Mini-PCs, are they the new hot thing?

They do seem pretty interesting but it would all depend on my situation.  At the moment I do not travel very much and usually will just play with friends online rather than at their house so for me I would probably get more bang for my buck with a regular pc.
 
I wonder if they overheat easily from their small size, like laptops tend to do. A search on google for "gigabyte brix gaming bxi5g-760 micro pc" tells me it sells for between 600-800 dollars. By time you add in a high quality monitor (probably a few more hundred) I could get a razer or alienware laptop for similar price which also features high end graphic cards and a portable form-factor size. The only advantage I could see is that the gaming brix is fully upgradeable, just like a desktop pc. None of the components are integrated into the motherboard, like they are in a laptop, which means you don't have to go out and buy a new system every 3-4 years to stay current, you can just upgrade the graphic card or processor, or add more ram, etc. So that'd be a pretty good selling point. I think I still prefer laptops, but I might consider this too, next time I'm in the market for a new machine.
 
Yeah they seem to be getting more and more popular. I'm not an early adopter for new things like this - if they stand the test of time I may eventually consider getting one. It'd be useful to be able to carry a PC.
 
Yea they do seem really good. I love the tiny form factor they come in, because they are so portable. My one gripe is how much heat buildup there can be in the small space of the case.
 
I think they maybe good for college students which live in a small apartment or dorm room, and other people with limited space because they live in an apartment or trailer.

But, I think a full size tower Gaming PC is still best for gaming because it is easy to add more hard drives to install more games, and upgrade your video card to a better video card.
 
If they can keep up with modern hardware and not overheat I could see getting one.

My "medium" sized case hangs off my desk right now so a small, portable computer with the power of modern tech would definitely be welcome by me.
 
good for people on the go, but I rather have something a bit more powerful.
 
I think that a micro pc is great for people that move a lot or have limited space, but still need to scratch that pc gaming itch. However, I think in almost every way, getting an mATX or ATX build will be better in the long run, since it'll run cooler, be more upgradable, and support more components.

I feel it's more niche than anything, since to use it, you'd still need to have a keyboard, mouse, and display on hand.  So, unless wherever you're taking it already has those things, you'd still be lugging around a fairly large set of hardware.  Still, I can't deny that I think the small form factor is super attractive.  Maybe in the future when components are more energy efficient and compact, these things'll be fairly standard.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I think they maybe good for college students which live in a small apartment or dorm room, and other people with limited space because they live in an apartment or trailer.

But, I think a full size tower Gaming PC is still best for gaming because it is easy to add more hard drives to install more games, and upgrade your video card to a better video card.
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It's too bad there isn'y an easy way to modularize a tower. Something so that you could build a full-spec gaming pc, but easily detach a section of it to take with you. There's just two of us in my home and we've got several laptops, 1 tower, a pile of tablets and smart phones, and 2 consoles, they're all pretty good but the domains the operate best in still overlap a lot. I would love to simplify down to 1 or 2 machines.
 
It does seem to overheat and thermal throttle pretty hard. At least this is what they say in this review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGI8iYjk0rc
That GTX 760 won't perform as a 760 because of the thermal throttling.
 
Viorel2 said:
It does seem to overheat and thermal throttle pretty hard. At least this is what they say in this review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGI8iYjk0rc
That GTX 760 won't perform as a 760 because of the thermal throttling.
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I agree mini PCs tend to thermal throttle a lot. I saw a video online of a person using a huge desk fan to blow on the Surface Pro tablet which makes it throttle.

Water Liquid PC cooling would fix heat slowdown problems.
 
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