At last month's meeting I briefly mentioned my toy, one of these Mini PCs. This review, from a usually reliable source, gives a nice description https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPjA1Lm4ftY
That model is outside my price range, but a cheaper model - https://www.amazon.ca/MINISFORUM-NAB6-Lite-i5-12600H-Computer/dp/B0D1VLLKXZ (679) looks interesting. What is your feel of MINISFORUM's quality? -- William On 2026-01-15 12:14, D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk wrote:
At last month's meeting I briefly mentioned my toy, one of these Mini PCs. This review, from a usually reliable source, gives a nice description
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPjA1Lm4ftY ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/M242ORF...
On Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 2:22 AM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
That model is outside my price range, but a cheaper model - https://www.amazon.ca/MINISFORUM-NAB6-Lite-i5-12600H-Computer/dp/B0D1VLLKXZ
The deal about Hugh's system is that it uses a CPU/GPU/NPU system that is designed to run local LLMs better than most PCs, because they can allocate 96GB (or more) to video RAM. This is a major obstacle to regular PCs, in which the most powerful graphics card, the $6,000 RTX 5090, only comes with 32GB VRAM. While the Minisforum that Hugh has (and the slightly cheaper GMKtec one with the same chipset that I have) are expensive compared to other MiniPCs, they are still way cheaper than the other players in this particular field: the Mac Studio M3 Ultra and systems based on the Nvidia DGX Spark architecture which generally cost $5,000 and up. - Evan
From: William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
That model is outside my price range, but a cheaper model - https://www.amazon.ca/MINISFORUM-NAB6-Lite-i5-12600H-Computer/dp/B0D1VLLKXZ (679) looks interesting.
My idea of what Mini PC's should cost has been thrown out the window by RAM and SSD prices, tariffs (somehow US tariffs seem to affect what we pay), and panic. I've not been a fan of Intel processors for a while. That's not a veto, just a weighting. One issue is power efficiency and the consequent noise. I don't know if the currently latest generations overturn this pattern. This particular processor is a couple of generations old. That's not a veto either. This one comes with 32GiB of RAM (generous), surely in the form of two DIMMs. Unfortunately, it is DDR4. I like 2.5G ethernet being built-in. Two ports is a bonus but actual use of this feature seems rare. This machine seems too powerful for router applications. It could allow better clustering, I guess.
What is your feel of MINISFORUM's quality?
There are now a million mini-PC vendors. My impression (note: not factual) is that Minisforum does more engineering than most of the brands but they sometimes get it a little wrong at first (in the past, anyway). Cooling seems to be a challenge for all vendors. Firmware isn't frequently updated. Minisforum might be better that average at that. Most of the Chinese brands of mini PCs are very similar and might well come from the same factory. Not Minisforum, as far as I've noticed. Nice metal cases feel good but I'm not sure that has any technical value. Machined metal feels better than sheet metal.
William Park via Talk said on Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:21:52 -0500
That model is outside my price range, but a cheaper model - https://www.amazon.ca/MINISFORUM-NAB6-Lite-i5-12600H-Computer/dp/B0D1VLLKXZ (679) looks interesting.
What is your feel of MINISFORUM's quality?
I have no opinion of MINISFORUM's quality, but I have some thought on this $679 computer... * $679 is a pretty good price for a full-featured computer. * Within 3 years, 32GB RAM will be quite anemic with future bloated software. I think 3 years is the minimum life expectancy of a computer. Do you think 32 GB will suffice for your personal needs in 2029? * A 1TB spinning rust? Why bother? Just install a 2TB NVMe instead of the 1TB. SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com
On 2026-01-20 16:20, Steve Litt via Talk wrote:
William Park via Talk said on Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:21:52 -0500
https://www.amazon.ca/MINISFORUM-NAB6-Lite-i5-12600H-Computer/dp/B0D1VLLKXZ (679) looks interesting.
* A 1TB spinning rust? Why bother? Just install a 2TB NVMe instead of the 1TB. They are so scamy. - Text description says "32GB", but specs down below says "16GB" installed, expandable to 32GB. - Text description also says "M.2 2280 512GB PCIe4.0 SSD", but who knows what's actually installed. Maybe you were reading wrong item?
I'm looking at mini-PC, because 16GB is retailing $800, and 32GB for $1600. Not a typo!
> From: William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> > > On 2026-01-20 16:20, Steve Litt via Talk wrote: > > William Park via Talk said on Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:21:52 -0500 > >> https://www.amazon.ca/MINISFORUM-NAB6-Lite-i5-12600H-Computer/dp/B0D1VLLKXZ > >> (679) looks interesting. > > > * A 1TB spinning rust? Why bother? Just install a 2TB NVMe instead of > > the 1TB. > They are so scamy. > - Text description says "32GB", but specs down below says "16GB" > installed, expandable to 32GB. > - Text description also says "M.2 2280 512GB PCIe4.0 SSD", but who > knows what's actually installed. Maybe you were reading wrong item? > > I'm looking at mini-PC, because 16GB is retailing $800, and 32GB for $1600. > Not a typo! The model you selected has 32G of SODIMM DDR4. Probably 2 sticks of 16G. That should be plenty for ordinary tasks. Everyone's workload is different. It lists no secondary storage installed. But one place says "512GB" (surely NVMe). The text is just above the array of rectangles, one for each choice. "Size: NAB6 Lite-32GB+512GB" It does look as if you could add a 2.5" HDD. I bet that 2G is about the limit (larger 2.5" HDDs are a bit thicker; they don't fit in most bays). Amazon's great: if it isn't right, you can easily return it.
participants (4)
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D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Evan Leibovitch -
Steve Litt -
William Park