minipc question

[slm-manager]

hi, i want to buy mini pc cause i like its size and i want to play football manager 24 but is it possible that i play many hours maybe 8 hr daily without problem. are they practical , I read they overheat. Also Im multitasker I could open 2 browsers each one with like 20 tabs and excel with 10 sheets. The sheet not always but the browsers always also I could play music while browsing.

My budget is 500-600$, i dont know if its enouph

the imporant question, is mini pc practical for my need, then do you suggest one

thanks in advance

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Link to the product specs?

I'm can only guess otherwise that you mean the fairly new Lenovo Mini PC

[Pepe]

When you say Mini PC are you thinking about NUC/BRIX-like PCs or something bigger that would fit a small PCIe GPU like a NUC 12 Extreme or some Small form factor (SFF) PCs?

If you're looking for the first category, the most important factors are the iGPU and the power efficiency in a certain power limit. The best ones right now are the AMD-based ones. You should aim for the best GPU you can get, today's CPUs are more than enough for your use cases.

I wouldn't worry about overheating, NUC-like PCs usually have laptop-grade CPUs that can get to 100°C with no issue, and they have active thermal protection like thermal throttling, variable turbo boosting and so on. Running it eight hours a day shouldn't be an issue even if they stay close to 100. Depending on the BIOS/UEFI features, you can change their power limits (PL1/PL2), enable/disable hyperthreading/SMT, enable/disable turbo boosting, there's a lot of room to turn the gauges down a little not to get them too hot. Of course the build quality is a factor as well, some PCs have better cooling solutions than others. I suggest to watch Robtech channel on YouTube. His reviews include info on power consumption, heat and noise.

I'd say for getting the overall best performance and future proofing you should aim for an AMD APU with AMD Radeon™ 780M or better (880M or 890M *):
https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/laptop/ryzen.html#specs
28W TDP
- Ryzen 7 7840U
- Ryzen 7 8840U
- Ryzen 7 8840HS
- AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 365 *
- AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370 *
- AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 375 *
35-54W TDP
- Ryzen 7 7840HS
- Ryzen 9 7940HS
45W TDP
- Ryzen 7 8845HS
- Ryzen 9 8945HS

Prolly best bang for the buck would be a PC with Ryzen 7 7840U/Ryzen 7 8840U or their HS counterparts.

I wouldn't buy an Intel based NUC at this point in time, they are not as efficient as the AMD counterparts or as powerful in terms of iGPU. Maybe Panther Lake will change that, but that will prolly be a paper launch, real availability H2 2025.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yea don't buy anything smal like an Intel NUC. You will have a terrible GPU. At least the Ryzen 78xx stuff and newer has a half decent GPU

[_I_]

it will work as a remote play client from your gaming pc, but not play games on its own

[Bad 💀 Motha]

_I_ lähetti viestin:

it will work as a remote play client from your gaming pc, but not play games on its own

Depends on the CPU/GPU combo in such a PC. It wouldn't be any different then a lower budget gaming capable Laptop. Football Manager is an RPG team management type of game. It's not FIFA or NFL Monday Night Football with glorified 3D realism graphics

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you use an NVME SSD that is beyond the performance of WD BLUE, buy SSDs that come with heatsink already or buy a heatsink for your intended use ssd. But yes, make sure it will fit. Ssds that come with heatsinks that are certified for PS5 should have mo problems physically fitting in any Desktop or Laptop board properly.

[_I_]

Bad 💀 Motha lähetti viestin:

_I_ lähetti viestin:

it will work as a remote play client from your gaming pc, but not play games on its own

Depends on the CPU/GPU combo in such a PC. It wouldn't be any different then a lower budget gaming capable Laptop. Football Manager is an RPG team management type of game. It's not FIFA or NFL Monday Night Football with glorified 3D realism graphics

remote play client does not take much
tv app, pi, phones, android box can do it with no problems
just need 40-50mb/s for 1080p, or 160-200mb/s for 4k

the host needs to be a good gaming pc tho
capable of playing and streaming the game

[Azuwi]

he means mATX probably

[AD]

I have a mini pc. It's quite nice, the main downside is the iGPU isn't very powerful so it's not very good at gaming. Never had any overheating problems, though, and with a good SSD it's normally quite fast.

