HP Elite Mini 800 2024, Core i7-12700T, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Black

The HP Elite Mini 800 is a compact business desktop with a capable 12-core i7-12700T and 16GB of DDR5, but it ships without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which owners are not happy about. It handles office work and triple monitor setups fine, but gaming is essentially off the table with integrated graphics. At $899 it's a decent wired-only workhorse, but at $1,490 it's a bad deal.

The i7-12700T is a 12-core, 20-thread part, and for a 35W chip it punches above its weight in everyday tasks. Our database puts its CPU performance right around the middle of the pack for mini PCs, which sounds unimpressive until you remember this thing is designed to run quiet and cool in a tiny chassis. It's not going to hang with a full desktop i7 in sustained workloads, but for Office apps, web browsing, and light multitasking it feels snappy. The 16GB of DDR5 at 4800MHz helps keep things responsive when you've got a dozen tabs open and a video call running.

Graphics are where expectations need to be managed. The Intel UHD Graphics 770 is integrated, and it lands in the bottom half of our GPU rankings for this category. It'll push 4K video to a monitor without stuttering and handle basic productivity displays fine, but this is not a gaming machine. Our gaming score for this unit is a 10.6 out of 100, which is about as close to 'don't even try' as it gets. Casual browser games and solitaire, sure. Anything with a 3D engine, forget it. The 512GB SSD is on the smaller side for 2024, and it ranks in the lower third of our storage comparisons. You'll want external storage or a cloud sync setup if you keep a lot of files locally.

Stacked against something like the Apple Mac Studio M5 Max, the Elite Mini 800 isn't even playing the same sport. The Mac Studio costs more but delivers workstation-class performance, better build quality, and modern connectivity. The HP is a budget-conscious business box, and it should be judged on those terms. Against other Windows mini PCs in its price range, the Elite Mini 800 holds up okay on CPU performance but falls behind on storage capacity and connectivity.

The Lenovo Legion 90YA003GUS and ASUS ROG GM700TZ-BS978 are gaming-focused desktops that absolutely demolish the HP in graphics performance, though they're larger and draw more power. The Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 is a more direct competitor for office use, and it typically ships with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which is a point in Dell's favor. The MSI Aegis RS2 is another gaming rig that's not really in the same conversation. If you need a mini PC specifically, the HP's form factor is the main draw. If you need wireless connectivity or any gaming capability, every one of these competitors is a better fit.

Value is tricky here because the price spread is genuinely absurd. US listings range from $899 to $1,490 for what appears to be the same core configuration, and that $591 gap means the difference between a decent deal and a bad one. At the low end, around $899, you're getting a competent business mini PC with a solid CPU and modern RAM. At $1,490, you're paying way too much for a machine with integrated graphics, no wireless connectivity, and a modest SSD. If you're shopping this model, check Best Buy's listings carefully, the cheaper configurations are the only ones worth considering. For context, that kind of money puts you in range of machines with dedicated GPUs or significantly more storage, so the Elite Mini 800 only makes sense if you specifically need the small form factor and don't mind the wired-only setup.

The HP Elite Mini 800 is a compact business desktop that sits in that weird middle ground between a full tower and a stick PC. It's built around a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700T, a 12-core chip that sips power at 35W, paired with 16GB of DDR5 and a 512GB SSD. Pricing is all over the place depending on where you look, with US listings ranging from $899 to $1,490, so shopping around actually matters here. It runs Windows 11 Pro out of the box, which is the version you want if this is heading into an office or a managed IT environment.

Is the HP Elite Mini 800 good for business use? Mostly, yes. The i7-12700T handles spreadsheets, browser tab hoarding, and light photo work without breaking a sweat. But there's a catch that keeps coming up in owner feedback, and it's a big one. This machine ships without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. In 2024, that's not a minor omission, it's a genuine dealbreaker for a lot of people. If you're picturing a clean desk setup with wireless peripherals and no ethernet cable snaking across the floor, this isn't that machine out of the box.

For home office users, the compact footprint is nice. It's small enough to tuck behind a monitor or under a shelf, and the port selection is genuinely useful with five USB-A ports, one USB-C, HDMI, and two DisplayPort connections. You can drive up to three monitors, which is more than a lot of mini PCs manage. Just know going in that you'll need a wired network connection or a USB Wi-Fi adapter to get online without a cable.

Skip the HP Elite Mini 800 if you need Wi-Fi or Bluetooth without buying extra dongles, because this machine has neither. Gamers should look elsewhere too, the integrated Intel UHD 770 graphics are not built for anything beyond casual use, and our gaming score of 10.6 out of 100 says it all. If you want a mini PC with modern wireless connectivity, check out options from Dell or Lenovo in the same price range. And if you're considering the $1,490 listing, just don't. That's dedicated GPU territory, and you'd be paying a premium for a machine that's missing basic features.

Should you buy the HP Elite Mini 800? Only if you're okay with a wired ethernet connection and wired peripherals, and only if you find it at the lower end of its price range. The i7-12700T and 16GB of DDR5 make it a capable office machine, and the triple monitor support is genuinely useful for productivity setups. But the missing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are hard to overlook in 2024, and the fact that HP ships it this way without making it obvious is frustrating.

Our user sentiment data for this product is about as bad as it gets, with a score in the bottom percentile of everything we track. The sample size is small, just two reviews, but the frustration is clear. People expect a modern desktop to have modern connectivity, and this one doesn't. If you can live with the wired-only life and snag it around $899, it's a reasonable compact workhorse. If you need wireless anything, look elsewhere.