Small PC for live performance

Hi all,
I have been using an old NUC i5 for a while but it recently died. I am after something to replace it. Ideally super small and inexpensive. I am interested if I still need to go for i5 with modern chips. I only run guitar midi on the PC so keen to know what I can downgrade to and still work.

Thanks,
Mal

i haven’t had time to test it fully, and probably won’t until june, but i got a unit similar to this:
https://www.newegg.com/p/2SW-002G-000K3

$431 for a i9-12900HK(14C/20T) w/ 32G RAM+1TB SSD.

about 5"x5"x3". it throws off a lot of heat, which i think is a good thing. the fan is quiet.

price wise i’m hoping someday for a $250 unit, or cheap enough that i can buy two and bring a spare to the gig.

Thanks.

It looks like I can get my NuC fixed so am doing that.

Would love to run a small non-windows system without a screen one day.