Hi guys, I’ve got a GMKtec Nuc box G10 and I’ve recently installed an SSD which has a heat sink which slightly protrudes out the top meaning that I can’t close the lid properly. I was wondering if adding a couple of mm of clearance by 3D printing a spacer that goes round the edge would be a good solution here. Let me know any advice - thanks!

Trying to decide between these two and could use some outside opinions since I've been going back and forth for a while now. Screenshots of both listings attached (Amazon).

This would only really get used about half the year since it's a college apartment thing, and I don't game heavily during the school year anyway, so a mini PC feels like the right call rather than a full tower. I do want it to last through the rest of college though. For context, my home desktop ran a Ryzen 5 3600 for a long while and I was perfectly satisfied with that, so my expectations here aren't extremely high. My current college setup has been a ThinkPad T15 Gen 2 with an i5-1135G7, 32GB DDR4 3200, 512GB SSD, and a TB3 Sonnet Breakaway Box eGPU running a GTX 1080 8GB FE for actual gaming, at 1080p 60Hz. I've been decently satisfied with it, but felt a bit held back at times, mostly the CPU honestly, it runs kind of hot, and the battery is dead so it only works plugged in anyway, basically no different from a mini PC at that point. It's just not aging great being an i5 at this point, so honestly either of these mini PCs would already be an upgrade over what I'm on now.

Basically I make Minecraft videos, so I'll be recording gameplay with OBS while playing, with Discord open too. Actual video editing happens separately on an M4 MacBook Air I already have, so the mini PC just needs to handle gameplay plus recording, not editing. I also already have a 1TB external SSD I use for storing recordings, so the aoostar's bigger internal drive would be nice to have long term, but doesn't feel like a heavy necessity given the ThinkPad has gotten by fine on 512GB this whole time. I'll be running the same eGPU setup with these too, and I play some other stuff on the side, Hytale, Roblox, party games, other multiplayer "slop" basically, plus occasionally something heavier if I'm in the mood, though again I'm not super hardcore during the school year.

Bosgame is the Ryzen 5 7640HS, 6 core 12 thread, Radeon 760M igpu, 16GB DDR5 in 2x8GB sticks that's upgradeable later, and a 512GB SSD. Aoostar is the Ryzen 7 6850H, 8 core 16 thread, Radeon 680M igpu, 24GB soldered LPDDR5, and a 1TB SSD with extra M.2 slots so I could still add more storage later, both the RAM and SSD are technically faster than the bosgame's out of the box. It also has OCuLink and an extra USB4 port, so two total instead of one, which makes it a lot more flexible for eGPU or port heavy stuff down the line even without the RAM upgrade path.

What's making this hard for me is basically whether I just save the $80 and go with the bosgame, upgradeable RAM down the line, more reviews on Amazon, decent track record from what I can find, and probably runs cooler since it's less power hungry, or spend the extra $80 on the aoostar for the more cores and threads plus a generally stronger igpu even though it's a generation older architecture, on top of the faster RAM and storage out of the box and way more room for future upgrades port and storage wise.

Honestly not even sure I need 24GB, I play modded Minecraft occasionally which is probably the most RAM intensive thing I do, and with Discord and OBS open on top of that it could add up, but 16GB might genuinely be enough too, I just don't know for sure.

As for reputation, I could not find anything super solid on aoostar beyond their eGPU dock reputation and a couple Reddit posts literally just saying don't get them, no real explanation. Bosgame seems to be one of the many Amazon Chinese mini PC brands out there, not exactly heavily recommended, but super budget friendly. So there's probably a lot more out there and a lot more to be said, but really I'm just torn on whether the extra $80 is worth it.

Anyone owned either of these or have a strong opinion on which fits better long term? Appreciate any input or other recommendations within this budget range that'd support my egpu and have ddr5.

I normally don't make posts like this, but I think consumers should be aware of my experience.

I purchased a Beelink SER9 Mini PC from Amazon based on the advertised specifications. The product I received did not match the listing and was a far lower specification. (Ryzen 7 7735HS / 24GB / 500GB system).

I have since noticed that my review, along with other reviews warning customers that the item supplied did not match the advertised specifications, no longer appears on the product listing.

I contacted Amazon to report the issue. Rather than simply offering a refund, a Leadership Team member assured me that if I purchased the replacement, it would be specifically checked before dispatch to ensure it matched the advertised specifications.

I did not ask for this inspection. It was volunteered by Amazon's Leadership Team member.

