PS5 and Xbox Series X not available: Mini PCs as console replacement

Mini-PCs as console replacement

Christmas is approaching - and is likely to be a disappointment for many gamers, or rather: it may not be quite as nice as hoped for in summer. On the one hand, this is of course due to the corona pandemic, but what we are getting at as a games website is gaming hardware. How much were many looking forward to the new Playstation 5 or Xbox Series X, or to one of the new Nvidia RTX or AMD RX 6800 graphics cards? Or in general to a new PC or a new graphics card, be it bought yourself or as a gift under the Christmas tree?

Table of Contents

Page 1 Mini PCs: Consoles and graphics cards in short supply 1.1 Mini PCs as console replacement 1.1.1 Consoles and hardware in short supply Page 2 Mini-PCs: Mini-ITX or µATX and mainboards 2.1 Housing: Mini-ITX or µATX? 2.1.1 Mainboards for Mini-PCs Page 3 Mini-PCs: Dimensions, fans and other tips 3.1 Dimensions, fans and other tips Page 4 Mini-PCs: Four basic Mini-PCs 4.1 Four Mini-Basic PCs: Notes 4.1. 1 Two Mini-ITX-PCs 4.1.2 Two µATX-PCs Page 5 Picture gallery for "PS5 and Xbox Series X not available: Mini-PCs as consoles… Aufklappen But none of this will work for the majority of gamers. Affordable gamer graphics cards have become an absolute scarce commodity, regardless of the performance class.

You can only get a Playstation 5 before Christmas with a lot of luck or a lot of money. Source: Sony The new Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X game consoles are unlikely to be available for the foreseeable future and were sold out when pre-ordered. Some AMD CPUs are also affected by a lack of availability or at least a noticeable price increase. All of these things also influence our special, which we actually planned quite differently. Because a normal PC purchase advice was planned, in which the PCs serve as console replacements and are therefore particularly compact. Because with the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X it was already clear at the end of September that they would be very difficult to get before the end of the year. For graphics cards, especially to the extent that is currently the case (see also our column from December 5th), we did not expect such a dramatic bottleneck. So it remains with our basic topic "Mini-PCs", but rather as a general guide and with some basic PCs as examples, but which lack the graphics card. It is simply too unsafe to currently state any PC compilation including graphics card, and a currently recommended PC with graphics card would be much more expensive than an identical compilation a few weeks ago. Before we get to the tips on mini PCs, let's briefly summarize the market situation for graphics cards.

Consoles and hardware in short supply

The newly released graphics cards Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 3070 and 3080 as well as AMD Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT for gamer PCs were sold out immediately after the release and only available occasionally, but then at very high prices. An exception is the GeForce RTX 3090, which is more for professional applications anyway and is not worth recommending for a normal game PC even at the normal price. One reason for the scarcity of the new graphics cards, but also game consoles are among others scalpers - these are dealers outside of the officially authorized shops, the goods, which will probably be very popular, often with the help of bots directly at the release or at the first pre-order date buy up, or at least try. The products are then offered on eBay, for example, at a significantly higher price than the prices that were envisaged for game consoles and graphics cards from AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft and Sony. See also our author's column on October 3rd.

The Xbox Series X is currently sold out - but the weaker Xbox Series S (in white) is available. Source: Microsoft Due to the scarcity of graphics cards, which should actually be available from 400 euros (Nvidia GeForce RXT 3060 Ti), the demand for significantly weaker graphics cards has also increased - possibly because many gamers are looking for replacements and then inevitably below 400 Access euros. Therefore, almost all graphics cards, even the entry-level graphics card Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super, have become 20 to 30 percent or even more expensive and are still almost nowhere to be found or anyway, since they are no longer produced like the RTX 2000 graphics cards are no longer produced sold out.

Our PC configurations do not require a graphics card proposal. When the graphics card market calms down again, you can buy the components and a graphics card that is not too large for the respective housing and get started. Of course, you can already buy the basic mini-PCs now and install your current graphics card - apart from one PC, we have selected housings with very few graphics cards too long. And even in the housing with the least space for a graphics card, you can at least install a graphics card up to 26 centimeters in length. Before we present the basic PCs in detail, start with general tips as on the next page.

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