13 ms·

That's really impressive! That said, I really wish someone other than Apple would release something like an ARM64 NUC, with good Linux compat. Even something

That's really impressive! That said, I really wish someone other than Apple would release something like an ARM64 NUC, with good Linux compat. Even something on par with the SD Gen 2 should be plenty to run a desktop day to day.

wongarsu 4y ago
Not a NUC, but there is the ThinkPad X13s. Linux support seems to be shaping up decently, with some hope that it might be supported by stock ubuntu in ubuntu 23.04.
mdaniel 4y ago
I was really tempted to try this out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34027280 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34027280 but the 16GB of RAM was too tiny for my day-to-day. It seemed to be a common trend in arm64 things one can buy nowadays
- throwdbaaway 4y ago
  Good info. After reading this, I bought an Orange Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM, and now it is up and running with Ubuntu 22.04. The spec seems to be similar to a c6g.xlarge.
the_pwner224 4y ago
I'm not trying to invalidate your specific use case, but in general, there's not really any practical difference between ARM64 and x86 for desktop use. ARM is generally perceived as being more power efficient, but the latest x86 mobile processors from AMD (and probably also Intel) are very efficient. The Apple M series does have very tightly coupled RAM and onboard ML & video encode accelerators, but when it comes to plain old compute power & efficiency, AMD and Intel have pretty much caught up afaik. There were recently a couple of new NUC-type devices based on the outgoing generation AMD mobile processors. I have the Minisforum UM690, based on the Ryzen 6900HX, and it's been working great as my new desktop computer. The iGPU is pretty good too. The Ryzen 6800U (U = efficient variant, 25 W TDP) is about the same as the M2 for performance and power consumption. The 6900HX in this device is the high power variant, default TDP is 45 W but you can lower it to 25 W in the BIOS which should make it about identical to a 6800U. The newer ones with the latest gen Ryzen chips should be much more efficient.
- sliken 4y ago
  Dunno, M1 max (400GB/sec twice a threadripper) fits in a thin laptop, performance well, and has a decent iGPU. That's more bandwidth than a threadripper, better iGPU then anything Intel/AMD ships, and still sips on the power. M1 Ultra doubles the bandwidth again to 800GB/sec, and fits in a small and quite desktop. What CPU+iGPU (or GPU) do you think is comparable to M1 Ultra and competes on performance and power?
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    PS5 is $500 also has 400GB/sec memory bandwidth. Very good iGPU made by AMD. Also has a Blu-ray drive.
    - sliken 4y ago
      Sadly they are hard to run Linux on 8-(.
      - ahoya 4y ago
        PS5 runs a FreeBSD distro out of the box!
        sliken 4y ago
        Sadly uselessly so. At least last I heard the updates prevent the known jailbreak, so no root for ps5 owners anymore.
- merb 4y ago
  btw. my m1 mac barely goes over 40 w TOTAL power (whole machine) heck watching prime video my total power is at ~10w total power. trust me no matter which ryzen/intel processer you will never be as low as 10w total power. I'm pretty sure the biggest intel/amd desktopn cpu is faster than a m1 pro/ultra, m2 pro/ultra but there is no amd64 processer with the same efficiency than the m1/m2 macs.

wongarsu 4y ago

Not a NUC, but there is the ThinkPad X13s. Linux support seems to be shaping up decently, with some hope that it might be supported by stock ubuntu in ubuntu 23.04.

mdaniel 4y ago

I was really tempted to try this out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34027280 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34027280 but the 16GB of RAM was too tiny for my day-to-day. It seemed to be a common trend in arm64 things one can buy nowadays

throwdbaaway 4y ago
Good info. After reading this, I bought an Orange Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM, and now it is up and running with Ubuntu 22.04. The spec seems to be similar to a c6g.xlarge.

the_pwner224 4y ago

I'm not trying to invalidate your specific use case, but in general, there's not really any practical difference between ARM64 and x86 for desktop use. ARM is generally perceived as being more power efficient, but the latest x86 mobile processors from AMD (and probably also Intel) are very efficient. The Apple M series does have very tightly coupled RAM and onboard ML & video encode accelerators, but when it comes to plain old compute power & efficiency, AMD and Intel have pretty much caught up afaik. There were recently a couple of new NUC-type devices based on the outgoing generation AMD mobile processors. I have the Minisforum UM690, based on the Ryzen 6900HX, and it's been working great as my new desktop computer. The iGPU is pretty good too. The Ryzen 6800U (U = efficient variant, 25 W TDP) is about the same as the M2 for performance and power consumption. The 6900HX in this device is the high power variant, default TDP is 45 W but you can lower it to 25 W in the BIOS which should make it about identical to a 6800U. The newer ones with the latest gen Ryzen chips should be much more efficient.

sliken 4y ago
Dunno, M1 max (400GB/sec twice a threadripper) fits in a thin laptop, performance well, and has a decent iGPU. That's more bandwidth than a threadripper, better iGPU then anything Intel/AMD ships, and still sips on the power. M1 Ultra doubles the bandwidth again to 800GB/sec, and fits in a small and quite desktop. What CPU+iGPU (or GPU) do you think is comparable to M1 Ultra and competes on performance and power?
- goosedragons 4y ago
  PS5 is $500 also has 400GB/sec memory bandwidth. Very good iGPU made by AMD. Also has a Blu-ray drive.
  - sliken 4y ago
    Sadly they are hard to run Linux on 8-(.
    - ahoya 4y ago
      PS5 runs a FreeBSD distro out of the box!
      - sliken 4y ago
        Sadly uselessly so. At least last I heard the updates prevent the known jailbreak, so no root for ps5 owners anymore.
merb 4y ago
btw. my m1 mac barely goes over 40 w TOTAL power (whole machine) heck watching prime video my total power is at ~10w total power. trust me no matter which ryzen/intel processer you will never be as low as 10w total power. I'm pretty sure the biggest intel/amd desktopn cpu is faster than a m1 pro/ultra, m2 pro/ultra but there is no amd64 processer with the same efficiency than the m1/m2 macs.