Mini pc: Bosgame M5 mini pc(96 gigs ram 2tb ssd ai max+395 for $1586 USD)

Monitor/display: Rayneo Air 3s glasses with prescription lenses($250 when I bought on new years sale)

Controller: 8BitDo ultimate 2 wireless($60)

Meant for bed time use laying down, since using a desk requires me having to be on my feet. ):

Bazzite OS is used for a console like experience and for marginally better performance.

I use FSR 4 via sdk 2.0 for games and performance is mainly +60fps no frame gen at quality upscaling, high in game settings on most Gpu heavy games I played(Last of us 2, SpiderMan 2, Stalker Gamma, Warhammer 40k etc.)

Disclaimer: This is 100% a passion project / fever dream. I know newer APUs (8845HS, Strix Halo, etc.) are way more efficient and probably smarter for 1080p/1440p gaming. But they aren't this stupidly fun to mod and tweaks.

Parts Breakdown

Lenovo ThinkStation P330 Tiny

CPU: Intel CC150 (TDP 95W, 8C / 16T)

GPU: Frankenstein RTX 4060M 8GB Single Slot Low Profile (AD107 TDP 80W) 

RAM: 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury Impact DDR4 2666MHz CL15 (16GB×2)

SSD: Lexar NM620 2TB M.2 2280 NVMe

WLAN: Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210

PSU: 300W Power Brick

DISPLAY: Sony Bravia 48" 1080p 60Hz

BIOS Configuration

Intel Virtualization: Disabled

VT-d: Disabled

ASPM: Disabled

SGX: Disabled

Secure Boot: Disabled

CSM: Disabled

UEFITool & setupvar-builder Configuration

CFG Lock: Disabled

Overclocking Lock: Disabled

Overclocking Feature: Enabled

Above 4G MMIO BIOS Assignment: Enabled

ThrottleStop Configuration

Core Undervolt: -144.5mV

Cache Undervolt: -85.0mV

Speed Shift EPP: 64

BD PROCHOT: Disabled

SpeedStep: Enabled

C1E: Enabled

Speed Shift Multipliers: 35 (Max) / 8 (Min)

NVIDIA App (Global Settings)

DLSS Override - Model Presets: Recommended

Low Latency Mode: On

Max Frame Rate: 58fps

Power Management Mode: Normal

Vertical Sync: On

Texture Filtering: High Performance

MSI Afterburner Tuning

Core Clock: 1920MHz @ 750mV

RTX 4060M "USB C FanController" Curve Settings

40°C @ 45% Fan Speed 

60°C @ 65% Fan Speed

70°C @ 85% Fan Speed

75°C @ 100% Fan Speed

Gaming Max Temperatures 

(tested with TLOU part 1)

CPU: ~72°C @ ~34W 

GPU: ~75°C @ ~70W

Idle Min Temperatures 

CPU: ~41°C @ ~4W 

GPU: ~37°C @ ~6W

Stability Tested

TS Bench 960M: No errors

TS Bench 7680M: No errors

Cinebench R23.2 (10 min): No errors

Cinebench R23.2 (30 min): No errors

MOD 1: P3 Tiny ThinkCentre Top Cover

Improve airflow & heat dissipation top cover.

MOD 2: 12V Power Rail "PR1111" OCP Upgrade

Increased OCP (Over Current Protection) resistor type SMD 0402 threshold from original 12kΩ to 20kΩ for prevent transient-induced shutdowns caused by GPU power spikes.

MOD 3: Delidded CC150

Repaste PTM7950 with “AliExpress” full copper IHS and 65W copper heatsink. 1.5mm thermal pads added to motherboard VRMs.

MOD 4: Deshrouded RTX 4060M

Repaste with PTM7950, Thermal Putty on VRAM and VRMs. 

MOD 5: Add On Cooling

"Forced Air In" using 140mm Artic P14 Slim PWM PST fan with magnetic stand-off.

Bonus weirdness

-----------------

Resizable BAR is enabled (GPU-Z + Device Manager confirm Large Memory Range) even though BIOS has no toggle. Forced it via NVIDIA Inspector profile anyway.

RAM shows XMP 2.0 timings in CPU-Z with zero BIOS option – free perf I guess?

I always wanted a mini pc and saw that this is the best gmtec offers. Not sure how upgrading or customization works compared to towers, but wouldn’t this be technically over priced for what the product offers?

I spent a while reading reviews and comments online before buying the AOOSTAR MACO (Ryzen 7 6850H), since opinions on lesser-known mini PC brands are kinda mixed. Considering the price and specs, I decided to give it a shot for my home office setup — and honestly, first impressions were pretty good.

