There are plenty of mini PCs with more powerful CPUs such as N100, N200, or i3-N305. They're passively cooled, have several 2.5G NICs, expandable RAM, NVMe, etc. The pricing is about the same. Most of them have CWWK motherboards. Always buy your own RAM and SSD as the bundled stuff is junk. I have been using an N5105 unit from HUNSN (CWWK clone) for close to a year with Proxmox virtualized pfSense and I really like it.
I would really rather go for a used Thinkstation Tiny with at least an i5 for the cores to run VMs on. For a HTPC this might be nice, but the screen software just feels sketchy, and I would rather wipe the included Windows 11 install for a clean one.
That's a decent little box. I'd be curious how well it performs with 4k content and maybe used as a remote server (maybe a game server :cough:valheim:cough:). If you're bored and wanna do an extra video or article I'd love to hear about it. Price already went up 5 bucks. Also a little disappointed it only has one so-dimm slot. Cant have everything at that price and size though.
Would be great if the display was accessible using, for example, python API. Small home server with low consumption, running some filestorage (NextCloud) and Homeassistant... This would be perfect for it.
Hmmm, I happen to be in the same boat with linux an those side thoughts. Intending to get myself a weekend mini pc (watching YT for the most part, really) instead of a RPI5, I have had my eyes on a refurbed Lenovo M720 / M910 or HP GM4 MD, when I came across this one for a similar price (189 EUR-ish). It looks cool indeed. On the other hand, one does not replace RAMs often enough to make use of the magnetic panels (and if one does, undoing one screw is no pain), with linux, the clock should not be a big factor plus only a single channel RAM + (presumably) a worse access to CPU and (presumably) worse cooling. I guess I will stick with the refurbs after all, for which replacement parts will also be easier to obtain. Also, only once I have seen mentioned that the on-screen fan speed is obviously bogus.
Honestly, if the Display functionality was more open source, what this seems great would be as a home media box. Like a TV Plex player, etc, where you can set the small display to show progress, etc. The dual 1Gbe, specially Realtek, kills it for anything home lap aspect for me. Nowadays, I start expecting minimum 2.5GbE.
@ralmslb In another video I saw it mentioned it has the LCD connectors down there in the RAM cavity (there are 2 JSTs). Not sure if it is only power there, probably it is, but if not so, one might play around with some RP2040 or so...?
Not sure if it's true but amazon reviews talk about some malware that is pre loaded and re loads on reboot. Maybe somenone should look into that and place a note on this video? Maybe I am wrong
It would be overkill just for HA for most configurations. Run xcp-ng or proxmox, then on top of that run home assistant....and a bunch of other cool stuff.
@@marcogenovesi8570 Most of the keys off those sites are questionable legal at best, not a option in any business/government environment. I don't have a problem upgrading the machines, but if one is evaluating them for a local government "cube farm" replacement (if it runs Edge, Excel, Outlook, and a couple of .NET "click to run" apps, it meets the need), adding an hour of prep time to upgrade them adds 50% or more to the cost at this price point, plus the Microsoft upgrade cost, which combined would double the cost of these machines. There is some support to automatically upgrade in InTune Autopilot, but I've had mixed results with that working properly..if that becomes more reliable, it won't really matter I guess what edition ships on them.
bought one and it didnt even last 6 months buyer beware and ACE wouldnt honor 36 month warranty BUYERS BEWARE spent months on the phone trying to contact them and nothing
There are plenty of mini PCs with more powerful CPUs such as N100, N200, or i3-N305. They're passively cooled, have several 2.5G NICs, expandable RAM, NVMe, etc. The pricing is about the same. Most of them have CWWK motherboards. Always buy your own RAM and SSD as the bundled stuff is junk.
I have been using an N5105 unit from HUNSN (CWWK clone) for close to a year with Proxmox virtualized pfSense and I really like it.
I would really rather go for a used Thinkstation Tiny with at least an i5 for the cores to run VMs on. For a HTPC this might be nice, but the screen software just feels sketchy, and I would rather wipe the included Windows 11 install for a clean one.
Thanks for the shout out my dude!
Absoultely, you have a lot of great reviews I have watched :)
That's a decent little box. I'd be curious how well it performs with 4k content and maybe used as a remote server (maybe a game server :cough:valheim:cough:). If you're bored and wanna do an extra video or article I'd love to hear about it.
Price already went up 5 bucks. Also a little disappointed it only has one so-dimm slot. Cant have everything at that price and size though.