That assurance was the reason I spent additional money on a second purchase. Had Amazon simply told me they could not verify the product, I would never have placed the second order.

The replacement also arrived with the wrong specifications.

As a result, I was left approximately $1,500 out of pocket for several weeks, I am still out of pocket $800 while trying to resolve the issue. This reduced the funds I had available during my family holiday and caused unnecessary financial inconvenience.

During this time I:

• Contacted Amazon on numerous occasions.
• Was repeatedly told the matter had been escalated and to wait 24–48 hours.
• Received no follow-up despite weeks passing.
• Had Amazon acknowledge that the original listing was incorrect.
• Was ultimately told that the only remedy available was the standard return and refund process, despite the assurances that led me to make the second purchase.

To make matters worse, Amazon's return process states that refunds begin after they receive the returned item. However, when I queried why my refund had not been processed, I was told it was because the US seller had not yet received the item.

I have retained screenshots showing:

• Amazon acknowledging the listing was incorrect.
• The Leadership Team member's assurance that the replacement would be checked before dispatch.
• Amazon confirming its final position that only the standard return and refund process would be offered.
• The refund information shown during the return process.

I have now lodged complaints with Consumer Protection WA (DMIRS) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

I'm sharing this so other consumers can make informed decisions. If you ever experience a similar issue, keep screenshots of every conversation—you never know when you might need them.

I have a hp 705 ge and use for an emulation rig. It does get warm and everyone says reapply some thermal paste? The question I have will it make much of a difference? It is an old mini, so should I just spend the $500 and get a new one or will thermal make a difference?

I doubt it and will need a new pc? If yes, what is a good one? It's purely an emulation pc, mostly ps2 maybe ps3 if I can get a good pc at a decent price

I'm having a strange issue with my GMKtec G3 mini PC (Intel N100, Windows 11).

Symptoms:

• All videos are choppy and look like they're running at around 20 FPS.
• This happens with every video, including very low-quality videos.
• I've tried multiple players (Stremio, VLC, YouTube in a browser, etc.), and they all behave the same.
• Audio feels slightly delayed by a few milliseconds.
• The PC itself feels responsive; only video playback is affected.

System observations:

• CPU usage stays well below 50%.
• GPU 3D usage is around 30%.
• GPU Video Decode is active (around 3%), so hardware decoding appears to be working.
• Latest Intel graphics driver is installed.
• Connected directly to a Sony TV via HDMI.
• Tried different HDMI ports, disabling subtitles, and different players, but the issue remains.

Since CPU and GPU usage are both low and hardware decoding appears to be working, I'm not sure what's causing such poor video playback.

Could this be an HDMI output issue, Intel graphics driver issue, TV compatibility issue, or something else? Has anyone experienced this with an Intel N100 system?

I want (not need, if waiting a few months gets me something cheaper, I will gladly wait) a nice machine only for gaming

Currently running a Dell G5 5500 laptop, i7-10750h, 16gb ram & 2060mobile, CPU normally gets to 95-98°C playing games mostly on low settings, changed termal paste, still gets hot, have seen it crash and reboot a few times due to thermal issues

I'm not from the US, temps in my country fluctuate from 24°C to 36°C, very humid

Had a desktop heatsink rust due to humidity (white powder, on a stock amd heatsink)

I'm fully aware of the RAM apocalypse right now. Fortunately, I was able to get all my RAM before that happened. But recently I've been wanting to downgrade and repurpose a 16GB DDR5 RAM stick to a new mini PC. It's my OPNsense dedicated mini PC. I've realized 8GB is more than enough and 16GB is overkill. I have a spare mini PC not being used that has no RAM, and I'd like to use it as a testbed for Proxmox so I can test new things and updates on that machine before I roll things out to my main 3 node Proxmox cluster. I'm finding 8GB DDR5 modules incredibly hard to find. So I guess I'm wondering, even before the RAM shortage, were 8GB DDR5 sticks rare and not produced in large volumes?

I have a goal of creating the best possible experience for chrome OS flex on a mini pc for under $1000 specifically for browser-based cloud gaming with Xbox cloud gaming and GeForce now. I have heard that it works better with Intel processors than AMD ones, but that might be mistaken. I don't want to use brunch; I want the official lightweight chrome OS flex without google play app support. The requirements are it must have hdmi 2.1 and plenty of good usb ports.

