3 ms·

I'd say "it depends". Having a tiny laptop-type thermal solution (high TDP chip, low mass heatsink, tiny whiny fan) would indeed just be as annoying as a laptop

I'd say "it depends". Having a tiny laptop-type thermal solution (high TDP chip, low mass heatsink, tiny whiny fan) would indeed just be as annoying as a laptop, but there are plenty of configurations where it works just fine. The larger NUC-style devices (generally marketed as "this one has room for a 2.5" drive) with low power chips when used for light basic work don't really consume enough power to get hot. This is even something you can make completely passive; check out some of those ODMs in China that make passively cooled M and U series Intel PCs. Generally marketed as industrial PCs and software routers, they do have 18W parts that work fine in 35°C ambient for years and have plenty of performance. It really depends on what you use it for. (Qotom is one of them, there are a lot of white-label manufacturers, but when they make the boards it's pretty close to the 'actual' ODM instead of just another re-badge)

walterbell 5y ago
Do any of those ODM boxes allow open firmware like coreboot? Protectli is one option, would be nice to have other choices.
- oneplane 5y ago
  Protectli is just a rebadged ODM box. Most of the boxes I've seen don't have BootGuard fused so you can run coreboot on it. On the other hand, you can't run coreboot on most things, including the Gigabyte Brix Pro.
  - walterbell 5y ago
    Any good search terms for those ODM vendors? e.g. I couldn't find much for a search about Qotom and BootGuard or coreboot.
    - oneplane 5y ago
      There is one explicitly listed on the coreboot mailing list a few times. On the other hand, there aren't a whole lot of up-to-date coreboot setups for Intel anymore. For recent AMD platforms, there is none. If you really want to use coreboot, your best bet is to first look up what platforms are supported (i.e. 6th generation Intel) and then look for an ODM that is making a 6th gen system. Next step is to simply ask if they fuse BootGuard or not, and if they do fuse it, how much of it. In many cases you can't run Coreboot in pure form anyway, some blobs will remain to get basic functionality working. If you want a deblobbed boot your options are practically restricted to very old platforms, or 2 or 3 commercial offerings.

walterbell 5y ago

Do any of those ODM boxes allow open firmware like coreboot? Protectli is one option, would be nice to have other choices.

oneplane 5y ago
Protectli is just a rebadged ODM box. Most of the boxes I've seen don't have BootGuard fused so you can run coreboot on it. On the other hand, you can't run coreboot on most things, including the Gigabyte Brix Pro.
- walterbell 5y ago
  Any good search terms for those ODM vendors? e.g. I couldn't find much for a search about Qotom and BootGuard or coreboot.
  - oneplane 5y ago
    There is one explicitly listed on the coreboot mailing list a few times. On the other hand, there aren't a whole lot of up-to-date coreboot setups for Intel anymore. For recent AMD platforms, there is none. If you really want to use coreboot, your best bet is to first look up what platforms are supported (i.e. 6th generation Intel) and then look for an ODM that is making a 6th gen system. Next step is to simply ask if they fuse BootGuard or not, and if they do fuse it, how much of it. In many cases you can't run Coreboot in pure form anyway, some blobs will remain to get basic functionality working. If you want a deblobbed boot your options are practically restricted to very old platforms, or 2 or 3 commercial offerings.