I think that the bmax might struggle with even the smallest of home servers, maybe just a pihole and not much else. With pi5s being similarly priced though it might be a decent option.
The Bmax is a media-box/thin-client. They are not meant to be used for gaming or anything like that. Even as an office-machine these are plenty of capable but that requires an IT-department or at least somebody with some basic knowledge on how to configure windows. At our local technical university they had some real thin-clients and switched to these mini-PC thinclients cause those were just marginally more expensive but far easier to setup and manage (and we were not bound to specific software and hardware vendors).
Windows 10 is an absolute pig. I would install a light weight Linux distro to squeeze more performance. The best case use for these is as a server or client for media center or streaming dongle replacement. These chinese use questionable license and not use a clean windows image. I would not use their software. N100 cost around the same and have slightly better performance.
@@sakork95z Mine was roughly 160 euro after discounts, I did add a 2TB WD red SSD to it. so I have enough storage and TBW for years to come. HASS is known to write a lot of data, killing SD cards, so i went overkill and got a 2TB SSD. so I have enough space that will never get FULL, and/or destroyed due many write-cycles
These are perfect for basic office use and for people that only need laptop power, but don't want to spend laptop money, ruin a battery, and don't want a large desktop!
Got my boss to replace one of the PCs in my office with something similar to the second mini PC (one with a 12th Gen processor). I used the VESA mount to mount to the desk. So far, it works very well. Providing it continues to work well, I plan to replace the other two we have.
@@JeffTiberend I don't consider Dell a dependable computer. My last job was at a law firm. They replaced over a hundred desktops with Dell and it took Dell months to figure out why they wouldn't connect to the network. Then they had to get Microsoft Word to work on them. A conversion that should have taken days wound up taking months. I wouldn't take one for free.
At my work, we've found good use for these as a one-trick pony. These little nodes basically run a kiosk; the user taps their ID on the reader and the node grants them access to a beefier machine that runs a scanner (e.g. an MRI). We can't install the software directly on the bigger computer as it interferes with the computer's main function (and we can't control the vendor's maintenance schedule) so we just get one of these that will lock the computer.
I use a CNC router in my shop for woodworking. I used to control the CNC with a laptop but that died and I needed a replacement. I purchased a BMAX and mounted it to the back of a monitor to use as my CNC controller. While I wouldn't do any serious computing on it, it does work well as my CNC controller. It has decent WiFi connectivity, which I need for the CNC. After two years of living in my dusty shop it still is performing well. I think computers like these have their place as long as you don't overestimate their capabilities.
If it's fanless and all solid-state like the one here, it's going to be pretty hard to kill in a shop environment. It has basically no way to take in dust actively, and that little chip is so low-power that even if it did, there just isn't much heat to get rid of in the first place.
Yeah, a cheap mini PC is perfect for sticking in a garage environment. I've been considering an old office mini PC off Amazon or going with a cheap Beelink to put on the wall behind the old monitor I have on my small work table. It would be nice to have something basic out there for looking something up quickly or just streaming video while I'm out there doing garden prep, auto work or watching my kids play. I put a fire stick on the monitor last summer and it's nice to throw on a baseball game for a few hours.
@gdn86 Go fanless if you can. Anything that gets at all exposed to a shop environment will connect dust super quickly, and fan bearings tend to just die after a while even if the heatsink isn't already super clogged. With a passive unit you just have to clean it every so often.
I can tell you a use case for these machines that I have experienced firsthand. My aunt works for a medical billing company, and she works remote, so the company provided her with one of these little mini computers because all that has to do is run a couple of web pages and web interfaces, and drive two monitors. These machines are cheap and perfect for that kind of application.
I got one for $280. It has a ryzen 5800h I think with 16 gigs of ram. Has been our Minecraft server for the family for a year and a half. She does her job well 24/7!
I have a Beelink SER5-Max (R7-5800H/32GB RAM/500GB NVME Gen 4 SSD/Vega 8 graphics) I paired it with a portable monitor and use it as a laptop replacement. I have a dislike for laptop keyboards and touchpad.
My mom is 76 years old. I got her a mini PC since her previous computer was like 12 years old. I got the N100 processor with 16 GB RAM all for $159. Not a bad deal. All she does is read emails, watch some videos online and that's about it. No need to spend more money. I even mounted it to the back of her monitor. If you need something cheap to use as a media center, then I would consider something like this. Gets the job done.