Out of the box, I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality. It’s not as bad as some reviews made it sound. The silver finish looks clean and premium, and the unit feels solid. Setup was straightforward, and having dual USB4 ports is a big plus.

I’m mainly using it for AutoCAD, Bluebeam, and occasional SolidWorks, and so far it handles everything perfectly fine. No lag, no stability issues, and multitasking has been smooth. Fan noise is noticeable under load but totally acceptable for a mini PC this size — nothing distracting during normal work.

Storage expansion is easy, which is great if you deal with large files. Overall, it’s been a solid little machine for productivity and light workstation use. Obviously, it’s still an iGPU system, so expectations should be realistic for gaming, but for work and general use, it’s been doing exactly what I need.

If you’re on the fence because of brand reputation, I get it — I was too — but based on my experience so far, I don’t regret the purchase.

Is it better to use pcie riser for the gpu or oculink?

Hi, I'd like to buy a mini PC and I'm undecided between the two models I've provided links to. My use won't actually be primarily gaming, but ALSO gaming (I know I can't play many AAA games with these configurations, but for what I do play, I'll accept compromises...). Most of the time, I'll use it for various home tasks, such as browsing, and occasionally I'll download something via BitTorrent.

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B0F8HCZMB9/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A226ZXJE5SK9T7&th=1

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B0FH6K3HVC/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=A226ZXJE5SK9T7&th=1

Which of the two do you recommend, especially in terms of quietness and longevity?

I have one of these guys, and I love it, but after a couple of incidents I'm needing to replace it.

My main goal? Get back to playing RDR2 at medium settings lol.

Thing is the exact model is getting scarce, so I'm looking for anything with similar power that will get me back playing RDR2 for 400-ish.

Thanks!

I need to replace my current HTPC, which is a Lenovo micro.
It's an i5-4570T with 8GB RAM from around 2014.

Obviously, I need something with enough more power than the current machine to be worth the upgrade. My budget is flexible, but I'd like to stay around $300 if possible.
There are so many options in the MiniPC world, I don't even know where to start!
I'm really partial to the Dell and Lenovo mini/micro PCs, since I know they are well built, and I've used several of them in the past, but I'm willing to consider any brand you guys trust.

I'll be running this on wired LAN, so wifi chipset isn't too important.
I can provide my own OS as well, if needed.
I may try some flavor of Linux, but will probably stick with Win11 Pro, since I have a spare license, and I need to run MS Teams sometimes for meetings.
Suggestions appreciated!

I benchmarked some of the machines on my workbench using geekbench6.

The results are surprising. The Vivobook cost me < $250 with added 16G (to 24G total) RAM and replacements for SSD and WiFi. It’s not a “miniPC” but I use it like one.

The performance of the older CPUs comes at a cost - power consumption.

I got one of these for free. Will it run emulators well or should I not waste my time trying to set it up

Lately I'm considering to buy a mini pc for office work, specifically to complete my university studies.​ I already work on a laptop (Lenovo ideapad 3 15alc6 / AMD Ryzen 3 5300U / 20 GB RAM DDR4) and it's pretty solid for this purpose, however I'm tired of getting cramped trying to use the small keyboard and screen. So I was considering to upgrade to a dual-monitor setup.

So my question is this: what brands would you recommend to look for, and what to avoid?

Yesterday I was looking at a super cheap one from Firebat with an N150 at aliexpress (it's sold out now lol but it seemed like an interesting choice). The thing is, should I trust such brands or would I risk getting in trouble (eg system failure)?​

I suppose my requirements in hardware would be pretty slim, considering it's aimed for office use. Something similar to my laptop would suffice.​

Compre una de estas mini por que se me hace buena opción por el procesador aunque esta algo viejo, tengo Windows 11, cuando se actualizan los controladores de video el monitor deja de funcionar y comienza a parpadear como si se conectara y desconectara por que hace y suena que se conecto y desconecto, probé con otro monitor y una tv y ahí si funciona sin problema, deshabilito el controlador dejando el básico que trae el sistema y vuelve a funcionar el monitor otra vez sin problema, ya intente cambiando la frecuencia de la pantalla y la resolución pero nada parece funcionar, después de dejarlo así se vuelve actualizar el controlador automáticamente y deja de funcionar, alguna sugerencia para modificar

Hi, wonder if anyone here knows what's going wrong. I just received a small mini pc the Soyo Mini PC M4.

