I've been a PC gamer for well over a decade.It's safe to say I've spent collectively over $10,000 on various gaming desktop builds over the years.But, I recently moved from my full-size superpowered custom-built desktop to a mini PC—and I love it? Add How-To Geek on Google Add as Preferred Source Follow on Google Discover I never expected to love using a mini PC as a full-time computer.
Mini PCs are great and have a lot of uses around my house, like running my homelab or lasers in my workshop.But, I never thought one could actually be my main computer until I tried a powerful mini PC.Now, I could never see myself going back to using a full-size tower.
A mini PC now handles everything my tower did Everything including gaming Close I used to swear by having a full-size gaming desktop.I've spent well over $10,000 building custom gaming PCs over the last decade in all shapes and sizes, from an eATX monster to mITX compact desktops, so I definitely have used every size imaginable.The thing is, it used to take a full-size desktop to have a powerful system.
These days, that's just not the case.I recently reviewed the Lenovo Yoga Mini Gen 11 desktop and it actually really surprised me with its performance.My main desktop is now an AMD Ryzen Strix Halo system, and it surprised me with its performance.
I know that Strix Halo systems aren't necessarily affordable, but it's still a mini PC when compared to a full-size desktop—and it can game.The Radeon 8060S in the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is actually quite capable.I can play almost any game I want, even at 4K, without worrying that I'm going to get abysmal frame rates.
USB4 allows me to use things like eGPUs for even better gaming performance.I recently tried out the Ugreen LinkStation and it definitely added extra gaming performance to my mini PCs all without having to keep a GPU powered on 24/7 when I didn't actually need it.When I first saw more powerful mini PCs come to the market a few years ago, I never thought I could use one as my daily computer, but that's just what I've been doing for the past few weeks and I have to say, I haven't missed the big tower one single time.
The tower was burning power I never needed Just idling it draws almost as much power as my mini PC does at full tilt My big gaming PC was a Ryzen 9 7900X, 32GB DDR5, 8TB NVMe, and RTX 3080 12GB system.It was rocking a 1,000W power supply and a 360mm all-in-one cooler, and it definitely put out some heat.Now, I know that it didn't idle anywhere near 1,000W.
In fact, it probably never hit 1,000W.But, it idled enough to raise the temperature of my room often.You see, even my RTX 3080 draws around 40W by itself just from idling and powering my displays.
The Ryzen 9 7900X with the 32GB of RAM pulled about the same.That put the wattage of my desktop at nearly 100W just for sitting there doing nothing.My Ryzen Strix Halo system that I'm typing this article from is only drawing around 27W driving a 4K144 monitor with all of my programs open and running.
It's astronomical how much less power these mini PCs draw, even under load.The Strix Halo system at full tilt will only pull up to 140W, too, which is even crazier when you consider that this system can easily handle the gaming that I do.Because my gaming desktop produced so much heat just to sit idle, it pushed even more heat out when it was under load.
This is one of the main reasons I moved from my desktop to my MacBook as a main computer a few years ago and started keeping my desktop in sleep mode when I wasn't gaming.The problem became, when I wanted to game, I had to switch my peripherals over, wake up the desktop, update drivers and games, and it was just a hassle.So, I rarely did it.
I rarely gamed because my main desktop was a power-hungry beast that cooked my room when it was on.I know, "First world problem," but it was still a problem that I never knew I would be able to solve with a mini PC. XDB Builder Free PC planner Tell XDB what you want the PC to do and how much you want to spend.
We'll find parts that fit, with current prices. What will you use it for? Pick any 1440p gaming 4K gaming Video Streaming Local AI 3D & CAD Photo Home server Games or apps Optional Budget $750 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $3,000 No limit Plan my build→ Opens XDB, XDA's free PC builder, in a new tab. Pick at least one use, or name a game or app. Losing PCIe slots is the trade-off I actually notice USB4 brings some of it back, not all of it Now, moving from a full-size desktop with PCIe 5.0 to a mini PC hasn't been completely seamless.On the performance side of things, I've noticed very little difference regardless of which mini PC I'm using.Whether I'm on the Yoga Mini or the Strix Halo, performance is solid for me no matter what.
The main thing I miss is the PCIe performance the RTX 3080 brought to the table.I have my 3080 in an eGPU enclosure now, which still provides a lot more gaming performance than the integrated graphics of the Yoga Mini or Strix Halo.However, it's still a lot slower than the PCIe slot it was directly connected to on my main desktop.
Truthfully though, that is the thing I miss from the full-size desktop.There's not another piece of performance I miss.If anything, I think these mini PCs are faster than my big desktop, which is only a few years old at this point.
The only way I'd go back is if I started to play games every night again—and maybe even not then I'm sold on the mini PC life now.My desktop is ultra-tiny and fits on my desk again, which is something my big tower hasn't been able to do for years.It can still game, handle 3D CAD, run all my development tasks, and more.
I really have not even considered moving back to my big desktop one time.If anything, I've considered selling it.The only reason I would actually go back to using a full-size desktop is for the PCIe connection—whether for the graphics card or for other PCIe devices, that is the only reason I can think of for going back to a full-size desktop now.
Powerful mini PCs are not upgradable like full-size towers, but I can't tell you a single time I've ever upgraded a tower PC without rebuilding it.So, if I'm going to replace the entire thing anyway, I might as well just get a smaller system that takes up less room and still does what I need it to do.Thanks for the many years of service, full-size desktop PCs, it's been fun.
But, I'm off to use mini PCs for the foreseeable future.
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