4 ms·

Isn't this a bit of a technology without a spot? Day to day activities can be proficiently carried out through laptops, while heavy crunching and 24/7 operatio

Isn't this a bit of a technology without a spot? Day to day activities can be proficiently carried out through laptops, while heavy crunching and 24/7 operations must be carried out through heavily cooled rigs. So, what's the place for a fanless, low powered mini pc?

qppo 6y ago
Home theaters and offices. I've been wanting to build one as a media center and plex server for awhile. The only performance you really need is for transcoding but I've got some ideas about how to deal with that. Really just need enough storage for movies and music, and some kind of kiosk UI.
Arkanosis 6y ago
While a laptop is fine with regards to performance (especially when expensive computations are done on a remote server), it's not with regards to comfort and upgradability. I'd rather have a small computer with quiet cooling, proper keyboard, mouse and screens than whichever laptop you can get even with an extensive budget. Even when it comes to desk clutter, I'd rather have only a keyboard and a mouse than a whole laptop. Writing this from a laptop, btw.
_bxg1 6y ago
Yeah, I'm always attracted by the svelte package, but from a practical standpoint I don't see much purpose unless you're short on desk space. Maybe they could make sense for computer labs and such? Do schools still have computer labs?
- amelius 6y ago
  > I'm always attracted by the svelte package The problem: when you consider all the cables you need to plug into the thing, then suddenly it's not so "svelte" anymore.
  - toast0 6y ago
    You can't really get rid of the cables (unless you go with an integrated monitor), but if you get something you can mount behind the monitor, that reduces the footprint.
war1025 6y ago
I've been contemplating getting a mini pc for a while now. I would like a setup where the monitor and keyboard weren't tied to each other. I guess the standard solution for this is a docking station, but I would also like something I could easily hide away, potentially tucked somewhere underneath my desk. A traditional tower could probably work, but it seems like too much space for what would effectively be a web browsing machine. So far I'm just sticking with my laptop though.
- qznc 6y ago
  Laptop + docking station is the default setup at my work place. Works fine for me. If you have a laptop with USB-C, you can get power, screens, keyboard, mouse, and audio all with a single cable.
  - mszcz 6y ago
    True, but... My wife has this setup and there is a noticeable performace hit when using USB-C connected displays. Anyone else experienced something like this or is this my setup's related quirk?
deeblering4 6y ago
tiny PCs make great home servers, IMO. A low real estate and power sipping machine with an i5 and ~16G RAM makes a great lab server.
wtallis 6y ago
A big chunk of the mini PC market is sustained by commercial and industrial uses. Electronic signage is one of the more common use cases. Simply using them as a low-footprint alternative to a traditional desktop PC doesn't really cover what this market segment is for.
detaro 6y ago
Non-crappy Laptops are more expensive, so if you don't need it to be used in different places using a PC is a fairly obvious alternative. E.g. tons of business/office machines are this kind of thing. (Of course right now some businesses probably wish more employee machines were laptops) PCs installed in fixed locations are another use case: meeting rooms, behind TVs in public areas, small servers in shops (e.g. Chick-fil-A deploys clusters of NUCs in stores) etc, ...
Scarblac 6y ago
We have a PC in the living room for Spotify, random Internetting, homework of the kids, some games and so on. It could have been a laptop with a connected screen and keyboard etc I guess, but a hp prodesk mini pc in the cupboard next to the small table looks much neater.
- 13of40 6y ago
  I used to keep a full-sized PC (in a case made to look like a retro stereo) in my entertainment center, but when the motherboard died a couple of years ago, I got on Amazon and bought a fanless mini PC with an SSD and Windows 10 Home preinstalled. About as big as a wifi router and does everything I need, which is to check email and play videos from sites the smart TV doesn't support. I think project computers are great and I have lots, but sometimes you just need a damned toaster.
toast0 6y ago
I've got two mini pcs as desktops for me and my wife; lets us put desktops in places with less desk space (we used to have back to back computers on a fairly deep desk). The old ones are doing MythTV duty in closed tv cabinets. Not fanless though. Since we've got a bit more desk space now, I'm planning to go a little bigger when the Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs come out.
pjc50 6y ago
Connected to a TV for "home theatre" or Steam link; or moderate amounts of always-on storage.
danieldk 6y ago
So, what's the place for a fanless, low powered mini pc? I use an Intel NUC with Linux (NUC8i5BEH) for daily work on Linux. Reasons I like it: - Nearly all-Intel hardware, so very good Linux support. - Easier to upgrade (3.5" SATA, M.2 NVMe, RAM) than many laptops. (Of course, there are laptops that are also easily upgradeable.) - Since the firmware is also Intel, probably gets firmware updates for longer than many mainboards. - Affordable. IIRC it was somewhere between 300-400 Euro a year ago, but same CPU/GPU as the 2000 Euro MacBook Pro 13" 2018 (which still makes it faster than the current crop of 8th generation MacBook Pro 13" 2020). - Not very noisy under load. Probably noisy for a NUC, but definitely very quiet compared to the Dell workstation I had before. Downsides: - No space for another GPU. Though, it has TB3, so an eGPU would be an option. - Not as extensible as a tower. --- Day to day activities can be proficiently carried out through laptops For me there is no laptop outside a MacBook (or possibly Windows, but I have never really used Windows). I use a laptop when I am on the go (work, conferences). I do not want to fiddle with drivers, bad battery life, bad noise reduction, xrandr, or whatever when I am on the go. It just has to work. However, powerful MacBooks are quite expensive and I do not want to carry around a 2500 Euro machine on a trip. So, I am doing my daily work on a MacBook Air and on the Intel NUC (plus remote work GPU servers).
- jeffbee 6y ago
  Great Linux support but surprisingly for an all-Intel rig I can't get Windows to install on a NUC8i5. It just whines that it can't find a mass storage driver.
  - wswope 6y ago
    Were you creating a USB Windows install drive from Linux?
    - jeffbee 6y ago
      macOS. Is there a trick? Stackoverflow "answers" on this topic center around moving the boot medium from one USB port to another at just the right moment.
- 6y ago