That sounds like a good setup and those N100s have been a great step forward for that segment of the market. Another great option(options are good) are tiny used office PCs(Dell Micro, HP Mini, Lenovo Tiny). They're a great value and I've never had any issues with them due to being used machines. Sometimes, the power supply is a bit extra, and usually storage isn't included. Cost wise, they likely come in a bit lower than the N100, but the difference may be worth the peace of mind of having a new machine and the N100 will consume even less power. So it's definitely a good setup and deal there. As the other comment mentioned, I throw Linux on everything now. My mother took to Linux Mint very well after I set up her computer.
This is exactly what I would buy them for as well. Nowadays even my parents (late 70s) just use tablets. My father uses an old chromebook despite it's battery died and needs constant power. He has a tablet as well - maybe he uses his in bed or so. But he sticks to his chromebook 🤷♀️
I got me a N100 as a my office PC and a N200 as Home/Plex server. Upgraded both with 1x16 quality RAM and new quality 2TB M2 and SDD's. Seriously, couldn't be happier with these little devils
The n100 chip has been a huge game changer for home servers with its native HEVC hardware encode/decode and highly efficient power usage. You can run an entire Plex stack while it sips power. Connect it to a low power NAS box and it’s a perfect combo
Indeed, its perfect for homeassistant as well. with it being more efficient than a Raspberry PI. and more powerful for less watt Sadly Minisforum discontinued the UN100C. or else I would have bought another one for proxmox [pihole and the like]
i got an awow mini pc off amazon for free had gift cards i won has 512gb ssd 16gb ddr5 ram and n100 cpu cost me around $145usd that included tax and shipping to new zealand and its decent at running games at 720p and playing emulators and its great for 1080p video editing
@@DizY_8you will probably like it better anyways. un100c m.2 is sata and the motherboard is "upside down". To get to the drives you need #1, #0, #00 screwdrivers and remove the motherboard. un100l looks right side up so you can change the drives without moving the motherboard and the m.2 is nvme. The losses are one ethernet port and 2 usb ports went from 3 to 2. usbc can fix that.
Yes, N100 are insanely good home servers and media servers. It's actually insane that Jay just skipped over all that. He did zero research for this video, and just bought two random computers, and for one of them, he basically just plugged it in, wiggled the mouse and watched a video, and called it a day. If that's not insanely low effort, I don't know what is.
I bought a lenovo ThinkCentre M93P remanufactured last year before a back surgery that made me bed bound for a month and I use it just for internet surfing and RU-vid and twitch on my TV. I upgraded the 8 gigabytes of RAM to 16 gigabytes of RAM and the processor. And I freaking love the thing!
The whole Think series is just built different. I have a ThinkPad T14 and a ThinkCentre M720q on my desk right now. Both are built like bricks and I have yet to hear a fan ramp up in either.
I've got an M93p and an M73(I bought them at the same time). They're almost identical with the M93p having all USB 3.0 ports. They're fantastic machines. For about two years, I was recommending the M93p to a bunch of people. I referred to it as the best value for a computer based on how readily available they were online. I couldn't believe it when I saw them as low as $45 with the power supply a year ago. That's without storage. The fourth-gen chips are still good for general use and will be for a while, especially with Linux. The systems don't consume a lot of power. The reason I no longer refer to them as the best value out there is because sixth and seventh-gen machines have dropped in price more recently. I also picked up two of the HP mini systems, a sixth-gen and a Ryzen 2400G, and those are nice systems too. The HPs seem to be easier to find lately.
Actually we have good use-case for this mini PCs. In industrial manufacturing plant just shove it behind 4K TV to run monitoring software - production plan, truck turns, HR announcements, etc. In corporate environment you need something that can run Up to date OS (Windows 10 support will end in October 2025) and for easy management capable to join company domain. This kind of PC is perfect.
When I was at gigabyte we had those little Compute Stick things doing that. They all ran windows 7 and they ran it terribly, but they could put a slide on a screen and could connect to the local network, and that's all they had to do.
