The PC gaming industry has seen a boom in popularity in the past few years. If you’re looking to get into PC gaming, you’ll want to start small. A tiny gaming PC will allow you to expand as your budget allows.
If you’re looking for the best mini PC gaming deals, check out our list of the best mini PC gaming deals.
What Is The Best Mini Gaming PC?
For most people, hearing the term ‘gaming PC’ usually ends up in a vision of a very large computing set up with blaring fans and neon lights surrounding the whole area, but that is not necessarily true anymore. A small gaming PC means that you can still game to the max without having to make massive compromises on performance just to lessen your PC’s overall footprint.
So if you are looking for performance, power, and something a little quieter, you’ve come to the right place. Below we have rounded up some of the best mini gaming PCs that will allow you to get a lot of gaming done without breaking the bank.
Intel Hades Canyon NUC
When it comes to gaming, graphics are everything. So even when you are searching for a mini gaming pc, you still want desktop-worthy graphics that bring your gaming experience to life. Well, you can get just that as the Intel Hades Canyon NUC features an Intel Core i7-8009G/AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH hybrid chip that combines processing and discrete graphics on a single chip to bring you only the best.
Aside from its compact and attractive design, it also features customisable RGB lighting and has a ton of ports, including Thunderbolt 3 ports and HDMI outputs, through which you can attach any and all the extensions you need.
A drawback to this option is the price. After considering the initial cost of the gaming pc and then adding on all the parts you need, it can get pretty expensive.
You can find the Intel Hades Canyon NUC here for £927.00 (via Amazon)
MSI MEG Trident X
Also known as the ‘centrepiece of gaming’, the MSI MEG Trident X is one of the best mini gaming PC’s available on the market today. With tons of storage ( 1TB SSD to be exact) to store all your games and progress on, it also comes with an Intel i9-10900k processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, and 64GB RAM.
One of the best things about the MSI MEG Trident X is how powerful it. This means you can run almost any game on it and it will play amazingly. It also features a powerful graphics card with hosts Ray Tracing technology, a graphical flourish that bounces light rays in a realistic way on any surface that reflects light to make your game look as realistic as possible.
One setback to this option is how expensive it is. As high-tech as the features on this mini pc is and how strong its gaming performance is, it’s definitely not the most affordable option in comparison to other gaming pcs.
You can purchase the MSI MEG Trident X for £1999 by clicking here (via AO).
HP ProDesk 405 G6 Mini PC
For something a little more budget-friendly that also packs loads of great specs for gaming, then the HP ProDesk 405 G6 Mini PC may be worth considering.
With an AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO processor and powerful memory, you can count on this mini pc for solid performance and configurability. It has been built on a secure foundation with hardware-enforced solutions like HP BIOSphere Gen6 and HP Sure Sense so you can game securely. It has expandable capability and capacity with robust storage and many ports to connect accessories into.
One of the drawbacks of this option is how noisy it can be sometimes. The sound of the fan can be a little disruptive whilst playing but considering the affordability of this gaming pc, it may be something that can be overlooked.
You can click here to view and purchase the HP ProDesk 405 G6 Mini PC for £682.80 (via HP)
ZOTAC ZBOX CI660 Nano Plus Silent Mini PC
This Mini PC features a very powerful 8th generation Intel Core i7-8550U with 4 cores ranging from 1.8 to 4GHz. It is one of the most powerful options available on the market, which makes it a great mini pc for gaming purposes.
It has a very quiet performance as there are no noisy fans to disrupt you whilst you play, and it also has great connectivity options. This mini pc can support 802.11AC Wi-Fi, Dual Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 4.2. Along with that comes 2 USB 3.1 Type-C and 5 USB 3.0 ports, so you will always be able to connect to everything you need to.
One drawback of this mini gaming pc is that it is prone to overheating, however it does come with built-in with a passive cooling feature to prevent this from happening.
You can find the ZOTAC ZBOX CI660 Nano Plus Silent Mini PC here (via ZOTAC)
HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop Compact Tower Design
For those of you searching for a ‘mid’ mini gaming pc, then this one from HP may be worth looking at. It really is mid in terms of all its pecs in the sense that its Intel Core i5 still works well with most games so there won’t be a need for an immediate upgrade, but it won’t run everything on the highest settings, either.
The same can be said for the included graphics card, which is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 16500. There is also 8GB of RAM which can also be upgraded if you wish. Generally speaking, it’s a greater mini gaming pc for those looking to start with a reliable and budget-friendly option, with the room to upgrade in the future.
Thai HP Pavillion gaming mini pc also has customisable lightning, however, it is not the most powerful gaming pc that is available and will require new parts every so often to keep it up to date.
You can find the HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop Compact Tower Design here for £849 (via AO)
Cyberpower Gaming Tower
If you are just starting out in the world of gaming and looking for a mini pc through which you can start your journey, then the Cyberpower Gaming Tower could be just right.
Perfect for beginners, it comes at a pretty affordable price and includes everything necessary to plug in, turn on, and get to gaming as fast as possible. It features an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Hexa core processor and 8GB of DDR4 RAM which delivers seamless multitasking.
The drawback to this mini gaming pc is that it’s not very powerful, and the design shows a little too much RGB which makes it look like a colourful speaker, and so doesn’t have the same sleek design as other mini PC’s.
You can find the Cyberpower Gaming Tower here for £599 (via AO)
