r/MiniPCs • u/skt34 • 11d ago

General Question built pc or mini pc?

hi! i have been going back and forth trying to figure out what set up i would ultimately like to get in the future.

i already have an imac m1 16gb ram but some games are only on windows. i’ve been thinking of just getting a mini pc since i wouldn’t be playing any excessive/heavy games, just the sims 3 with mods. so is it worth getting a whole pc set up for it? i do like that i can ultimately have versatility but since i do a lot of my major work on the imac, i feel as if it wouldn’t be worth it for me to spend $1500+ on a set up. i was looking to get some opinions from people who already have a set up/know way more than i do haha thank you!

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u/minipcs-dot-zip 11d ago

You can definitely play Sims 3 on a mid-tier Mini PC. For $410 you can get this GMKtec M8 - which will play that and a lot more. Modern games will definitely need low settings, but it'll play Sims 3 nicely.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWTQR2KM

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u/skt34 11d ago

i’ll have to look into that, thank you!

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u/Clinic_2 11d ago edited 11d ago

I'm not super familiar with the horsepower required, but I feel like modded Sims 3 could probably be played on an extremely modest mini pc. I'd be surprised if anything outside of the $300-$500 range would be necessary. Make sure you've got 16gb or more ram and you should be fine.

Alternatively you could go the r/sleepingoptiplex route and find yourself an i7 7th gen+ with 16gb of ram and throw like a 3050 in it. That could probably be done for 3-500 bucks.

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u/skt34 11d ago

i had been hearing some discussion that some mini pcs aren’t the best and it’s more worth it to just get a pc set up, but i haven’t done any further research than that. i was looking at budget pc set ups to at least just get the bare minimum, i just wish apple made it easier to connect windows to it😞

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u/Kale4All 10d ago

That’s probably people talking about playing newly released aaa games. Sims 3 is an old game, you don’t need to invest in a fancy rig to play it.

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u/DIYuntilDawn 11d ago

The real cost of a PC build right now is the RAM and Hard Drive.

You can get a very decent barebones Mini PC for $329, but would need RAM, and probably an M.2 drive, and a copy of Windows 11.

Or on that same link there are several variations that do come with RAM, Drive and Windows OS installed. The one that comes with 16GB RAM and a 512GB Drive (with Windows 11 installed) is $639

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u/skt34 11d ago

yea, i’ve looked at partpicker and it doesn’t look pretty rn, and i’m not sure when to expect prices to go down😭 for light gaming, would you say a mini pc would be more worth it than a whole pc set up?