2026 General Mini PC Guide USA

[u/SerMumble]

Hi everyone!

Thank you to everyone for their support of the Mini PC Guides and it is amazing to see the r/MiniPCs community has grown its largest ever before! These guides have evolved considerably since 2022 and the new 2026 version is finally here!

It's far from complete with many new and discontinued mini PC models to be updated so there will be regular updates. The end of 2025 and start of 2026 have seen RAM prices double or triple and SSD prices have doubled. The simple tab has been reworked to better reflect current prices and will be filled out soon.

Some of the bloat from the 2025 Guide has been temporarily removed and may see a return later in the year if you particularly want a new model list, memes, or something else.

If you see something that can use an update or models of mini pc you would like to see added, don't hesitate to leave comments in this post or on the spreadsheet. I highly recommend viewing this spreadsheet on a desktop with a large screen or on the google sheet mobile app for the best experience. The reddit app for viewing google sheets can be clunky.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MSVzjTK5bubSo7_pltKbWausKWoVUYynNdouj4GlIdE/edit?usp=drivesdk

Best wishes to everyone looking for mini PC!

[u/pwnograph]

It seems like the industry underwent a full shift from "Hey, these are nice little budget options to the actual thing!" to "Gourmet Premium-Priced Screenless Windows Macbook Pro Alternatives" and it's sad.

Very few new units under 500$.

Is it the limited production capacity of Silly Chip Wafer? The n150 shortages affected prices a bit.

[u/SerMumble → u/pwnograph]

It's sad for the entire computer industry including laptops and desktop towers have increased prices with RAM and SSD toward the end of 2025. I expect more price shifts to occur throughout 2026 as tarriffs are shot gunned, new inflation, and new supply changes occur.

I updated a few more units under $500. More units will be added to fill the blanks on the simple tab.

Currently the better performing AMD 5300U, 4300U, and 3550H are replacing intel N100, N150, N97, N95 mini pc which is not a bad thing. These eleron processors are 3 years old and it is time for them to be phased out just like N5105 and J4125 processors. Intel should be preparing their next gen low budget processor release but their latest earning report claims their fabrication is not keeping up with demand.

[u/GhostGhazi]

Thank you

[u/SerMumble → u/GhostGhazi]

Happy to read that o7

[u/geeeeekone]

I can’t find GEEKOM this brand, why? This brand is good or not?

[u/SerMumble → u/geeeeekone]

Geekom is on the full tab but their products typically don't score high enough for their pricing to place on the simple tab.

Geekom's main strength is their 3 year warranty and 30 day return period. They also like to include a SD card reader on many of their models and support 4 displays. But this alone isn't enough to justify the steep price premium they charge for their products.

In the past Geekom have lacked features like a second NVMe SSD slot for storage expansion, HDMI 2.1 for 4k 120hz displays, CPU and RAM have sometimes significantly thermal throttled, limiting their max RAM to 64GB when 96-128GB should be possible, no oculink port, etc.

There are some new models from Geekom that have yet to be added to the full tab and they may score higher. Geekom has improved their product lineup with their mega series for example.

[u/unxspoken]

I have the Minisforum MS-A2 and never heard of the 4000 Ada edition - so I googled it and it seems like I can quite easily upgrade my super-PC into a super-PC-which-can-handle-heavy-AI-workloads-locally

Thanks for the inspiration!

[u/SerMumble → u/unxspoken]

Awesome! Happy to share something new!

[u/TheRealGeorge_Kaplan]

Getting "Sorry, the file you have requested does not exist."

[u/SerMumble → u/TheRealGeorge_Kaplan]

Thanks for letting me know. Try this link:

2026 General Mini PC Guide

If it still does not work, disconnect from your wifi and reconnect when the file opens. Something with website modems/routers try to block certain links from opening.

[u/Salesweasel → u/TheRealGeorge_Kaplan]

Same

[u/SerMumble → u/Salesweasel]

My bad, trying to figure out the issue. Try this link:

2026 General Mini PC Guide

If it still does not work, disconnect from your wifi and reconnect when the file opens. Something with website modems/routers try to block certain links from opening.

[u/cheechly]

So GMKtec seem to generally rank with the highest overall scores. Am I interpreting correctly?

[u/SerMumble → u/cheechly]

Pretty good interpretation of the simple tab 👍

At the high and top end budgets, GMKtec currently score the best with the GMKtec AD GP1 7600M XT, Morefine 4080M, 4090M eGPU. This could be also done with Aoostar, Minisforum, and other similarly priced oculink equipped mini pc. Oculink and an eGPU make for a very powerful mini gaming PC build.

In the midrange budgets, GMKtec's M7, K8 Plus, K11 may not be the best but are still high value mini pc for their price and features.

GMKtec isn't as competitive of an option at lower budgets. This might be due to a lot of their lower end models from 2025 being discontinued or experiencing significant price increases. Updates in progress.

Overall, GMKtec should be a popular tinker/hobby mini PC brand for people looking for agressive price/features with bare minimum customer and warranty support.

[u/cheechly → u/SerMumble]

I guess that is the key - at a pure performance / dollar ratio GMK are close to unbeatable, but it is buyer beware to the extent you are sacrificing on warranty.

[u/Thien1o1 → u/SerMumble]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

arrest spectacular full compare sense hard-to-find handle innate money rock

[u/SecretPantyWorshiper]

Btw the document is broken and doesn't work