The Chinese company seems to be getting ready to start producing PCs. According to reports, the two designs were supposed to be shown off at the December 1 Xiaomi event. The passing of Jiang Zemin, the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has forced the postponement of this event. While a new date is being set, it appears that two PC concepts were shown off to select persons a little early.
Let’s begin with the more enigmatic of the two possibilities. In its most basic configuration, the Xiaomi Host Mini PC resembles a small form factor (SFF) design. Specifically, the system in the image is powered solely by a 100W XM22AL5X PSU. The rest of the included hardware has not been confirmed, but we highly doubt that Xiaomi will sell it as a barebones kit.
Mini-ITX motherboard with compatibility for what appear to be low-profile, half-height up to dual slot specialized GPUs, based on the images. We have some doubts about the compatibility of a dedicated GPU with a 100W power source, however this may not be the ultimate or only option for this setup. There’s a unique plaque on the case’s rear that depicts the Windows key and the “M” key in combination. Maybe Xiaomi has some other plan for the key combination in Windows that normally minimizes all windows. The mechanical switch attached to the rear of the Host mini PC is an additional intriguing feature. We don’t know what it does either, but a keycap for it is in the accessory package shown in the Weibo leaks, so it must have some purpose.
Next, we’ll examine the other system, about which we have somewhat more information. Similar to the Mac Mini and Intel NUC, it is a small form factor personal computer. An MD Ryzen 7 6800H APU, a 45W processor with a Radeon 680M RDNA2 iGPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) is apparently powering it. It is been speculated that the price will be CNY 3999, or roughly $570.
