- Jan 22, 2008
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Anyone tried mini PCs? Not mac mini ;)
- Thread starter Lukmat
- Start date
r1ch11r1ch
Registered Member
- May 5, 2024
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what is your workload? they are pretty decent generally, they deliver what they sell.
- Oct 28, 2020
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It depends on your workload; if you are a normal user and only browse the internet and maybe some content streaming, then I think it will be a great choice for you. I have one Lenovo mini PC, and I am running proxmox on it and using it as a LAB for my business. It is working perfectly.
- Jan 22, 2008
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Davinci Resolve - half amateur video editing, works fine on that
Stable Diffusion - will not work fine on that, but always you can rent the GPU and this is the way most people are doing now.
I want to be able to take PC to bag and move any time. Currently I have 30 liter case monster ;/
If you want to move, you need to pack this crap into car + 27" monitor, all these cables and stuff. I can buy portable monitor.
I have RTX A2000 card, so I consider also minisforum workstation. It's little bigger, but you can put exactly that card inside.
uncutu
Elite Member
- Aug 6, 2010
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i use a few at work and some of our customers use them. they are great for regular office tasks. easily serviced for expanding RAM/storage. super portable.
been seeing minisforum come up a lot -- must be good.
for heavy cad/video editing/max settings gaming, probably not enough power unless you can add expansions.
im sure we will be seeing more of these hitting mainstream rather than full/mid size towers.
been seeing minisforum come up a lot -- must be good.
for heavy cad/video editing/max settings gaming, probably not enough power unless you can add expansions.
im sure we will be seeing more of these hitting mainstream rather than full/mid size towers.
r1ch11r1ch
Registered Member
- May 5, 2024
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proxmox is great, I run it on an epyc server i bought on ebay. best hypervisor platform imo
yeah for AI models you need much GPU compute/ video memory, though stablediffusion should run with a single decent GPU. Video editing should work fine with it, even more with an seperate GPU.
- Jan 22, 2008
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Workstation have RTX A2000 support, Stable Diffusion is working but yeah, it's not RTX 4090
For heavy Stable Diffusion I would use Google Colab or something like that where you rent the GPU.
- Oct 28, 2020
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Yes it is great, I am just started learning how it works, let see how it goes.
- Apr 25, 2011
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I have a Lenovo tiny PC in the office and it’s pretty decent. But it’s probably one size up from those mini pcs you are talking about. Before that I had a HP mini pc but that wasn’t so good as the fans were always going crazy.
TomTheCat
Elite Member
- Oct 27, 2019
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Funny thing, I'm looking to get one too, and waiting for the ASUS NUC 14 Pro to be released somewhere this month. I don't need GPU.
Code:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1814390-REG/asus_rnuc14rvhv70000ui_nuc_14_pro_kit.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1775614-REG/crucial_ct2k48g56c46s5_ram_96gb_kit_2x48.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1787633-REG/samsung_mz_v9p4t0b_am_4tb_non_hs_990.html- Jan 22, 2008
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Here you pay for brand
These chinese devices are twice cheaper than this Asus and same performance.
- May 6, 2020
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I have one of those that I want to use for pfsense or openbsd hardware firewall but I realized I don't have enough network cables, they're in my stuff from Poland that's traveling through sea/land to me and didn't arrive yet (Jesus... It's somewhere in Singapore now so at least same continent). So project died. Idk I think I'll just go buy cables eh.
I think they're damn cool... Hope it works out and I won't have any driver issues / hardware incompatibility. Mine has multiple network ports, wifi antenas and sim card slot (seller already told me sim card slot won't work with pfsense *shrugs*).
I think they're damn cool... Hope it works out and I won't have any driver issues / hardware incompatibility. Mine has multiple network ports, wifi antenas and sim card slot (seller already told me sim card slot won't work with pfsense *shrugs*).
r1ch11r1ch
Registered Member
- May 5, 2024
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are you planning on using it as a modem? I also thought of doing something like this. You can buy unlocked m.2 5G modems for about 200$ and an appropriate adapter for the sim card. this should in theory work with those mini PCs.
PS: never tested it though, would be interesting to know if it works
- Apr 4, 2009
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- Jan 22, 2008
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Some of these NUCs have dual 2,5gbs port with some reason.
a) one port is for internet
b) second port is to make clasters
Also you can use second port to connect control terminals.
Using them for small servers is a great idea if someone want to host own services, homelab, etc.
Their energy consumption is amazing for such purposes. Energy is more and more expensive. Even my stupid 250W Dell+27" monitor and all accessories are generating bigger bills than my parents have (2 TVs, 2 laptops, washing machine, lights). I pay 20% more than them because my PC is running mostly 15h-20h/7
If I am not watching some movies, then working, then some background processing while sleeping. I don't imagine what real hustlers with RTX 4090 builds are paying for electricity.
- Oct 6, 2020
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You could check Rock5 Model A or B. small, cheap, powerful. I like them better than those mini PCs
- Jan 22, 2008
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But it's a board without case, ARM only, no Thunderbolt for eGPU, only 3 TFLOPS for AI. What the hell
Maybe for servers they would be amazing, not for normal usage
- Oct 6, 2020
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yes, missed your use case. if gpu then why wouldn't go with mac silicon, air's are small, light and portable.But it's a board without case, ARM only, no Thunderbolt for eGPU, only 3 TFLOPS for AI. What the hell
Maybe for servers they would be amazing, not for normal usage
- Jan 22, 2008
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mac sillicon is ... 10x slower in Stable Diffusion than any other x86 CPU and GPU
btw. in comparision reviews, most of these mini pcs are ... destroying mac mini m2 in all programs, even Davinci Resolve (better optimized for ARM)