Topton on Ali Express - Mini Gaming PC

LOrangewarrior77 on 15/05/2021 - 12:40

Hi there, i'm hoping i can get some buying advice / consumer guidance from you knowledgeable people.

My desktop PC died recently and I want the replacement to be able to output 60fps 4k HDR video, as well as having a graphics card powerful enough to edit 4k videos. I'm not interested in building my own from parts but i'm not averse to an off-brand pc if it does the job..

Search results have found me on Ali Express which I've never used before and am uncertain of, as it seems to be a bit of an unchecked market place. My concern is laying out more than $1500 on a computer and either getting nothing or a broken piece of tech in return.

so, my question is in 2 parts really..

1: can i trust Ali Express? the retailer is "Topton" and google doesn't bring up any obvious red flags.

2: Does this look like a reasonable build, and is there a cheaper/ more powerful alternative:

Dedicated Card Gaming Intel Mini PC Core
i9-9980HK GTX 1650
64GB DDR4 2TB NVME
Nvidia GTX 1650 4GB Game Desktop
2*DDR4 64GB DP HDMI USB-C
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001604900355.html
AU $1,893.20

thanks for your help everyone!

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Comments

  • FireRunner on 15/05/2021 - 12:52
    +2

    That looks similar to the one in the review I recently watched here
    Do you really need 64GB RAM and 2TB NVMe? Also, it seems like the i7 would be a better match to the GPU

  • ChipsChicky on 15/05/2021 - 14:06
    +1

    Aliexpress is good. Been buying from them for years now. If you know someone with old account, buy from thr account as they refund quickly to old accounts incase of any issue.

  • scrimshaw on 15/05/2021 - 14:14
    +4

    When you buy from Aliexpress, be aware that Aliexpress is collecting GST (and have done so for the past few years) so you'll have to add roughly 10% extra to the final price of the product.

    GST is only calculated when you start the check out process. See screenshot https://i.imgur.com/v3MkSPp.png

    One thing to be aware of when you use these tiny form factor PC's as a video rendering workstation is thermal throttling, it may seem to perform fine when used for short bursts but any work that utilizes the CPU for long periods of time is going to require good or above average cooling. Not just on the CPU but also the VRM's that feed power to the processor.

  • elusive on 15/05/2021 - 15:43
    +1

    My friend recently bought a mini PC from Topton (to use as a server).

    They take a fair bit of time to ship out.

    The hardware itself is fine, but if you're getting one with a GPU for gaming or rendering, thermals might be an issue.

    As far as performance, it'll probably be partway between a laptop and desktop. That's a laptop CPU.

  • freefall101 on 15/05/2021 - 18:01
    +2

    Is size important here? Because you could do a lot better with a full sized desktop (and also gives you upgradability), that's essentially a laptop in a box. The i9 is great as a laptop chip, but a 10700 is going to thump it nine ways to sunday because it has almost double the power envelop available to it.

    I've never really done much video editing, but I assume 4K video needs a tonne of space? I'm not sure sticking it all in the nvme is a sustainable solution. I'd get two seperate drives at a minimum, a boot/app drive of 500gb-1TB then whatever you need for editing. If you can get away with 2TB of space, another SSD all the way. If not, it's down to grinding rust as the solution. Make sure it's 7200rpm.

    The 1650 is also a particularly terrible GPU, even the 1650 Super is significantly faster than it for about the same cost. If you're going to be dropping $2k on a desktop I'd be on the lookout for a 2060, the RTX chips are great for video editing with all those cuda cores (especially if there's video editing software that uses tensor cores). That said, it would stretch the budget to get everything you want with that, a 1660S is a way better option than the 1650.

    • Orangewarrior77 on 15/05/2021 - 19:14

      A lot to think about there, and very informative, so thanks for the reply.

      It sounds like these mini PC's might be a non starter, so I'll get back to speccing a more traditional box.

  • Dack Smith on 15/05/2021 - 18:18
    -2

    Not sure you can trust anything Chinese, if you got a better alternative go with it.

    I highly doubt China will honour any kind of Australian consumer law, for obvious reasons

    Give it a try if you feel brave, after all it seems many from OZB have bought from hem without any….. issues…….

  • shaybisc on 15/05/2021 - 19:15
    +1

    Certain to run into thermal throttling problems.

  • Master Bates on 15/05/2021 - 23:56
    +1

    Have a look at this Techfast build: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Gaming & Workstation Desktop PC Tinker with the upgrade options and spec it up as appropriate for your needs.

    At a quick glance, it seems comparable to the build in this article The best 4K video editing PC build for under $1,000 USD (= $1286 AUD)

    Comparison of the 2 graphics cards here: radeon-rx-550-4gb vs geforce-gtx-1650-4gb

    • Master Bates on 16/05/2021 - 01:01

      Another comparison here with remarkably different results: Nvidia-GTX-1650-vs-AMD-RX-550

    • Orangewarrior77 on 16/05/2021 - 09:22

      Perfect! Thank you. My morning's homework is set..

      • Master Bates on 16/05/2021 - 09:35

        There may be other sellers with similar products in the market, but Techfast are responsive here and love them or hate them, they have some cheap offerings.

        Most complaints are about delays with the current shortages, but mostly affects the higher end gaming builds. If you are considering buying from Ali, this shouldn’t be a concern.

        • Orangewarrior77 on 16/05/2021 - 11:36

          tbh im waiting for my tax rebate from ScoMo, but this is all giving me time to prep and know exactly what i want. My initial wariness about Ali seems to be justified, and the information shared here already will help me get on the way to working out a reliable build, as well as understanding the components that pop up on the front page here.

  • Clear on 16/05/2021 - 10:35
    +1

    For those in general who are looking for these small form factors then go look at MINISFORUM. Ryzen and very capable.

    • shaybisc on 16/05/2021 - 13:55

      Minisforum seem to be one of the only ones who pay attention to cooling on mini pcs.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jRBf2v-q4Q

      • Clear on 16/05/2021 - 19:42

        That has to be the best cooling I've ever seen for a mini PC, though with those dual 2.5" stack with a Ryzen I can see why it's needed. Heatsink on the VRM was certainly unexpected.

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