System builders within the small type issue (SFF) area of interest completely love cramming essentially the most highly effective elements into the smallest case potential, and making it look good within the course of. However desktop producers appear to have a decrease restrict on these designs.

One boutique builder appears to have busted by means of it, although. The MegaMini G1 is… effectively, it’s simply the cutest lil man.

We’ve seen preliminary designs for the MegaMini G1 a couple of instances this yr, together with at Barcelona’s Cell World Congress. However now the producers — mini PC specialist Geekom and normal electronics model Tecno — are prepared to start out promoting.

Nicely, nearly. It’s up on Kickstarter now with an early chicken worth of $1,500 and a transport date set for November 2024.

The itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, Intel-powered mini PC packs a Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7 processor and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 discrete graphics card right into a case that’s simply 255mm tall and 150mm sq. on the base. That’s a quantity below six liters. (For comparability, the present go-to favourite MiniITX case, Fractal Design’s Terra, is 10.4 liters.)

However this factor isn’t simply tiny. It’s a showpiece! The MegaMini G1’s case is a glossy vertical affair with home windows on three sides, exhibiting off the customized warmth exchanger and 4 clear pipes working to an L-shaped radiator on the rear. Geekom says the package deal is below 36 decibels for noise, in comparison with 45 to 60 for the standard PC. Notice the interior RGB lighting and small LCD display on the highest to indicate off standing messages.

I’m impressed by the port choice. You get 4 USB-A ports and a headphone jack on the entrance, and across the again you get two extra USB-A ports, double USB-C, double HDMI, DisplayPort, and a full Ethernet jack. Not unhealthy in any respect for a mini PC.

Naturally, there are going to be some compromises. The CPU and GPU are each laptop computer elements, so that is basically a gaming laptop computer with the display and keyboard changed with a large cooling system. (That’s how they’ve crammed all these ports down into the underside.) You’ll additionally should make do with laptop computer SO-DIMM RAM (32GB on the bottom mannequin). Each 1TB and 2TB SSDs are provided, allegedly with twin M.2 slots.

However for those who can change the RAM or storage, the marketing campaign isn’t saying so. So, yeah, this can be a pretty one-off design with very restricted improve choices, it doesn’t matter what the video says about AI TOPS and the way it “performs simply in addition to any top-notch workstation.” Perhaps a top-notch workstation from 5 – 6 years in the past.

For the value, you may construct an SFF PC — and even purchase one other mini PC primarily based on laptop computer elements, just like the Asus ROG NUC — that’s going to stomp it when it comes to number-crunching energy.

Nonetheless, for those who’ve all the time dreamed of getting the smallest, cutest gaming PC on the block, this is perhaps your method in. Simply don’t count on to beat out some less-stylish machines when it comes to efficiency.