$69,- Mini PC Emulation On A Budget - Your Retro 2024 Gaming Dream Machine !

HP Elite Mini PC Thin client pc's come in many different Intel CPU models.
This T6600 is a crazy overal good solution for gaming on a budget ! 🦾

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------ Disclaimer -----
Product / Products I show in this video have been purchased by myself.
Nobody is paying me for promoting / showing this product.

#retrogaming #videogames #aliexpress

[geofferzh]

I didn't catch what cpu this has?

[gdjaybee]

The best CPU option for these emulation are i5 7th gen and above, and if you have the option of getting either an i7 6th gen vs i5 7th gen, go with the i5 7th gen. Most if not all emulators are still working on only 4 threads or less, and are optimimized mostly on single thread performance, so more thread doesn't mean more performance. The higher the boost clock on a single thread the more performance you get, but more importantly, is the igpu/apu video card, the 7th gen cpus have a generational upgrade in igpu, from the u530 to the u630. u630 is in 7th, 8th, and 9th gen, so you are getting a be boost in graphics performance when you go for 7th gen and above. This is really what is important when you are looking at these mini devices and are looking to do emulation. Unless if you get a Ryzen 5 2xxx, these have better APU than Intel all together.

[uphoriak]

Been watching your channel for a long time now and just before christmas got myself a Lenovo m920q (9th gen i5) for $120 on eBay with 8gb ram and 512gb drive. Doubled the ram it came with to 16gb and it's the business, very happy with it :)

[RCfromtheNYC]

Last year, I got a Dell Optiplex 7050 Micro with an i7 CPU, and after boosting the memory to 32GB and installing Batocera on an internal SSD, I can play games up to the Wii and PS2 butter-smooth! 🕹️🎮👍🏼

[kdstyles]

thanks to you i built a Dell Optiplex 3040 micro Batocera box. i can play up to xbox, ps2, dreamcast, etc. loving every bit of it. it came with 8GB of RAM. looking to up it to 16. thanks for the ideas

[DannyWelch]

This is the route I settled on as well. Have built tons of systems with SBC's over the years, but it's hard to beat a used 1L PC like these with Batocera. I bought mine for $99 off Amazon, dropped in a 2TB SSD, and can emulate pretty much anything I care about. Even supports Dolphin Bar and Sinden light guns out of the box for Wii controllers and light gun games. The system pulls about 20W at idle and 30W when gaming, which is pretty efficient for the performance IMHO.

[krzysztofjablonski]

It started with watching videos on YT about Androidbox and emuelec... then I wanted to buy one... I came across videos from Minipc... and I was fascinated by them. I bought a Dell Optiplex 3060 i5 8500t 32gb ram, added a 1Tb ssd.. Soon I'll be using gaming pads and Batocera... and I'll drift off into my 80s and 90s. It's all because of you!!! You infected me and I thank you very much. Greetings from Poland

[jimmyjm]

Wicked you are reading my mind again!
I purchased a hp elite desk G4 mini 8th gen i5 last week and downloaded a 2TB batocera image.
I've just ordered a 2tb nvme m.2 to flash it to and should be up and running for some retro naughtiness by the weekend! 😎

[chrishensley]

This is the best bang for the buck in my opinion. I just installed Batocera on a Dell 7040 thin client and have been having a blast seeing what this little rig can push. There are TONS of these thin clients out there on the cheap.

[erikkarsies]

Btw for people who want to use a box for youtube in 4k also, not having av1 decoding might be an issue and thus a reason not to choose the old stuff (or the Pi5)

[DavidRobinson]

I just recently converted my 2009 iMac that was collecting dust to a Batocera machine, it's great just because the quality of the screen.

[patrickstoute]

Geweldig. Mn vorige bedrijf gebruikt dit voor de schermen. Het feit dat ze meer kunnen dan wat ze nu doen.. amazing. Thx voor het maken van deze video. Ik ga sneaky ff langs of ze er nog 1 over hebben 😁

[MrSketchydave]

I was given a Lenovo Thinkcentre last month. Again an i5 with Intel 630 graphics. Got it hooked up to a 52" LG OLED and Yamaha Reciever. It runs most things just great, all for free!

[JamieStuff]

I've been picking up these Tiny/Mini/Micro systems for a while now. Couple one of these with a 4 bay USB hard drive enclosure, and you have a cheap NAS. They make great dedicated boxes; now that 8th gen Intel units are showing up on the used market, Windows 11 via RDP works great for those Windows-only programs. Yes, I could use a virtual machine (done that), but it's nice to have a dedicated CPU handling heavy duty stuff like transcoding and recompressing, then have it shut itself off when done to save power. (Wake-on-LAN is great.)

[geoserenity]

I use the older elitedesk version of this you covered before, but this seems to be the same thing with a slightly less underpowered cpu (the elitedesk has an i5 660ou).

The elitedesk can still handle some more basic xbox games tho, Phantom Crash runs fine on it. PS2 and Gamecube runs everything fine on it. Oh, and despite rumours, I know someone who has windows 11 on their elitedesk. so Windows 11 should run fine on the prodesk too

Also, strongly disagree about not using the on board speaker. It's quite decent for what it is, just stick it on the shelf under the TV and enjoy your retro games

EDIT: It seems the T series i5 is the basic non-overclockable chip, the U series is i7. So the prodesk is just a renamed elitedesk that was previously reviewed a year or 2 ago

Still a decent machine tho, go get one (of any name). OH, but be careful, only get one with a 90W charger. Friend of mine got one on Amazon with a 65W charger, and he had lots of power issues. he asked what I use, and got a 90W charger like I have

[jaymacaulay]

Im un the process of converting my HP 800 G3 into a gaming system. Thanks to all of your videos I know what to do, and what to avoid. Thanks!

[MotownBatman]

HP has been making some Slick SFF or SSFF cases lately, Not sure why, the ProDesk like this Look like the Grill of an O.G. Xbox,
the EliteDesk with the Silver/Chrome looking faceplate, just simplistic to look at as an easy Gaming Set-Top Box

[jamesmichael]

Thanks I enjoy these random tech reviews

[erikkarsies]

The problem with used products like this is that prices might differ greatly (especially youtubers seem to get them a lot cheaper than their followers ;) ) So it's less fun comparing them to each other, because the option for a fair price might not be available for many people. Do you know that sometimes that their little intel N100 boxes (DDR5 versions seems to handle even PS2 2x upscale and Xbox classic emulation!) that are cheaper than the windows 11 pro license installed on them? I think that one might more sense because it has hardware Av1 decoding so you can play 4k60 Youtube on it. With al the cheap alternatives new and second hand the reign of the Raspberry Pi seems to be definitely over anyway.

[jamescameron]

Looks like I'm going to have to go shopping. I like the idea of an almost console-like form factor running some retro classics