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Bought a mini pc with N100 and 16GB of ram, SSD included, no need to buy an enclosure, everything setup and ready, just needed to install Linux from a USB stick
by txdv 2y ago
Bought a mini pc with N100 and 16GB of ram, SSD included, no need to buy an enclosure, everything setup and ready, just needed to install Linux from a USB stick with the normal procedure.
I might have chosen RPI5 if it had 16GB ram, but I went with x86 and I like it because there are no software issues anymore (redpanda was not working on rpi)
- shortrounddev2 2y agoWhat do you do with your Mini PC? I was interested in one but I just used an old thinkpad to run some stuff instead
- 7839284023 2y agonot OP, but: Home Assistant, zigbee2mqtt, Arr-Software-Suite, navidrome etc. Basically a small server for self-hosted applications.
- boredpudding 2y agoI have used the ASRock N100DC-ITX with some ram, ssd and an old disk. I run: Jellyfin, Home Assistant, VPN, Nextcloud, Qbittorrent. More things are on https://selfh.st https://selfh.st Everything is in Docker + Portainer. Makes it super easy to manage. The setup uses 17 watts.
- andrepd 2y agoThis is the kind of stuff that is perfect for some old laptop you have lying around. Good power efficiency and no e-waste :)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ErneX 2y agoI bought 3 Dell Optiplex Micros just a few weeks ago. The ones I got have 6c12t and support up to 64GB of ram + one sata and one nmve drive. I use them as xcp-ng hosts.
- haunter 2y agoI have Optiplex Micros too. If they have a Wifi card then you can convert that to a 3rd SSD drive, perfect for RAID, mirrored ZFS etc
- ErneX 2y agoThanks for the tip! Good to know since I don’t need wireless, I even disabled it on the BIOS.
- haunter 2y agoYou need this for converting the AE key to M but otherwise works perfectly (though ymmv depending on the motherboard chipset) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004762924052.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004762924052.html
- flexd 2y agoWhat models are new enough to consider? Do any of these support ECC ram? And would you say mirrored ZFS is good enough for home use? Most of my storage is media for Plex or edited in Resolve and such. I have a 6x3TB zraid2 setup at the moment with aging disks (2015~), but looking to upgrade that. Not sure if I can go the route of just having 2x10TB or something instead, perhaps with a off-site backup to a identical system for the important stuff. Currently I rely on having the important bits copied several places, and just accepting I'll lose some data if everything catches fire here locally
- haunter 2y ago>What models are new enough to consider? Depends on really what do you want to do. For just data storage, NAS, pretty much anything goes. If you want to run VMs, Docker etc. you want something newer. Personally I use Optiplex Micro 3080 with i5-10500T. That was 270€ refurbished. >Do any of these support ECC ram No, as far as the Dell, Lenovo, HP mini PCs goes. >And would you say mirrored ZFS is good enough for home use? Yes but reading your use case you probably don't want a mini PC. You can only have 1x 2.5" SSD and 2x NVMe SSD. A single 8TB NVMe SSD is currently 1000€ and you would need two. Unless you want something smaller of course.
- smudgy 2y agoI'm not the OP but have a little collection of mini pcs (5 of them) so, if you'll allow me, I'll comment on why I have them... The form factor is very convenient, two of them are my mother and my wife's "desktop" pcs - they're both attached to their monitors and, with wireless keyboards and mice they stay discreet and don't take up a lot of room but are very good desktops for daily email reading, recipe browsing and facebooking. My mother and wife don't complain about them - they're more interested in the the compact size and staying out of the way than the performance. Two of them are small servers that I run stuff that my Raspberry Pis can't handle (I still don't have a Pi 5, WAY too expensive around here) - quick, low noise and isn't too power hungry. Runs linux perfectly and I never have a problem with software (the n100 is a great little CPU). I have 2 because of some weird sale on Aliexpress - 2 for the price of 1-and-a-half was something I couldn't pass up on. The final one is attached to our main TV, it's a converted TV box (running Armbian) that's an amazingly powerful piece of cheap hardware. It's our main movie viewer (off of our DLNA NAS) it can hand 1080p video just fine on a crappy 5V power supply.
- wccrawford 2y agoI'm interested in your TV box. What OS are you using? I assume it has a remote control of some kind? I'm guessing it doesn't run apps like Netflix? Do you have a browser or something for that instead, or do you just run local media? I ask all this because I'm sick of my android tv boxes locking up about once a month, and I'd like something a little more powerful.
- KaiserPro 2y agoFor me, its price/space/performance per watt. THe n100 is tiny, but has enough power to run 3-8 VMs. I used to use KVM, but moved recently to proxmox after I wore out the disk. I still have some Pis about to do GPIO stuff, but for _serving_ I used x86 Each n100 has an average power draw of < 8watts at the wall (thats when doing lots of CPU.)
- haunter 2y agoFor me it’s TrueNAS. Dell Optiplex Micro with 3x SSD. 2 mirrored ZFS drives storage for media, downloaded stuff etc.
