There are plenty mini-PCs in the $200 range.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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$530 for performance I can buy elsewhere for $250
Thats not "affordable" in my world...thats called a premium.
Ah I see the problem now, it's full of affiliate links
What are people doing with these mini PCs?
I use 4 of them. 2 run services, one being primaries (DNS, Mail, etc), and the other secondary services and backups of the first. 2 more are CARPed OpnSense boxes.
I needed to replace my old server which was my old desktop, and I grabbed some deals from Aliexpress for cheap. Now I have redundant disks and machines, which is nice.
Edit: And I chose low power options, so all 4 use less power than my old server.
So no one is actually gaming on them, right? Because that sounds really dumb.
I've got one running Batocera, and it works just fine as a little emulator console. Not something I would want to do any kind of modern PC gaming on, but good for my specific use case
There's low resource games that would do fine. You aren't gonna be able to run a graphics intense FPS, but I've seen people run Minecraft, stardew valley and the like on minis.
Actually, we use an Intel n150 miniPC for playing Zwift with the bike trainer. So I guess I have 5.
I didn't realize you could run Zwift on your own PC...
mini PC things.
...or PC things, but mini.
Super helpful, thanks
I have one as a media server
Anything else?
Proxmox server, *arr stack, Jellyfin, dns filtering, reverse proxy, home assistant, plant management, file server, archive warrior ...
Want me to continue?
Besides a server...
Anything you'd need a smaller system for that a laptop/notebook can't achieve but a traditional deskrop/sff system is to big for.
In the end it's just a small PC.
What would be the advantage using one of these over, say, a raspberry pi?
ARM vs x86(x64)
Besides that: Performance (and not even that considering what iMacs can provide)
Besides that? Probably not much else.
Technically a Pi (-clone) suffices for most tasks.
Stability and resiliency you get from a system like this. Obviously stacking a Ryzen 7 against any RPI is not possible / fair really.
If you have a RPI around, it is a great starting point for a lot of thjngs. At some moment ypu will just want something can be extended, doesn't rely on SD card, isn't too picky about which SSD you give it etc.
that a laptop/notebook can't achieve
It's not going to do anything you can't do with a laptop because they're using laptop processors.
but a traditional deskrop/sff system is to big for.
Too big how?
It's a decent 1080p gaming rig. Obviously you need to manage expectations but these AMD iGPUs are very capable.
What is?
Free Shipping from US warehouse, Arrange shipments in sequential order of ordering.
how does this compare to a $100 used elitedesk G3 mini off FB marketplace, though?
Not that great?
The ones listed on our local second hand platform have no 3D capabilities (beyond monitor output), Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge CPUs that are slowly entering the "not good enough for even basic tasks" zone and miniscule SSDs (120 GB) by modern standards.
They are cheaper of course, but these two options don't seem comparable.