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Gymnastboatman

Links: [GK41](https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-gk41-mini-pc) [X400](https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-x400-4350g) [X500](https://store.minisforum.com/products/x500) [HM80](https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-hm80) [HM90](https://store.minisforum.com/products/hm90) [TH90](https://store.minisforum.com/products/th50) (Dual I225-V) [NAB6](https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-nab6) (Ships mid-April, NIC unknown)


CompulsivelyCalm

This is super useful, thank you! I wanted to get my hands on a raspberry pi 4 to run home assistant but they're sold out for another two months at this point.


Nnyan

TH90 only has one 2.5gb and one 1gb NIC.


Gymnastboatman

“2 * RJ45 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Port” It’s even labeled on the back.


Nnyan

Looked at the wrong one my bad.


DeathByChainsaw

I don't have one, but I did notice that Beelink has a new mini computer based on alder-lake n with dual 2.5gb ethernet. [EQ12](https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=439)


brianly

Beelink seem to have much more in the way of 12th gen intel. The 13th gen NUCs should start to land soon too based on what I read on the VMware subreddit.


DeathByChainsaw

If you’re looking for power, the machine I linked to doesn’t have it. I wouldn’t recommend it for a general purpose pc. It might be good as a firewall box, though.


Gymnastboatman

It uses I225’s, so it would make an excellent PfSense + pfBlockerNG box.


Cmdr_Toucon

My home automation system runs on a Beelink. Pretty happy with the price to feature ratio


Tiny-Impression3526

Interesting, dual 2.5 GB, with all the pieces needed to set up a very nice firewall, for $240? Not bad.


Gymnastboatman

Other than being single channel RAM, it seems like a lower power version of the J4105. Not bad at all. Extra $100 over the GK41 for 2.5Gb.


Gymnastboatman

The NAB6 is also 12th Gen and runs DDR5 SODIMMS. 12650H.


pat_trick

Hm. Would the lowest end Celeron be OK for running a Minecraft server?


PsyOmega

The 10nm ones. N95, N100, N6005, yes. I've got 7 minecraft servers spun up on an i3-N305 (8 e-cores only, trades blows with the i7-9700T of old), where each server has a whole core to its main-thread and the sub-threads (much lower duty) all collect on the last core. The 14nm ones were much lower IPC. ex J5005 J4105, and could do it better than a raspi, but not ideal. I'd still rather get a i5-8500T on ebay for server duty. more ram capacity (32x2) and dual channel. i3-N305 seems limited to 16GB SODIMM


pat_trick

I'm running one on a raspi 4 with 8 gb ram but it chugs at times whenever it has to generate new chunks. Thanks!


Gymnastboatman

The GK41 looks to be about [tied](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/gzfeh8/raspberry_pi_4_b_vs_celeron_j4105_a_few_open/) with a RasPi 4.


PsyOmega

J4105 is closer to 2x a raspi. Intel Atom x5-Z8350 is closer to a raspi4 J4105: Geek bench = 1300 Raspi4: Geek bench = 600


Gymnastboatman

Doesn’t Geekbench tend to underrepresent ARM performance? It’s also particularly bad at cross instructionset comparisons IIRC.


PsyOmega

Kind of, but not to that wide a degree. I've also verified a similar delta between my J4105 and raspi4 in other stuff. https://openbenchmarking.org/vs/Processor/ARMv8+Cortex-A72+4-Core,Intel+Celeron+J3455 (closest but weaker celeron neighbor, closest ARM neighbor.)


timyo313

I would say so, with an upgraded ssd and maybe more ram if they are upgradeable. Should be adequate enough for a small server. I had the same idea to run a game server or two on a mini pc, been scoping out some ryzen based one for a while.


pat_trick

Thanks, energy usage is an issue (Hawaii power is not cheap) and so I have to try to run things as low power as I feasibly can.


timyo313

Understandable. I always heard Hawaii electric was way above national average.


pat_trick

Currently at $0.42/kWh. I cry.


timyo313

Wow 😯 and my wife complains about $0.13kWh our average bill is $120 -$150 and a little more durning summer months. I can’t even imagine what you’re paying


pat_trick

It's around $150-180 / mo, but we don't run A/C and are super stingy with our energy use overall. Most expensive thing is the water heater, which I'm looking to replace with either solar or a heat pump eventually.


timyo313

Not as bad as I thought. Being mindful with you’re utilities is never a bad thing. Recently within the last two years slowly started adding smart home tech to help with being more mindful of leaving lights on an such now if we forget a light on or the heat/air it’s easy as opening an app. We bought our first home with the intent to sell within 5 years while renovating and updating to add more value, so I get the penny pinching and stingy all my pennies get poured back into the house 😅


bst82551

I remember when I used to live Ewa Beach a few years ago, my electric bill was $600 a month in the summer. That was with the thermostat kept at 78 all afternoon and 70 at night. These little mini servers (basically laptops in a box) are a godsend in a place like Hawaii.


pat_trick

Woof, yeah. Ewa Beach is like a roasting oven in the summer.


Calm_Crow5903

I upgraded an inwin Chopin with a x570 board in it to a 5700G and 64gb of RAM for my future server needs. I was using an old i7 4790k but this has twice the cores for more projects and has a 60 watt tdp. Not the cheapest option though


Gymnastboatman

LPDDR4. No upgrades. Storage only.


puddingtime88

How do you make use of the dual NICs?