qppo 6y ago

Home theaters and offices. I've been wanting to build one as a media center and plex server for awhile. The only performance you really need is for transcoding but I've got some ideas about how to deal with that. Really just need enough storage for movies and music, and some kind of kiosk UI.

Arkanosis 6y ago

While a laptop is fine with regards to performance (especially when expensive computations are done on a remote server), it's not with regards to comfort and upgradability. I'd rather have a small computer with quiet cooling, proper keyboard, mouse and screens than whichever laptop you can get even with an extensive budget. Even when it comes to desk clutter, I'd rather have only a keyboard and a mouse than a whole laptop. Writing this from a laptop, btw.

_bxg1 6y ago

Yeah, I'm always attracted by the svelte package, but from a practical standpoint I don't see much purpose unless you're short on desk space. Maybe they could make sense for computer labs and such? Do schools still have computer labs?

amelius 6y ago
> I'm always attracted by the svelte package The problem: when you consider all the cables you need to plug into the thing, then suddenly it's not so "svelte" anymore.
- toast0 6y ago
  You can't really get rid of the cables (unless you go with an integrated monitor), but if you get something you can mount behind the monitor, that reduces the footprint.

war1025 6y ago

I've been contemplating getting a mini pc for a while now. I would like a setup where the monitor and keyboard weren't tied to each other. I guess the standard solution for this is a docking station, but I would also like something I could easily hide away, potentially tucked somewhere underneath my desk. A traditional tower could probably work, but it seems like too much space for what would effectively be a web browsing machine. So far I'm just sticking with my laptop though.

qznc 6y ago
Laptop + docking station is the default setup at my work place. Works fine for me. If you have a laptop with USB-C, you can get power, screens, keyboard, mouse, and audio all with a single cable.
- mszcz 6y ago
  True, but... My wife has this setup and there is a noticeable performace hit when using USB-C connected displays. Anyone else experienced something like this or is this my setup's related quirk?