That said, I would expect the GPU performance and the thermals depend on the model. Mine is a budget machine (though a good one for it's price).

[_I_]

Azuwi lähetti viestin:

he means mATX probably

minipc is normally itx or smaller, like a nuc

[Paraskeet]

the intel nuc lineup was great until they sold it to asus. still got my nuc that I have been using for different purposes like emulation etc. but I wouldn't buy chinese mini pc or any of the mini pc the big brands create

you could get better performance by building your own sff pc with a 8600 or 8700g. that way you wouldn't have to worry about heat since the wraith prism included with these soc are enough to cool them

[_I_]

sff can be m-atx slim, 1050 lp would be a fit, for 1080p gaming at lower settings

[Bad 💀 Motha]

_I_ lähetti viestin:

Bad 💀 Motha lähetti viestin:

Depends on the CPU/GPU combo in such a PC. It wouldn't be any different then a lower budget gaming capable Laptop. Football Manager is an RPG team management type of game. It's not FIFA or NFL Monday Night Football with glorified 3D realism graphics

remote play client does not take much
tv app, pi, phones, android box can do it with no problems
just need 40-50mb/s for 1080p, or 160-200mb/s for 4k

the host needs to be a good gaming pc tho
capable of playing and streaming the game

Yes I get that but the OP didn't say they wish to do that. Sounds like they need a low power consumption PC that can fit their needs. They could easily install their apps and games on a reasonable spec Mini PC. They have come a long way ever since the Mobile Ryzen have gained ground and they are decent APUs with Vega or Radeon onboard and do quote well at low TDP and Heat output. The bigger issue with a Mini PC is what you going to use for storage. Best bet is an NVME SSD like 2TB or 4TB like something from WD or Crucial that won't need a heatsink since you don't need to spend big bucks for higher speed PCIE 4.0 / 5.0 based ssds since that wouldn't have much benefit here. Then if you need extra storage to offload files and backup data look to an external HDD or look into getting a NAS co fig for your home/office.

[Paraskeet]

Bad 💀 Motha lähetti viestin:

_I_ lähetti viestin:

remote play client does not take much
tv app, pi, phones, android box can do it with no problems
just need 40-50mb/s for 1080p, or 160-200mb/s for 4k

the host needs to be a good gaming pc tho
capable of playing and streaming the game

Yes I get that but the OP didn't say they wish to do that. Sounds like they need a low power consumption PC that can fit their needs. They could easily install their apps and games on a reasonable spec Mini PC. They have come a long way ever since the Mobile Ryzen have gained ground and they are decent APUs with Vega or Radeon onboard and do quote well at low TDP and Heat output. The bigger issue with a Mini PC is what you going to use for storage. Best bet is an NVME SSD like 2TB or 4TB like something from WD or Crucial that won't need a heatsink since you don't need to spend big bucks for higher speed PCIE 4.0 / 5.0 based ssds since that wouldn't have much benefit here. Then if you need extra storage to offload files and backup data look to an external HDD or look into getting a NAS co fig for your home/office.

btw most newish mini pc that I have seen have usb4 ports - some got two - that you can use with a external ssd or hdd enclosure. if the nvme iside gets too hot you can use a nvme adapter and pair it thermalright's massive nvme cooler

I think it was either beelink or minisforum taht plan to release a mini pc x8 pcie gen 4 dock that you can pair with a decent gpu. has a built in 600w psu

[udidwht]

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/99571/geekom-mega-mini-g1-water-cooled-pc-with-core-i9-13900h-rtx-4060-for-1000/index.html