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The MiniPC Revolution

jadarma.github.io

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Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#231

Post by addandsubtract »

Agingcoder wrote: post #113

I want one for gaming , that is silent, provides high end graphics, and takes little space ( Mac mini or studio size ideally ). I’m essentially willing to pay extra for a specced up gaming console. I still haven’t been able to find something that fits the bill - the hardest part to get information on is noise, since most people don’t seem to care about it or just play with headphones. I understand that such a product…

I can recommend ETAPRIME on YouTube. They go through various mini/budget builds, and test new hardware. I agree with the noise benchmark, however. I bought a budget AMD card last year and it was loud af. Promptly swapped it out for a 4060 and have been happy since.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#232

Post by addandsubtract »

mrheosuper wrote: post #206
pnw wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO it's basically impossible to build such a PC. The small size plus high thermal load of a modern GPU means it cannot be cooled quietly. Intel's line of NUCs had some gaming models back in the day (e.g. Skull Canyon), but the graphics were the Intel midrange GPU and they had tiny noisy fans. Anything approaching Nvidia 4070 or 5070 series and you've got up to 300 more watts TBP heating up the system on top of the…

The new APU from AMD can makes it come true. Its iGPU is on par with rtx4060 laptop, which is far from 4070 desktop, but should be enough for 1080p gaming and light 2k gaming.

This is what I would expect from a steam machine – not a RX 7600S.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#233

Post by rcarmo »

Agingcoder wrote: post #113

I want one for gaming , that is silent, provides high end graphics, and takes little space ( Mac mini or studio size ideally ). I’m essentially willing to pay extra for a specced up gaming console. I still haven’t been able to find something that fits the bill - the hardest part to get information on is noise, since most people don’t seem to care about it or just play with headphones. I understand that such a product…

Yes, it exists. Ryzen mini-PCs with an M780 can run many 5-year old AAA titles (with caveats) and most indie games at 60fps. We use a 7840HS one as a Steam box, and stream the games to our iPads or the living room Apple TV (because, well, nothing you will find will ever be truly quiet when playing games).

But that was around $700 a couple of years back on sale, and these days you are looking at $1000+ (with 20-50% increments if you need a better GPU or multiple NVMe slots), plus the new Ryzen AI chipsets command an additional premium.

I’d give it 2-3 years for things to settle down and discrete GPUs to be come a thing of the past.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#234

Post by rcarmo »

YegoBear wrote: post #186

I never got the point of these, since they’ve always got huge power bricks. I definitely love Mac Minis/Studios and have also built a bunch of custom SFF PCs around cases like the Ghost S1/NCase/Dan Case, etc. I don’t think they’re better than consoles, not even close since Windows is clunky and the Xbox has quick resume and plays 4K Blu-ray’s, but they’re great for keeping your desk organized.

Many of the N-series machines support USB-C power delivery and can run off minuscule wall warts.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#235

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

pjmlp wrote: post #230
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What brand/model was your one? (So that we can avoid)

Replied in another thread, Gigabyte Brix, more precisely Barebone GB-BRR5H-4500.

Thanks. I'm surprised as I thought Gigabyte were a well known brand (previously bought their motherboards which seemed great). I've bought a few no-name minipcs and the only issue that I've encountered was when a supplied SSD stopped working.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#236

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

pjmlp wrote: post #229
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think Microsoft will/can do to sabotage Proton?

First of all they can make it easier option for OEMs go for Windows/XBox handhelds and thus push SteamDeck out of market, by making it a niche device only a minority cares about, netbooks attack plan style, which they are starting now. They can also introduce Windows/DirectX APIs that Proton will have a hard time copying, by requiring additional hardware or subsystem features not easily copyable. They can let their l…

I don't think reducing the price of Windows for OEMs will do much as the SteamDeck uses Arch Linux specifically for better control of the software/updates than relying on Microsoft.

They can try making Proton's job more difficult, but I'd expect that major changes to the APIs would prevent a lot of existing games from working on Windows.

Legally, I don't think they've got a leg to stand on.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#237

Post by PhilipRoman »

kogasa240p wrote: post #140

As much as I like the idea of miniPCs my biggest issue is that almost everything in miniPCs are soldered down, if you could replace the RAM/CPU/Storage I'd have zero with them. But for now, I'm skeptical in that the current push for miniPCs are a clandestine way to get more technical people onboard with unrepairable devices.

Weird, every mini PC I've used has had normal SODIMM slots and removable SSD. CPU is mostly soldered though.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#238

Post by pjmlp »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #236
pjmlp wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all they can make it easier option for OEMs go for Windows/XBox handhelds and thus push SteamDeck out of market, by making it a niche device only a minority cares about, netbooks attack plan style, which they are starting now. They can also introduce Windows/DirectX APIs that Proton will have a hard time copying, by requiring additional hardware or subsystem features not easily copyable. They can let their l…

I don't think reducing the price of Windows for OEMs will do much as the SteamDeck uses Arch Linux specifically for better control of the software/updates than relying on Microsoft. They can try making Proton's job more difficult, but I'd expect that major changes to the APIs would prevent a lot of existing games from working on Windows. Legally, I don't think they've got a leg to stand on.

I am not speaking about reducing the price of Windows.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#239

Post by akho »

al_borland wrote: post #185
akho wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an alternative experience report: I have two beelink mini s12s, and administer another one that lives under my mom's tv. All work fine (though I wouldn't be bothered by your issue as much — I reboot maybe once every few months?).

The latest project I had for it was to host a radio station. I got a home FM transmitter and was going to load the Beelink full of music, set it to shuffle, and stick it in a corner for years. Then I could tune any radio in my home to the broadcasted station and have quick and easy music synced all over my house without and “smart” stuff. A $20 transistor radio would do the job. There were a lot of reboots during set…

Cool project.

Not sure what went wrong with the beelink; the os shouldn't have locked by by itself, too.

Re: The MiniPC Revolution

#240

Post by Normal_gaussian »

scuff3d wrote: post #204
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #15

I have a homelab which is a zimaboard, a dumb netgear switch, and six mini-pc's (5560U/16GB/500GB). The zimaboard runs pfsense & an nginx reverse proxy, then all six of the mini-pcs run proxmox. 4 mini-pcs run k8s clusters (talos) and the other two run home services and selected one-offs (home-assistant, plex, bookstack, build-tools, gitea, origin servers for a subset of projects). It was a lot easier to set up than…

I've never heard of Talos until now, but it looks interesting. How was it to work with?

Pretty awesome tbh. The talosctl CLI is amazing and the exposed health utilities are great. If you need anything special its pretty easy to add a patch file for the underlying system (e.g. networking).
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