How good are smaller system builders with a mini PC? Reece took a look at the Wired2Fire HAL 9000 Mini PC to take a closer gander.
Small form factor gaming PCs are getting ever more popular, but the often fiddly assembly process is one that you don’t need to undertake yourself. This is where the Wired2Fire HAL 9000 Mini PC I’ve been testing recently comes in. It’s a well-specced mini PC with full-size desktop parts, including an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X processor, RTX 5070 Ti graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM and a 2TB Kingston Fury Renegade SSD. All of this fits inside the Cooler Master NR200P Max V2, an 18-litre case that ranks amongst our top Mini ITX PC case recommendations.
The price? From Wired2Fire’s website, this PC will cost you £1924, including the cost of a Windows licence. For context, if you’re willing to shop around and order from various UK retailers, a DIY version of this PC will cost you £1674 at minimum. That works out to a modest £250 premium for a pre-built system with two-week build time, five-year build warranty and two-year part warranty. I particularly like the fact that the use of off-the-shelf parts means that you’ll avoid a lot of the future upgrade woes common to bigger sellers like HP or Lenovo that use bespoke cases, motherboards and power supplies.
In order to be worth recommending though, Wired2Fire needs to deliver on more than just a good parts list. We’ll also be looking at how well the system is packed for delivery, configured in terms of BIOS and software, and supported by its warranty and customer service. And of course, we’ll be checking to see whether we get the expected level of performance from a SFF PC with these particular parts. Click the quick links below or scroll on for our full findings!
When it comes to the packaging, we just want a box that prevents any reasonable damage in shipping, and Wired2Fire does hit that standard.
The PC was double-boxed, with the PC case packaging inside a larger cardboard box filled with air bags. The main PC was wrapped in foam, with bubble wrap protecting the internal components. It’s sometimes preferable for GPUs to be shipped separately, but that does require a certain level of knowledge from the end user – so shipping with it installed is fine if that internal protection is present. In taking the PC out of the packaging, I can’t actually find fault with it – Wired2Fire’s attention here is first-rate.
Alongside the Cooler Master case box, you also get the boxes for the other components, including the ASRock B850I Lighting WiFi motherboard (an upgrade from the MSI B650 choice listed on the website), an envelope with instruction manuals, a Windows 11 Home licence, a kettle plug power cable and a patch cable.
In removing the packaging and the side panels for a closer look, cable management is also excellent, with good channelling and consistent tie-downs using both the case’s built-in wraps and some handy cable ties. It’s certainly a better job than I could do in a few days of trying, so good marks there, too.
On the front of part selection, the parts installed in this PC aren’t totally consistent with those listed on the Wired2Fire website. However, the discrepancies are generally for the better, with our unit coming with a newer B850 motherboard and a well-regarded Asus Tuf Gaming RTX 5070 Ti. In taking a closer look at the innards of the PC, the RAM used is RGB-enabled Adata XPG Lancer Blade DDR5-6000 RAM with relatively loose CL48 timings – a little off the CL30 kits we recommend but not egregiously so.