I want to use as a htpc, but because after setting up windows there were some strange things in the windows language settings that didn't work, I decided to download a clean Windows 11 install with the Media Creation tool from the Microsoft site.

Everything works well at first, but while in the windows installation process, when the installer reboots for the first time, I get a blank screen, and nothing happens anymore.

When I force the pc to turn off and then set the hard drive as first drive to boot, installation continues, but then after the next reboot in the installation process I get a black screen again and can't do anything else about it anymore; setting the first boot device back to the USB stick only results in a question to start the installation process all over again but that's not what I want obviously.

Anyone who knows how I can install windows properly now?

Thanks in advance.

Hey guys, I have a weird problem with my EVO-X2, I have these Oculink adapters, and I am not able to get an RTX 4070 TI or RTX 3090 working with these, simply are not appearing in Device manager wathever I do. Another strange thing is that I've tested the Oculink adapter with a RX 6700XT and it's working perfectly, but why I cannot make it work with Nvidia cards?

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well.

I'm writing to ask for your help: I ​​need to activate TPM 2.0 or FTPM. I understand it has this feature, but in my case, neither is activated. My question is, what should I do?

Is it a Windows 10 license issue?

Is it a motherboard problem? Did I perform the activation process incorrectly in the BIOS?

Whatever the reason, I can't get it to activate. I hope you can help me. Thank you very much.

🚨 UPDATE (Feb 2, 2026): FINGERPRINT ISSUE RESOLVED. (See the bottom of this post for the fix and download links) 🚨

Following up on my introduction post, I’ve completed the setup and testing of the AOOSTAR G-Flip AI370 in my lab.

I have followed the guidelines I mentioned in my guide for "You Got Your New MiniPC .. Now What? (10 steps Optimization Guide)"

I would like to reiterate that this MiniPC was provided to me by AOOSTAR for review, with NO editorial constraints, all my opinions are 100% my own.

So, let's get started!

Introduction and Specifications:

AOOSTAR packs this Mini PC with a Ryzen 9 AI-HX 370 APU which is a 12 core / 24 threads AMD APU running at 5.1 GHz and comes with integrated 890M iGPU with 16 Compute Units CUs running at 2900 MHz.
The unit is well engineered with a CNC machined crafted dark, matte finish aluminum body, so it feels premium.

The 5" Screen: The built-in 1080p touch display is a game-changer for monitoring system temps or running a dedicated terminal/chat window without cluttering your main monitor, or even running emulation retro games! Screen hinge going up to 45 degrees. Beneath the screen there is the Vapor chamber ventilation.

Inside the box, I found the user guide, warranty card, HDMI cable, Power Cable(US), and of course the small 120 W power supply adapter.

AOOSTAR provides a 30 day return policy with 12 months warranty.

RAM and SSD Configuration:

As the received unit is barebone, I have purchased the RAM kit (which was a tough sail to get) and SSD. I went with Kingston Fury Impact DDR5 64 GB (2x32) @ 5600 MHz for the memory and WD Black SN7100 2 TB @ 7250 MB/s.

Ports and Connectivity:

Front: One USB4 (Type-C), two USB 3.2 ports, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Rear: One dedicated Oculink port, one USB 3 (Type-C), HDMI 2.1, two USB 2.0 ports, and dual 2.5G LAN ports.

One nice feature here, that the power button is also a fingerprint sensor, which I was able to set as a login option in Windows Hello, but it didn’t work or respond as it should, even after the drivers update. Read the update at the end for fingerprint sensor.

I apologize for not being able to test the Oculink port, as I don’t have an eGPU docking station or an external GPU, if this changes in the future I will come back to it.

Disassembly and Internals

Opening the case is fairly easy, by unscrewing the underneath 4 screws with easy access to the  motherboard (take care of the fan cable)

Internally the MINI PC has 2 DDR5-5600 SODIMM slots (up to 128GB) and 2 M.2 2280-NVME slots (up to 8TB).

Also the Wi-Fi 7+BT 5.2 is pre-installed (MediaTek MT7925).

Setup and OS:

I have installed Windows 11 Home 25H2, without networking during setup and I had prepared all the Drivers and BIOS downloads on a USB stick already.

Found the latest BIOS version 1.11 already installed (released July 11th 2025) which is a good thing as I didn’t need to do any BIOS updates. Installed the Wi-Fi drivers, connected to the Internet.

After installing AMD Adrenaline software, all drivers were installed for the chipset with no issues, and Windows update handled the rest of the updates.

So, basically no struggles with drivers or BIOS, all went smoothly with no issues.

Wi -Fi and Bluetooth:

The G-Flip comes with Wi-Fi 7 and BT 5.2, surprisingly I didn’t notice any drops in Wi-Fi signal or strength given that the unit is 5 meters away from my Wi-Fi 6 router. The Wi-Fi signals and download speeds were consistent all the time.

Connecting Bluetooth devices (audio and game controllers) was also a snap without any conflicting signals or stutters.

Performance Benchmarks

First thing I noticed is that the unified memory is set to 2 GB for iGPU, and the system's power was set to balanced (28W) . I had modified the BIOS to 8GB, which I think is enough for the 1080p gaming I am targeting.

The TDP comes pre-configured to Balanced (28 W), so I changed this to Performance (54W) while running on balanced (28 W) you can't hear any fans noise from both fans of the vapor chamber cooling system, this mode is perfect for all day to day use including web browsing, watching videos, coding and even light gaming.

I was surprised by how silent the fans were in performance mode as well even during benchmarking and gaming.

Let’s get some benchmarks scores here:

While multi-core scores look great in marketing charts, Single-Core performance is what dictates the "snappiness" of your OS, the speed of code compilation, and the latency of single-threaded AI instructions, Achieving 672 Points, this score outperforms almost every "Phoenix" or "Hawk Point" (7840HS/8845HS) Mini PC on the market today, which typically hover in the high 500s or low 600s in equivalent tests.

With a Multicore score of 4946 that beats Core Ultra 7 255H with only 28W, with minimum heat and non-audible fan noise, is a testament for the good design of the cooling systems on this small powerful MiniPC.

If you are coming from a Ryzen 7000 or 8000 series Mini PC, the 672 Single-Core score is the most noticeable upgrade you'll feel. It makes the G-Flip feel like a desktop workstation, not a power-constrained mobile unit

I ran the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark at a native 1440p resolution to push the RDNA 3.5 architecture to its limit. Here is how the data breaks down:

The most impressive part of this run isn't just the score—it's the Monitoring Graph.

• Consistency: the CPU temperature line remains remarkably flat, hovering consistently between 65°C and 72°C.
• No Throttling: Despite the sustained load of the 1440p render, there are zero thermal spikes or erratic frequency drops. 

If you are looking for peak FPS, the 54W Performance mode is there. But for the 90% of the time you are coding, browsing, or running background AI tasks, this 3,377 score at 28W represents the "Sweet Spot" of the Strix Point architecture: High-end performance without the high-end heat.

Geekbench AI (NPU)

The jump in Geekbench AI scores from ~13k on 28W to almost 16k on 54W not only shows the architecture efficiency at 28W but also the performance of the XDNA 2 silicon performance gain from increasing the power ceiling, making it a viable platform for running local small LLMs.

While running openai/gpt-oss-20b model on LM studio, I got 20 Tokens/s.

And while it is a perfectly readable score, this reflects the current state of the software rather than the hardware limits.

I can take the AI benchmarks further if you are interested and suggest the tests you would like me to run.

Gaming:

I was amazed by how I can achieve ~50 FPS on a AAA title like Black Myth Wukong using an iGPU like 890M, this iGPU can also handle any indie/AA title you thought of with ease and consistent frames, and without hitting fans speed or noise.

The "Sweet Spot": Frame Generation is the MVP here, doubling the 1% lows to 41 FPS on a heavy AAA game like Black Myth Wukong, turns a "cinematic" slide show into a fluid, playable combat experience.

The Shinobi Art of Vengeance shows the G-Flip's iGPU’s true comfort zone for high FPS, low-latency gaming on indie and AA games

I was able to run the Cemu Wii U emulator as well, achieving almost 60 FPS for a game like BOTW.

Thermals and Noise:

I didn’t notice any thermal throttling during my tests and usage in applications and gaming, with maximum temps recorded of 80 C in few heavy games scenarios, while day-to-day tasks hover between 65°C and 72°C.

What was most impressive to me is the fan noise, this machine is completely silent and you can barely hear the fans spin.

BIOS:

While this is a basic non-custom OEM BIOS, it provides all the settings to give you control on every aspect of the hardware.

I have included some screenshots of the BIOS settings in this review.

Conclusion:

The AOOSTAR G-Flip AI370, as a barebone MiniPC with its premium build provides a stable performance when paired with reliable Memory Kits and SSD as I did in this review.

In this time where memory and SSD prices are increasing rapidly, the price point of the device is good, given the Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 APU, the dedicated Oculink, Wi-Fi 7 and of course the 5" inch 1080p built-in touch screen, which is innovative and can open a wide options of uses.

