Any mini PC users? Geekom, Beelink, Minisforum, etc

S

slicendice

Messages
42
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my aging PC and I keep seeing articles about mini PCs. I quite like the idea of having something small and compact that doesn't make a noise like a hovercraft whenever you ask it to do more than open a text file.

I've been taking a peep at various mini PCs and whilst the specs look very good for the price, I'm just wondering about their long term quality. There are lots and lots of online reviews (e.g. for the Geekom A7, Beelink SER7, etc) that give glowing reports of their spec and performance...and whilst I'm sure most of them are true, I've also seen a number of reports about how the quality control sometimes appears to be a bit iffy, with unexplained bluescreens, non-functioning components, etc. Plus the after-sales support is also sometimes called into question, with some people saying they struggle to get a response from the support departments.

I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience with these mini PCs? And if so, are they any good? Would you recommend? Or would you steer clear?
 
I bought a Beelink SER5 about 3 months ago to run windows 11 (my old tower system runs Vista64). I was unsure but at £270 it was just a little more than windows 11 alone or the hardware upgrades Id need for the tower.
It arrived I plugged it in and in about 20mins was up and running.
Ive only installed photo software and firefox on it but it runs everything LR/PS etc no problem at all. May not be the fastest on the planet but I have no complaints and for the price its brilliant.
Boots quickly runs quietly no overheating problems runs 2 monitors without a hicup. Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Luthy...that's good to know. Did you buy direct from Beelink? Or from a reseller? (Amazon, DroiX, etc) If I was going to get one I think I'd prefer to go via reseller as it would provide a bit more protection if there were issues.
 
I've run a NUC 13 Pro since last June and so far am very pleased with no problems. I don't game but do use Lightroom and occasionally Photoshop. It replaced a laptop which meant going upstairs to the PC to do any serious editing but since the NUC the PC's been just about ignored. Mini PC's seem to have moved on quite a bit speedwise since mine making them a very tempting buy for photographic and general purposes.
 
slicendice said:
Thanks Luthy...that's good to know. Did you buy direct from Beelink? Or from a reseller? (Amazon, DroiX, etc) If I was going to get one I think I'd prefer to go via reseller as it would provide a bit more protection if there were issues.
Click to expand...
I got mine from amazon may be an idea to check out their spring deals today isthe last day but they do discount on a regular basis
 
I bought an Asus PN51 and found the fan unbearably loud so I popped the hardware into an Akasa Turing passive case. I'm thinking about a Geekom AS 5 as that's an Asus PN53 and there's a Turing case available for it.
 
Thanks everyone for the input. If I did get one, the heaviest thing I'd be using it for would be Photoshop, with maybe occasional video editing (Premiere).

For those who have a mini pc and use it for Photoshop, what processor and memory did you go for? And are you happy with the performance?
 
I made a thread about something similar last year
www.talkphotography.co.uk

Mini PC for processing

Initially I felt like moving back to PCs for gaming from previously using consoles. I don't play a huge lot of games, I play on average one game per year! And generally they are not the most graphic intensive. From long back I have a nice collection of steam games which I would also be able to...
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk

Hope the information there is of some help.
In the end I decided to upgrade to a M2 mac book Air with 24GB RAM and 1TB storage.
 
Thanks nandbytes. The Apple route is beyond my means so I'll need to stick to the Windows option.

What is mentioned in that thread re the quality of after-sales support (i.e. that it's not great) is something I have also read about. If I was going to get a one, I think I'd do it through a UK reseller (Amazon, DroiX, etc)...cost would be higher but at least any issues would be easier to resolve. I mean, I'd hope that I wouldn't need support for a brand new PC, but these things do happen...
 
Has anyone got personal experience of AMD vs Intel when it comes to Photoshop? Is there a clear winner? Or would any differences be so small that they wouldn't be noticeable for most tasks?
 
My NUC runs an i7-1360P processor with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. I mainly use Lightroom which is fine but have occasionally used PS which again is no problem but I've never used it intensively. Faster and cheaper models are now available which I imagine would be even better than mine. The NUC sits under my Dell 27" on my desk and noise is not a problem. NUC are now part of the Asus range as opposed to Intel which mine is.
 
slicendice said:
Has anyone got personal experience of AMD vs Intel when it comes to Photoshop? Is there a clear winner? Or would any differences be so small that they wouldn't be noticeable for most tasks?
Click to expand...
I don't think there's any major difference between the brands as long as the overall performance is similar. My PN51 has a Ryzen 7 5700U which is hardly earth-shattering but has no problems with the simple tasks I ask of it in PSE.

I default to 32GB RAM where possible. A number here are now standardising on 64GB but I don't need that (yet).
 
Snapsh0t said:
I don't think there's any major difference between the brands as long as the overall performance is similar. My PN51 has a Ryzen 7 5700U which is hardly earth-shattering but has no problems with the simple tasks I ask of it in PSE.

I default to 32GB RAM where possible. A number here are now standardising on 64GB but I don't need that (yet).
Click to expand...
Thanks (y)

My choice also would be 32GB as a mini....if there was a special offer on then maybe 64GB :LOL:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top