Mini pc for gaming

[u/mylo1819_A]

Hi! I know there might be other posts like this but I still wanted to make my own post to ask. I'm looking to get a mini pc around $600. I want to mainly use it for gaming. Not any tripe AAA games but just games that need more than 8gb ram. I'm hoping for atleast 16gb - 32gb ram but I know that might be reaching to far.

Edit: For more information I will be connecting it to my laptop (though im pretty sure it will need an adapter?) I just want to play story games that have nice graphics. Though I realized that mini pc don't have gpu? So idk if I should maybe get a steam deck or if I should find another way to play those games. I saw someone saying I should do bare bones which sounds intresting but I'm not sure how to do that so lmk if you do!

[u/smodanc]

Got a geekom ax8 two weeks ago with the 8745hs/780m and it’s going strong. I haven’t tried anything taxing but I’d recommend something with the same processor

[u/mylo1819_A → u/smodanc]

Yeah I've seen reccomendations for 8845hs/780m so I think I might look into that

[u/smodanc → u/mylo1819_A]

Yea I had been researching for a minute because my last mini pc exploded and it’s what I ended up deciding on. Theres the 8945hs which is a tiny bit better and a tiny bit more expensive, but after that you jump into the newer “ai” chips with the 880m/890m and those cost 2x,3x, even 4x as much. Do what you will with that info but as it stands I can recommend the 8745hs cause I’ve had no issues so far. Be it I’ve only had it two weeks

[u/smodanc → u/mylo1819_A]

I lied mines a 8745hs but still recommend

[u/Snaporaz_01 → u/smodanc]

How much did you pay for it?

[u/smodanc → u/Snaporaz_01]

I came out at a little less than $500 after tax. I bought it on eBay used knowing if anything was wrong I could just send it back. Unfortunately when I ran Crystal disk info it showed it had been run for a little over a year already which is not ideal especially since I don’t have a warranty but it did have 32GB ram so I figured if anything happens I could just get a barebones one and transplant the ram/ssd

[u/Previous_Tea_2250]

At $600, 16–32 GB of RAM is very achievable; for gaming, the deciding spec is the GPU/iGPU rather than memory alone. Name the games and your target resolution/FPS before shopping. If you need a discrete GPU, a mini PC will be difficult at that budget. For lighter, esports, or older games, prioritize a recent Ryzen APU with a strong integrated GPU, use dual-channel RAM, and check benchmarks for that exact chip in the games you play.

[u/mylo1819_A → u/Previous_Tea_2250]

I honestly dont care too much about resoultion/fps as long as its good-ish? I mainly want to play like story games (dbh,beyond two souls, and more like that)

[u/Flipsidee → u/mylo1819_A]

Buy a barebones lenovo m720q, m920q, p330 and a mini pcie adapter. Built a mini 1L "steam box" setup with mine using 16gb ddr4 sdram, 500gb nvme, rx6400 4gb and a i5 8400. Plenty of instructions from ITG gear and ETA prime. Playing retro to ps4 games at 1080p-2k no problem. Costed me around 350$ including the custom 3d printed case for better thermals

[u/BigSoda → u/Previous_Tea_2250]

What about Wow Forever? I’m in a similar boat to OP

[u/Mundane-Mortgage-624]

Probabilmente qualsiasi cpu Ryzen che abbia una iGPU 780M.

Sei intorno ai 600$

Consiglio Ryzen 7 H255

[u/mylo1819_A → u/Mundane-Mortgage-624]

Okay thank youu for the help!

[u/jazza2400 → u/Mundane-Mortgage-624]

No don't go with the H255, go with the 8845HS

/s, they are the same processors.

Just want to point out how terrible the naming convention is. The following "Ryzen 7" have 780m graphics:

7840/7940/8745/8840/8845/180/249/250/253/260/270 (likely everything inbetween)

780m is the sweet spot. 880/890m is like twice the price for 15-30% performance boost. 680m is 20% less performance and usually zen3+ but 20% cheaper so it's your choice (680m processors include 6800/6900/7735)

Beware the fans go loud with these boards depending on the model you get. I got a texhoo which was the cheapest model and I understand why now as the fans get loud. Don't regret will just look into seeing what I can do to tinker with it.

Also if you go with a XXXX model make sure it's HS for 45w of power. They went away with it with the XXX models

[u/Mundane-Mortgage-624 → u/jazza2400]

Scusa perché sconsigli l'H255 ? È più recente dell'8845HS. Sono uguali ed hanno la stessa iGPU 780M. Inoltre normalmente i mini pc con l'H255 costano di meno rispetto all'8845HS, soprattutto su AliExpress.

Quindi perché OP dovrebbe scegliere l'8845HS? Quali vantaggi ha?

PS: ho un AceMagic con H255 e tdp 54watt

[u/felixfurtak → u/jazza2400]

H 255 = 8745HS which is slightly slower than 8845HS and also doesn't have an NPU. Not everyone needs an NPU but if you do, go with 8845HS

[u/rguerraf → u/jazza2400]

The 680m can make images with comfyUI comfortably, but the 780m duplicates the speed in this task.

[u/nice_and_unaware]

I bought a bare bones minisforum ms-01 for about $500, threw in a half height rtx 3050 gpu and it runs all my indi games like a dream. I followed the eta prime video and apart from occasional fan noise it’s great. 

That was all before the rampocolypse though. 

[u/mylo1819_A → u/nice_and_unaware]

This would be a nice option but it def seems more expensive now

[u/PositiveFroyo9790]

I'm in the same boat but pretty much only want to play wow forever. Could I get medium level settings with integrated graphics ?

[u/mylo1819_A → u/PositiveFroyo9790]

you should see what the reccomended specs are for the game and find something with that range? Though if I do land on something I will let you know! Maybe it will be able to handle wow

[u/minipcs-dot-zip]

I think your best bet is this AOOSTAR MACO - Ryzen 7 6850H (680M), 24GB LPDDR5 RAM - $470.

If you really want 32GB RAM - here's a $590 GMKtec K16 with a Ryzen 7 7735HS (680M).

Also this Firebat F1 with a Ryzen7 H 255 (780M) but only 16GB RAM - for $480.

This "leaderhub" has the 255 + 32GB RAM for $639 - but it's a nonexistent brand so buyer beware.

[u/rguerraf]

Anything with 780m

[u/unevoljitelj]

Mini for 600 wont be able to play things nicely for a simple reasom there no gpu and apu sucks. Of course there are easy games that will play nicely but most will be too slow to enjoy it. One option is using older mini like lenovo amd getting some low profile.card but that also is hardly within that budget.

[u/mylo1819_A → u/unevoljitelj]

Yeah i've realized mini pcs dont have gpu but I'm gonna connect it to my laptop which has gpu i think? will that help or does it not matter

[u/unevoljitelj → u/mylo1819_A]

No that will not help