Considering that the whole idea of mini PCs is they're supposed to be out of the way and not really noticeable, making one with a gimmick that requires it be front and center with all the cabling sticking out the sides is....a choice.
If you could actually cable manage it, and if it were more functional, it wouldn't be a bad idea - basically having a small side dashboard, with some graphs and blinkenlights, maybe some shortcuts that utilize the touchscreen. As it is... yeah, if I want that kind of clutter I'll just hook a laptop up.
…i like it…as a circuit bent electronic experimental artist…i like it…the visual look…to see the flow inns n outs…thats sculptural…i like it…more of this please…
Might seem odd to say, but I'm happy to see a more critical review that usual. It looks bad when reviewers give nothing but praise to products. And this one definitely deserved the criticism.
On the lower end I really like the beelink amd mini computers. They seem to be clearing out the rest of the 5560u (SER5) ones for about 367$CAD. Gives you 6 cores, 12 threads and a pretty good little GPU for light gaming Word of caution though. I have had issues installing 2.5 inch drives with beelink. I tried to make a file server with one and it completely killed two SSDs.
I got the 6900hx after you tested it. 1year 3 months so far. It's been my main desktop/editing machine/development machine and I love it. Looking to replace my 2016 9550 dell xps that I'm using as a server/backup machine with a new minisforum.
I don't know if minisforum and beelink have much overlap hardware wise, but I had a file server running in a beelink mini S. It killed two SSDs (patriot p210 and a WD blue). So I don't trust the 2.5 inch sata interface anymore. Not sure if it was heat or some kind of voltage spike that killed them.
@revaaron I don't remember exactly, but it couldn't have run for more than 6 months before killing each drive. Luckily, they were both replaced under warranty. But after the second one failed, I didn't suspect the drives were the cause anymore.
You have the best reviews Russ!!! Prime just posted an update video on the Legion Go a day ago, but I would like to see your thoughts and review on the new update they just released. Your videos are far more in depth and i really enjoy the quality and how well thought your reviews are!! Thanks for all you do!!
Will you make a 2024 mini PC video in a similar manner to your retro handheld rankings videos? >best of, best value, best cheaper option, etc. factoring in everyday "office" style use, online use, video streaming, current gaming, and, of course, retro gaming I am considering going this route (vs another laptop), and your breakdown/input would be greatly appreciated
I'm a big fan of the mini-PC form factor and I appreciate your reviews being straightforward, honest, and thorough. I actually bought my HX99G after watching your review (it's how I ended up subscribing), I wanted to replace my desktop with a mini and watching your breakdown gave me the confidence to take the plunge. Extremely happy I did and I'm grateful that I had your review to reference. I feel like mini PCs don't get enough serious coverage and most of the information about them is through advertising and "fluff articles" that are basically just extended Amazon descriptions
Thank you for the thorough and critical review! Recently I've been disappointed by channels that pump out content with very little critique. Please keep up the hard work.
I'm right there with you. I'd love to have something hooked up in the living room, but I already have a Steamdeck and it feels hard to convince myself to buy another device over just hooking that up.
They should have put the Air Vents at the Side and the Connection Slots at the Back/Bottom. It just looks ugly with all those Cables hanging out left and right.
I just picked one of these up and I was planning on using that GPD G1 with it. Seems like a good 2nd pc that i can actually lug around and better than a laptop imo.
The current Core Ultra chips are a bit underwhelming, but here's hoping Lunar Lake along with Strix Halo shakes up the mini PC segment, assuming Strix Halo isn't just a rumor.
The webcam looks about average for what you find in most laptops today. I find the easiness to reach the fan to clean it is much more important for reparability than accessing the storage. You will more likely to open this to clean the fan than to keep replacing the RAM and the SSD. I am not saying I am crazy about the time needed to reach them, but from the usual design of being able to reach the storage in 2 min and needing god knows how much, if even possible without breaking anything, the CPU fan, I will take this one.
It's wild how far this swings compared to Minisforum's V3 tablet. The Intel Ultra 9 185H is poorly represented here, and I suspect the upcoming ROG NUC or NUC 14 Performance will better demonstrate what it can actually do. But MInisforum seemed to be going for an IOT deal with this device, and they didn't do enough design work to figure this out. For example, the I/O could have been positioned at the bottom side, such that it's all out of the way instead of spread all over it like a bunch of crab legs. The touchscreen doesn't have to stand in as the computer's main screen, but it doesn't have as much functionality as an Echo Dot or an Apple Watch, so that's another facet that wasn't fully thought out. There's clearly a good idea behind this, but the implementation is just bad. I hope if there's a second generation Atom Man, Minisforum looks at what's actually out there so they can make this a solution that solves problems, instead of going around looking for them.
