11–20 of 101 posts
Why is the power supply 2x larger than a Macbool Pro PS unit? Cheap? What about GaN?
Otherwise I'd probably have a few machines from this company.
> The strange CPU core layout is causing power problems; Radxa and Minisforum both told me Cix is working on power draw, and enabling features like ASPM. It seems like for stability, and to keep memory access working core to core, with the big.medium.little CPU core layout, Cix wants to keep the chip powered up pretty high. 14 to 17 watts idle is beyond even modern Intel and AMD!
Why is the power supply 2x larger than a Macbool Pro PS unit? Cheap? What about GaN?
Mac Mini/Studio has an integrated power supply, but other Mini PCs do not have the same luxury. It doesn't matter if you're Minisforum or HP. Minisforum probably reused the x86 power supply for ARM. The x86 MS-01 and MS-A2 supports GPUs after all. I'm not a hardware engineer, I've failed miserably in software engineering and now run a VPS host.
My Beelink Me Mini has an integrated PSU. Actually same with the EQR6 I got too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You used to be able to just call Amazon and they'd refund the difference. Not sure if they do that anymore.
They did not. The rep told me to return it and buy another. :/
This is so incredibly inefficient. Multiply by how many times this happens every day...
> Yes, while I use Fedora on my laptop, I also know Fedora is generally not a good option for a server. Why is Fedora not considered good for a server?
For myself I've had nothing but positive experiences running Fedora on my servers.
> Yes, while I use Fedora on my laptop, I also know Fedora is generally not a good option for a server. Why is Fedora not considered good for a server?
It's a cutting-edge distro with 6-month release and 13-month support cycles. Whereas Debian/Ubuntu have 5 years and RHEL/Alma/Rocky have 10 years.
I could see the side of maintenance burden being a potential point, meaning that one would be "pushed" to update the system between releases more often than something else.
> I’ve always wanted an ARM server in my homelab. But earlier, I either had to use an underpowered ARM system, or use Asahi...
What is stopping you using Mac with MacOS?
Not sure I understand this distinction. > I’ve always wanted an ARM server in my homelab. But earlier, I either had to use an underpowered ARM system, or use Asahi... What is stopping you using Mac with MacOS?
On the flip side, an M4 mini is cheaper, faster, much smaller (with built in power supply) and much more efficient. Plus for most applications, they can run in a Linux container just as well.
Not sure I understand this distinction. > I’ve always wanted an ARM server in my homelab. But earlier, I either had to use an underpowered ARM system, or use Asahi... What is stopping you using Mac with MacOS?
With full disk encryption enabled you need a keyboard and display attached at boot to unlock it. You then need to sign in to your account to start services. You can use an IP based KVM but that’s another thing to manage.
If you use Docker, it runs in a vm instead of native.
With a Linux based ARM box you can use full disk encryption, use drop bear to ssh in on boot to unlock disks, native docker, ability to run proxmox etc.
Mac minis/studio have potential to be great low powered home servers but Apple is not going down that route for consumers. I’d be curious if they are using their own silicon and own server oriented distro internally for some things.
At that price, why not a mac mini running linux? I think (skimming Asahi docs) the only things that would give you trouble don't matter to the headless usecase here?