Mini PCs 2023 - any good?

[Ctrl_Alt_Del]

need topup $172 ($510) for the 7735HS, 680m, DDR5, small power adapter, USB4

my main purpose is save electricity and small profile switching from my desktop, mainly use for media/surfing so....

Beelink N95 is enough, also support 8K60 AV1 decoding with few dropped frames. Max 20W at the wall for few seconds then stable at 18W during benchmark. There is also beelink N100 with wifi6.

Few more weeks or months later many brands should have slightly more performance N200 minipc.



Morefine N100 has faster pcie 3.0x2 m.2 slot. Max 26 W at the wall during benchmark.

 

[Ctrl_Alt_Del]

One of taobao seller selling morefine N200 minipc already. 1299rmb for barebone. Benchmark score from the seller page. About 10% higher cpu and 37% higher gpu benchmark score.

 

[Devilsire]

One of taobao seller selling morefine N200 minipc already. 1299rmb for barebone. Benchmark score from the seller page. About 10% higher cpu and 37% higher gpu benchmark score.

the low TDP 6W really good for purely media/surfing, can even set as 24/7 nas machine

 

[YouHeypiCanLiao]

Alternative is asrock deskmini, desktop cpu with laptop power brick. But higher power cpu performance will be limited by the bundled 120W power brick. May need to change to 180W power brick. Not sure if asrock will create amd deskmini for 7000s desktop apu?



Comparsion video of intel nux 12 pro vs deskmini desktop 12400. Intel desktop cpu loss to mobile cpu.

Actually should consider just AMD for minipc or even desktop rite?

 

[lao3hero]

One of taobao seller selling morefine N200 minipc already. 1299rmb for barebone. Benchmark score from the seller page. About 10% higher cpu and 37% higher gpu benchmark score.

got the link, bro? thx


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[YouHeypiCanLiao]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-R...ost-as-fast-as-a-Ryzen-9-6900HX.700973.0.html

 

[KayElf]

Beelink N 95 Intel 12th Mini PC Beelink MINIS 12 Intel N95 4C/4T MAX 3.4Ghz, 8GB DDR4 & 256GB SSD WiFi 5, Office PC Dual HDMI 4K DIsplays Home Serve PLEX, AV1 Decode S$253.02 from Amazon US

 

[TanKianW]

Actually should consider just AMD for minipc or even desktop rite?

On the mini-PC front, really is up to you and the applications you going to run. Personally, If just for day-to-day PC tasks (MS office, webbrowsing, YT) with light gaming (retro/game emulations), I will go with AMD APUs.

If you have plans to repurpose it as a transcoding server (Eg. PLEX) in the future, I will go with Intel or one with Nvidia GPU. Nvidia and Intel still have better HW transcoding support on major media server platforms as compared to AMD. If you intend to run it as a hypervisor (VMs), not going to do any transcoding, I will just go with AMD. This is because most hypervisor platforms work well with multiple cores, but not so well with "E-cores" from Intel, due to the scheduler support.

For the desktop, I will also go with AMD too due to my workload and the flexibility to add a Nvidia GPU for gaming and AI/ML.

*Take note that these recommendations are purely based on my subjective views and personal use cases, which might not necessarily work for everyone.​

 

[Devilsire]

Beelink N 95 Intel 12th Mini PC Beelink MINIS 12 Intel N95 4C/4T MAX 3.4Ghz, 8GB DDR4 & 256GB SSD WiFi 5, Office PC Dual HDMI 4K DIsplays Home Serve PLEX, AV1 Decode S$253.02 from Amazon US

can topup $30 for the Mini S12 N100.
if able to read chinese, can consider Beelink latest release EQ12 N100 ($167 barebone) with DDR5 support or Morefine N200

 

[Devilsire]

On the mini-PC front, really is up to you and the applications you going to run. Personally, If just for day-to-day PC tasks (MS office, webbrowsing, YT) with light gaming (retro/game emulations), I will go with AMD APUs.

If you have plans to repurpose it as a transcoding server (Eg. PLEX) in the future, I will go with Intel or one with Nvidia GPU. Nvidia and Intel still have better HW transcoding support on major media server platforms as compared to AMD. If you intend to run it as a hypervisor (VMs), not going to do any transcoding, I will just go with AMD. This is because most hypervisor platforms work well with multiple cores, but not so well with "E-cores" from Intel, due to the scheduler support.

For the desktop, I will also go with AMD too due to my workload and the flexibility to add a Nvidia GPU for gaming and AI/ML.

*Take note that these recommendations are purely based on my subjective views and personal use cases, which might not necessarily work for everyone.​

Ditto i read similar advice in chinese reviews. For mini pc as long any light gaming/esport is in checklist, AMD iGPU is the way.
For media encoding/decoding processing and photo edit priority etc, Intel.

I've recently gotten my SER 6 Pro 7735hs, am hugely impressed

 

[KayElf]

can topup $30 for the Mini S N100.
if able to read chinese, can consider Beelink latest release EQ12 N100 ($167 barebone) with DDR5 support or Morefine N200

Thanks for the recommendation. Planning a small budget for HTPC 4K movie high res playback without lag.
Not able to read Chinese, perhaps has to wait till it available in Amazon.

 

[lao3hero]

Ditto i read similar advice in chinese reviews. For mini pc as long any light gaming/esport is in checklist, AMD iGPU is the way.
For media encoding/decoding priority, Intel.
I've recently gotten my SER 6 Pro 7735hs, am hugely impressed

u think the SER6 pro 7735hs can play Diablo IV smoothly? thx


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[Devilsire]

u think the SER6 pro 7735hs can play Diablo IV smoothly? thx


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no idea i've only tried Death Stranding at default settings for a while and its pretty smooth at 50+ fps @ 35W setting (can push up to 45W in BIOS)

 

[lao3hero]

no idea i've only tried Death Stranding at default settings for a while and its pretty smooth at 50+ fps @ 35W setting (can push up to 45W in BIOS)

thx bro!


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[Devilsire]

Thanks for the recommendation. Planning a small budget for HTPC 4K movie high res playback without lag.
Not able to read Chinese, perhaps has to wait till it available in Amazon.

in that case i think might be better to wait for Beelink Amazon to release EQ12 that supports DDR5, cos this N100/200 series only have 1 RAM slot (no dual channel) thus i guess any higher speed ram will be useful to minimize lag

 

[Hafi]

Hi All! sharing my research on Sim Lim prices between 4 - 12 March 2023 at https://fastupload.io/IRIxNonJYgOKetu/file
Please note that price may be different from in-store since some vendors claimed that they change their prices every week.

nobody check on Sim Lim prices these days cos they are not updated by the stores themselves.

 

[keenklee]

IMHO.
I am thinking that these mini PC would be useful as a controlling computer for backup purposes.
Will they be able to run 24/7 ?
Also, anyone using them for server type applications?

 

[andii94]

nobody check on Sim Lim prices these days cos they are not updated by the stores themselves.

ohh are there better places to get the parts nowadays?

 

[Hafi]

ohh are there better places to get the parts nowadays?

if you free and hardworking a bit, pay a physical visit to SLS and get realtime pricings instead, afaik their pricelists that are uploaded to HWZ and elsewhere are not being rigorous updated (as it used to) and some peripheral prices might have discrepancies.

Another way is to comb through Lazada and Shopee listings where most of the reputable stores in SLS have an online storefront, from there you can make price comparisons from the comfort of your own home.

 

[Phen8210]

IMHO.
I am thinking that these mini PC would be useful as a controlling computer for backup purposes.
Will they be able to run 24/7 ?
Also, anyone using them for server type applications?

too slow leh

IMHO.