HP EliteDesk 8 Mini G1i AI 2025, Core Ultra 5 235T, 16GB, 256GB SSD, Macaco preto

The HP EliteDesk 8 Mini G1i AI is a compact business desktop with a 14-core Core Ultra 5 235T, 16GB of DDR5, and Thunderbolt 4. It's great for office work and desk space savings, but the 256GB SSD is small and integrated graphics rule out gaming. US pricing ranges from USD 1,348 to USD 1,942, so shop around. Buy it for business, skip it for play.

The Core Ultra 5 235T is a 14-core chip with a 1.6GHz base clock, and it lands in the 72nd percentile for CPU performance among desktops in our database. That's well above average, and for office workloads, spreadsheets, browser tabs, and light content creation, it's more than enough. The integrated Intel Graphics sit right around the middle of the pack, which is fine for driving displays and basic visuals but not much else. Don't expect to game on this, the gaming score is 13.3 out of 100, which is one of the weakest areas of this machine.

16GB of DDR5 running at 5600 MHz is solid for multitasking, though it's only in the 56th percentile for RAM. That's about average for this category, and for most business users it'll be plenty. The 256GB NVMe SSD is the real weak spot. It ranks in the 22nd percentile for storage, which means it's smaller than most desktops we track. The good news is there are two empty M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots, so you can add more storage yourself. But out of the box, 256GB fills up fast once Windows 11 Pro and a few apps are installed.

Compared to the Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10, this HP is a completely different animal. The Legion is a gaming tower with a dedicated GPU and way more raw performance, but it's also much larger and louder. If you want to game or do 3D work, the Legion is the obvious choice. The EliteDesk 8 Mini is for people who want a quiet, small, business-focused machine.

The Apple Mac Studio M4 Max is another competitor, and it absolutely crushes the HP in performance, especially for creative work. But it costs significantly more and runs macOS. If you're in a Windows-based office environment, the HP makes more sense. The Dell Tower ECT1250 and MSI Aegis ZS2 are both traditional towers with more upgrade headroom, but again, they're bigger and aimed at different users. The CLX SET is a gaming-focused build that trades blows on price but not on form factor. For pure desk space savings and business deployment, the HP holds its own.

Pricing on this thing is all over the place. In the US, we're seeing listings from USD 1,348 to USD 1,942 across three vendors. That's a USD 594 spread for the same machine, which is wild. If you're buying, shop around. The lowest US listing is the one to look for, and Newegg is one of the vendors carrying it with fast shipping. In Canada it's CAD 1,978, in Japan JPY 331,586, and in Mexico MXN 42,450. Keep those amounts in their own currencies, they don't compare directly.

At the low end of that US range, this is a reasonable deal for a business mini PC with Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 7. At the high end, you're paying too much for what you get. The 256GB SSD and integrated graphics hold it back from being a great value at any price, but if you find it near USD 1,348 and you need a compact, reliable office machine, it's worth a look.

The HP EliteDesk 8 Mini G1i AI is one of those machines that makes you realize how far small desktops have come. It's a 1.42kg box that sits under a monitor or clips to the back of it, and inside there's an Intel Core Ultra 5 235T with 14 cores. That's a lot of compute for something you can hold in one hand. HP is clearly aiming this at offices, call centers, and anyone who wants a tidy desk without giving up Windows 11 Pro manageability.

What makes this interesting is the AI angle. The Core Ultra 5 235T is part of Intel's newer lineup with a dedicated NPU for local AI tasks. That means things like background blur in video calls, voice transcription, and some Windows Studio Effects run without hammering the CPU or GPU. For a business machine, that's genuinely useful. You're not buying this to train models, but for day-to-day AI-assisted work, it's built for it.

Connectivity is a strong point here. You get Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort, and a healthy spread of USB ports. The port selection ranks in the 80th percentile for this category, which is impressive for a mini PC. If you're plugging in multiple monitors, a dock, and a pile of peripherals, this thing has you covered.

Gamers should absolutely skip this. The integrated Intel Graphics score a 13.3 out of 100 for gaming, which is one of the worst results we've seen for that use case. If you want to play anything more demanding than solitaire, look at a machine with a dedicated GPU, like the Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 or the MSI Aegis ZS2.

Creative professionals working with video editing, 3D rendering, or heavy photo work should also look elsewhere. The 16GB of RAM and integrated graphics will choke on 4K timelines and complex renders. The Apple Mac Studio M4 Max is a much better fit for that kind of work, though it costs more. And if you need lots of local storage out of the box, the 256GB SSD here is a dealbreaker. You'd be better off with a tower that has room for multiple drives from day one.

If you're outfitting an office with compact, reliable desktops that can handle everyday work, the EliteDesk 8 Mini G1i AI is a strong pick. The 14-core CPU, Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 7 make it future-proof enough for the next few years. Just budget for a storage upgrade, because 256GB won't last long.

For home users or anyone who wants to game, edit video, or run GPU-heavy apps, this is not the machine for you. The integrated graphics and 90W power supply limit what you can do. Look at a small gaming tower or a Mac Mini if you need more graphical punch in a compact package.