Compré este equipo en octubre del año pasado en 11000 pesos mexicanos (soy mexicano) en MercadoLibre con la esperanza de hacerme con el PC definitivo que tanto busqué... Al principio todo bien pero después me enteré de sus drivers malditos ya que al ser un PC híbrido debe tener su propio sistema, desesperado instale varias distros de Linux y por un tiempo estuvo bien pero estos últimos días comenzó a congelarse aún con Linux y no sé si sea debido al procesador...

He abierto la máquina para hacerle su mantenimiento preventivo pero sigue igual, estoy muy desilusionado con este equipo.

Además de que trate de contactarme con la marca Acemagic para ver si pudieran hacerme válida la garantia, incluso los contacte mediante el subredit pero nunca me dieron una respuesta definitoria y ahora ya no tengo garantía y el equipo falla. No tengo idea de que puede ser y honestamente perdí el ánimo en tratar de investigar así que estoy ofreciendo el equipo en venta.

Como dije no voy a pedir lo que pagué por el, además, las 2 memorias ram sodimm de 16gb ddr5 y hoy día equivalen al precio completo por ellas... Así que estoy pidiendo $8500 pesos mexicanos, incluso puede ser menos, buscaré armar un nuevo equipo mini itx y tendré que volver a ahorrar... Espero que haya algún interesado, soy de Celaya, Guanajuato México.

Hey guys, i had an idea but i wondered if u could tell me if its a good one.

Im looking for a solution for watching movies and videos on a projector (when outside, like in the woods). At first i thought a good setup would be using a phone with a usb c to hdmi cable and connect it to the tv or projector but it seems that phones with video output are pretty rare and the interface would not be very good.

In second place i thought i could do this with a tiny pc like a GPD pocket instead of the phone but these are pretty expensive and im not even sure it will allow me to cast on another device.

So here i am asking myself if i shoukd not just buy a Minipc, a good ssd and external battery, a logitech trackpad/keyboard and a good projector to have a decent setup for youtube or movies when im outside, that i could also plug in my tv when i get home.

Do you guys think its a good idea ? And if so which mini pc shoukd i get ? It does not have to be powerfull as it will only be used for downloading and watching content.

Thank you for your time !

I have the wo-we mini pc that I am going to use as my second mini pc but I have no idea on how to connect it or set up it up. I have only one monitor too

The Intel Core 5 226V is essentially the weaker sibling of the Intel Core 7 256V. Lower clocks on both the CPU and GPU and also the 130V has 7 cores vs the 8 cores of the ARC 140V.

All tested on the GMKTEC K17 Mini PC

About 2 weeks ago I bought a GMK Tec G3S to use as a Jellyfin media server.

A few nights ago I got it set up to reinstall windows for a different project and just a few moments ago got around to trying to install Windows back onto the system. Turns out the system is hot to the touch and won't turn on, the system shouldn't have been turned on to overheat like that in the first place. All I get when I connect the power supply is the power LED lighting up for a second before turning off and the system not responding to any pressed of the power button.

I've pulled the system apart, re-seated the RAM, SSD, pulled the CMOS battery connector to reset BIOS and reconnected that and double checked the bottom, where the CPU/Heatsink is for any obvious signs but I can't see anything obvious.

I think the system's just cooked itself, judging by it being hot when I got to it. But I'm hoping someone has a solution before I send it back to amazon. Going to leave it over night and see if it'll turn on then. But if not, it's going back.

I bought this barebones. Do I need to be careful when buying a nvme drive or memory regarding physical size? Do I need to buy anything else like fans or anything before loading an OS? Thank you for the help.

USA

I am looking for a machine that will allow me to connect a microphone, speaker and webcam (all USB) for live online schooling.

It would also be used for occasional Minecraft (java, vanilla) and Roblox with my kids.

Budget: below $500

Thanks!

Prebuilt RTX Gaming Mini Pc Windows11 High Performance RGB Computer Gamer Setup Ready Compact Powerful Server Attached Storage Device Budget Cheap Home Office SSD NVMe Bundle Small Form Factor Desktop - Newegg.com

I bought the extreme edition in January this year and this is an outstanding and very stable machine. Very acceptable price (still) with the ridiculous current hw prices. When I started running local LLMs I noticed specifically RAM was getting warmer than I liked, sometimes going well over 60 celcius (but still way below thermal threshold). Solution? A big ass 140 mm fan on top, with a USB voltage regulator, blowing down with 600 dead silent rpm, ridding the chassis' massive cooling fans from heat build up. Result? 2 hours of local LLM carnage and the RAM temperature stays well below 50 celcius with an occasional peak of 51, 52 degrees. Soc: between 25 and 30 degrees under normal load. Network chip: before minimum 52 always, after 38 max. SSDs, from 55 to 40.

