Best Mini PC Pre Built ??

scotslad

scotslad

scotslad

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EDIT: I Want it to be running windows.

I have been looking at some of the 'pre built' mini pc's I see available online in youtube reviews etc from several different hardware manufacturers.

I think I would maybe like to buy one, but as I have no experience with anything smaller than large pc's I have no experience, but I think in my opinion anyway they look really good, well some do, the very very cheap ones are not that great looking and the very most expensive options are just out of my reach, so I would be looking at best bang for my buck if you know what I mean ??

Can some people please give me some ideas please ?

Thanks guys :)
 
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Hi,

What will be main use? State a preferred budget and a maximum budget. And maybe a few cases you like the looks of.

Can also check out OcUK pre-builts here: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2475

But if you want it custom, you can pick out the parts then post in Customer Services and ask for a build quote (the price is very reasonable in my experience, albeit limited to one experience :) ).
 
Danny75 said:
Hi,

What will be main use? State a preferred budget and a maximum budget. And maybe a few cases you like the looks of.

Can also check out OcUK pre-builts here: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2475

But if you want it custom, you can pick out the parts then post in Customer Services and ask for a build quote (the price is very reasonable in my experience, albeit limited to one experience :) ).
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Hi thanks,

The price really doesn't matter that much.

I would use it for basically everything and anything, if you look at my system specs in my signature you will see what I am used to, I used to be very much into the overclocking and gaming scenes etc but not really now as I am just too tired of it all to tell the truth, I think I would rather just have something simple but powerful like a good mini pc.

I spend most of my time these days just Googling the web, watching HD catch up Tv and/or Movies.

I don't mind staying at the same or similar specs to my own home built rig or close enough, I love the fact that the little mini pc's seem to be able to do mostly anything apart from very very serious gaming which I don't do these days anyway.

Its as if the market is flooded with them by all manufacturers, theres a lot of them, I even see a whole lot of them on OcUK too, makes it all the more difficult to choose the best one lol.

I was watching some videos on youtube in the early hours of the morning and I seen ones that are more like the size of a playstation or xbox etc, I think those ones are possibly the ones with the best hardware and performance, right ??

This is one part of the market I have no clue about but I guess its not rocket science if it has an Intel i7 cpu, 8 or 16gb ram and an ssd ??
 
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Sounds like you want a small form almost HTPC but with a dedicated graphics card in case you want to game?

Is this been connected to a tv or monitor?

You could certainly get say a Skylake i7 ITX build with a GTX970mini for around £1000. Or an i5 with a GTX960 mini for 700-800, or an i3 prob 600-700.

An other option would be looking at an FM2 AMD APU option if you dont intend to game heavily. Would be a cheap system probably around £300ish.

If you dont want a dedicated GPU then obviously we are stepping down to a few hundred.

Small form pcs I find are a very personal thing as it comes down to the case for a lot of people. These can vary hugely in price. A good starting point is either picking the CPU and GPU and working back, or picking the case and working out what fits.
 
ndaar said:
Sounds like you want a small form almost HTPC but with a dedicated graphics card in case you want to game?

Is this been connected to a tv or monitor?

You could certainly get say a Skylake i7 ITX build with a GTX970mini for around £1000. Or an i5 with a GTX960 mini for 700-800, or an i3 prob 600-700.

An other option would be looking at an FM2 AMD APU option if you dont intend to game heavily. Would be a cheap system probably around £300ish.

If you dont want a dedicated GPU then obviously we are stepping down to a few hundred.

Small form pcs I find are a very personal thing as it comes down to the case for a lot of people. These can vary hugely in price. A good starting point is either picking the CPU and GPU and working back, or picking the case and working out what fits.
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Thank you,

I have a high quality Sony Led Tv (1920x1080p) 42inch.

I want to buy pre built with an extended warranty, that way it saves me having to do anything.

For the past couple of days I have been looking around the internet and I think the way to go for me is the best mini pc's that require literally zero maintainance, I just cant be bothered anymore more these days trying to keep looking after my big rig, its too much hassle for me because my back and knees are done in man, know what I mean.