I have two of them. One I turned one into a Linux Debian 12 Owncloud server. It only has 4 GB of ram and a N4200. But I connected a multi drive storage bay with 24 TBs of space and it works perfect! The other one I have has AMD 5500U with 16 GBs of Ram and 512 GB space. I connected a 4 TB external drive to it and use it as my Plex Server. It works like a dream. They are just a really solid solution for building servers that manage media. Thanks for doing this video. I was curious about the N95. Looks pretty darn goodfor the price.
I bought my dad a Chewi Larkbox X for Xmas. I got it in a Black Friday sale for around $169. It does everything he needs it to do: email, internet browsing and Zoom calls. He even has it mounted to the back of his monitor with the kit that came with it. He’s also been tinkering with Linux on it via a USB C drive. I 100% recommend it for anybody in your family over like 70 who you have to help with computers. It has great IO and very few moving parts aside from a fan.
They are fun to try a bunch of Linux distros. I tried tons of OS on my "old" (2019) Gigabyte Brix with J4105 (almost the same specs as the N95). Windows 11 is not good for those devices. Mine can't even reach his ethernet speed on it. No issue with Win10 or Linux. They also work great for emulation, MAME and old consoles.
I have a BMAX B3. Intel N5095 with 8gb of ram. Has horrible reviews on amazon but it's been working great for me as a Plex server running Lubuntu as the OS. Opened it up and slapped in a 2tb SSD and I was ready to rock.
@@idan678 I agree with ya. I just chose lubuntu since I'm familiar with the gui. Works great for me. At most 2 streams are coming from it at once. Handles it without a hitch. Most of my video content that's streamed is 1080p.
whats the difference to just hooking up an external hard drive to the tv and play files from there? only to have a nice homescreen with thumbnails and movie information?
Super appreciate the streaming gaming pc angle. I’ve been trying to get a solution like that for living room/bedroom for a while and refuse to get a console. Seeing the capabilities of these machine for that task was awesome. Thanks Jay!
These small PCs have a nice use case for being like a garage PC if you’re always referencing manuals and procedures for car, home improvement projects.
Agreed with the fact that they are really aimed at home lab environments. The one that has an eMMC would likely be MUCH snappier as a Linux box than a Windows machine
Another use case is astronomy. People attach these to telescopes to control the mount, a camera, and any other accessories. They load special software to control the equipment and then log into them across a WIFI network.
Not to promote another youtuber here, but ETA Prime reviews these mini pc's, sbc's, and low profile gpu's. He is also really into retro gaming and emulation. Fantastic youtuber that is in more of a niche part of the pc computer.
Jay didn't touch using Linux for a mini homelab for local services, and it's just two really low end units. Some new ryzen units have so much more capability it's crazy. Even for gaming.
Mini PC's with AMD 7840HS or higher CPU and 780M integrated graphics. Might not game on ultra settings but will give you some really shocking game performance for the price add to that hardware support for encode and decode AV1, H264 and H265 and you have a very capable home computer that will support light to medium gaming. The ones in this video are good for digital signage or a thin client to RDP into a proper system/server.
I replaced my homelab server rack with 3 of the bee mini/bos ones. Saves about 40/month in electric bills and it just works like a dream with proxmox and containers
Jay, the problem with those NUCs out of the box is. First thing windows likes to do is run its updates. So it appears to take forever and a day for them to start responding as they should. i bought a BMAX NUC for about £100. Sole use was to take with me on holiday to stream stuff (with a HDMI and foldable keyboard and trackpad) while i was in my room. I used it to backup my holiday photos to a USB stick so i didnt have to use roaming data or crappy wifi service when abroad. However the first thing i did with my BMAX NUC was to swap out the NVME SSD with a blank one and put a Win10 Lite build on it. Without all the fluff that Microsoft likes to pack into its OS, the BMAX NUC worked very responsive and did the job it was bought to do. So for me, it forfilled its use. Didnt have the issues i saw you having. So now it just works as a little streaming box in a spare room for guests.
0:12 Jay, that's not a thin client, but I understand why you may have thought it was. Thin clients are (typically) used to connect to virtual environments hosted elsewhere, such as in the cloud. It serves only to provide an interface with a few usb ports to connect a keyboard and mouse, one or more (depending on the model) of monitors, and a network port. That's not to say you couldn't use the remote desktop software on a minipc. A thin client won't be able to do much else beyond connecting to a VM.