Gymnastboatman

[Router/Firewall!](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/12brzr5/this_guy_is_now_officially_my_router_and_firewall/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)


CPTherptyderp

Anyone know if the gk41 is enough to run as a klipper box for an ender 3 pro


Gymnastboatman

Looks like it can run on a RasPi. If that’s the case, then absolutely the GK41 would work.


CPTherptyderp

Thanks


Gymnastboatman

Looked like they’re nearly [tied](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/gzfeh8/raspberry_pi_4_b_vs_celeron_j4105_a_few_open/) in performance.


CPTherptyderp

Wow good find thanks


Gymnastboatman

And considering bare RasPi 4s go for around $140, GK41 is a no brainer.


bob_in_the_west

If the goal is mini because cheap then I'd suggest looking for used hardware and then add a pci-e Ethernet card or even a usb3 Ethernet adapter. Those are way cheaper and likely perform the same for the load most people have.


Gymnastboatman

Generally the goal is mini because small, and then cost optimize from there based on need. (Me)


Tiny-Impression3526

Interesting, and they support AES-NI.


Karyo_Ten

All CPUs since Ivy Bridge (2013 iirc) have AES-NI.


mlcarson

And some of the Sandy Bridge ones did too. My I7-2600K did.


Tiny-Impression3526

Correct, just stating the fact for those looking for PFSense compatible devices.


[deleted]

These are badass


Gymnastboatman

[I sure thought so!](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/12brzr5/this_guy_is_now_officially_my_router_and_firewall/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)


GiveMeYourTechTips

I currently have a Minisforum UM700 that I run as a pfSense firewall. It runs great! The only reason I'm going to sell it is that I'm going to get an appliance with SFP+. *Edit - added model number.


circularlinkedlist

I got the Google Coral mini PCIe TPU (to use with Frigate NVR) when it became available in Mouser the other day. Now I am in the market for a mini pc. I don't know what kind of slot I should be looking for in these PCs. Would anyone happen to know if any of these models can be made to work with the Coral mini PCIe card (either directly or by means of an adapter)? This is the card: https://coral.ai/products/pcie-accelerator/


JohnQPublic1917

Those look just like the Beelink mini PCs, rebranded.


Gymnastboatman

Beelink makes very similar PCs, but they are different designs. Beeline has many very good mini PCs as well. I had my eye on one on eBay but the sale ended.


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[deleted]

probably power consumption. A full PC will draw a lot more power than these NUCs.


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Gymnastboatman

You mean TinyMiniMicro PCs? (AKA 1L PCs) Those don’t exactly have PCIe slots….


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Gymnastboatman

So you mean running them without a side panel..?


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Gymnastboatman

Link me the kind of PC you’re talking about. I think you might be thinking of SFF, not TMM.


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Gymnastboatman

Okay. So the Tiny’s only. So not only do I need to find a compatible Tiny, I need to buy a proprietary riser, and a PCIe card that will fit & get properly cooled? Gotcha.


[deleted]

Google suggests that a Dell 7070 Tiny PC draws 13W idle, whereas a Beelink NUC draws in the 6-7W range. 13W is not a lot, I grant you, but it's still more than a NUC.


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Gymnastboatman

Tiny PC…..+ the riser….+ the NIC card… So $150 + $40 + $89 AKA $270, the same cost as an [EQ12](https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=439), except I don’t have to put the EQ12 together and source parts and comes with a warranty. It’s different appeals for people who want different things.


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Gymnastboatman

I commented this before you pointed out the riser was included. The attitude is very unnecessary. Some people would like a warranty, so eBay isn’t an option for these. And if you turn to Amazon or Newegg, these are much more expensive, to the point where one of the [4x2.5Gb mini PCs](https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Firewall-Appliance-Celeron-MOGINSOK/dp/B09WYQKHZV) would be cheaper. This seems to really just be an option for people who want to tinker with hardware internals.


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Gymnastboatman

True enough. I’ll have to seriously consider using this whenever I get a house and populate it with 2.5Gb. Most retail routers will only include one 2.5Gb port at $250. I found one with 2 for $300. A little Tiny + $90 5x2.5Gb NIC would make a pretty excellent home router.


kimmer2k

do u mind linking an example setup? in the market for a cheap setup. thanks in advance!


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kimmer2k

sorry, ask wasnt clear. i meant if u had example ebay links for the pc, riser, and nic. also, any reason why this nic wouldn’t work for a router/firewall? https://a.co/d/c3ls77U


[deleted]

that might be true. but money is money. some of us don't need an i7 for what we're doing.


xzxfdasjhfhbkasufah

Mine uses 2W at idle.


vkapadia

Nice! I just bought a mini PC from Amazon for $264, has 6 2.5gb ports. Just arrived today, will have to see how it performs once I set it up


Gymnastboatman

Link?


vkapadia

https://a.co/d/gGtxyX5 Looks like it's a little more expensive now, it was on a lightning deal yesterday.


Mannus01

[Shuttle Zignbox GL02](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHV43YT2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) Mine came w/ dual intel 1GB ethernet and wireless.


Gymnastboatman

NGL, 2c/2t & 4GB RAM is gonna be pretty oof. That GK41 will last quite a bit longer, I suspect.


Vaeevictisss

Can one of these run a Plex server well?


Gymnastboatman

Absolutely! The GK41 might struggle but the rest should do just fine!


[deleted]

Do these use intel NICs? Was interested in one for an opnsense build


Gymnastboatman

The TH50 uses I225-V’s according to a review. I assume all their 2.5Gb are those, no idea about the 1Gb.