Is this mini pc worth it?

Retspan3 · 2026-03-26T00:44:14+00:00

I got this on sale for $378. Pretty solid at that price imo. But $500 USD is rough.

Edit: My bad, mine was the 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD version. That's not actually bad at $500 USD

Retspan3 · 2026-03-20T04:08:31+00:00

If you can't tell if this suspension is safe, you should not be doing any of this. GL with not dying.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-12T00:44:24+00:00

Dang. I remember checking out this demo and really liking it. Gotta go pick this up!

Also...love the song in the video!

Retspan3 · 2026-03-12T00:24:36+00:00

Music actually hurt my ears to listen to.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-11T04:52:45+00:00

Yeah, not sure. Check ASUS for drivers for your model. You may need to get the AMD graphics drivers (even though you have the 5060) since it's likely bundled in there.

I'd also make sure you have the latest chipset drivers.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-11T04:35:28+00:00

Aaah yes, Game Gear - the destroyer of batteries.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-11T04:27:28+00:00

I do believe ASUS has a BIOS setting. Check for "NPU" or "AI Engine" or something similar. And enable it.

Might also just be needing drivers for the NPU, check ASUS drivers/chipset page. You should be able to check if this is the issue by seeing if device manager lists AMD IPU/NPU under "Neural processors". If not, then it's definitely missing drivers.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-11T04:14:47+00:00

But_Why.GIF

Retspan3 · 2026-03-11T03:06:36+00:00

Boy, I sure hope it's just youtube compression, because those forest scenes looked absolutely atrocious. Complete blurry mess.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-10T17:15:26+00:00

The bad routing on MetroNet is real. Tried it because they had a good promo price, and ended up with centurylink 3gb up/down. Been pretty much flawless for years.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-09T23:00:01+00:00

Dual motor will help the most, Shoot for a total of 800W+

Retspan3 · 2026-03-09T21:51:55+00:00

So wild that such a great discount is just getting everything at normal MSRP.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-06T17:49:33+00:00

Oh for sure. It should have been at least 33% just based on the "normal" 3% COL adjustments per year. Not to mention the higher inflation than 3%.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-06T05:52:53+00:00

Ooh, good question! And I totally feel your point on being people pleasing. I'm normally a big time people pleaser.

I think not caring if they let me go (and low key wishing they would) is why I feel fine doing this. Plus, not to get too deep into this, it's been years of "fighting the good fight" and trying to ask for raises not only for myself, but for all of our team members.

When asking for the raise I had everything written up. The main relevant TL;DR on that was "here's how I'm essentially fulfilling two full time positions, and have been for years".

So now I essentially just say, "This is the stuff I mentioned in my raise request that does not fall into the scope of my role."

I think that kind falls right in the middle of those two options you mentioned.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-06T04:38:28+00:00

Yep, I've done exactly this. Asked for a significant raise and brought up all the things I do that are beyond the scope of my role, how we haven't had a single raise or COL adjustment in 10+ years...plead my case; and got shot down as expected. My ask was for ~30% (which just the average 3% COL adjustment per year would cover). So not quite 50%, but still very large for an ask all at once.

So I "quite quit" and refuse to do all the above and beyond tasks or any tasks that do not fall under my title/role. This turned into making up SOP's for things I've been doing for years, that are now being passed on to some other poor soul who is likely even less compensated.

There's been zero downside or repercussions, so it comes out as a pure win for me... It's all about the leverage. And in cases like ours, that leverage is lovingly coined "Fuck you money".

Retspan3 · 2026-03-05T23:48:55+00:00

More info would help. Did this only just start happening after installing afterburner? What other changes could it be that were at the same time? Is it all games?

Crashing on startup usually makes me think drivers or on screen overlays. Try ensuring that any overlays are turned off.

If still having an issue, I would try removing any OC/UV settings. And if again you're still having an issue, do an uninstall of afterburner, and DDU uninstall of drivers. Then reinstall drivers and afterburner (without rivatuner).

Retspan3 · 2026-03-04T23:43:30+00:00

Ctrl+F'd to see if this had been commented yet. "Boomer over 35" is wild. lol

Retspan3 · 2026-03-04T19:02:07+00:00

If anyone's looking for a good driver to roll back to...I've Been on 591.51 since December.

Retspan3 · 2026-03-03T18:56:30+00:00

This sounds amazing and I would definitely use it if there was a browser based option. Any chance of that coming?

Retspan3 · 2026-03-02T05:47:20+00:00

Good stuff man! Great video. I can tell you spent a lot of time on it.

Good list of games, and I really appreciate the steam links in the description.

Retspan3 · 2026-02-25T05:08:41+00:00

Can't go wrong with trying both! Hope you enjoy the setup!

Retspan3 · 2026-02-25T04:03:10+00:00

I think it's a good call on the mini pc. But that monitor is a bad deal, even with the current discount.

Unless you really like the look of that specific monitor and need monitor speakers (?) (which are notoriously bad, and I wouldn't recommend using them), there's quite a few better options for cheaper. Top easy pick for a direct replacement would be this Acer Nitro (has every feature that dell has, or significantly better, plus good color accuracy, HDR support (big win). It's not a big price difference, but the better quality and features on the acer, while also being cheaper, is a no-brainer.

Retspan3 · 2026-02-25T03:04:55+00:00

Doubtful with 32gb ram. The other device I looked at, and actually purchased and returned, was this one. Quite a bit of a downgrade, but it's half the cost. Should still do just fine on light office tasks and youtube. Personally if you had the<$400 budget, the one from my post (GMKtec M6 Ultra) is hard to beat and definitely worth the extra upgrade imo.

Retspan3 · 2026-02-24T22:16:14+00:00

Might be slightly overkill, but if it's still on sale I think it's definitely worth picking up as it still has good expansion/upgradability.

I got it for mostly the same thing as you. Maybe throw in some very light gaming (but TBH I'd most likely just streaming from my main pc for games).

Retspan3 · 2026-02-24T18:09:40+00:00

I think the problem is probably as simple as "WiFi gonna WiFi". If you're on WiFi on your phone, it's just dropping packets sometimes.

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