They exist because businesses buy or lease them in bulk for people who need to look at excel spreadsheets and send emails. Once their lease is over or they are EOL, they make their way onto eBay, other marketplaces, or just sold in lots. All you need to do is buy a bunch of old systems for cheap, clean them up and maybe replace the hard drive, put them in a fancy enclosure and slap on some cool name.
we use them in industrial sites for displays of production numbers or alarm messages for operators or as clusters for displaying camera feeds to operators.
Yep a lot of companies use these for basic office work and call center work. call centers still use a lot of old software from the 90's especially Debt collecting and banking and these things can run them without using much resources.
Yup. These are basically the modern version of a thin-client PC. They just now finally have enough hardware to be able to run a proper OS locally rather than be solely a remote access machine.
I also work at a university and we had these types of mini PC bolted on the back of every TV in class rooms, conference rooms and alike. We had the Dell NUCs. Those thinking were expensive. They worked well.
The good is that it's tiny and clean, but people say it's all about the movement and proper usage. The bad is that it's way too expensive. For instance, for the same amount of dollar, you could build a system that's 100% better than the mini pc counter parts
What system can you build around $100-150 that would be 100% better than a N100 or 3400GE mini PC? I am all for building PC towers for the right use but it is not as simple as you describe it to be. Mini PC and PC towers are intended to satisfy different markets. Kind of like motorcycles vs cars or drones vs planes.
@@Rushil69420 Sure you can, but just second hand. In fact for ~$200, you can readily build a ryzen 5 3600 with rx 580... At least in FB market in my area. Edit: This new mini pc is about $190 + tax = $213.75 and FB don't have any tax.
@@Pilaspilas911 The more expensive of the two that he reviewed just now- the Bosgame B95- is $170 shipped on Amazon right now. (Granted, if you’re not in North America or China the pricing might not be as attractive) But the point stands. I know it’s doable but RAM, a cooler, storage, a motherboard/CPU, and a GPU (if integrated graphics won’t do) for under $200? Unless you find a mostly intact Optiplex and put some work into it, you’ll most likely be cutting more corners than you would just getting a Ryzen 7 Mini PC for ~$220. You’re simply not going to find modern 8 core or comparable performance at that price, and if you do it’s definitely not in that form factor.
@@Rushil69420 That's $170 + tax = $190. I never said anything about small form factor did I? I can build a desktop variant for the same price and you can downgrade or upgrade depending on your budget. And your argument only really applies for LOW END mini pc. My comment is towards general mini pc that includes 7840hs which cost a lot. Just so I can prove my point since I have to spell it out for you... 190 USD = $260 Cad, so here's the build: -Ryzen 5 3600 - $60 Cad -Motherboard and Ram - $90 Cad (b450m and 16 gb ram) -PSU 450W and ATX case - $35 Cad (not the best looking case, but it'll do) -RX 580 - $40 Ca -256 gb ssd - $25 Cad Total: $250 Cad You can find multiple offers like this readily available and the system will crush B95 in any aspects except for small factor case Edit: Bear in mind that these are listed price and I'm pretty sure you can haggle it down further
They use these in offices where they have a virtual workspace on a server. It is common in many companies to have a small server for the whole office to access and then have these used as access points.
These are great for environments where there is not going to be the opportunity (or the will) to clean the heat sinks, but you need to browse the web or watch like 720p videos. I'm an auto mechanic, and I have one of these as the "mechanic's computer", the one that the mechanic uses their repair manual software on. Most of the time that's web-based, and this kind of thing is just perfect for that. Mine's actually built a little different, it has actual rubber o-ring seals on its chassis, and ribs in the aluminum case to act as a heat sink, so it's a truly fan-less design. There's another reason it's ideal for me in that use case. The low processing power turns out to be an advantage rather than a detriment, because that removes any temptation to even attempt to game on it. Since I have ADHD, if it had games on it, I'd never get anything done. In other words, it helps me stay focused, despite myself. It's also still running "normal" Windows, which means that none of the manufacturer-specific software I need to use to re-flash the firmware in the cars that need that (it happens sometimes) throws a fit due to "hey this isn't windows! You can't fool me! You're trying to modify something illegally, I'm gonna ban you from ever using this again" or anything like that (maybe that's not a possibility, but I know that they don't list support for Linux or MacOS). I'm betting that in home use, these would be great running Linux, since you can tailor that to having only what you need, and nothing you don't, A LOT MORE EASILY than Windows (and let's face it, nobody needs or wants Copilot).
