Mini PC Instead of a Gaming Tower

Hey everyone, I’m currently thinking about replacing my big gaming tower with a mini PC. For everyday use, streaming, and a few older games, it would probably be more than sufficient—and having one less dust collector on my desk doesn’t sound bad either. However, I’m still skeptical about current AAA games and upgradability.

Has anyone here made the switch and later regretted it—or, on the contrary, never looked back? I’m especially interested in experiences with noise levels, temperatures, and gaming performance. Somehow, a small computer that can do more than my old toaster still seems a little suspicious.

Yeah, I also see the mini PC as a strong contender for the living room. Especially when it disappears behind the TV and is mainly used for streaming, older games, and a bit of indie stuff, a tower is a bit like bringing a cannon to a sparrow fight.

That said, I’d still be cautious about the noise level: Under load, the small fans apparently ramp up faster because there’s simply less cooling headroom. A model with a decent APU and reasonably competent cooling should still be enough, though. Has anyone had experience with a specific device that doesn’t immediately sound like a vacuum cleaner taking off when gaming?

The point about the brief fan spikes is a good one; that would probably annoy me more in the living room than a steady, quiet hum. Two RAM modules would be essential for integrated graphics anyway, otherwise you lose a fair amount of performance with dual-channel APUs. My old office mini PC ran with just one stick and actually felt unnecessarily sluggish in smaller games—the second stick was practically the cheapest upgrade imaginable.

I’m now leaning toward a mini PC with a 7840HS/8845HS and, if necessary, a limited TDP, rather than going straight for the most powerful model. For AAA games, streaming from the tower or adding an eGPU could always come later, although the prices for those can quickly make the small computer look pretty big again. Is anyone using a setup like that long-term?

For AAA, a streaming setup or an external GPU could still be added later, although eGPU enclosures can quickly end up costing nearly as much as a tower PC. At that point, the little computer is suddenly no longer the modest living-room dwarf, but a rather expensive accessory project.

That’s why I’d focus more on a good standard SSD, two sticks of RAM, and a quiet power supply, while setting the TDP properly. I’d rather have a consistent 40–60 FPS without the fan going into roller-coaster mode than a few percent more performance with vacuum-cleaner noise. Has anyone compared the 7840HS and 8845HS directly—can you even notice the difference in everyday use?