- smatija 2y agoAt my work we use NUCs a lot - we put them into custom enclosure together with touch screen (1920x1080, not something small), then mount that on CNC machines to let users browse work plans, access ERP etc., get measuring data from dislocated unit, etc.
- mrspuratic 2y agoNUCs are underrated IMHO. I picked up a NUC7 mid-2020, mounts on a VESA plate behind my monitor, used for media, fileshare, general Linux tinkering and VMs. Zero problems (except for a secondary disk failure last year, spinning rust type). Nice to see Asus have finally started doing something with them. I see there's lots of competition (or at least, lots of options) in that space now.
- smatija 2y agoThey are suprisingly reliable - the only problem we repeatedly have is CMOS batteries draining if they are turned off during vacation period (happens for less than 5% of our rigs though).
- poulpy123 2y agoI just bought one for 120€ (from AliExpress). I will use it to replace my small 2-disk NAS by adding an usb HDD dock and to host some small personal servers (for managing recipes, groceries, tools, downloads, etc, nothing fancy). I initially considered a rpi5 + SATA HAT because I don't need much power and the N100 is definitely more power hungry than a RPi but the price tag that included 16gb ram and 512gb SSD convinced me to buy the minipc. I also considered buying a N100 motherboard with 4-6 SATA port to not rely on a single usb port for the NAS port but it was more expensive than the PC and without RAM or hard drive
- poulpy123 2y agoNote that I was surprised to discover it was not possible to install Linux headless easily like on the SBCs. Also I decided to try out nixos but I don't really have the time and energy to learn a new paradigm and I will probably go back to Debian or similar when I have the time
- domh 2y agoWhich one did you go for? I have a raspberry pi 4 with 8gb RAM which is fine for now but may be on the look out for a replacement in the coming years.
- ksec 2y ago>I like it because there are no software issues anymore I keep saying this despite being somewhat a fan of ARM. If x86 or subset of x86 opens up it will still be able to compete in many areas. Oh well. Pat is gone now I need to remind myself I shouldn't care about Intel.
- qiine 2y agoIn a ideal world isa shouldn't matter so much but x86 has been so dominant for so many years... It's hard to imagine a world without x86
- spockz 2y agoSame here. Just spent €150 on something more powerful and versatile and more complete than this pi. IMHO the pi is tremendously overpriced.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoWhat was it? Model?
- nosioptar 2y agoNot parent, I'm mostly looking at small thinkcentres for that price. The last one I looked at was about $60 for a unit that needs a power supply (about $20) and a couple drives. I haven't figured out a specific model I want yet.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoThanks. Do yo mean Lenovo thinkcentres?. Checked out their page, and they seem a lot more expensive.
- nosioptar 2y agoThey are, I should have specified that I'm looking at used ones.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoI missed them. Was under different category. They do look good. Though, I think aimed at business. So probably some upcharge. https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-Tiny-Desktop-Mini/dp/B0DFR6GW1Z/ref=asc_df_B0DFR6GW1Z?mcid=50888ca7af3e35dfbf940e315c122866&hvocijid=8177130061350249235-B0DFR6GW1Z-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=692875362841&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8177130061350249235&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9219436&hvtargid=pla-2281435177818&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-Tiny-Desktop-Mini/...
- MrBuddyCasino 2y agoYep its a better deal. Counterintuitively, the N97 is newer and has higher performance than the N100, especially its built-in graphics. It does consume more power though (12W vs 6W). Here is a comparison between the models: https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/05/04/intel-processor-n95-vs-n97-vs-n100-vs-core-i3-n305-benchmarks-comparison/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/05/04/intel-processor-n95-...
- bayindirh 2y agoI run a couple of N100s with 32GBs of RAM. They're great machines, but they are actively cooled, so they have dust (and noise) issues, and they're bigger than a RPi 5. On the other hand, I have an "armor case" for my RPi5 which has contacts for every major IC on the board, and it runs at most at 50 degrees C (if I saturate it to the point of choking). Plus it's way smaller, and there's no performance or software problems. One of the hidden tricks is to get an A2 card like Kingston Canvas Go+, which completely removes SD card related lag from the system.
- gizmo 2y agoThere are many good options for passively cooled N100s (or even machines with significantly faster chips) roughly the size of a mac mini.
- bayindirh 2y agoA Mac mini is still significantly bigger than a Raspberry Pi 5. On the other hand, there are N97/N100 machines with 12GB of soldered DDR5 RAM, but they are also actively cooled and their smaller blowers are whinier than their bigger cousins. A passive RPi5 connected to a small 4TB external SSD is an almost industrial device which you remember you have one because it becomes unresponsive to a power cut or something. They're that reliable from my experience. I have a newly acquired habit of getting the thing which requires the least amount of maintenance for my needs. I can replace it with a more powerful, power hungry and noisier device if I really need that, however this is rarely the case for me, and I can use my laptop for that oddjob.
- NovemberWhiskey 2y ago>A Mac mini is still significantly bigger than a Raspberry Pi 5 Sure, but there’s a lot more in it; like a power supply.
