Mini PCs live at the heart of DIY retro consoles. Buying something fast, relatively strong, and pairing it all with a little bit of elbow grease can often times create the ideal retro setup that many have been dreaming of.
GEEKOM QS1: What You Need to Know
At CES 2025, GEEKOM showed off their new mini PC, the QS1. It’s powered by the Qualcomm X Elite X1E-80-100 with 12 CPU cores that support either single or dual-core speeds topping out at 4GHz or multi-core up to 3.4GHz, an Adreno GPU, RAM that can be configured up to 64GB LPDDR5x, and storage is customizable with its two NVMe SSD slots, allowing for up to 4TB of storage.
It also features your standard fare of I/O by way of three USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, one USB-4 port, and one USB-2 port, accompanied by HDMI 2.0, 2.5Gb ethernet, and a headphone jack and SD card reader.
Some may consider it overkill for the retro gaming market, but it’s not directly made for the retro gaming market either. It’s a full-on desktop PC in a small form factor, similar to the Mac Mini.
However, with so much power under its hood, relative to other mini PC offerings, it may end up being a relatively strong mini PC for retro enthusiasts to dive into and see how well their games may perform.
While we’ve recently seen the fruits of PS3 emulation start to flourish, we have yet to truly challenge the raw power most mini PCs can offer. While setting up a retro game station by utilizing a mini PC is often seen as a fun side project to dabble in, the GEEKOM QS1 may make it clear that the desktop retro station is a viable option for many.
Retro Gaming?
Russ from Retro Game Corps has a detailed video showcasing how capable emulation can be on the newest M4 Mac Mini. While the GEEKOM QS1 doesn’t contain a chip as powerful and optimized as an M-series chip in a Mac Mini, it does contain a few similarities that could make it worthwhile purchase for those looking fo a more DIY, cheaper option.
While the QS1 is slated to retail for less than $500, GEEKOM has yet to share any official pricing or availability information, but it is expected to be on the show floor during CES 2025.
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