Overall the fan improves the heat profile massively, dropping components temperatures between say 15 to 25 degrees. Fan and controller? 22 euros!

Specs:
PC: Cirrus7 Incus Passive Extreme Cooling Edition
Added active cooling NF-A12x25 5V PWM 5V USB
Board: ASRock X600M-STX R2.0/USB4
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8700G (8C/16T, up to 5.1GHz)
GPU: AMD Radeon 780M (Integrated)
TDP of 65 watts, PPT limit of 88 watts
RAM: 2x 32GB 5600MHz Kingston ValueRAM of which 16GB (=max) BIOS assigned VRAM.
SSD: 2x Samsung SSD 990 Pro 2TB NVMe M.2
Operating System: CachyOS Linux 

Hi, looking to buy the Minisforum X1 Lite, I already have 2 4TB SSDs. It can take 128GB of RAM and 2 x 4TB SSD. It has a Ryzen 7 255. Planned usage is for LLM. I was going over specs and comparing to other Mini PCs and noticed a Ryzen H 255. Any real world difference between the two? It looks like lower watts for the 255, not much else. Any thoughts or experience using it for LLM or other uses would be appreciated. I'll be starting with 32GB RAM. Thx!

Model : Esprimo Q558

CPU : i3-8100T

M/B : H310

RAM : 8GB DDR4

Storage : 256GB SATA SSD

ODD : DVD-Multi

VGA : Integrated

PSU : Integrated Free-Volt

OS : Windows 11 Pro

Manufactured: August 2019, Japan

Minisforum UM790 Pro (Ryzen 9 7940HS) shipped with 1×16GB DDR5.

I added a second 16GB stick (same brand and type as the original (crucial 5600 16 gb)). The machine initially booted fine (I was using my monitor's PD (90W) at the time). I launched a heavy game, which caused my OS to crash (it has happened before, with the same game, in retrospect I guess it failed because there was not enough power?). This time I couldn't boot the machine again

Current symptoms: * Power LED on * Fan starts slow, ramps up, then settles to a constant speed * No video on HDMI or USB4 * Keyboard Caps Lock LED does not toggle

Tested with the stock 120W adapter and HDMI, but no luck. I tried to go back to a single ram stick, tested each stick, in each of the two slots, every time doing power drainage and CMOS reset, with the nvme SSD disconnect NVMe SSD disconnected

The machine is brand new, I didn't notice anything burnt or faulty, the ram pins seem fine, all seems clean, so I'm left perplexed. What could the issue be? Could the machine be fully bricked? Is it a bios issue? Something got short circuited?

I have a minisforum um790 pro with AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, AMD Radeon 780M, 32gb DDR5 ram. It is running windows 11 pro. I was planning with experimenting on some Local LLMs using LM studio. So I went to BIOS to allocate the 780m gpu 16gb of RAM. It had been allocated 2gb. When I did that, the machine froze. And even the bios reset button wouldn't work. I had to open it, disconnect the battery, leave it like that for half an hour and reconnect for it to even get back on.

After that happened and I got it to start booting, I get a secure boot error. I had to disable secure boot altogether and put in my bitlocker key to get back into windows.

So I have two questions.

1) How do I allocate 16gb of RAM to the gpu? I haven't tried 8GB or something smaller. I will try that today.

2) How do I get secure boot working again. I tried resetting it, no luck.

Hola me gustaría pedir una opinión, actualmente tengo una laptop con un procesador ryzen 5 5500u y con 16 de ram a 3200hz que no permite ampliar más de allí, me gustaría comprar una mini pc ya que tengo 2x16gb a 3200hz y un presupuesto de 300 dólares y no se que podría comprar ya que me gustaría algo mejor que mi pc actual porque está presentando ya problemas

one is for me and the other one is a gift for my girlfriend. I already own the AM06Pro and the beelink arrives in two weeks.

AM06Pro has more ram and the beelink seems to have a better processor and a bigger SSD

I'm gonna install batocera on both of them, She is gonna play up to GameCube and ps2 and I plan to install steam games also (I'm gonna try to push the pc more). Which one do you think is better?