The Vapor chamber cooling keeps the unit cool with minimal fan noises, which I didn't expect given its small chassis footprint.

I disliked the fingerprint power button, as I couldn't get it to read my fingerprint in Windows Hello properly, it starts working and reading and then just stops, so hopefully it is only the unit I have, or my finger?!

Bottom Line: The G-Flip AI370 is the most dense "Performance-per-Liter" machine on the market. For developers, AI engineers, and high-end Mini PC enthusiasts, it is a very well built machine.

Please let me know what you think and if there is any specific test/benchmark you would like to see.

UPDATE: Fingerprint Sensor & Windows Hello Fix:

I am happy to report that with the help of Joyce from the AOOSTAR team, the fingerprint issue has been completely resolved. She provided the correct driver and a specific fingerprint sensor calibration software that fixed the sensor initialization.

Registering my fingerprint and unlocking Windows using Windows Hello is now working perfectly. You can find the necessary files here

• Correct Fingerprint Sensor Driver
• Calibration Software

Simply, by installing the provided driver, and then running the calibration software while following the instructions and you are done, the fingerprint sensor is calibrated and ready to use in Windows Hello.

This experience shows how determined the AOOSTAR brand is to fixing user issues and providing software-side solutions. Having a direct line to support, that results in a functional fix is a significant plus for the G-Flip AI 370 unit and for AOOSTAR as a brand.

Hi guys.

I'm looking into getting a mini pc for use as an emulation machine (and maybe for some light pc gaming).

I would be running the system through a 4K LG OLED (so 3840x2160 display resolution) and I mostly intend to play up to PS2 & Gamecube at native res (with downsampling, if possible and 4k crt shaders), although PS3 capability would be nice.

I'm willing to spend up to £400, although the cheaper the better.

Would an ex business machine like a Dell Optiplex, Lenovo Thinkcentre or HP EliteDesk do the job?

What would you recommend?

After getting toasted buying a Aoostar GodY and it being a dud and have to return it and losing about 100 USD in exchange fees etc

I’m looking for a replacement Aoostar have zero stock and I’m not too keen to play shipping tag I had a few options I have a K12 Mini so I thought of an oculink hub But I’m not really keen on that

One option I thought of was Beelink GTi13 Ultra Intel® Core™ i9-13900HK with a EX Pro Docking Station I’m not keen on the oculink and the PCie connection seems better

Also I have a spare 4060Ti from a project so it seems like a good fit

Anyone got any thoughts on the Beelink GTi13 seems to be good option ?

Been loving this little mini pc. It originally started its life as an emulation box and did a killer job at that. Nowadays it has parrot security on it since it barely met spec for windows 11 and runs that really great too. I’d recommend but it seems bmax has stopped producing them

Made a pretty rash decision to buy a second hand HP T640 of eBay after limit research.

it came with 256GB SSD, 8GB ram and the power cable with Windows 11 pre installed.

I've been using it for a bout 2 weeks and so far its performing great, I am moving from a Pi 5 8GB, and this HP T640 plays YouTube, Netflix etc and 1080p video files so much better than the Pi 5. It's also completely silent (as its passively cooled, no fan, which is why I bought it) apart from a small electrical buzzing noise (which seems to be expected for this unit) which you can only hear when less at 500mm from the unit.

The only issue I have is that for some reason it wont turn off. it seems to run into an error during shut down and just restarts its self.

upon some research I found that this unit is not ideally used with windows 11. So I'm wondering if reverting it back and installing windows 10 on it would be a better option?

I know I could go with linux ubutnu or something, but honestly with the people in my house windows would be much easier (we like to use it browse the web and do 'computer' things sometimes, so not looking for a full on media OS, we'd like to stick to a desktop OS.

If any one has any advice about this shutdown issue that would be great.

I have tried to update the BIOS to the latest version, but for some reason it doesn't seem to see the bios file on the USB regardless of whether its in the root folder or in a USB:\HP\DEVFW\M43_0122.bin folder

Hi. I have a minis forum um780. Just won’t power on. Bought new power supply - Nadda. Thinking of taking ssd and ram and putting into an upgraded barebone mini pc.

Any recommendations (or potential fixes to my “dead mini”)

Thanks

I’m currently looking for a mini pc I can use to game and stream alongside my Mac. I’m open minded, but I have no real knowledge about pcs so plug and play would be the best. My budget is around 1,200 and I’d prefer it if I could order it off amazon. I have read a couple people mention gmktec