I picked up a range of mini PCs from different manufacturers, each with different CPUs, to get a broad picture of how they compare in areas such as heat management, build quality, unit cost, cost-to-PPD return, power-per-PPD efficiency, and BIOS tuning potential. I’ve put all the results into a formatted spreadsheet, which will be shown below. Some of these units were purchased on sale, so the listed prices may differ from current retail. Power-cost calculations are based on what I pay — $0.16 per kWh. These are listed in no particular order too on this spreadsheet. All units that have the options have had the UMA buffer size set to 32M
Mini PC | CPU | PPD | Watts | Temp | CAPEX | PPD/$ | PPD/W | Power$/Mo | PPD per Power$ | PPD per $(1yr)
----------------------+----------------+------------+-----------+-------+------+---------+-------+--------+-----------+----------------+----------------
Beelink SER5 Pro | Ryzen 7 5825U | 179957 | 16.2 | 63 | 228.00 | 789 | 11108 | 1.87 | 96234 | 719
Kamrui E3 | Ryzen 7 5825U | 164463 | 17.8 | 57 | 258.00 | 637 | 9239 | 2.06 | 79836 | 582
CHUWI R9 | Ryzen 9 4900H | 333000 | 44.6 | 71 | 250.00 | 1332 | 7466 | 5.14 | 64786 | 1068
ACEMAGIC S3A | Ryzen 9 8945HS | 630000 | 45.0 | 73 | 581.95 | 1083 | 14000 | 5.19 | 121387 | 978
BRENUC N7P | Ryzen 7 8845HS | 430000 | 28.3 | 60 | 497.14 | 865 | 15194 | 3.27 | 131498 | 802
GMKtec NucBox K4 | Ryzen 9 7940HS | 250000 | 18.9 | 58 | 499.99 | 500 |13228 | 2.18 | 114679 | 475
AOOSTAR GEM12 | Ryzen 9 6900HX | 257759 | 54.5 | 70 | 518.34 | 497 | 4730 | 6.28 | 41044 | 434
GenMachine 5425U | Ryzen 3 5425U | 85562 | 18.0 | 64.5 | 208.99 | 409 | 4753 | 2.07 | 41334 | 366
GenMachine 5600U | Ryzen 5 5600U | 114122 | 15.0 | 58.6 | 249.99 | 457 | 7608 | 1.73 | 65966 | 422
Minisforum UM773 lite| Ryzen 7735H | N/A | N/A | N/A | 237.55 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A
BIOS
GenMachine 5600U: Bios is locked, best to manage in the power settings in windows power management set to best performance. Wattage of 15W
Item returned for OS stability issue.
GenMachine 5425U: Bios is locked, best to manage in the power settings in windows power management set to best performance. Wattage of 15W
ACEMAGIC S3A: 45W. No need to open bios, has control switch on the handwear itself, set to auto mode.
Beelink SER5 Pro: Comes set to 25W, no need to change. Good fan and heat displacement.
Kamrui E3: Comes set to 25W, no need to change. Good fan and heat displacement as well.
CHUWI R9: Bios is open, set to 35W, Heat issues. Needs to be in a cool place with a small fan to assist.
BRENUC N7P: BIOS is restricted but F12 to open up more options, set to 40W, Good fan and heat management.
GMKtec NucBox K4: BIOS is locked, setting the power option to balanced in windows power plan is about the best and only option. Pulls about 35W but can settle down once a WU starts.
AOOSTAR GEM12: BIOS is open set to 35W, good fan and heat management.
Minisforum UM773 lite: Refurbished, Bios is open. Unit Was running hot, opened to find no thermal compound and scratched CPU die and heatsink. Listing DOA.
In conclusion.
This is my first time doing anything like this, and it was a fun experience. I just recommend waiting until these units go on sale to get the best value out of them if you decide to try something like this. Yes, it's not a PC with a 9950X3D or a 5090, but those take up a fair amount of space and give off a fair amount of heat, along with a higher out-of-pocket cost to acquire. My intention was to find something with a smaller footprint that would be more wallet-friendly for those who want to focus on CPU folding. Yes the PPD is not the same as GPU folding but it's the work units completed that matters. Review the information and seek out more if you think this is a route you want to go.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, I will answer the best I can.
