Good mini gaming pc? (NUC/ BRIX)

[Joshua French]

Hi, i have been looking at an mini computer for gaming so i can finally get my to screens up and running again. My other PC quit (dell, duo 2 processor) a year or 2 ago and i have been meaning to get another desktop like PC. I want something that can play Minecraft and maybe planet side 2 if i"m lucky. Maybe even some video editing and adobe stuff? Also, i was hoping on upgrading my screens to 4k in the not too distant feature. I also forgot to mention that i have an multimedia laptop as well that has an i7 in it.

So, i was eyeing up these too (see bottom). One has an i5 4250u with Intel graphics 5000 while the other one has an i7 4770R with iris pro (5200). I just don't know if the the upgrade in processor and graphics justify the price. Also, is there a big jump in performance from Intel 4000/4400/4600 graphics to Intel 5000 graphics and likewise to iris pro (5200)? If you could help, that would be great. Thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102055&ignorebbr=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164012

 

[Austin R]

Why not just build micro build for yourself and exceed the specs of these two for less then $600.00?

 

[AMD Radeon]

intel NUC is very weak
Gig brix is not reliable, too much complain about it

i would build a mini ITX gaming pc with desktop i5 and GTX 750 ti

 

[Joshua French]

1

 

[Sidzart]

Hi, i have been looking at an mini computer for gaming so i can finally get my to screens up and running again. My other PC quit (dell, duo 2 processor) a year or 2 ago and i have been meaning to get another desktop like PC. I want something that can play Minecraft and maybe planet side 2 if i"m lucky. Maybe even some video editing and adobe stuff? Also, i was hoping on upgrading my screens to 4k in the not too distant feature. I also forgot to mention that i have an multimedia laptop as well that has an i7 in it.

So, i was eyeing up these too (see bottom). One has an i5 4250u with Intel graphics 5000 while the other one has an i7 4770R with iris pro (5200). I just don't know if the the upgrade in processor and graphics justify the price. Also, is there a big jump in performance from Intel 4000/4400/4600 graphics to Intel 5000 graphics and likewise to iris pro (5200)? If you could help, that would be great. Thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102055&ignorebbr=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164012

They are definitely worth a look. Iris Pro 5200, can ace most previous laptop cards. I wouldnt recommend i5 4250u, this is a mobile processor, with only 2 cores, unlike the i7 4770R which has 4 cores. You havent mentioned which generation of processors your laptop has, if it's Sandybridge, these NUCs with Haswell will blow the socks off it.

You can definitely do some HD editing and encoding with the i7, benchmarks show that the performance is comparable.
I would also look into some newer models from Gigabyte which have an integrated GTX760.

I guess the only caveat is heat management, which can only be judged after prolonged use. Most of these NUC's are marketed for gaming and HTPC , im not sure if they can survive the regular loads of video editing.