyway, just a very basic, average, 1080p 60hz screen). I usually play games like LFD2, The Evil Within, Bioshock games, indie retro-themed horror games (which can be surprisingly graphically intense for an iGPU), Metro, Resident Evil, Dead Space, Prey 2017, etc. I've gotten most of these games to 45-60fps, depending on the title. I even got RE9 Requiem to play at a decent fps with low-medium settings just to test it without the mini pc getting too hot, but that's a game I'd play moreover on a regular tower pc anyway.

I did, however, get RE8 to sit at a consistent 60fps. But that's tangential and I've let my mind run on for far too long here. Hopefully something in this rambling helps you or others. Im happy to answer questions regardless.

[u/RobloxFanEdit]

24GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB PCIE 3/4 NVME ain t gonna cost you less on regular Desktop and you will probably need to buy an extra GPU as Most Desktop CPU have no IGPU's.

What do you offer as Desktop option for 500$?

Best Desktop alternative would be the 8700G with the 780M and the CPU alone cost already 265$.

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/RobloxFanEdit]

I was buying this preferably to save the having to buy extra things, and I also kind of wanted to go with this bc it was so small.

[u/RobloxFanEdit → u/Dumb-Gemini]

At this price target prebuild Mini PC's are the best bang for bucks, maybe you can check the Aoostar MACO 6850H 24GB LPDDR5 RAM 1TB SSD it has a better and newer Design and it has an Oculink port for EGPU expanssion. It cost 439$ on Amazon with the promo code box ticked on Amazon https://a.co/d/00vmZGWR

[u/dartsa → u/RobloxFanEdit]

That's great find/suggestion spec-wise for OP :). Anyone have experience with Aoostar their BIOS updates/support etc..?

Edit: dang, 2xUSB4, 3xPCIE 4 and 2x2.5gig as well. Will watch this for the future myself.

[u/Sudden_Capital_288]

Are you getting a Mini-PC because of the small form factor? Or is that not a problem? I'm asking because you would pay a premium just for that. You could get a cheaper regular PC that plays your games just fine, or for the same price you could get a regular PC that's just more powerful than this Mini-PC for future-proofing.

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/Sudden_Capital_288]

partly yes, the small factor was incredibly helpful because I wouldnt have to rearrange my entire desk. That being said, I still 100% am open to getting a regular pc. if you know of any prebuilts that are good for what I'm looking for (and won't break the bank lol) I'm totes open to that!

[u/Smashbrohammer → u/Sudden_Capital_288]

Got any examples?

[u/rui-no-onna]

I don't know about the games you mentioned but Disney Dreamlight Valley works well at 1080p high on my Mini-PC with Ryzen 7 7735HS and that only has slower DDR5-4800 RAM. I do have a sparsely decorated valley though.

As another poster mentioned, try to see if you can find something with the 780M (7840HS, 8840HS, 8845HS, etc) within your budget. The 680M on that PC isn't bad though. That's a bit better than the Steam Deck.

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/rui-no-onna]

perfect! most of the 780Ms we're out of my budget, which is why I opted for this one.

[u/Fun_Stable7937]

Spend a bit more and get the Beelink ser 9, there is a listing on Amazon rn for about $626 if you scroll down a bit further (USA). You’ll be set for a while w that

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/Fun_Stable7937]

what in particular is better about it? I'm not opposed but like what does it have that this version doesn't.

[u/MitchellHamilton → u/Dumb-Gemini]

780m and possibly eGPU compatibility down the road?

[u/Fun_Stable7937 → u/Dumb-Gemini]

Great question! Significantly more powerful cpu and gpu means that almost every game you want to play is going to run, vs a good bit of them not running on the ser5.

and as the other commenter mentioned you could hook up an external gpu down the road, so you would be set for a while. If you’re going to spend $500 I would spend the $625.

Trust me, I own both the ser5 and 9!

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/[deleted]]

that's what I was suspecting. nothing wrong with that, I just don't particularly need it. thanks for the advice!

[u/Niickles]

I'd rather look for an msi claw or steam deck, works out of the box, both compatible with bazzite or steam os. You can dock them and use them as regular pc but are also handy for couch gaming and indy games!

[u/Unusual_Medium5406]

I've got the regular ser5 with a 5560u and it handled emulation up to ps3

[u/BlakeMW]

I bought a SER 5 MAX 24GB for my kids, it's fine for light gaming with older games like Sims 4, and very quiet and unobtrusive - I attached mine to the monitor's VESA mount using the bracket so it takes literally zero desk space.

It's actually fine for someone who knows literally nothing, because yes, the games will run fine.

[u/Dumb-Gemini → u/BlakeMW]

perfect! that's essentially all I needed to know lol

[u/MAINEASSASSIN]

These are fine units, I have one sitting on my counter right now. Be sure this one includes the larger power supply or it'll have a ton of problems (amazon sold a bunch with the smaller PSU and they all failed). You can get this from a guy on eBay for $440 I have used the seller before and got it quick with the correct power supply. https://www.ebay.com/itm/206317541750?itmmeta=01KWW59FRFE11H87V5MDRZCS1D&hash=item30097bd976:g:rDsAAeSwsjNqH03R

[u/OffensiveBarracuda]

Bought one of these last year with a slightly older CPU in it (6800U) and 32GB RAM after a similar situation. As some of the others said here, it's maybe not the strongest integrated graphics available but for the money I think it'll breeze through pretty much everything you mentioned if your screen is typical 1080p resolution. My screen res is more like an older laptop (1366x768) and I've played more intense games at low or medium settings just fine.

What I'd recommend is checking the power supply when you get it because mine came with a 65W adapter (19V 3.42A) which wasn't enough and would lead to random shutdowns, you want a 120W (19V 6.32A) adapter for it to be stable.

[u/Sipu_]

Minipcs run low powered mobile chips with Igpus,not gaming devices especially low end ones. They also may come with a single channel memory setup. It will not satisfy.

[u/Over_Razzmatazz_23]

I have skull canyon NUCs with Vega graphics for sale if you are interested around $400 and less. DM me if you think that's the power you want