I could may well once in a while play a game but I doubt it, not been into gaming for ages now, its really only like I explained earlier, I would be watching HD catch-up tv programs and HD movies etc plus browsing the internet, that's about it really, I would still like the thing to pack a big punch though if I ever needed it to do something, in other words the best of the cpu's and GPU Chipset and the best ram etc etc, I see that the mini boxes are capable of taking 16BG ram and seemingly from what I read they will accept 1866MHz ram but I cant see a website that is selling a mini pc that has maybe a skylake cpu and 1866 ram, they all seem to be lower spec i7 cpu's and 1600 ram and the lower spec i7 chipsets don't seem to have as good a onboard graphics as Skylake does from what I read and/or see ?

I wonder though, I currently have an intel i7 3770K cpu with 8gb of 1600 ram, that's 3rd Generation, does anyone know if one of the top range 5th or 6th Generation cpu mini pc's would be better than what my machine is just now or equally as good for what I need it for, that's the big question I guess ? (as I say though, I cant find 6th Gen ones for sale which is strange ?)

I do like look of some of those "small form factor pc's" but to be honest I really don't need all that comes in them really really good ones like a stand alone graphics card etc, to me I think for my needs that may well be just a waste of money really, however I worry a little about the graphics on the intel chipsets, are they really able to produce a great quality 1920 x 1080p HD video image for example ??
I see that the new Skylake graphics seems to be much better than the others but I cannot find a mini pc for sale that has that hardware, maybe I am just not looking in the right places online, I don't know, I certainly don't see them on OcUK ?

If I could just find some for sale pre built like I say then I would be able to purchase online obviously but I am both still unsure whats the best one for me and my needs and what cpu and ram etc I should get, hmmm :confused:

Its really great that there is lots and lots of them for sale from nearly all computer hardware manufacturers but there is so many its extremely difficult indeed, hmmm :confused:
 
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Well TBH the Intel inbuilt GPUs on the chips are fine for video viewing and general browsing etc but not for gaming beyond very simple things.

If you are going to game at all in any fashion Id add a GPU or go AMD APU.

Im confused though if you are only doing what you say ie browsing etc putting in an i7 chip and 16gb of ram is a complete waste of time and money.

I think you need to really work out what you are definitely going to use it for and a budget otherwise your just going to go round and round.

In terms of working out how good a cpu is there are many comparision searches just put them into google.
 
ndaar said:
Well TBH the Intel inbuilt GPUs on the chips are fine for video viewing and general browsing etc but not for gaming beyond very simple things.

If you are going to game at all in any fashion Id add a GPU or go AMD APU.

Im confused though if you are only doing what you say ie browsing etc putting in an i7 chip and 16gb of ram is a complete waste of time and money.

I think you need to really work out what you are definitely going to use it for and a budget otherwise your just going to go round and round.

In terms of working out how good a cpu is there are many comparision searches just put them into google.
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Thank you,

when I said intel i7 cpu and large amount of ram etc I am just basically stating what I already have and if those tiny little mini pc's can accept them then I am best to get the best ones fastest cpu/ram etc, that's what I meant, basically future proofing it somewhat.

If you look at my signature you will see my current system spec, I have tried the onboard graphics that come with my setup and to be honest it wasn't that great but I guess acceptable, but remember this is just 3rd Gen and not 5th or 6th Gen, If I remember correctly I believe that using onboard graphics uses system ram too so that's why I mentioned maybe best to get as much and as fast ram possible too ?

Lots of guys reviewing various models of the mini pc's on youtube etc say that although the sellers appear to sell with just 1600MHz ram they can actually use 1866 which seems a better Idea to me ?

I see you talk of the AMD APU, can you tell me more about that please as I haven't touched AMD in maybe 15 years or something like that to be honest, what and where to buy and do they come in pre built mini's etc ?? and would you say they fair better than the intel in a lot of ways, as I say I have not touched AMD anything in a long long time apart from Graphics cards.
 
anyone know if the 6th Generation mini pc's are available yet ?? (I mean the little box ones, extremely small).

