x/nxpc · 
By Ryan — NXPC Hardware Review | July 20, 2026
Let's set the scene. You've been holding out for the M5 Mac Mini. WWDC 2026 was supposed to be the moment. June came. June went. Tim Cook didn't even whisper the words "Mac Mini." And now? The M4 Mac Mini you could've bought for $599 a few months ago now starts at $799 USD. In Canada? The entry price is $1,099 CAD, up from nothing — because the 256GB model simply no longer exists.
Meanwhile, on the Windows side of the fence, we've got an absolute renaissance happening in the mini PC space. ETA PRIME just got hands-on with AMD's official Ryzen AI Halo developer platform. Beelink, Minisforum, Geekom, and GMKtec are shipping boxes with Ryzen AI 300-series APUs, OCuLink eGPU ports, and 96GB+ of RAM for prices that make Apple's upgrade ladder look like a hostage negotiation.
So here's the question every mini PC buyer should be asking in July 2026: Is Apple's walled garden still worth the price of admission, or have Windows mini PCs finally caught up — and pulled ahead?
Let's start with the cold, hard facts about Apple's smallest desktop.
| Config | Specs | USD | CAD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base M4 | 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD | $799 | $1,099 |
| M4 (upgraded) | 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD | $999 | ~$1,399 |
| M4 Pro | 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD | $1,399 | $2,299 |
| M4 Pro (maxed) | 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD | ~$2,399 | ~$3,499 |
The big story here is what disappeared: on May 1, 2026, Apple silently discontinued the $599 base M4 Mac Mini with 256GB storage. The new floor is $799 — a 33% price increase for the "cheapest Mac." Then on June 25, Apple hiked M4 Pro configurations too, citing "rising memory costs" (MacRumors).
And the M5 Mac Mini? Bloomberg's Mark Gurman originally predicted first-half 2026. That's now shifted to "later in the year" — and WWDC 2026 came and went with zero hardware. Realistically, we're looking at late 2026 at the earliest, possibly Q1 2027.
So: prices up, upgrade delayed. That's the Mac Mini story right now.
While Apple was busy deleting SKUs, the Windows mini PC market went absolutely nuclear. Here's what you can buy right now:
| Model | CPU | GPU | Max RAM | Key Feature | Best Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beelink SER9 Max | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | Radeon 890M (16 CU RDNA 3.5) | 64GB DDR5 | 10GbE LAN, DP 2.1, USB4 | ~$699 |
| Geekom A9 Max | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | Radeon 890M (16 CU RDNA 3.5) | 64GB DDR5 | 80 TOPS NPU, dual USB4 | ~$1,689 |
| Minisforum MS-A2 | Ryzen 9 7945HX | Discrete / OCuLink | 96GB DDR5 | OCuLink for eGPU, best LLM value | ~$1,599 |
| GMKtec EVO-X2 | Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | Radeon 8060S (40 CU) | 64GB | Most powerful iGPU ever | ~$1,199 |
| AMD Ryzen AI Halo | Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | Radeon 8060S (40 CU) | 128GB LPDDR5x-8000 | Developer AI platform, Linux/Windows | $3,999 |
The Windows mini PC revolution boils down to three things:
1. OCuLink eGPU Support. The Minisforum X1 Lite (which ETA PRIME called "the best budget mini PC of 2026") and MS-A2 both feature OCuLink — a direct PCIe 4.0 x4 connection that lets you plug in a desktop GPU enclosure with near-desktop performance. This is something the Mac Mini physically cannot do. Want a Mac with an RTX 5090? You literally can't. Want a $700 Beelink that docks into an RTX 5070 at your desk? Done.
2. 80+ TOPS NPUs. The Ryzen AI 300-series APUs (HX 370, HX 470, Max+ 395) pack dedicated AI engines with up to 80 TOPS of INT8 compute. The M4's Neural Engine is rated at 38 TOPS. For local AI inference, Copilot+ features, and on-device ML, these AMD APUs are running circles around Apple Silicon — at least in raw throughput.
3. Upgradeability. Every Windows mini PC on this list lets you swap the SSD and RAM. The Mac Mini? Everything is soldered. Buy 24GB now, live with it forever.
