Hey ya’ll. For the last 30 years I been building my own computers (since the old 386sx/Voodoo days). Last Time I built one was back in 2018. I currently drive a semi truck and use a laptop, but these new mini-pcs intrigue me.
My current setup is an Asus Laptop I just bought last year. It does the job. Plays Wow, Factorio, Satisfactory, etc with no issues. I dont do FPS games like COD but I might play like 7 days to Die.
I been looking at the new mini-pcs and dont want to spend TOO Much. Obviously the 1k+ models work just fine but Im looking at ther 300-500 range. Sometimes my semi truck is alone and dont want to have a 2k unit to entice someone. I do have a 32" 4k Monitor I use currently for my PS5. Handles GT7 wo any slowdowns.
I looking at something like this:
|CPU Mode| AMD Ryzen 7
|CPU Speed| 4.75 GHz
|Graphics Card |Integrated|
|Graphics Coprocessor| AMD Radeon 680M
|Memory Storage Capacity| 3600 MB
|Memory Slots Available|3|
|Specific Uses For Product|Education|
|Personal computer design type|Mini PC|
Like I mentioned, im just rusty so on paper it sounds like itll fit the bill for MY needs. But how will it handle constant Factorio for like 6 hrs? Would I need better cooling power (comes with 2 fans). Say like directing an A/C vent to the inlet areas lol.
The laptop works but its a hassle to set it up everytime (Laptop pad, plug it in, start it up, etc) and would like something I could just turn on, grab the wireless kb and mouse and play.
Dude I mean no offense to you when I say this but an integrated graphics card isnt capable of anything remotely related to 4K. It’s just not going to happen. 7900 XTX or RTX 4090 these are 4K cards and in some titles even they struggle at 4k without DLSS or FSR.
4K is a VERY expensive territory in PC gaming. I’m on a 4K OLED rig myself and it’s worth over 5K. The rig you described is more of a 1080p Rig
1440p is a heck of a lot cheaper than 4K. This is why more and more people have not entered 4K territory and are sticking with 1440p on the high end of PC gaming.
When it comes to PC gaming a 4k 60hz TV or Monitor is not a gaming monitor nor should it be used as such.
I really hate to shoot you down like this but I’m just being realistic with you. I believe in always being transparent with people and telling them like it is
You’re not going to get a good 4K PC gaming experience for 300-500. For 4K, you’d expect to spend minimum 700 on just the GPU, with a heat sink that’s bigger than most mini-PCs.
4K capable GPU alone is about 800-1k. Minimum is more like 2k. Like I said above skyrocketing price on PC parts is why many people are doing high-end 1440p builds now instead of going anywhere near 4K.
You can get away with a 4070 TI super for 4k, it won’t be amazing at it, and you will need to both drop settings and use DLSS on newer games, but for wow it will be playable.
Sadly an M4 Mac mini would cut it for just wow with the integrated graphics (I run an M3 pro on both 1080 & 4K) but Blizzard seems to want to cut Mac out of everything (just saw the new WC1 & 2 are not available on Mac)
I know the Mac haters on here will explode but that new M4 Mac really is amazing
edit - FYI you could use crossover or Whisky to just run PC games but it’s not quite as good as proton on Linux