I have seen a lot of stuff about them on the internet but cant seem to find any for sale, hmm.....

Anyone know ?
 
I think they're offered with 1600mhz ram because theres little point fitting any faster with these types of machines due to them being haswell/broadwell or lower spec cpu's. Its only the skylakes etc that require faster ram. Have you looked at the alienware alpha range? The gpu in them is a 860m which is around a desktop gtx 750 ti performance, not terrible for 1080p gaming should you want to plus the benefit of a true quad core cpu instead of the gimped i5 mobiles. I liked the look of the Gigabyte brix gaming with the 760 gtx on board but the reviews put me off because of the heat and the noise so if you're looking at a compact pre built and want silence the search becomes even harder! Also if you go with a machine with discrete graphics you get the benefit of hardware decoding/acceleration in apps/movies etc.

As for the AMD ones this is about the best you can currently get:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4930#ov

And from the looks of this it's pretty poor performance wise:
 
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You will find some useful info on mini PCs here, but have you considered getting a console for your gaming and a PC for your PC stuff?
 
thanks for the info davida76 and also thank you Quartz too :)

@Quartz, I did think about the game consoles but they don't have windows, plus the latest reviews of the latest mini pc's (like the intel nuc's with skylake cpu and the rest of them that other manufacturers make) have showed that these tiny little little boxes are going to make a lot of people give up on
desktop pc's because with the intel skylake cpu and 32gb ram and the superb on board graphics mean really you don't even need a big desktop machine, these mini pc's are actually a desktop in a tiny little cube, I know that if someone is an extreme gamer then you will never beat a large fancy desktop machine but if your just an average gamer then these little things are easily well capable of basically doing everything you need :)

I am just finding it hard to find any for sale yet with the Skylake cpu's, unless I am looking at the wrong things, lol, I don't know, so many cpu's these days to choose from, but yes its best if we can buy one with the Intel Skylake cpu in it, much better performance like I said.

p.s, I don't game and if I did I am not fussy, I just want to have a very powerful mini pc like I said.
 
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lots of great info on those links etc guys thanks :), I defo want one with the skylake cpu's (6th generation) and maybe 12 or 16 or 32gb ram, the ram speed doesn't matter to me, 1600 will be fine but I did see on the internet that people have tried 1866MHz and not had any problems, and like I said with the i7 skylake platform you get pretty great graphics too (4K Video etc), yeah they look good man :)
 
Quartz said:
It's larger than the NUC, but have you considered a Shuttle XPC box?
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no but I will look now thanks :)

sorry, I should have said very small even like the intel nuc size and a bit larger, what I mean is the ones that require literally zero maintenance, yes that's what I meant, oops, lol

ok just looked at the shuttle box (nano) looks to me like they don't have skylake cpu, hmmm, that's a pity, I think the cpu that seems to be the one to go for is the skylake i7 i7-6700T, but I don't seem to be able to find one in the mini pc format, hmmm :confused:
 
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Oh I see one now, and usually when you see one you will then see more I hope :)

Sentinel Skylake Fanless with i7-6700 etc etc etc , extremely expensive though :(

all sorts of options available on that box man, amazing :)

One thing they don't appear to say though is the actual box size, anyone have any ideas ??
 
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scotslad said:
Oh I see one now, and usually when you see one you will then see more I hope :)

Sentinel Skylake Fanless with i7-6700 etc etc etc , extremely expensive though :(

all sorts of options available on that box man, amazing :)

One thing they don't appear to say though is the actual box size, anyone have any ideas ??
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I see the size of that now, its 240 x 250 x 100mm , WOW , that's amazing how they can get all that tech into that little box man, but I'm guessing that there will be other fanless skylake i7 in even smaller boxes than that Sentinel one, I think that sentinel model is maybe built more for a gamer maybe, I don't know as I have never looked at things like this, but I would like small but small with a massive punch :)
 
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