I bought one with a Ryzen 5560U chip, and I don't see much difference doing general desktop usage to my desktop Ryzen 5600. What does tend to take a tad longer is things like installing new software, but you do most of that at the beginning and then not that much anymore. I paid just over US$250 shipped for a 16GB ram and 512GB SSD version. The only time I found it lacking was doing AAA gaming, which isn't surprising.
My big brother is blind, and doesn't need a big graphics card, he just need a small computer that can run audio speech synthesis, and an Intel NUC is the perfect solution.
They use these in hospitals for the nurses workstation on wheels (WOWs) they connect to a server for electronic medical record, lab, pharmacy, notes, whatever..theyre powerful enough for local use and everything else is offloaded
I use my tiny pc to control and monitor my astrophotography rig remotely so I can sleep in my warm bed instead of being outside in the freezing cold. It needed to be small and efficient, because the entire rig runs off of a LifePo4 battery box I designed and I chose one that runs off of simple 12V dc power. No extra bricks, no need for a/c mains power, it has plenty of horsepower for the use case and the perfect small form factor to velcro it right onto my equipment. I can power it up, and then connect to it via WiFi and not have a single cable run. That also means I can take it on the go with me to places with darker skies. There are other dedicated systems using things like the rPi, but most of the best capture software and driver suites are based around Windows platforms, and some of the better rPi based systems lock you into a particular ecosystem of camera equipment or accessories.
The $109 has one redeeming feature: it comes with VGA built in, so if you have a really good quality CRT, you can plug it into that - maybe for an emulation machine.
I got a $150 PC from Amazon and we use it as a plex server in our van. Paired it up with a $25 keyboard remote and a 2TB PCIE drive with movies and shows for them to watch. It works with 1080p movies. Only issues are movies with real high but rates.
I have a GMKTek Mini PC running 16GB of RAM and an N100. I honestly don't have anything to use it for yet, but i bought it to replace the Pi 3B+ i was playing with because I permanently deployed that as a PiHole. Its plenty powerful enough to do most anything I ask of it that would be Pi based type work. You can run dockers and such off of it. Mostly a cheap $150 PC to use as a sandbox for trying new stuff out.
I would hate to admit this on the street, but, I got one of those Bosgames for streaming my online movie services. I janked mine though. I drilled holes in the sides and cut the top open and put a Be Quiet 120mm fan on it. Wrapped it with carbon vinyl and stuck it to the back of my living room tv. It works pretty good. Wireless mouse and mini-keyboard at the lazy boy. Turned my living room tv into a smart TV. Jank? Yes. Better than paying $3,000 for a new TV for now.
I have bought a handful of these type systems. I am the computer guy in the family, so I have upgraded family member's old PC's to these super small form factors. For those just looking to browse and watch videos, I went cheaper with either a Chewi or GMK. For the ones that do light gaming (older titles), I went with Beelink SER systems. I have used the Beelink SER systems as my daily driver for a few years now, with no issues. They are a pretty good bang for the buck
I'm pretty sure the main use case for mini PCs is thin client terminal computing in a business setting. At least, that's where I've logged the vast majority of my hours on them. It's a lot cheaper to deploy these to whoever needs access to productivity software, and have them all seeing VMs on the company server, than it is to put honest to dog computers in the hands of all those people. It gets even cheaper if the client isn't running Windows as their local OS. There are lightweight operating systems for machines like these that do little more than provide network functionality. I think those units exist to capitalize on the enthusiast home lab market.
This form factor is perfect for an elderly person who needs a bigger screen than a laptop but doesn't need anything more than basic content consumption and internet usage. The super low end is mostly terrible, but they go on sale quite often so you can grab a more expensive one for a decent price. I also use one similar to the BOSGAME for an Ubuntu file server & Plex Media Server. The N95's sibling the N100 is a darling in the Plex community right now.
