Mini pc as a Steam Machine

Deibu

Deibu

Deibu

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N.Lincolnshire
Good evening all,

Looking for a Mini PC to use as a Steam Machine. Would a 7640HS (760 APU) be a good start? Or would you push the boat out as it were for the 7840HS (780 APU) instead?

Looking to keep it to around £400 give or take. And would 32GB be needed or would 16GB still be quite useable?

Usage would mostly be web browsing, Netflix/Spotify and some simple image editing. My current system is a Ryzen 1600 with 16GB RAM and a very basic display only GPU.

And any recommendations? So far I've seen:

Bosgame P3 Mix
GMKTec M6 Ultra

Thanks :)
 
Why are you wanting to build a steam machine for basic web browsing and media streaming?

Presumably you're wanting to use it for gaming, if so what games?

Your best bet if gaming would be picking up a 9060XT and a second hand Ryzen 3600 CPU to upgrade your existing PC, it'd go a hell of a lot further than what you're considering and should easily be doable for around £400.

It will depend on a point on your PSU, do you know the exact make and model of it?
 
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Meant to mention the games I would be playing. Would be Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 / Generals and then generally older games rather than the most recent AAA titles.

Keen on a Mini PC as my desk space is very limited since moving house and would like something with a smaller footprint whilst still having decent usability.

Would likely give my Mum my old system as hers is beyond ancient.
 
Gray2233 said:
Why are you wanting to build a steam machine for basic web browsing and media streaming?

Presumably you're wanting to use it for gaming, if so what games?

Your best bet if gaming would be picking up a 9060XT and a second hand Ryzen 3600 CPU to upgrade your existing PC, it'd go a hell of a lot further than what you're considering and should easily be doable for around £400.

It will depend on a point on your PSU, do you know the exact make and model of it?
Click to expand...

PSU is a Kolink, not sure on the Wattage but have a feeling it's 550W.
 
Deibu said:
PSU is a Kolink, not sure on the Wattage but have a feeling it's 550W.
Click to expand...

You could potentially look at downsizing it, the AM4 platform has probably the best platform longevity in the history of consumer PC's even if your current machine is ancient.

I'm running the same socket on my current PC, I went from a 1600 > 3700X > 5800X3D all on the same motherboard. I've also went through four GPU upgrades, my current hardware is probably still in the top 5% of gaming machines out there.

Do you know exactly what motherboard you have? If it's a regular ATX you might struggle, but if you have an M-ATX you can get some pretty small cases for the standard on the cheap. The games you seem to want to play aren't demanding either so you're pretty safe there regardless of what you go for unless there's inherent hardware/software issues with whatever you pick.

If the above isn't viable, a cheap NUC would do just fine, you can get more than capable refurbs for less than £200 from what you've described as long as you're not really playing anything more modern than Red Alert 2/Generals.
 
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I have a GMKtec K8 Plus and it’s a fantastic bit of kit. I used it for a while as a tiny under tv unit for lite gaming and emulation. I did end up using a oculink unit with a 9060xt and that was even better for gaming. I ended up moving my 9070xt/14900KF to my tv for Xmas gaming but it has stayed there full time as I am really enjoying it.

Anyway, back to your situation. I would put the £400 into upgrades for your current system. You should be able to get a 9060xt or a 5060 for under 250 (I sold one a little while back for 220). You should be able to pick up a cpu something like a 3800/3800xt for about 80-90(or a 5600x for about 120) and use the rest to either add a bit more memory or a nvme ssd. This should easily give you what you need to run the games and apps you want in a windows environment with no issues at 1080p. I love steamos but not sure I could use it as a daily.
 
I'll have a look into upgrading my current system. Just a shame that RAM and storage prices went mental.

I'll look into how small a case I can fit my current parts in and see if it gives me better desk space.

Sadly don't have MM access and think it will be sometime off for myself given my posting rate haha.
 
TBH you don't even have to updated RAM and CPU for your level of expectation, just add GPU, job done.
 
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