I like the idea of having it on a desk with a gpu showcased right next to it, but the oculink bandwith will impact performance. I'll probably just get the minisforum motherboard with the ryzen 9 and make a super compact gaming pc
you can get white card stock from a hobby supply store, put it to your right and it'll bounce back a lot of that nice soft window light so you're not as much in the shadows!
For this form factor, I will wait for the Qualcomm chips instead. Nice built-in Adreno GPU, and early benchmark tests for popular emulation apps are promising.
You know, when you said "top of the line price" I sort of got scared because I was expecting something over $1000 But under $700 is sort of reasonable, all things considered. In my country these tiny guys would be resold for over $2000 with exchange
To salvage the classy look of the mini-PC before plugging the cables ruin the effect, it would have to be connected at base in some sort of discrete flat dock where the actual cables would plug in and lay flat on the desk.
I think this would be an amazing office pc for an actual cubicle office. But would they buy each one of their employees these pcs when their price is 800 bucks? Do they go high? And if they do, is this better than the other options.
Does anybody actually use the headphone jack for microphone input anymore? Like do they even make those outside of gaming headsets? I never see the thing used for anything besides headphones.
I like this channel, it was super helpful when needing to select devices and configure them. Russ does great content! But as one isn't constantly buying devices, I've stopped watching. I mean I already bought too many devices (that are constantly in a drawer) and forcing myself to stop this 😆. Idea/wishlist, would love coverage of games! Old games, hacks, pico-8, indie/retro.
…i like it…as a circuit bent electronic experimental artist…i like it…the visual look…to see the flow inns n outs…thats sculptural…i like it…more of this please…
Personally, small only makes sense up to about 400 something bucks and that's pushing it. The N100s + N97s make perfect sense for a generic computer. Good enough for most things most of the time. I'd take the money for the cost of this thing and bottom feed parts and slap something together. Not as small, but you could make something small enough.
That is so weird !! The original XBox is the game console that is the closest to a PC in terms of hardware architecture. Intel x86 CPU. NVidia GPU. And Xbox is the emulation that runs the worse on this Intel CPU... That is so odd.. :) Another odd thing is that I heard people often say that Xbox emulation runs better on Linux systems than Windows ones. Again... weird, right? XBox = Microsoft. And it runs better on Linux? :)
6:52 this looks ridiculous.. Imagine if an iMac had cables coming out like that. Man, that screen is pointless...14:10 Who is this PC for!!?? I do dig that GPU dock though! 20:34 Wondering if you could test out video rendering, like 1 minute of video with transitions etc, and maybe a bit of raw editing with Lightroom? Great review, but a big pass for me.
@@dlewis9760 Yeah I get that but it seems more of a bug than a feature. I think it's the limits of the board they're using. Can't get all the io on the bottom.
Ah, here we go again, Ark video performance. I get they are trying to go head-to-head with Nvidia and AMD but, if you're going to release a product/chipset that can't even go close, it's more of a joke than a good video product. Just seeing how bad the MSI Claw is compared to everything else with a crazy price tag, it's going to take quite a while for Intel to get support from vendors on this chipset.
It should be mentioned that for a few weeks now, Elden Ring's performance has been pretty trash on just about any PC. From has even admitted it, but while giving some extremely amateurish recommendations for users to address issues.
Too expensive. What is it with these manufacturers who assume that laptops don't exist or that custom build can't smoke this mini pc for the same amount of money?
Always amusing to see people dunking on Intel versus AMD. They both literally do the same thing: Make your PC work. Performance difference is negligible, and the average consumer would never notice. It's not as drastic as GPUs!
Considering that the whole idea of mini PCs is they're supposed to be out of the way and not really noticeable, making one with a gimmick that requires it be front and center with all the cabling sticking out the sides is....a choice.
I really do not understand the use case for this thing...
it seems to have the worst of both worlds. but maybe i miss the usecase for this
If you could actually cable manage it, and if it were more functional, it wouldn't be a bad idea - basically having a small side dashboard, with some graphs and blinkenlights, maybe some shortcuts that utilize the touchscreen. As it is... yeah, if I want that kind of clutter I'll just hook a laptop up.