deeblering4 6y ago

tiny PCs make great home servers, IMO. A low real estate and power sipping machine with an i5 and ~16G RAM makes a great lab server.

wtallis 6y ago

A big chunk of the mini PC market is sustained by commercial and industrial uses. Electronic signage is one of the more common use cases. Simply using them as a low-footprint alternative to a traditional desktop PC doesn't really cover what this market segment is for.

detaro 6y ago

Non-crappy Laptops are more expensive, so if you don't need it to be used in different places using a PC is a fairly obvious alternative. E.g. tons of business/office machines are this kind of thing. (Of course right now some businesses probably wish more employee machines were laptops) PCs installed in fixed locations are another use case: meeting rooms, behind TVs in public areas, small servers in shops (e.g. Chick-fil-A deploys clusters of NUCs in stores) etc, ...

Scarblac 6y ago

We have a PC in the living room for Spotify, random Internetting, homework of the kids, some games and so on. It could have been a laptop with a connected screen and keyboard etc I guess, but a hp prodesk mini pc in the cupboard next to the small table looks much neater.

13of40 6y ago
I used to keep a full-sized PC (in a case made to look like a retro stereo) in my entertainment center, but when the motherboard died a couple of years ago, I got on Amazon and bought a fanless mini PC with an SSD and Windows 10 Home preinstalled. About as big as a wifi router and does everything I need, which is to check email and play videos from sites the smart TV doesn't support. I think project computers are great and I have lots, but sometimes you just need a damned toaster.

toast0 6y ago

I've got two mini pcs as desktops for me and my wife; lets us put desktops in places with less desk space (we used to have back to back computers on a fairly deep desk). The old ones are doing MythTV duty in closed tv cabinets. Not fanless though. Since we've got a bit more desk space now, I'm planning to go a little bigger when the Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs come out.

pjc50 6y ago

Connected to a TV for "home theatre" or Steam link; or moderate amounts of always-on storage.

danieldk 6y ago

So, what's the place for a fanless, low powered mini pc? I use an Intel NUC with Linux (NUC8i5BEH) for daily work on Linux. Reasons I like it: - Nearly all-Intel hardware, so very good Linux support. - Easier to upgrade (3.5" SATA, M.2 NVMe, RAM) than many laptops. (Of course, there are laptops that are also easily upgradeable.) - Since the firmware is also Intel, probably gets firmware updates for longer than many mainboards. - Affordable. IIRC it was somewhere between 300-400 Euro a year ago, but same CPU/GPU as the 2000 Euro MacBook Pro 13" 2018 (which still makes it faster than the current crop of 8th generation MacBook Pro 13" 2020). - Not very noisy under load. Probably noisy for a NUC, but definitely very quiet compared to the Dell workstation I had before. Downsides: - No space for another GPU. Though, it has TB3, so an eGPU would be an option. - Not as extensible as a tower. --- Day to day activities can be proficiently carried out through laptops For me there is no laptop outside a MacBook (or possibly Windows, but I have never really used Windows). I use a laptop when I am on the go (work, conferences). I do not want to fiddle with drivers, bad battery life, bad noise reduction, xrandr, or whatever when I am on the go. It just has to work. However, powerful MacBooks are quite expensive and I do not want to carry around a 2500 Euro machine on a trip. So, I am doing my daily work on a MacBook Air and on the Intel NUC (plus remote work GPU servers).

jeffbee 6y ago
Great Linux support but surprisingly for an all-Intel rig I can't get Windows to install on a NUC8i5. It just whines that it can't find a mass storage driver.
- wswope 6y ago
  Were you creating a USB Windows install drive from Linux?
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    macOS. Is there a trick? Stackoverflow "answers" on this topic center around moving the boot medium from one USB port to another at just the right moment.
6y ago