I'm very happy with the Dell 3260 as a workstation for dev work (it's available w/ Ubuntu preinstalled). Discrete GPUs are a configuration option but I have no idea how they spec out for gaming.
Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
21–30 of 50 posts
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#22The fine folks over at /r/minipc Reddit forum keep a whole spreadsheet tracking nearly all the best options with columns for various features. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IjCpi4_z_WfO0G53E_mW... Personally I purchased a beelink ser7: - AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS - Radeon780M (RDNA 3) - 32Gb ram All for about 700 IIRC
Having recently been in the market for a mini pc myself (my use case were slightly different), I have arrived at the conclusion there is nothing similar to Mac Mini/Mac Studios on the market at the moment. These devices take 10W idle & 80W while running compute heavy tasks like stable diffusion/LLM using it's unified memory - magical.
That being said you might like AsRock's offerring for a more DIY customization - https://www.asrock.com/nettop/index.asp They are supposed to comeout with a AM5+DDR5 version this quarter if you want to wait for that.
Minisforum, beelink have some top of the line offerings supporting AM5 already but their limited upgrade-ability means they will not retain price over the years (you might be better of buying a year older version of their offerings to be more cost effective) unlike with ASRock desk(mini|meets) where you decide what you put into it.
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#23The hidden pitfall in this question is that the most obvious answers come with external power supplies. Some are half the size of the computer. e.g. https://www.servethehome.com/lenovo-thinkcentre-m920x-tiny-r... Some models can be powered over USB-C, allowing them to run off compact GaN chargers, monitors, etc. https://www.amazon.com/MINISFORUM-7940HS-Radeon-USB3-2-PCIe4...
I have a work-issued Lenovo ThinkCentre M Tiny...it's so infuriatingly loud! The fans seem to spin up at completely random times that have nothing to do with workload, and they're incredibly loud.
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#24HP G series mini computers. Reliable machines, especially the g6 and g8. E.g. g8 https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c07588846
++ on the 1 liter pc: https://www.servethehome.com/perfect-project-tinyminimicro-p...
The good part is that you can upgrade ram/storage/interfaces. The bad part (as far as a tidy integrated package) is that they have external PSUs.
I have a trouble-free HP G series but it isn't clear to me what would differentiate it from the equivalent Lenovo or Dell.
The next interesting task is to add an external GPU [0] to make it a modular computer similar to the Snow White concept [1].
0. https://egpu.io/exp-gdc-th3p4g2-thunderbolt-gpu-dock-review/
1. https://www.designboom.com/technology/hartmut-esslingers-ear...
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#25If you don't need a lot of performance (depending on how old those games are) you can get a second-hand HP EliteDesk 705 G5 Mini or Lenovo M75q Tiny (both with AMD Ryzen 3200GE / Vega 8) for very little money.
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#26The Lenovo ThinkStation Tiny Workstation series looks to be about the right form factor (can be mounted on the back of a monitor too). Only missing criteria is a dedicated GPU, but Iris Xe iGPU's outperform a GTX 260, so for only gaming it might be an OK compromise. They can be had cheaply second-hand. If you're willing to go slightly larger, Mini-ITX PCs are still quite small, but have the benefit of all desktop-cla…
What kind of recommendation is this? Either buy outdated stuff or buy something bigger while ignoring the thousands of minipcs models available?
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#27I am a big "mini PC" guy. We've owned a bunch of NUCs, custom SFF builds, custom laptops, etc to try and get generally the best bang for the buck in a small form factor.
My recommendations:
- Intel NUC. You can pickup a used Skull Canyon NUC if you can find one at a reasonable price, will easily handle all the games and things you mentioned. I owned one and loved it!
- Asus ROG Ally with the Z1. $399 at Best Buy, can handle all your gaming needs, only needs a single USB C hub to connect to everything. I currently use the Z1 Extreme version (more powerful) as my PRIMARY desktop. I love it.
- Get a cheap laptop. Find something with the bare minimum specs to run the things you need and just keep it closed.
- Build your own SFF. Find a really tiny case, get a really tiny power supply, and get an APU from AMD that has a built-in GPU. They run cool, they are cheap (though not as cheap as a cheap laptop or steam deck), and you can customize whatever you want. You can get pretty tiny with these, but not exactly Mac Mini sized.
- Get a base iPad (~$230 on sale), Samsung tablet ($99+), Android stick (< $99), whatever and do a remote desktop. I use GeForce Now for a ton of my gaming and Microsoft just released a new "Windows as an app" concept for iOS that gives you a remote desktop.
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#28You could look into the new Minis Forum MS 01 (which is already on sale?): https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-ms-01
Starts from $549 for the barebones with an i9-12900H. You could argue it is a better option as it has an internal PCIe slot for a half-slot GPU, which will be much less bulk than a mini PC + eGPU. Plus, it would probably be cheaper since eGPUs aren't cheap.
ETA Prime did a review on it the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUlptjU0vFQ
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#29There are some new AMD-based NUC-type systems which seem to be picking up the NUC mantle that Intel abandoned. https://www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-minipc-solutions Serve The Home is also a big fan and reviews anything in this form factor that comes out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzXkGrVBQ_4
I just got an Asus PN53 with the Ryzen 7735H processor at work. Officially it only supports 32GB but I slapped two 32GB sticks in there for 64GB total and it worked just fine. Takes a minute or two to train the memory on first boot though!
Anyway, with a fast PCIe 4.0 NVMe OS disk it's plenty fast for me. Benchmarks puts it on par with my Ryzen 3800X at home.
Supports additional NVMe and a 2.5" SATA so fair bit of storage, and sports 2.5GbE.
Haven't tried to stress the GPU, but feels smooth in Windows, YouTube in Firefox and all that jazz.
There's also the Akasa Turing Duo case[1] if you want to make it fanless.
[1]: https://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=product/product.deta...
Re: Ask HN: What alternatives exist to a Mac mini but for Windows?
#30The fine folks over at /r/minipc Reddit forum keep a whole spreadsheet tracking nearly all the best options with columns for various features. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IjCpi4_z_WfO0G53E_mW... Personally I purchased a beelink ser7: - AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS - Radeon780M (RDNA 3) - 32Gb ram All for about 700 IIRC
Having recently been in the market for a mini pc myself (my use case were slightly different), I have arrived at the conclusion there is nothing similar to Mac Mini/Mac Studios on the market at the moment. These devices take 10W idle & 80W while running compute heavy tasks like stable diffusion/LLM using it's unified memory - magical. That being said you might like AsRock's offerring for a more DIY customization - ht…
It's kind of disingenuous to criticise minipc's for "limited upgrade-ability" when the Mac Mini has everything soldered on and is completely non-upgradable (no storage, no memory, no cpu upgrades), and the Mac Studio has memory slots, but non-upgradable and proprietary components.
If you want to judge a small serverlike device for being non-upgradable, the Mac Mini and Mac Studio would completely fail this criteria.