Mount it to the wall and it could look cool
…i like it…as a circuit bent electronic experimental artist…i like it…the visual look…to see the flow inns n outs…thats sculptural…i like it…more of this please…
Might seem odd to say, but I'm happy to see a more critical review that usual. It looks bad when reviewers give nothing but praise to products. And this one definitely deserved the criticism.
The price is out of the range I'm willing to pay. I would really like to see best value mini PC reviews.
Id love a video from you on mini pcs at different price points. Ive been in the market, and i cant decide what my budget should be. Kudos from Canada!
On the lower end I really like the beelink amd mini computers. They seem to be clearing out the rest of the 5560u (SER5) ones for about 367$CAD. Gives you 6 cores, 12 threads and a pretty good little GPU for light gaming
Word of caution though. I have had issues installing 2.5 inch drives with beelink. I tried to make a file server with one and it completely killed two SSDs.
Charging $600 and not even including ram or storage is an automatic non starter
I got a Legion Go for $591 and it comes with a screen, so these mini PCs should do better with their pricing lol
Bring back the mini PC reviews!
I got the 6900hx after you tested it. 1year 3 months so far. It's been my main desktop/editing machine/development machine and I love it. Looking to replace my 2016 9550 dell xps that I'm using as a server/backup machine with a new minisforum.
I don't know if minisforum and beelink have much overlap hardware wise, but I had a file server running in a beelink mini S. It killed two SSDs (patriot p210 and a WD blue). So I don't trust the 2.5 inch sata interface anymore. Not sure if it was heat or some kind of voltage spike that killed them.
@@soad11dude how long? My servers back up incrementally every hour to a DAS.
@revaaron I don't remember exactly, but it couldn't have run for more than 6 months before killing each drive. Luckily, they were both replaced under warranty. But after the second one failed, I didn't suspect the drives were the cause anymore.
You have the best reviews Russ!!! Prime just posted an update video on the Legion Go a day ago, but I would like to see your thoughts and review on the new update they just released. Your videos are far more in depth and i really enjoy the quality and how well thought your reviews are!! Thanks for all you do!!
Would have been nice if the I/O ports were on the back so you could hide wires, especially since this is meant to be displayed on a desk.
Imagine an iMac with cables come out of the sides. lol. I think it's probably a limit of their PCB.
@@KyleRugglesI was thinking the same.
Will you make a 2024 mini PC video in a similar manner to your retro handheld rankings videos?
>best of, best value, best cheaper option, etc. factoring in everyday "office" style use, online use, video streaming, current gaming, and, of course, retro gaming
I am considering going this route (vs another laptop), and your breakdown/input would be greatly appreciated
Great job with this review. Extremely well explained and communicated.
I'm a big fan of the mini-PC form factor and I appreciate your reviews being straightforward, honest, and thorough. I actually bought my HX99G after watching your review (it's how I ended up subscribing), I wanted to replace my desktop with a mini and watching your breakdown gave me the confidence to take the plunge. Extremely happy I did and I'm grateful that I had your review to reference. I feel like mini PCs don't get enough serious coverage and most of the information about them is through advertising and "fluff articles" that are basically just extended Amazon descriptions
Thank you for the thorough and critical review! Recently I've been disappointed by channels that pump out content with very little critique. Please keep up the hard work.
Happy to be of help!
Nice review 👌
I want a Mini PC to create a Steam console/emulation machine but man it’s hard to know what to get for this project
I'm right there with you. I'd love to have something hooked up in the living room, but I already have a Steamdeck and it feels hard to convince myself to buy another device over just hooking that up.
Also, this Frankenstein setup reminded me of my Sega Genesis, CD, 32x tower of babel
They should have put the Air Vents at the Side and the Connection Slots at the Back/Bottom.
It just looks ugly with all those Cables hanging out left and right.
Agreed! I keep imagining an iMac with this setup lol.
That new simplistic Oculink E-GPU dock looks interesting. I'll have to keep my eye out for your review when it releases.
I wonder if it also supports thunderbolt 4?
@@Muench13 I hope so!
I just picked one of these up and I was planning on using that GPD G1 with it. Seems like a good 2nd pc that i can actually lug around and better than a laptop imo.
The current Core Ultra chips are a bit underwhelming, but here's hoping Lunar Lake along with Strix Halo shakes up the mini PC segment, assuming Strix Halo isn't just a rumor.
