Thread

what about mini PPs? asking for a friend

nostr:nprofile1qqsrg8d45l36jv05jz2as2j2ejfee79xw2fmreqhnl2ttsz5f38u9mcpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp0qyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnddakj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctckedwd0 any insights?

Those work well with the TinyGiny brand.

yeah, the new CPU's have AI coprocessors to be "windows copilot" compliant.

their Va China model's launch was also interesting

I have a beelink I use for a start 9 server. Had no issues

Beelink is king from what I've seen, gmktek seems to be ok too. Other brands are more risky. I've got a ryzen beelink running proxmox with a USB DAS as my home server. Pretty happy with it. My biggest warning would be many have random limits on what can and can't be upgraded. Just check before buying if you plan to upgrade. An example is n150s are limited to 16gb of RAM.

Buy a 1L form-factor tiny PC from lenovo, HP, or dell. You get better driver support and if you are savvy, you can buy used and get rally good hardware for less or comparable prices. The driver support is the most important thing and I prefer lenovo since they have very excellent Linux compatible drivers, which some of the minipcs have trouble with. If you want to run containers and VMs, you'll want a "real" processor with virtualization baked in from the start.

I have a couple HP pro desk micro w 16gb ram and they are great. I got them off Amazon for pretty cheap

I have used Beelink PC, good for the price 💯 I currently have one as a mini server, and another as a tv PC. nostr:nprofile1qqsp3yzapfwkyw4cr2vt4xx9s27474lj2pkxhqyfqh79n826pv3fkzqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszrnhwden5te0dehhxtnvdakz7qg3waehxw309ahx7um5wghxcctwvshshkuc7l also has some experience I believe.

That beelink mini pc is amazing. Way faster than that “premium pi” lmao. Value for the price is incredible

I use mine as a start9 server. I upgraded the ssd. Next server I need will be a beelink 1000%

I've got 3 of then. 2 are Start9 nodes and one is running Ubuntu server and they have been great so far.

Mac minis are great deals but I recommend using Linux. I believe Linux will stick long term. It depends what you want to do. A mini PC won’t be good if you want to game or host local AI. The new Steam Machine will be good for gaming, but it’s a step short of a full pc. You could probably put a different Linux distro on it though. You want to ditch windows. Just buy a gaming laptop and put Linux on it

Beelink is a top tier mini PC brand. I like them. Awesome for running Umbrel + Bitcoin Node.

No one seems to use them as their main pc lol.

Soon I think I’ll use one for my kids.

My tv PC is pretty much my main PC these days fwiw. I have a slightly older one, ser5 with 32gb RAM. It's fine for anything on desktop, and light Steam gaming and emulation up to the Xbox/PS2/Wii generation. I'm assuming a newer one would be better 👍

Start9 is always on. Always in use 🫡 Gets more mileage than my Mac lol