Wanted: Some Cheap Computing 💸

Hey all, welcome to Boxed News, which plans to be a weekly source for all things mini PC. There are plenty of reasons I wanted to start an ultra-niche news outlet like this. But one of the big ones is that I’ve suddenly found myself with a bunch of them … and kind of realized I found them downright exciting.

They’re powerful enough to power your home entertainment system, and your TV, and maybe even replace a cloud subscription or three. And they don’t siphon power; they sip it.

And if I’m excited about this little scene, other folks probably are, too. Of course, the problem is that right now is not exactly the best time to get into a space like this, in part because the prices are so out of whack.

My goal with this newsletter, which I’ve decided to run separately from Tedium, is to help folks who want another machine figure out the best way to use it. We’ll take quick glances at emerging software that’s targeted towards these machines, such as self-hosting tools and the occasional AI agent thing. But we also think through what it means to have a machine that might not be your main device, but still plays an important role in your computing life. Should this be a box grinding away on stuff 24/7? Should this be a set-it-and-forget it machine? And is it enough for your computing needs that you can hold off on that big gaming PC build you’ve been thinking about?

And can you get away with something a little older over something that’s bleeding edge?

Those are just a few starting points. For this weekly newsletter, we’ll go over some of the topics you’re likely to hear about as you dig into this world and are just looking for a device that works. (Curious about how this whole thing will work? Check out our FAQ page.)

Got a nerd in your life who’s thinking about getting a mini PC? Send ’em this way. We’ll get them on the right path. — Ernie @ Boxed News

Hot-Plugging

The Ternus Era Begins … With Some New Desktop Macs

Nerds struggling to find the hard-to-come-by Mac Mini breathed somewhat of a sigh of relief last week after Apple announced the newest generation of the desktop machine and its larger cousin, the Mac Studio. Despite the brand new M6 chip under the hood of the base model (and the debut of the M5 Ultra chip), there’s plenty to grumble about here. There’s a pretty long wait for the actual machines, and a jump of $300 in a single generation is bound to sting. (Beyond the base model, consider getting a second mortgage to pay for it.)

But still, Apple is at least raising the price at a time when its desktop machines are drawing more eyeballs than ever. For months, facing the dual pressures of a RAM supply crunch and a level of demand well beyond prior high marks, something had to give … and yes, it was the price. While the hype around OpenClaw isn’t deafening anymore, the demand hasn’t gone away. (In case you’re wondering, Apple did not see the demand for agents pushing the machines into the stratosphere, which is one reason why desktop Macs have been so hard to come by of late.)

All in all, it’s a spec bump, but a pretty good one—a perfect, pat victory lap for John Ternus as he takes over for Tim Cook as Apple CEO starting today.

But at least one small detail hidden in the announcement might have been a legit accident. Per MacRumors, the Cupertino crew jumped the gun by suggesting the SSD in the Mac Studio utilized PCIe gen 6, which has yet to appear in a consumer product.

And hey, maybe the release of new Mac Minis will finally get those absurdly overpriced eBay listings to calm the heck down. Or maybe OpenAI is just going to keep buying the machines and artificially raising prices for the rest of the market.

I will wave my arms around and point out, hey, there’s a whole rest of the industry out there. But the Mini nonetheless remains at the top of the heap.

Mini-Links

» A new challenger appears: MNT, the maker-targeted German company known for its modular open laptops, just entered the mini PC space. And the guts of their new device, the MNT Station, are pretty similar to the laptops, with the tried-and-true RockChip RK3588 its primary SoC. Leaning on CrowdSupply to get the ball rolling, some of the charts imply that it’s competing with significantly more powerful machines like the Framework Desktop. Fair comparison, given that, when all the parts are put together, it’s priced similarly to a Framework Desktop. (Of course, you’re not paying a premium for the specs with a MNT device; you’re paying for the freedom.)

» Most people haven’t even upgraded to Wi-Fi 7 yet, but Wi-Fi 8 is already starting to show itsefl. Asus announced one recently, and TP-Link just followed suit. You, meanwhile, are just using Ethernet because that’s all you need.