Would love to see a review of the UM890.... Looks like one with a 8945HS chip
This is a relatively good review video.
Yes...Kerrygold butter size comparison is back baby. Now its retro.🇮🇪👏👍
$800 to play everything on low settings
The webcam looks about average for what you find in most laptops today.
I find the easiness to reach the fan to clean it is much more important for reparability than accessing the storage. You will more likely to open this to clean the fan than to keep replacing the RAM and the SSD.
I am not saying I am crazy about the time needed to reach them, but from the usual design of being able to reach the storage in 2 min and needing god knows how much, if even possible without breaking anything, the CPU fan, I will take this one.
It's wild how far this swings compared to Minisforum's V3 tablet. The Intel Ultra 9 185H is poorly represented here, and I suspect the upcoming ROG NUC or NUC 14 Performance will better demonstrate what it can actually do.
But MInisforum seemed to be going for an IOT deal with this device, and they didn't do enough design work to figure this out. For example, the I/O could have been positioned at the bottom side, such that it's all out of the way instead of spread all over it like a bunch of crab legs.
The touchscreen doesn't have to stand in as the computer's main screen, but it doesn't have as much functionality as an Echo Dot or an Apple Watch, so that's another facet that wasn't fully thought out.
There's clearly a good idea behind this, but the implementation is just bad. I hope if there's a second generation Atom Man, Minisforum looks at what's actually out there so they can make this a solution that solves problems, instead of going around looking for them.
I just got a SER8. Hopefully no regrets 😶
I doubt that you will have regrets.
Can you review the upcoming g7 pt amd certified mini pc when it comes out? It looks more promising!
Russ, love your videos!
Can you do a light gun video please!
I like the idea of having it on a desk with a gpu showcased right next to it, but the oculink bandwith will impact performance. I'll probably just get the minisforum motherboard with the ryzen 9 and make a super compact gaming pc
you can get white card stock from a hobby supply store, put it to your right and it'll bounce back a lot of that nice soft window light so you're not as much in the shadows!
If you manually set up power modes in windows, does the screen change them?
For this form factor, I will wait for the Qualcomm chips instead. Nice built-in Adreno GPU, and early benchmark tests for popular emulation apps are promising.
I think playing at 900p is a good compromise for modern games. 720p on modern tvs is rough
Can you do a review on the super console x5 pro your the most accurate reviewer so Im just waiting on that video🎉🎉
What did you think of the final shape DLC?
Why did TH-cam not show me this upload
You know, when you said "top of the line price" I sort of got scared because I was expecting something over $1000
But under $700 is sort of reasonable, all things considered. In my country these tiny guys would be resold for over $2000 with exchange
Good video! Intel Meteor Lake is the new Pentium 4.
To salvage the classy look of the mini-PC before plugging the cables ruin the effect, it would have to be connected at base in some sort of discrete flat dock where the actual cables would plug in and lay flat on the desk.
I think this would be an amazing office pc for an actual cubicle office. But would they buy each one of their employees these pcs when their price is 800 bucks? Do they go high? And if they do, is this better than the other options.
Wouldn’t an office be more likely to have laptops?
I would love to see Russ doing a livestream playing Elden Ring. It’s a personal dream of mine.
Does anybody actually use the headphone jack for microphone input anymore? Like do they even make those outside of gaming headsets? I never see the thing used for anything besides headphones.
Yay mini pcs!!
If you sit in front of your monitor with the device off to the side, does the webcam still capture your face?
Similar B550 cpu comes with dock and any video card able to play high end . Cool 😎 video
Wait did Russ just say “the Russ of the touch screen”? 😂 I had to rewind to check
What's the ssd the comes with this unit ?
I like this channel, it was super helpful when needing to select devices and configure them. Russ does great content! But as one isn't constantly buying devices, I've stopped watching. I mean I already bought too many devices (that are constantly in a drawer) and forcing myself to stop this 😆.
Idea/wishlist, would love coverage of games! Old games, hacks, pico-8, indie/retro.
There are too my options for a proper replacement PC, and I want a small one instead of a massive tower
Can U do a new review for a tablet???
If that screen could be used for gaming that would be cool😂
Rg cube guide please!
"A K-Mart version of the Matrix."
EPIC
…i like it…as a circuit bent electronic experimental artist…i like it…the visual look…to see the flow inns n outs…thats sculptural…i like it…more of this please…
I’d pay to see videos of you shopping and explaining why you bought Brand X instead of Brand Y.
Still using my HX99G.
Does it play Doom?
I just want a Laptop without a screen why the hell is so hard to find full packed PCs? (Battery included)
Is that the same screen as powkiddy rgb30?
The price on these mini pc's is always what kills me
Is there any tiny PC systems, that can be powered from a battery, or some power supply device, like power bank / portable charger?
“A K-Mart version of The Matrix …” I am slain! 😂😂😂
I got a Legion Go for $591 and it comes with a screen, so these mini PCs should do better with their pricing lol
Not a bad machine but the support for emulation on AMD is much better
i'm really eyeing the new UM890 Pro
That xenoblade emulation glitch is crazy 😂
Butter
Mini pc rock with coinops
Wish the screen had more functionality
12:43 this controller seems like the best thing to come out of Starfield.
If that little screen was a bit larger and could be used a touch screen for DS and 3DS emulation, it would be interesting. Otherwise..... naaaaah lol
PS5 emulation looks great.
sorry gang, no permission to snack today
cyberpunk like tails from the afternow cyberpunk ?
It kinda seems like you would be better served getting a ROG Ally...
Mini pcs with screens reminds me of TechDweeb
This wasn’t designed by engineers. My guess is the marketing team.
Nope. Anything mini AMD only. Until Intel improves their efficiency and iGPU
It would be cool if you tested Uncharted Games when you’re looking at PS3 Emulation
seems a bit large for a mini pc imo
Those cables look awful - and all you had to do was put the sockets on the back....
What a rip off
Personally, small only makes sense up to about 400 something bucks and that's pushing it. The N100s + N97s make perfect sense for a generic computer. Good enough for most things most of the time. I'd take the money for the cost of this thing and bottom feed parts and slap something together. Not as small, but you could make something small enough.
That is so weird !!
The original XBox is the game console that is the closest to a PC in terms of hardware architecture. Intel x86 CPU. NVidia GPU.
And Xbox is the emulation that runs the worse on this Intel CPU... That is so odd.. :)
Another odd thing is that I heard people often say that Xbox emulation runs better on Linux systems than Windows ones. Again... weird, right? XBox = Microsoft. And it runs better on Linux? :)
Avx512 hasn't been in use since 11th gen
6:52 this looks ridiculous.. Imagine if an iMac had cables coming out like that.
Man, that screen is pointless...14:10
Who is this PC for!!??
I do dig that GPU dock though! 20:34
Wondering if you could test out video rendering, like 1 minute of video with transitions etc, and maybe a bit of raw editing with Lightroom?
Great review, but a big pass for me.
With the wires it has a cyber punk vibe like some futuristic retro hardware.
@@dlewis9760 Yeah I get that but it seems more of a bug than a feature. I think it's the limits of the board they're using. Can't get all the io on the bottom.
I rather get a Rog Ally and buy a dock.
It looks like a "gaming wifi router" from 2014
it does look kinda ugly but kinda cool at the time? since it looks different than most pcs
Ah, here we go again, Ark video performance. I get they are trying to go head-to-head with Nvidia and AMD but, if you're going to release a product/chipset that can't even go close, it's more of a joke than a good video product.
Just seeing how bad the MSI Claw is compared to everything else with a crazy price tag, it's going to take quite a while for Intel to get support from vendors on this chipset.
As soon as I saw “intel Arc” I thought “I’m out”
It should be mentioned that for a few weeks now, Elden Ring's performance has been pretty trash on just about any PC. From has even admitted it, but while giving some extremely amateurish recommendations for users to address issues.
Is it just me, or is that pretty bad performance for that price?
Too expensive. What is it with these manufacturers who assume that laptops don't exist or that custom build can't smoke this mini pc for the same amount of money?
Great price/performance + small form factor where power supply is uninterrupted.
no good looking no good performance for what 850$ ??
Cyberpunk clock?
The design of this thing is so odd i half expected them to put in an unconnected battery just so they could use it as a heatsink
790 pro. No regerts. 😂
Intel means automatically skip
Updates gonna stop in 6 months
Always amusing to see people dunking on Intel versus AMD. They both literally do the same thing: Make your PC work. Performance difference is negligible, and the average consumer would never notice. It's not as drastic as GPUs!
1st
Dude $600 plus usd just get a ps5
W clock, L pc