Of course, I immediately began adding more RAM and storage to them and making a cooling modification to one of them. But the little guys are absolutely amazing. Both came with Windows 11 Pro out of the box, but because my primary use for each was in my amateur home lab I have multiple builds of Linux on each that I can boot to in the multiple boot configurations that I have set up. Or I can use them use in virtual machines within the various operating systems.
One can currently into boot five different operating systems. But I use it most frequently with Debian running Open Media Vault to share and backup files from a RAID Enclosure containing 2 Seagate 24TB hard drives. But I also use it with CasaOS with various applications. I also have various "Containers" that are used in Docker Desktop.
The other has Mini-PC has Ubuntu Server running in a virtual machine within Windows 11 which is hosting a Apache2 with a rudimentary WordPress webpage. But I have it so that it dual boots with ProxMox which is great for running multiple virtual machines.
I use both with various tutorial programs and reference materials to learn about servers and programming. And the really great thing is that they cost very little, they take up very little space and I don't tie up an expensive laptop or desktop with my experimentation. They are great little learning tools.
But I find myself using them more and more frequently for just day to day tasks such as starting this thread. The excerpt contains only a fraction of the article. This computer form factor is growing in popularity aided by the coming Windows 11 End of Life event coming on October 14. After that date if you are still using Windows 10, security issues will begin to become a greater threat, but for less than $150 you can get one of these little guys pretty much every day of the week and use it when you are online especially in uncharted waters without much worry.
As time has gone on I find myself recommending these to more and more of my friends so here is an article on them. The excerpt contains only a fraction of the full article. My personal recommendation would be to purchase one with a Ryzen proc
I think they call them phones now.
Sorry, Windows 10 End of Life event coming on October 14.
You mean Windows 10, right?
I use one to run a home built CNC machine. Works great and cheap.
How did you rip dvd and Blu-ray? I am too lazy to supervise the Handbrake process. I want to set it up in my RV. I already made the RV “smart” using an iPad but the media is lacking.
I know amateur astronomers, astrophotographers in particular, are adding them to their imaging setups with great results. You can run an amateur observatory, telescope and camera from your backyard while you are in your living room.They are incredible little machines.
Do these units have Bluetooth?
Can you give an Amazon link to one you like?
I bought one a few months ago and love it. You HAVE to upgrade the RAM. I paid like $155 delivered and Windows was installed.
I use a Mini PC for daily tasks (but it does have a B580 video card attached via Oculink) and a tower for my premium gaming rig. There is no sense running that heater most of the time if I am only surfing the internet or doing productivity tasks.
I’ll get one if they offer Windows 7
Same experience here. I’ve got a couple of Dell micro-towers running Linux and they are my workhorses. Recently I’ve added an EVO X2 with 128G storage to run local LLMs.
Bump for later (BFL)
A brand with a good reputation: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Beelink/page/E76F7A4A-070E-428C-9129-832B18C1493F
The mini PC things are very capable for what they are.
probably would be great for my mother who does not do any gaming or much publishing anymore.
I agree on the Ryzen chips. It is pretty amazing what you can get in one of those super small mini pcs for under $250
I prefer the small form factor currently, it is pretty amazing what you can stuff into one of those.
mini-itx or micro-atx depending on what you are doing.
I recently updated my old mini-itx sff file server with a new mobo, ryzen5 5600g and 64gb ram. now I can not only use it as a file server, but also a hyper-v host using the pcie slot for an edsff ruler drive, and the larger spiny drive raid for .vhdx backup as well as file storage. I was able to make it basically silent unless the CPU is running at full load which is never.
The problem with phone computation is I/O - kids can type well with their thumbs but I can't, and kids can see the graphics on a 5-inch screen but I can't. My tablet is great but the games don't run on Android. Just give me my Model T, officer...
A little off-topic, but..
If you’re not doing anything intense, take a look at the Raspberry Pi4 and Pi5. They work fine for surfing, music, video. They have 4 USB ports, Ethernet, Bluetooth, WIFI, two HDMI ports. The Pi4 will output audio to an audio jack, HDMI, or Bluetooth. The Pi5 audio is only on the HDMI and Bluetooth ports.
Got a couple here. Use them on the road and occasionally at home.
They are Linux - they do NOT do windows.
About the size of a deck of cards.
Kind of like Commodore computers 40 years ago.
My NAS has an Atom CPU in it, and wasn’t powerful enough to transcode 4K HDR10 content on the fly in Plex. So I bought a BeeLink Ryzen 7 mini PC with integrated Radeon graphics, and NFS mounted my movie/TV show shares on my NAS from it. It has *NO* problem transcoding ANYTHING, or SEVERAL things at the same time. And it was $350 or so. For a system THIS powerful, cool, and it came with Windows 10 on it (I’ve had it since before Win 11 existed), I absolutely cannot complain.
(I used to work for Intel, and I also own one of the first gen Intel NUCs which are the spiritual predecessor to the modern Mini PC).