» One of the great mini-PC mysteries of 2026 has been answered. What the heck is a Piston V? That was the question more than one enthusiast asked after YouTuber ETA Prime highlighted the touchscreen-laden machine last month. We now have our answer: It’s a new PC on Kickstarter, with a not-terrible early-bird price. You can actually get it for less than all the parts of the MNT Station.

Jargon Clarifier

WTF is MCIO?

If you are even possibly thinking of getting an external GPU for your higher-end mini PC, you have probably heard of OCuLink and Thunderbolt. (For the layperson: OCuLink is faster and extremely stable, but not hot-pluggable; Thunderbolt is more common and more versatile, but slower.) But some recent mini PCs, notably a high-profile entrant from GPD, sport a Mini Cool Edge IO® (MCIO) port. WTF is that? Well, like OCuLink, MCIO essentially a server interconnect technology that found a use case in the consumer realm thanks to the emergence of the eGPU.

Developed by Amphenol, MCIO makes it possible to get near-native PCIe speeds from an external device. OCuLink does, too, but MCIO has almost zero drop-off. So what’s the downside? On top of its rarity outside the server room, the port itself is also a bit of a beefy boy, looking kind of like the second coming of PCMCIA compared to OCuLink’s HDMI-esque connector. Put simply, if OCuLink is niche, MCIO is even further down the rabbit hole.

Odds are you need to be really into eGPUs for MCIO to matter. But, it could be a bigger deal down the road.

Deal Watch

» If you’re willing to sacrifice your existing RAM and SSD to the mini PC Gods, you can find some decent deals worth your time. Over on Amazon, a barebones version of MinisForum’s X1 Lite-255, packing a Ryzen 7 255 and an Oculink port, is going for $309 on Amazon. Adding said RAM and SSD basically doubles the price. (Want the chip but desire a fancy look? Take a look at [AceMagic’s Retro X3](https://acemagic.com/products/x5-mini-pc), which sells for $549 with 16GB of non-upgradeable RAM, half a terabyte of storage, and the feeling like your NES finally has a spiritual successor.)

» Serial ports for days. Old embedded PCs have a lot of potential as makeshift retro machines. That’s especially true if they have a lot of serial ports, like the Celeron 3215U-based Qotom Q310P does. It has six (count ’em, six) serial ports, which means you could theoretically run six serial mice to scroll around on up to two monitors. Plus, they go for less than $100 a piece, perfect for an impulse buy if you’re into FreeDOS.

» No upgradeable storage? No problem. Amazon has a decent deal on a one-terabyte Corsair external SSD that supports USB4 speeds. At $287 at current writing, it’s not exactly the cheapest SSD ever, but the high bandwidth might be enough to pay the premium.

» A KVM for minimalists. If you’re trying to reach your box but don’t want to, like, have it plugged into a monitor, a NanoKVM is a good way to navigate the annoyance from afar. They’ve not always been the cheapest, but Meshnology is offering one, sans case, for $39.99. Live on the wild side.

Mini PCs in History

One of the first answers to the question, “How do we compete with the Mac Mini?”

The Mac Mini might have revolutionized the mini PC by fitting the whole thing into a flat rectangular case way back in 2005, but that meant there was a ton of room for catch-up after the fact. One of the earliest to try was AOpen, which announced its first mini PC back in 2005. Sporting an Intel Pentium M, a processor that would appear in the original Apple TV set-top box the next year, the micro aimed for the same market that the Intel NUC would develop half a decade later.

Reviewers were enamored. While raising concerns that Apple might attempt to sue AOpen, Maximum PC wrote that the machine was “an amazing balance of miniaturization and user-friendliness.” And unlike the original Mac Mini, which infamously required a putty knife to open, mere mortals could make their way into the AOpen.

“We expected the Mini to be horrible to wrench on, but it’s an easy unit to crack open,” the outlet stated.

By the way, AOpen is still at it today, by the way, mostly focused on embedded systems. And its early DNA appears to have seeped through; its modern-day AOpen Ace Mini continues to rock the distinctive on-button-in-the-middle design of its first mini PC.

Got a weird mini PC in your archives? Send a pic to us, and we might feature it here.

OK, we’re just getting started with this—and would love your feedback! Bug us at ernie@tedium.co and let us know what you’d like to see here as we get going. Cheers!