MACO

get an Aoostar MACO with a 6850H it has OcuLink so you can upgrade the GPU with an AG01 later on it should provide better performance than a Steam Deck.

I switched from giant gaming PC to mini (Aoostar MACO AMD R7 6850H with 680m graphics). This model was only $299 and the only downside is that the memory (24GB) is soldered to board so not upgradeable). Barebones, I had 2 M.2 drives so I added those. This model has a built in Oculink port. That, pai

The AOOSTAR MACO R9 8945HS is $640ish on Amazon. I have one and it runs well sofar. Its also offered in the R7 6850H, the R7 8845HS and the newer R7 255. The 6850H is 24gig LDDR not upgradable. https://www.amazon.com/AOOSTAR-4-70Ghz-6400Mhz-Supports-Quad-Screen/dp/B0G698213Z The rest use DDR5 sodimm

Depends on overall expectations. I know a few people in recent months have bought the Aoostar MACO PRO 6850H "barebones" (soldered memory/missing SSDs) specifically for HTPC/emulation machines. Usually running Windows from one drive slot and Bazzite OS/EmuDeck from a 2nd. These were only $300 a few

With the way prices are right now, if you don't already have some laptop RAM sticks laying around to drop into a barebones unit, AOOSTAR's MACO 6850H is pretty enticing as a budget option with a solid iGPU. Available for US 300 ish on their website with no SSD installed but the 24GB RAM is soldered

dell/lenovo/hp are most reliable mini/micro pcs since they are backed large companies and easier to find support ( parts/software/compatibility ) , they are long livers if you are looking for specs regardless of the brand or partsminisforum/ aoostar / gmktec / geekom / beelink i have some lil exprie

This becomes a budget and long term expectations thing. Have someone at church that went through this recently and ended up with the "barebones" 24GB Aoostar MACO PRO 6850H. They were looking for modern performance and both Intel i226V Ethernet and AX200 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth for better Linux distro suppo

I liked it so much i got the entry level MACO 6850H coming tomorrow to try next. Only $300 on Amazon for bare bones with 24gig LPDDR5 or with a 1TB drive and OS for $430. I have a nvme drive on hand and Win11 Pro key so it will be interesting to see how that goes. The Win11 Pro install on the MACO 8

I would go a MiniPC for this since you are going for APU something like an Aoostar MACO it has OcuLink so you can get a dGPU later on. https://amazon.com/dp/B0G7DCC2XY

Light gaming you can do with integrated 780M graphics or higher. Most of those types of Minis will have a spot for an additional NVME drive and USB4. You can pretty much cover all those bases with a Ryzen 7 8845HS or Ryzen 9 8945HS. They often include Oculink too for external video upgrades later. M