As the title already states I am currently looking at some hardware alternatives that could replace my current, and very outdated, Windows PC with the same form factor as Mac minis.
I already own several Mac devices (phones, MBPs M1/M2), and mostly kept a Windows PC for so long for:
- Gaming (mostly old games from my Steam library and ISOs).
- Pictures & videos.
- NTFS HDD and USB keys (ex-FAT and other formats do not always work reliably).
With these current usages, my ultimate goal is to find something as powerful as what I have right now (GTX 260 SLI over 13 years old, 10 years old Intel core i5, 16GB DDR3, and an SSD), which shouldn't be that hard, but have it as small as possible, and within the same price point as the Mac minis.
The closest thing I've found so far is a brand called GEEKOM which seems to produce exactly what I need, but I do not have the impression to find genuine feedback on the hardware capacity and quality.
EDIT: I live in Europe if that matters for availability and shipping.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IjCpi4_z_WfO0G53E_mW...
Personally I purchased a beelink ser7:
- AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS
- Radeon780M (RDNA 3)
- 32Gb ram
All for about 700 IIRC
That being said you might like AsRock's offerring for a more DIY customization - https://www.asrock.com/nettop/index.asp They are supposed to comeout with a AM5+DDR5 version this quarter if you want to wait for that.
Minisforum, beelink have some top of the line offerings supporting AM5 already but their limited upgrade-ability means they will not retain price over the years (you might be better of buying a year older version of their offerings to be more cost effective) unlike with ASRock desk(mini|meets) where you decide what you put into it.
The only thing I've found similar in size + capabilities to a Mac Mini is a Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally.
The base Steam Deck is $350 now and the base Ally is $399.
My Ally with the Z1 Extreme is my primary gaming desktop. I got a nice USB C dock and it runs great on my setup. Anything more demanding than what the handheld can do I just stream through GeForce Now.
Outside of hardcore gaming, I primarily use an M1 Pro laptop (that I got after selling my Mac M2 Mini). Got it refurb, it is still insanely fast, works great for streaming games on GFN, uses basically no power, no heat, great battery, etc.
That... sounds like you're describing the average Ryzen APU? My 8-core 5800u feels pretty similar to an M1 Mac Mini in most respects, besides the fact it's in a laptop.
If you want to judge a small serverlike device for being non-upgradable, the Mac Mini and Mac Studio would completely fail this criteria.
Given the pricepoint and specs of the BeeLink, its availability for shipping in France, and the all-in-one design of the SER7 with USB-4, that seems like a great option to explore.
I will take a deeper look at their other offerings as well.
e.g. https://www.servethehome.com/lenovo-thinkcentre-m920x-tiny-r...
Some models can be powered over USB-C, allowing them to run off compact GaN chargers, monitors, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/MINISFORUM-7940HS-Radeon-USB3-2-PCIe4...
My recommendations:
- Intel NUC. You can pickup a used Skull Canyon NUC if you can find one at a reasonable price, will easily handle all the games and things you mentioned. I owned one and loved it!
- Asus ROG Ally with the Z1. $399 at Best Buy, can handle all your gaming needs, only needs a single USB C hub to connect to everything. I currently use the Z1 Extreme version (more powerful) as my PRIMARY desktop. I love it.
- Get a cheap laptop. Find something with the bare minimum specs to run the things you need and just keep it closed.
- Build your own SFF. Find a really tiny case, get a really tiny power supply, and get an APU from AMD that has a built-in GPU. They run cool, they are cheap (though not as cheap as a cheap laptop or steam deck), and you can customize whatever you want. You can get pretty tiny with these, but not exactly Mac Mini sized.
- Get a base iPad (~$230 on sale), Samsung tablet ($99+), Android stick (< $99), whatever and do a remote desktop. I use GeForce Now for a ton of my gaming and Microsoft just released a new "Windows as an app" concept for iOS that gives you a remote desktop.
My girlfriend also uses a Rog Ally as her primary desktop and she loves it: it has a compact form factor, handles all the games she plays perfectly (apparently better than more classical mini PCs like Beelinks), as well as somewhat heavy software such as Photoshop.
It’s a shame it’s marketed just as a portable gaming device when it’s in fact a very capable mini PC.
https://www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-minipc-solutions
Serve The Home is also a big fan and reviews anything in this form factor that comes out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzXkGrVBQ_4
Anyway, with a fast PCIe 4.0 NVMe OS disk it's plenty fast for me. Benchmarks puts it on par with my Ryzen 3800X at home.
Supports additional NVMe and a 2.5" SATA so fair bit of storage, and sports 2.5GbE.
Haven't tried to stress the GPU, but feels smooth in Windows, YouTube in Firefox and all that jazz.
There's also the Akasa Turing Duo case[1] if you want to make it fanless.
[1]: https://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=product/product.deta...
Starts from $549 for the barebones with an i9-12900H. You could argue it is a better option as it has an internal PCIe slot for a half-slot GPU, which will be much less bulk than a mini PC + eGPU. Plus, it would probably be cheaper since eGPUs aren't cheap.
ETA Prime did a review on it the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUlptjU0vFQ
Absolutely KILLER machine for the size and price. The next generation gaming NUCs were so, so much bigger. I can't stand them.
Highly recommend the NUC line overall!
The good part is that you can upgrade ram/storage/interfaces. The bad part (as far as a tidy integrated package) is that they have external PSUs.
I have a trouble-free HP G series but it isn't clear to me what would differentiate it from the equivalent Lenovo or Dell.
The next interesting task is to add an external GPU [0] to make it a modular computer similar to the Snow White concept [1].
0. https://egpu.io/exp-gdc-th3p4g2-thunderbolt-gpu-dock-review/
1. https://www.designboom.com/technology/hartmut-esslingers-ear...
If you're willing to go slightly larger, Mini-ITX PCs are still quite small, but have the benefit of all desktop-class hardware and easier upgrades. There are too many options here to make a specific recommedation, but if you search for Mini ITX on /r/battlestations, you can find some inspiration.
https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-um790-pro
It can handle many games at good settings already. It also has USB 4.0 which will allow you to connect it to an eGPU for higher end gaming.
EDIT: Today, I'm running a Lenovo P14s AMD Gen 4 which is slightly slower. For the price, the performance has been amazing.
Been my daily driver desktop since 2021.
I play Victoria 3, Cities Skylines, Valheim. And develop on it. Both Windows programs and also Linux stuff SSH-ed into my beefier dev servers.
I've also done some light video recording and editing.
I've run out of disk space now so I think I'll grab an external drive. But I'd buy one of these again.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093BBLB4K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
They both contain the AMD Z1 Extreme SOC, which not only has 8 cores but contains a pretty good iGPU (780M is comparable to Nvidia's 1050Ti in benchmarks). Added bonus is that it contains a battery and display, so very portable and fairly good gaming machines.
Maybe get an external HDD adapter for when you need to access old files.
Fan noise audible if it's permanently loaded up but that's like many of the knockoff NUC or litre PCs.
[edit] the fans are also pretty loud if it’s actually doing anything. Not an issue with headphones, might be otherwise.
off topic, but does anyone know if this[0] is considered best practices for Fedora-based distros? the Dockerfile format already feels like you're fighting against legacy cruft for specialized containers; for specifying a general purpose, desktop container, it seems unsustainable
[0] https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/blob/main/Containerfile