- bayindirh 2y agoAn official RaspberryPi 5 PSU is akin to a 27W mini brick which doesn't block any adjacent sockets on a power strip. However, the power bricks came with my N100 systems are similar size to 60-80W MacBook power bricks, they're way bigger, even if they're not significantly more powerful. No, N100 systems do not contain their power supplies in the box. They're external.
- matt-p 2y agoGreat unless you need low power, ARM, small form factor, GPIO, or ability to load your software to a compute module. Also not an argument for users buying 2GB/4GB models I suppose.
- izacus 2y agoRPi5 is far from low power these days.
- geerlingguy 2y agoBut a lot closer than anything from Intel (except a few Celeron-style chips that are even slower).
- izacus 2y agoThe Intel Celeron mini PCs you decided to exclude because they don't fit your narrative, actually use less power at full clock and idle at the same power consumption. They're slightly slower at peak, but they're also a much fuller package with SSD interface, Intel graphics with multiple monitor support and no need for running custom linux distros due to x86.
- nine_k 2y agoIf you need a PC, as in a desktop or a generic server, by all means buy a PC. If you need a ton of fast and sophisticated GPIO, small size, light weight. passive cooling, battery-powered operation, a PC starts looking a bit problematic. That's where an RPi fits in.
- Gasp0de 2y agoI don't know, all my use cases where I needed GPIO are better satisfied by an ESP32. If I need more compute, I connect the ESP32 to my server via the internet.
- nine_k 2y agoMakes sense for many applications. But what if you are building an autonomous flying drone? That's the kind of application at which RPi shines, to my mind. (Otherwise, indeed, an ESP32 has rather adequate amounts of compute and RAM for many control applications.)
- Gasp0de 2y agoUnless it processes images on the fly to do some sort of image-based steering or target recognition, an Arduino or comparable microcontroller should be beefy enough [1]. In mobile applications, power consumption of a RPi quickly becomes an issue. [1] https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot
- nine_k 2y agoYes, an autonomous drone would have to process images, height data, map data, etc, so the compute of an RPi would still be relevant. Also, the drone does not have to max out the CPU all the time, it just may need intense compute in some situations, say, depending on the terrain. Larger drones, such as delivery drones, have motors with power consumption that dwarfs that of an RPi. For a a small, palm-sized drone it's of course untenable.
- herbst 2y agoI like using dell Wyse 5070. Cheap and available, basically same or less power than a Rpi but without all the limitations. Building any server on a SD card or external HD is just causing stress for their future self.
- JKCalhoun 2y agoYeah, beginning to think the SD card is the Pi's Achilles' heel. They should put a 64 GB (or so) SSD on the board for the RPi 6.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoRaspberry PI lead the way, and made a big splash a decade ago. The defined this market. But wonder if the competition has caught up. Seems like lots of other options with more power, cheaper. Or maybe not. I'm kind of looking for an opinion on this.
- doubled112 2y agoI have an Orange Pi 5 16G, which was a lot more powerful than an RPi4, and more available when I purchased it. I generally like it. It does the headless server things I'm looking for, but it has had a few quirks over time. Distro support isn't great but Armbian runs well. For the price, and what I use, I would probably buy a mini PC at this point. In general, with boards that aren't Raspberry Pi, always focus on the now, and not the things it should be able to do later. Often they're stuck on a kernel with whatever patches they run at release. Sometimes the community fixes that, but not always.
- josefresco 2y agoAh the ol' obligatory "a mini pc is much better" reply we see on every. single. Raspberry Pi post. I kid but seriously do we need to do this every time we discuss the RPi?
- dijit 2y agoThe reason that safety briefings on every single plane take-off is not because people might be flying for the first time- it's to reiterate important points to bury important information in your mind despite not using it. Our brains are extremely good at getting rid of data that it thinks is not relevant, if you don't apply knowledge or information your mind will "optimise" it away. Hence, the infinite repetition. The same is true here. If you're buying a raspberry pi just for hosting: it's foolish not to consider alternatives. This is important for two reasons, and less important for a third. 1) It free's up supply of rPIs for people who will actually use them for GPIO and education 2) It actually gives people a better, more wholistic experience, at a better price. 3) It forces people to consider the reason for purchase; instead of piling up some e-waste because the RPI was purchased for a yet unknown reason "I can use it for anything*".
- justin66 2y agoYour post just highlights the extreme absurdity of these urgent "my God, don't you know about mini PCs!" and "you could just buy a used computer on eBay!" posts that accompany every Raspberry Pi announcement. You really believe you're offering a safety briefing.
- dijit 2y agosorry, I didn’t mean to give the impression that I was suggesting that this kind of comment is akin to a “safety briefing” - in so far as it makes you safer. What I’m trying to tell you is that it’s very easy for mundane information to be lost and so it bears repetition. I don’t believe I’m offering a safety briefing, I believe the author is making the point that if you’re looking for something to host a service, you will be better served with something more suitable to the task. And not something that is designed for something completely different; constraining the supply and making things more expensive and difficult than they need to be