Trying to find a good computer for Zwift

General Discussion
#1

In my quest to get in shape I turned my spare bedroom into a little workout room. I set up a 43" smart TV with a Blu Ray and DVD Player so I can watch pretty much anything while I am on my treadmill, Concept 2 rower or now my bike hooked up to my Kinetic Road Machine that I got this weekend. I’ve been running Zwift on my phone and its been doing ok but I don’t really want to tie up my phone or drain my battery using the app and having the phone hooked up to my TV via HDMI and adapter. I am thinking of getting a mini PC to run Zwift on. How would this run Zwift?

Wont let me post the link but its on Amazon

GK41 Mini PC Windows 10 Pro 8GB LPDDR4 256GB SSD Intel Celeron J4125(up to 2.7GHz), Quad Core, HDMI&DP 4K@60Hz Outputs, 2X Gigabit Ethernet, 4X USB 3.0, Dual Band WiFi, Support PXE Boot

CPU- Intel Celeron J4125
GPU- Intel UHD Graphics 600
RAM- LPDDR4 8GB

#2

@Dave_ZPCMR will give you a much better config suggestion for a mini PC.

#3

Intel UHD Graphics 600 - search the forum, I personally would not recommend it.
Steve is right, @Dave_ZPCMR can tell more about it (Celeron CPU?).

#4

I use Apple TV 4K its amazing

#5

Please don’t buy that for Zwift, it’ll be pants. And it’s expensive.

If you absolutely have to have something tiny and self-contained, just buy an Apple TV 4K. Otherwise if you’re willing to put a little effort in, a small dedicated PC with a mix of new and used parts will annihilate both for not much more money.

#6

2x LAN and Celeron J…
This “PC” is clearly designed to be used as NAS or firewall.
But not as a desktop PC or even as a gaming rig.
Under zwift it will perform as a potato.

#7

So I am looking at the Apple TV, to me it just looks like a rather expensive Roku box. The TV I have is a TCL 43" 4k Roku TV already. I know it was a long shot but I tried looking for Zwift on Roku and no dice. I take the Apple TV does much more than just stream movies then? I can mirror my phone to my TV wirelessly but there is just too much lag. Its just an old Samsung S8 anyway. It runs fine directly hooked to the TV. But I gotta make sure its fully charged, I’d hate for the battery to die in the middle of a workout.

As a challenge, I am trying to keep the cost down and the mini PC I was looking at was on the upper end of what I really wanted to spend on something that will just be dedicated for running Zwift. I’ve seen reviews of this little PC I showed running games like Overwatch, Rocket League and whatnot but I am not sure how graphicly challenging they are compared to Zwift. I am sure those game were pushing the limits though.

I’m not a big fan of Apple so I wanted to go a different route. I figured somebody here has some good ideas and has built a system on a budget. I can go all out and build a system that would blow everything out of the water, but that’s too easy and way more expensive. Like Ive said before, this is more of a mental challenge for fun pushing me to learn something new. I’ve built high end systems before, ■■■■ my computer I am using now is bonkers, but I don’t want to lug it into the other room for Zwift. This cheap as possible, with a tiny footprint for the biggest bang with a rather narrow use is a different way of thinking, that’s for sure.

1 Like
#8

Well if you’re comfortable building, know that a Haswell i3 and 980/1060/1650 Super with 8GB of DDR3 is all you need to hit 60fps in 4K in solo rides and over 30fps in group rides. It’s not expensive at all.

#9

Yea I kind of had a suspicion that would be the case. Just wanted to make sure.

#10

I zwift with a i5-3470, 8GB DDR3-1600 and a GTX750Ti 2GB.
Working fine, not expensive.
I’m sure you can find sth better at your favourite online second market platform.

I’d recommend a Haswell-i5 with a GTX960/970 or 1060

#11

If you’ve really want to have some fun with it, G3258 @4.2+ works lovely. For an added challenge, try it on an H81 board, and for bonus difficulty an ASUS that has an old BIOS. :wink:

#12

That is one route I kind of wanted to go is actually build a system from scratch. The computer I have now I built about a year and a half ago. Cant get anymore powerful that this but its huge. Intel i9 9900, evga geforce rtx2080 ti ultra, water cooled and tons of RGB LED’s but its like a huge terrarium of electronics. Now I am trying to learn how to shrink that kind of power into a tiny package. I mean if my phone can run Zwift, I’m sure I can build something. I just have to wrap my head around how to do it and where to look. I just came up with this idea today and I’m sure I will figure it out. I just need a starting point. Who else wouldn’t be better than the people that deal with Zwift and some that have probably built systems for just that very thing.

#13

You can easily surpass the graphics quality of an Apple TV for the same price by building your own from a barebones old office PC, used CPU and RAM and by fitting graphics card. I did this a few months back and I’ve been really pleased, the quality is amazing. Thanks to @Dave_ZPCMR assistance!

1 Like
#14

Just a few… :eyes:

:wink:

#15

Yes, it runs the Zwift app for a start. It can run other apps such as games. Though mine is mainly used for Zwift.