Mini PC as gift

[Karamica]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a mini pc for my wife as a birthday present. Our old Alienware Alpha, while it has done a stellar job for the almost 10 years we've had it, is getting old now and beginning to struggle with a lot of things. I feel it's almost time to retire the poor thing.

Their set up makes a mini PC the most convenient option as opposed to a full sized tower, but I'm not entirely sure how much that will restrict the kinds of components I can put into it and what kind of performance I could expect from a mini PC compared to something bigger.

We play a lot of games together and looking for something that can keep up. Currently playing Baldur's Gate 3 (She's currently using my Steam Deck due to the Alpha not being up to scratch to run it without issue), and we're looking to play things like Nightingale together when it's released, so if there was something in that range that would be able to run both of those games smoothly that would be ideal.

I've got a budget of about £1,100 - £1,200, but would consider shifting that price point if it means a markable difference in longevity or quality.

Any help or recommendations would be sincerely appreciated!

 

[sck451]

What monitor will you be using with the PC?

Mini PCs will substantially limit what components you can expect and performance you can hope for. Basically, a smaller PC struggles to get airflow and therefore cooling.

 

[Karamica]

Monitor I have is AOC G2790VXA, 144hz.

 

[sck451]

Cool, that's a 1080p display, which is a good bet for your budget.

I'm going to present you with two options. One is a standard case (albeit one on the smaller side) that's made with Ryzen 7000 parts: that means it's current generation, performs very strongly and is very upgradable. It's also over your budget by £100 because it's current-gen parts. Then I'll do another post with a "small form-factor" case. That will be Ryzen 5000 (it's all PCS offers right now on the AMD side). It will therefore perform worse and have much worse upgradability, but it will have decent performance.

Here's the larger, Ryzen 7000 build:

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE (450mm x 210mm x 395mm)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.2GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6650 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003] Conceivably you could move your Windows account over and save £100ish, but I don't know how that's done with an OEM licence like the Alienware will have...
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,307.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/GQRurJbDB9/

 

[sck451]

And here's the SFF build. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it. It's too many compromises: performance, upgradability, etc -- and it's not even that much smaller!

Case
Tecware QUAD RGB Cube Case - Black (315mm x 280mm x 370mm)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Eight Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.6GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX: DDR4, USB 3.2 - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6650 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 45 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN PORT + Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi excluded on A320I-K)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,166.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-sff-gaming/epqj6vyrP6/

 

[Karamica]

Cool, that's a 1080p display, which is a good bet for your budget.

I'm going to present you with two options. One is a standard case (albeit one on the smaller side) that's made with Ryzen 7000 parts: that means it's current generation, performs very strongly and is very upgradable. It's also over your budget by £100 because it's current-gen parts. Then I'll do another post with a "small form-factor" case. That will be Ryzen 5000 (it's all PCS offers right now on the AMD side). It will therefore perform worse and have much worse upgradability, but it will have decent performance.

Here's the larger, Ryzen 7000 build:

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE (450mm x 210mm x 395mm)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.2GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6650 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003] Conceivably you could move your Windows account over and save £100ish, but I don't know how that's done with an OEM licence like the Alienware will have...
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,307.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/GQRurJbDB9/

Hey! Apologies for the late response. I really appreciate both of these! As you say, I will look at the first one. I'd rather have something that will last longer and have as few drawbacks as possible.

Thank you very much!