Would be great if the display was accessible using, for example, python API. Small home server with low consumption, running some filestorage (NextCloud) and Homeassistant... This would be perfect for it.
Hmmm, I happen to be in the same boat with linux an those side thoughts. Intending to get myself a weekend mini pc (watching YT for the most part, really) instead of a RPI5, I have had my eyes on a refurbed Lenovo M720 / M910 or HP GM4 MD, when I came across this one for a similar price (189 EUR-ish). It looks cool indeed. On the other hand, one does not replace RAMs often enough to make use of the magnetic panels (and if one does, undoing one screw is no pain), with linux, the clock should not be a big factor plus only a single channel RAM + (presumably) a worse access to CPU and (presumably) worse cooling. I guess I will stick with the refurbs after all, for which replacement parts will also be easier to obtain.
Also, only once I have seen mentioned that the on-screen fan speed is obviously bogus.
Honestly, if the Display functionality was more open source, what this seems great would be as a home media box.
Like a TV Plex player, etc, where you can set the small display to show progress, etc.
The dual 1Gbe, specially Realtek, kills it for anything home lap aspect for me.
Nowadays, I start expecting minimum 2.5GbE.
@ralmslb In another video I saw it mentioned it has the LCD connectors down there in the RAM cavity (there are 2 JSTs). Not sure if it is only power there, probably it is, but if not so, one might play around with some RP2040 or so...?
Heat in a homelab? Sleep in the homelab at night. My apartment when I had multiple Pentium 4s was always warm during the winter!
Makes me miss the NUC line...
This will run my homeassistant server nicely as an upgrade to my full desktop 7th gen intel machine
You should do a video on how to avoid, or choose, these low price "novelty" mini PCs. Some of them I've never heard of and look sketch. .
Router, the only Router on that small ones is either OpenWRT or VyOS.
1G, at 23 years old, why didn't they install 2.5G and the screen is not needed at all, I wouldn't spend money on it
Agreed. Any device with sub 2.5g interfaces isn't even worth taking a look at imo.
Not sure if it's true but amazon reviews talk about some malware that is pre loaded and re loads on reboot. Maybe somenone should look into that and place a note on this video? Maybe I am wrong
They ship pre-loaded with Windows and a utility that manages the display on the device. That utility was getting flagged by Defender.
Your right
The NICs let this machine down. If you know, you know.
It really is a shame that it's RealTech Network cards.
Looks like a nice enough box to run Kodi on
Might be a nice little kodi box
Since it has 2 NICs, it might be a good choice for a firewall (OPNSense, pfSense, or Sophos XG Home Edition).
3:17
Does it have a valid TPM & license? A lot of these don’t :(
Use it as a home assistant server
That's not a bad idea
It would be overkill just for HA for most configurations. Run xcp-ng or proxmox, then on top of that run home assistant....and a bunch of other cool stuff.
Is N97 processor any better?
I assume W11 home? Is there a model with Pro or Enterprise available pre-installed?
Oddly this one had pro but due to the inconsistent nature of these companies I would not guarantee they will always ship with pro.
making a generic ISO installer isn't terribly hard and you can get a pro key off many sites for a few bucks
@@marcogenovesi8570 Most of the keys off those sites are questionable legal at best, not a option in any business/government environment. I don't have a problem upgrading the machines, but if one is evaluating them for a local government "cube farm" replacement (if it runs Edge, Excel, Outlook, and a couple of .NET "click to run" apps, it meets the need), adding an hour of prep time to upgrade them adds 50% or more to the cost at this price point, plus the Microsoft upgrade cost, which combined would double the cost of these machines.
There is some support to automatically upgrade in InTune Autopilot, but I've had mixed results with that working properly..if that becomes more reliable, it won't really matter I guess what edition ships on them.
how is the malware these days?😅
The most shocking thing to me regarding this incident is that people don't format these things before even booting them.
is the LCD indìpendent from the OS?
would it still work aftert i install linux?
nope
bought one and it didnt even last 6 months buyer beware and ACE wouldnt honor 36 month warranty BUYERS BEWARE spent months on the phone trying to contact them and nothing
So they don't run Linux?
They run Linux just fine. You won't be able use the built-in display till somebody writes drivers for it.
@@Darkk6969 But he did not try. I have bought many of these small form factor machines and the run Linux Mint fine.
First
This crap vendors provide no bios updates. Alone for that i would not buy this chinese boxes.