Mini PC for Gaming (hardcore)?

[kam67]

How viable an option is this? I notice that the highest psu supplied is 450W - Seems slightly on the low side, although I understand that the power requirements of a micro ITX build are lower than one would expect.

Is there an option to configure a system with a more powerful psu?

Thanks.

P.S. It would be very helpful to know if anyone here has successfully used such a setup for fairly intensive gaming.

 

[Wozza63]

450w is a lot, and is enough for pretty much any graphics card excluding top cards a 570 should work fine on a 450w as the boards are usually much more efficient, whats your budget? I can put something up if you wish

 

[kam67]

Thanks for your reply! I was thinking of a geforce 580 and wanted to make sure also that psu would be sufficiently powerful for future upgrades. My budget is around £1500-1700.

P.S. According to the pcspecialist minipc configurator - a 450psu would be sufficient for a geforce 580gtx. I was surprised by this.

 

[Rakk]

Why do you want a mini PC? For hardcore gaming you'd be much better off with a proper size desktop.

 

[kam67]

Lack of space really! Also I have been using gaming laptops for the last year or so with fairly good results and was just wondering how a mini pc would compare.

 

[PCS]

The Mini PCs can have a powerful GPU with a smaller wattage PSU because the other components are designed to use a lower wattage, such as the "S" variant of the Intel Core processors. We can happily provide a 600W (or higher) PSU if you'd like, please save a quote and post the number here.

 

[Wozza63]

i wouldnt recommend a 580 in a mini PC, maybe a 570 but they still get hot

 

[kam67]

i wouldnt recommend a 580 in a mini PC, maybe a 570 but they still get hot

Is this likely to cause performance issues then (eg freezes, crashes etc.) and if so is there anyway to improve ventilation/cooling in the cases?

 

[kam67]

The Mini PCs can have a powerful GPU with a smaller wattage PSU because the other components are designed to use a lower wattage, such as the "S" variant of the Intel Core processors. We can happily provide a 600W (or higher) PSU if you'd like, please save a quote and post the number here.

Thats good to know, thanks! When I am closer to making a decision about purchasing a mini pc, I will post back here