|
I am a big "mini PC" guy. We've owned a bunch of NUCs, custom SFF builds, custom laptops, etc to try and get generally the best bang for the buck in a small form factor. My recommendations: - Intel NUC. You can pickup a used Skull Canyon NUC if you can find one at a reasonable price, will easily handle all the games and things you mentioned. I owned one and loved it! - Asus ROG Ally with the Z1. $399 at Best Buy, can handle all your gaming needs, only needs a single USB C hub to connect to everything. I currently use the Z1 Extreme version (more powerful) as my PRIMARY desktop. I love it. - Get a cheap laptop. Find something with the bare minimum specs to run the things you need and just keep it closed. - Build your own SFF. Find a really tiny case, get a really tiny power supply, and get an APU from AMD that has a built-in GPU. They run cool, they are cheap (though not as cheap as a cheap laptop or steam deck), and you can customize whatever you want. You can get pretty tiny with these, but not exactly Mac Mini sized. - Get a base iPad (~$230 on sale), Samsung tablet ($99+), Android stick (< $99), whatever and do a remote desktop. I use GeForce Now for a ton of my gaming and Microsoft just released a new "Windows as an app" concept for iOS that gives you a remote desktop. |
My girlfriend also uses a Rog Ally as her primary desktop and she loves it: it has a compact form factor, handles all the games she plays perfectly (apparently better than more classical mini PCs like Beelinks), as well as somewhat heavy software such as Photoshop.
It’s a shame it’s marketed just as a portable gaming device when it’s in fact a very capable mini PC.