This is the main event. AMD just shipped the Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform — a $3,999 mini PC with 128GB of unified LPDDR5x memory, exclusively at Micro Center. It's aimed squarely at local AI developers who want to run large language models without needing a $4,699 NVIDIA DGX Spark.
Here's how it stacks up against the best Mac Mini you can buy:
| Benchmark | AMD Ryzen AI Halo (128GB) | Mac Mini M4 Pro (64GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Max Unified Memory | 128GB LPDDR5x-8000 | 64GB LPDDR5x |
| Memory Bandwidth | 256 GB/s | 273 GB/s |
| 70B Model (Q4) — tok/s | 20+ tok/s | 10–15 tok/s |
| Max Model Size | Up to 200B params | Limited by 64GB ceiling |
| 13B Model — tok/s | 18–30 tok/s | 40–55 tok/s |
| 7B Model — tok/s | 25–40 tok/s | 30–45 tok/s |
| Price (max RAM config) | $3,999 | ~$2,399 |
| GPU Compute Units | 40 CU RDNA 3.5 | 16-core Apple GPU |
Sources: AMD Official Benchmarks, Compute Market Review, ToolHalla Comparison
The takeaway: for small models (7B-13B), the M4 Pro is faster per token thanks to slightly higher memory bandwidth and mature Metal/Ollama optimization. But the moment you want to run a 70B model at Q4 quantization — or anything larger — the AMD platform runs away with it. The Mac Mini cannot load models the Halo can, period. The 64GB ceiling on the M4 Pro is a hard wall.
That said, let's be real: Apple's software stack (MLX, Core ML, Metal) is far more polished than AMD's ROCm on Windows. If you want plug-and-play AI development, the Mac is still easier. But if you want maximum model capacity per dollar, AMD just changed the game.
The Radeon 890M in the Beelink SER9 and Geekom A9 Max can play Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Low/Medium with 45+ FPS. The Radeon 8060S (40 CU) in the AI Halo is effectively a desktop-class iGPU — think GTX 4070-laptop territory in a box the size of a sandwich.
The Mac Mini M4? It'll run Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding via Metal — a handful of AAA ports — but the library is tiny compared to what Steam offers on Windows. If you want to game and do productivity on the same box, the Windows mini PC wins by a mile, especially with OCuLink opening the door to a desktop GPU dock.
Let's do a real-world shootout at the ~$800 price point — the new Mac Mini entry level:
| $800 Tier | Mac Mini M4 | Beelink SER9 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $799 | ~$699–$799 |
| CPU | M4 (10-core) | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (12-core) |
| GPU | 10-core Apple GPU | Radeon 890M (16 CU) |
| RAM | 16GB (soldered) | 32GB DDR5 (upgradeable) |
| Storage | 512GB (soldered) | 1TB NVMe (upgradeable) |
| eGPU Support | ❌ None | ✅ USB4 + some models via OCuLink |
| AI NPU | 16-core Neural Engine (38 TOPS) | 80 TOPS XDNA 2 |
| OS | macOS Sequoia | Windows 11 / Linux |
For the same $799, Beelink gives you double the RAM, double the storage, a faster NPU, upgradeability, and the option to dock into an eGPU later. You give up macOS, the Apple ecosystem, and Apple's class-leading single-core efficiency. That's the trade — and for a lot of users, it's getting harder to justify the Apple tax.
The mini PC market in July 2026 is the most exciting it's ever been. Apple raised prices and delayed the M5. AMD launched a 128GB AI monster exclusively at Micro Center. Beelink, Minisforum, and Geekom are shipping boxes with OCuLink, 10GbE, and RDNA 3.5 graphics for under $800.
If Apple had kept the $599 entry point and shipped the M5 at WWDC, this article would have a very different tone. But they didn't. And in that vacuum, Windows mini PCs aren't just "catching up" anymore — they're leading on specs, flexibility, and raw value.
The walled garden just got a lot more expensive. The open field? It's never looked better.
Disclosure: Prices were current as of July 20, 2026. Canadian prices converted from Apple Canada store listings. Some Windows mini PC prices reflect sale/discount pricing at time of writing.
Sources: