Top 5 Mini PCs 2024 ($409 - $1199)

In this video, we examine the top five mini PCs in 2024, chosen from many potential candidates. All minis were reviewed by me personally on this channel, and these are my best five category winners, chosen based on a range of factors including performance, noise, value, and cooling.

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00:00 - The Best
01:07 - Best OCulink Mini
02:45 - Best Value
04:12 - Best Intel mini
05:52 - Best Performance
07:27 - Best Gaming
09:38 - More to Come

[reggiedixon]

Bought a Minisforum UM790 Pro barebones for £369 UKP. The 7940HS cpu is a monster. Adding 32GB DDR5 and a Gen 4 NVMe only cost me £70 plus £35. Value and top performance in one package.

[petemonster]

Thanks for the Top 5 video Rob. You're doing top work and I'm really pleased it sounds like there's increasing audience and support to help you keep on keeping on. Cheers!

[RachelCM]

Great reviews. I recently bought a SER8 after masses of research but your channel is excellent for reminding me what a great choice I made. Sure, I'd love a SER9, but there's no way I could justify splashing all that cash on a mini PC. I won't spend that much on an upgrade for my desktop which arguably would get me far more bang for my buck, so the SER9 can remain a very nice dream for now lol.

[J.Wick.]

Great video. There's so many of these things out there, with very similar specs and prices. Helps to see what someone who has seen many/most of them think. I've been very impressed with the 7840HS & U/780M combo for a couple years now. I think the next gen of this product is gonna take off big time. The HX370 chip looks to be super impressive. At 1000$ it doesn't make sense to me just yet, but once the price comes down...

[TrusteftTech]

Good video.
Finally seeing lower priced mini PCs with oculink. Gives an extra incentive to buy them, especially the Intel based ones.
I know we will never see one, but I do wonder what eGPU an Intel N100 would be able to support without bottlenecking.

[worlds_okayest_crossfitter]

I was kind of surprised to see the Minisforum UM890 Pro not even get an honorable mention for this list. Why not? It's (relatively) new but... so? It checks most all of the boxes at a solid price too so I'm a little surprised by this.

[RobinTheHoodedMan]

The one I want is just out of my range, (the SER 9). I am surprised it didn't include USB4 and/or Oculink. I enjoy your video's, and at some point my disposable will cross paths with 1 of your recomendations.

[bryans]

I'm looking forward to your review of the top 5 under $200.

[alexi]

you've got great videos on these mini pcs

[arcayne]

Every mini-PC should have a backside OcuLink port by now. It is the only reason I have yet to buy one. The SER8 with the 8745HS is almost perfect... it's just missing the backside OcuLink port.

[robmoore]

I ordered the Beelink EQi12 but the ram was a bit low for me (I need to have over 200 browser tabs open for Zoho CRM). I sold it to a friend and ordered the Beelink SER8 with 32GB ram. Its very fast and does what I need. But I have noticed that the EQi12 was quiter than the SER8. I have noticed that the SER8 fan keeps running even when in sleep mode. I have hardly ever seen the cpu working above 20%. Mostly it just runs between 5 and 10% of cpu during my heavy work loads. So it doesn't need to use full power. If i limit the cpu% in the power settings, would it be safe to turn the fan off? Is there a better option in the bios to turn the fan off until it gets too hot?

[avalagum]

I'll wait until the beelink SER7 price goes down to $300 to buy 1 🙂

[MDunaev]

Thanks, mate! You are my only window to mini pc world.

[Alexoliveira-ugmh]

I swear that you were going to pick the gmktec k8 Plus ...
Aoostar Gem12 8845hs or Gmktec k8 plus?
I want to buy one next week....
Cheers

[growlingoctopus]

I'm surprised you completely glossed over the biggest downside of the SER9: the fact that the RAM is soldered so if you have any intent of bumping that you can't. That's the reason I chose a different mini over it (a barebones UM890, sure it's an 8945HS vs the HX 370, but I can put 96 GB of ram in it).

[lubossoltes]

As for the GEM12 memory OC, it enables you to set the Clock to any JEDEC spec found in the SPD. You CANNOT set a clock higher than SPD spec. So if you have 5600MT/s modules with the 6900HX you can set the memory speed. If the module will be only 4800MT/s you cannot. Also anything marked XMP etc will be ignored. So much for the overclocking.

[ThedarkestBlack-yo]

AWESOME CHANNEL, COOL STYLE, EASY TO UNDERSTAND, LOUD AND CLEAR :) A+++
BY THE WAY, WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST MINI FOR VIDEO EDITING???
THANKS A LOT!

[EcksGamer]

Personally, the HX99G would be the better buy over the G7 PT just because you have the 2xUSB4 ports in the back of the unit so if the GPU becomes obsolete then you could still use an eGPU solution and sure that USB4 is a little slower than OCuLink but the thing is when you slap in something like a RX 7900 GRE you would get a lot more performance than the RX 7600M XT and you're be able to do 1440p/4K gaming without issues.

[GeeksAndGamingNetwork]

if you were to add the gmktec k8 plus to the list it would be #2😋

[skipppppppa]

My current setup is a MacBook M1 connected to a monitor, Apple Magic Keyboard, and a Bluetooth mouse. I love it. I work in music production and also use Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop, and it handles everything well.

The only thing missing is a gaming console. I’m leaning towards a PS5 because it’s easy to use, but it doesn't have the online capabilities I’m looking for. I don’t want a bulky PC either since I move around a lot.

I’ve recently discovered mini PCs.

Would you recommend a mini PC for my setup, or is there something else that would work? Ideally, I’d like to plug the mini PC into my monitor alongside the MacBook M1 and switch between them. I’d also use the Magic Keyboard and Bluetooth mouse for both devices. The mini PC would mainly be for gaming, like GTA 5 RP, and I’d like to stream on Twitch from it as well.

I’m hoping to find a mini PC that can handle all of this.