Laptop vs Mac Mini for HTPC

[burgerstorm97]

I just recently decided to upgrade my living room TV/media setup, and I’d really like to have some sort of computer doing everything a roku could do that’s also capable enough to stream games and such from my gaming PC in the other room via steam or parsec. My initial thought was to buy a NUC or something similar, but nothing really blew me away as being a great deal in that space. Right now, I’m between a ryzen 5000 series laptop (manufacturer or exact cpu doesn’t matter, just needs gig Ethernet at a minimum) or an M1 Mac mini; I’ve found laptops for around $650 that look alright, and (thanks to my dads service in the military) I could get a base model M1 mini for $550. I know both machines are likely a bit overpowered for this use case but I’m looking for something that’ll age well, so which would you recommend? 

[da na]

Welcome to the forums!
I would recommend an older, 2015 ish NUC/Mac Mini. You don't need to spend that much for just video decoding.