Mini PC - any recommendations?

[Harrison]

I'm currently looking for a mini PC like the ones from Geekom.

Does anyone use one or recommend any makes and models? I've read mixed reviews for a lot of the Chinese makes.

I want to set one up as a download and home server because of the low power consumption, as I want it to be on all the time. I'm currently running a full sized i3 but that's quite power hungry even using the built in iGPU and it's not exactly silent.

So one using a laptop CPU with built in iGPU would lower the power use to about 15W and be all that's needed. It will be running Linux Mint so needs a minimum of 8GB ram and at least 1 M2 slot. Additional storage can be external.

I've been looking but was hoping to find a bargain system. I lot of them are over 400 which is more than I was planning. I have a spare lower end HP laptop (was Tom's) that's got a AMD Ryzen 5500U with Radeon GPU and that works perfectly with Linux, even for a lot of games, so something similar spec. That CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads which is more than enough for a budget CPU,

What are the best current budget CPUs at the moment? AMD over Intel ideally.

Problem is at the price for a lot of them I could buy an Apple Mac Mini! And whilst I'm not a huge fan of Apple they are well made and the M chips are good. But MacOS is not what I want to run, hmm..

[Kin Hell]

@ H

You already knew I was going to be the first guy posting on this thread....

So....

With the price of Storage & Ram right now H, I wouldn't bother at all.
Mini-PC's are also ramped on price for the small fact0r syndrome & that then leaves you in a quandary with regard to storage options.
Nothing in the Geekom box unless you go external with USB what speed....?

That said, you could pick up something nice on eBay 2nd hand, but again.... you're going to get fleeced with storage & ram prices as they are right now!

I got fed up with NAS box performance on Gigabit Networks with a PC writing to a Unix NAS box, so I knocked up a slick Home Server under my desk and sacked my TJ11 Tower case for a Havn 420 affair, but had to loose my three screen set up in the process.
Deb wanted a smaller footprint in the house & this was the best compromise I could come up with. The now dual IPS monitors are being replaced with a WIDE 4K OLED sometime in the near future but not on RTX 5xxx series.
Please excuse the pimp.... Grab a bargain here if you want a Fab 2560 x 1440 240Hz IPS Gaming Monitor: Linky Poo

I now have 2.5Gbit from the FTTP Ubiquiti DMSE to the desk & 10Gbit between the 14900KS & the 11900K Z590 Godlike Server.
The gaming rig only goes on line for game & OS (Win10 Pro) updates.

Couldn't advise you on budget CPU's as you always know, ....I box Team Blue & buy the most extreme CPU they have on their current platform. Budget CPU's are not going to give you a very nice Home Server Experience and a NAS box on a shit network under Linux will probably smoke the Geekom crap in every manner. - All horses for courses Dave.

My 14900KS is de-lidded btw (I pulled it off myself - Pucker Fact0r 9.9) & takes 23DegC off it's max temp with it's original IHS on.