Set mine up as a retro emulation/mid range game device with a 2TB SSD and it's perfect. They are also very portable if you ever wanted to take it over a family/friends house. (Beelink SER5 MAX)
I recently bought a mini pc with a Ryzen 3750h and Vega 10 graphics. I upgraded the memory to 32GB and the stock Intel Nvme ssd wth my XPG 2 TB Nvme SSD which was in my previous pc. It runs most of my pc games from 5-10 years ago and some emulators fine at 1080p. I bought it because I didn’t want to have a regular pc anymore and I do my gaming on my Xbox series S, Xbox 360 and PS5 for the most part. Congratulations Jay on 4 million subscribers and thanks for the video.
@@orangejishen It is an ATOPNUC R7-3750h from Amazon. I think the manufacturer ATOPNUC has a website with the exact name. It comes with an Intel 512GB SSD, 16GB of memory and comes with Windows 11 Pro. You can upgrade the Nvme to 2TB and 32 GB of ram. An SATA SSD can be installed but I opted to use it externally since it is directly at the top of the memory and too close to the Nvme at least for me. I hope this helps.
@@orangejishen I thought I responded to the question yesterday, somehow it is not here, but I bought the mini-pc on Amazon. The manufacturer is ATOPNUC, model R7-3750H with 16 GB of DDR4 ram and an Intel 512 GB ssd.
I have one of the mini PCs. I bought it so I could browse the web on my TV. I actually found it to be more useful as an emergency backup. In case something happens and my PC and Laptop are out of commission this will run google suite and allow me to get work done while working on getting my desktop or laptop back up and running. Its also small enough I can keep it in my bugout bag with a flash drive with all my critical documents. All in all, pretty handy to have in a pinch. 🍻
Swapping the Bimax os out for a linux distro on a proper m.2 drive would likely allow it to run better. The MMXC storage is the likely bottleneck on the unit.
I bought a Bmax B4 with an N95 for 180$ like 6 months ago. I have a more powerful pc but needed something for 4k playback on my tv and it's awsome, no lag or tearing. It can even handle running a server for lighter games (vanilla minecraft,unturned). Though i guess the debloated win 11 image (tiny11 by NTDev) helps.
Thin client PC's are used pretty often in industrial applications, my software was written for windows 3.1, these are leagues above that and work just fine.
To replace my old HP 610 G1 Mini (who was my main home server) i bought the "TRIGKEY S5 Ryzen 7 5700U,32Go DDR4+500Go M.2 " for 320€, definitly a great choice. I have all my VM and everything, it use between 20 and 25 watts, and i still have a lot of cpu and ram available for future projects, it can even run local LLM without to much difficulties (4gb llm run quite fast actually) I would recommand it to anyone looking for a relatively cheap and silent home server
The mini PCs are very useful and used everywhere! I see them at the DMV. (Lenovo) Car Dealerships and repair (Lenovo) Many other stores used instead of dedicated POS machines. I bought one for my wife, she just needed it for some work stuff. My daughter needed a computer for school, and I don't have a lot of money lying around, so it gets here school work done. My current and previous server were mini PCs. Mostly because they are running all the time and are low power. Usually in the 6 to 9 volt range. My original server acted as a printer and web development server. My newer laser printer has networking built in, but I still sometimes use my old color inkjet. The newer server, which is now 9 years old, also acts as a Minecraft server. Sure it drops some ticks, but works pretty well most of the time. They definitely have their uses. Heck, my main machine is still rocking an I7-4770k. Programming, graphics editing, video editing, gaming, etc. Yes, I badly need a new computer, but that takes money. Maybe next year when Microsoft ends all support for computers before 2018.
We've been selling minis (5800H and better) almost exclusively as workstations for over a year, they end up in your local medical offices and such. Using Beelink and Minisforum, they have been rock solid so far.
There are probably better options out there, but that lower spec system could be used as a really cheap way to run digital signage. Display a mall map type thing or a newsletter stuff like that.
I had a friend, who needed to run advertisement on a big screen next to a window. So he bought one of these cheap mini-PCs. It does its job - runs the power point, takes little space.
These are great in industrial applications. I work for a global, multi-billion dollar company. We have dozens of these powering millions of dollars of industrial equipment. Sure you can't play games. But they are super reliable with no moving parts.
something like that is perfect for people who arent buying modern expensive TVs but want to mess around on older units that work great and look great (some of those old plasmas are INSANE). very cheap, and very capable when using modern software
I bought a mini PC for my 80 year old father. He only does web browsing so a mini PC hooked up to a large monitor for his poor vision was the perfect solution.
I had an Alienware Alpha for years as my main PC. It was just slightly larger than these mini PCs but had a discrete GPU. There are definitely a ton of options whatever your use-case
I run a Minisforum UM790 Pro with a Ryzen 9 7940HS, a built in Radeon 780M gpu, 64gb of ram and a 4tb nvme drive. It's on a Razer Core X with a 3070 in it and it works great. My wife is running a Minisforum XTX780 with an oculink egpu running a 2070. If I went AMD we'd be able to run a 7800 or higher. We love these things - when they are just on Windows they draw like 50-60w in total and they don't overheat your rooms. As a virtualization engineer, these are very different from thin clients which are typically have no replaceable ram and are meant only to stream VDI desktops and will allow you to plug in simple USB devices. Mine has 2 USB 4 ports, 2.5 gbe built in, and 2 nvme gen4 slots. It's a video encoding tank and I love it.
I have a BeeLink SER5 with a Ryzen 5 5600G. The thing performs really well and was $350. I used it in a retrofit project that had major space constraints. Really solid little machine.
A friend of mine needed a very basic PC for his barber shop so I got him one of these minipcs, mounted it to the back to the monitor, and he’s been using it for the past 5 years. As a office pc these work quite nicely, has enough power to keep Chrome and Spotify open, and that’s what most people need.
I have two mini PCs in my office that are nearly identical to those two. The "wimpier" one runs W11 Pro and Light-O-Rama for my Christmas lights, so it really only gets use one month out of the year and it works just fine. The other, beefier one runs W10 Pro and is my Veeam Backup and Replication host with an 18TB external HDD attached for backup storage. Both do a great job headlessly, use almost no electricity, and are super-reliable. I'm obviously not typical, but these cheap little machines do have use cases!
A thin client is good for a retro game emulator. I built one for my kids out of some linux box called an iGel I found for $14 on ebay. It's waaay jankier than either of these but does what I need it to.
I looked at these originally, ended up buying one of the SFF optiplex for $30 off eBay. Has a 7500t and I upgraded to 16gb of ram and a 1TB ssd. Roughly $90 total into it, and it is perfect for my old dumb TV I have in my bedroom. Browse, stream, watch RU-vid, etc and it’s perfect. Remote connect to my main PC in my living room is surprisingly good. Mainly playing things like Skyrim, PGA, FIFA, and crash bandicoot
I got a beelink with amd 5800h 8cores 16 threads, 16gb ram dual channel, 500gb nvme, paid 400 canadian almost a year ago, upgraded it and doubled the ram and added an extra 2tb sdd, it is an amazing thing for the price and size, especially if you're into emulation, even some light gaming, modern warfare 2 remake ran at low at 50fps, I am not really playing this game on it but it is totally possible!
Same here. Paid 275 USD with a coupon deal a year ago. Hooked it up to my TV for light steam gaming (arcade fighting and scrollers) and for playing movies and browsing stuff. It's very quiet and so small and sips power compared to a desktop. It's basically an Apple TV. Best thing is you can connect external storage and turn it into a mini nas.
I've got Acepc AK1 for about 6 years. I use it to watch movies, youtube, etc. I've put a spinning 1TB 2,5" drive in it (it was lying around) and MSata 256GB for the system instead of the ridiculous 32GB EMMC. It has 4GB of RAM and that is its biggest setback
I recently got a BeeLink N100 256gb m.2 8gb ram for $149, it's very similar to that N95 you showed. It works perfectly fine for browsing internet and watching movies.
I bought a BeeLink mini PC off of amazon as my ToolBox pc About 3 years or so ago, core i5, 16gb of ram and 256gg NVME. It's a great little PC and has worked flawlessly.
i always want to see these mini pc's get compared to something like a raspberry pi. i know these can run windows, but if you are using it for just multimedia, im curious what would work as a better value
I literally ordered a slightly dated HP Elitedesk G3 today as even a $120 refurb machine out powers a Pi 5. In my case I picked one up for an emulation box. I was debating on the Pi 5 but honestly by the time you get the pi, case, cooling, a sd card, a charging cable, ect you're at at least $140, from what I was seeing most starter kits are closer to $160. I couldn't justify the price for what you get. They're very cool devices and I have a Pi 3 as a Pihole and a Pi 4 running OctoPi for one of my older 3d printers.
I got a Beelink mini-PC with an Intel N100, 16GB of RAM, and a 500GB M.2 SATA SSD, that also has dual Intel 2.5G Ethernet and Windows 11 Pro for about $200. I only used it in Windows briefly because I bought it to be a router but it was pretty decent. It now has OPNSense instead of Windows and it has been great. It replaced an older Beelink with a Celeron N5105 and Gigabit Ethernet that I bought for like $180. I put Windows 11 back on that one and use it very occasionally, but it too is surprisingly not crap.
some of the miniPCs and NUCs can be used as plex servers... mount it behind the TV and use a bracket to attach an external HDD and now it's a whole discrete system. In a business world, you could use them as a kiosk system or like a welcome/ad TV in a lobby or something. The better of the 2 systems shown here could also be used for remote/virtual work environments, such as Citrix or Horizon. I fear the cheaper device would struggle with even that usage though.
Using a GMTek N100 "G3 variant" with 16gb lpddr5 (Upping to 32 soonTM Unsure why intel says max is 8gb) and 1tb of storage, been using it for plex, an exit node, and minecraft (paper) hosting a small server for like 5 people with 19 plugins Can stream plex on 2 machines and have the server up, the power draw and price for performance was well worth it for something on 24/7 over my old 1090t, and movie nights with my hubby Still watching and remote play on mine is amazing (plugged into gameroom tv), using moonlight/sunshine with my 3080/5900x on host, played through KH, Stardew, and some emulated switch games If anyone is curious the G3 comes with a little intake fan however I got some old fan with a 3/4pin to usb with speed controls sitting under it, cpu averages 42c, only time it jumps up to 72c at the most is when restarting, though I think what helped more was the standoffs tbh it works so don't care lol
The higher priced one would be perfect for a simple home PC or even a mobile PC using a DC to DC power adapter that plugs into the 12V power outlet and outputs the 19V whatever watts required to run one. Could probably do the same with one of those as a $400+ laptop while out on a camping trip or traveling. Get a 4 or 8TB M.2 drive and load up a bunch of movies or tv shows on it so you have plenty to watch in the event you are unable to hit wifi to stream.
I bought an unknown name brand one and when it died the company was gone. So buyers beware with the cheap ones. Upgraded to an Intel NUC. Happier about that. Used mine as a webcam for a TV during COVID when all the kids were schooling at home. I have also used it to stream Steam games from my better machine. Also have used it as a portable computer since I don’t have a major usage for laptops as my work one covers everything but Google Drive stuff and I can’t do light gaming. The NUC allows me to do that.
I have a couple of $89 beelink mini PCs with some intel atom, 4 gigs of ram, and 64 gigs of emmc. One of them has been running as a 1080p NDI (video) receiver, for about 4 years straight. It's been powered off maybe 3 times in that length of time. After decrapifying windows it has been rock solid. A comparable dedicated NDI receiver would be around $350 They have their niche purpose for sure
There are actually some quite decent mini pc´s on the market, but the use for them is usually limited to a niche audience. Like set one up in your living room to the big screen and occasionally run games on via steam in house streaming while you relaxe on the sofa.
I bought a mini pc a few months ago to just RDP into my gaming pc that's on the other end of the home and honestly it's been perfect. It runs so much better than any of those streaming sticks and can stream 4K/60 with a gigabit connection without issues. Moonlight is absolutely amazing.
I have a Lenovo M75Q with a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650GE, 16GB DDR4 3200 and a 256GB NVMe SSD. I run my 7 Days to Die server on it. One of my grandsons asked what PC I ran it on (he plays on it) and was shocked when I pointed it out. I found I can play Destiny 2 on it, that's being generous, 720p 35ish FPS, Vega 7 is nothing to write home about for gaming, but for what I use it for it's great.
I use these super low power SFF PCs on large entrance TVs, Hallways for my clients. Can drive large displays and play web content or power points without any difficulty and lets end users and lets us maintain Windows environment which makes patching and support easier as well.
Working in IT, a lot of our clients like these because they're so space efficient and are perfectly competent to just use for RDS onto a server at the main office.
