Thank you everyone! I did find out that there is a microSD card reader, so I dove back into it and uploaded a shorter video as an addendum. There is also a picture of the RAM chips. Let me know what you think! kzread.info/dash/bejne/f2igqrWhn7iWZ7w.html

@Justchuck69

Жыл бұрын

New sub here and will check out your new vid in this link!

@johnniecortez5043

Жыл бұрын

can you play games with it

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

@@johnniecortez5043 Yes and no and maybe. You'd have to be specific about the game. AAA titles I wouldn't even try. Something from 10 years ago is a maybe. I did some SNES emulation with it and it worked fine.

@johnniecortez5043

Жыл бұрын

thank you 4 the info

@bzuidgeest

Жыл бұрын

I object to your fake pricing. The honest price was 118 dollar. That's the price at which anyone can get it. The fact you have a coupon is irrelevant. Unless you are going to supply coupons to your viewers. I know this attracting of views with low prices is common behaviour on KZread. But I for one don't accept channels that use it. Like channels claiming to build 50 dollar 3d printers, but only if you happen to have a 1000 dollar in spare parts in your drawers. That's just cheating. If you name a price that price has to be for everyone. Otherwise the video was fine.

The reviewer is not trying to be funny or entertaining, he just gives honest info we all need. How refreshing, that is precisely what I need from the tech reviews. Thanks! (Subscribed)

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Sometimes I like to add a little humor, just to show I'm human, make mistakes, and am not perfect. I think those are important aspects to show too. Thanks for your comment and sub! I hope you like my other content and reviews too.

Seems to me like the Geekbench scores for this processor are better than the unobtanium Raspberry pi, so I will be using one for pihole, open media vault, etc. Thanks for posting!

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! That is in part an idea I have, we will see how it comes together.

@pingtime

Жыл бұрын

for the time, Pi's is just waste of money and time, you better off pull a ITX B85/Z97 Haswell board and a lower TDP CPUs (like i7 4790s) combos with good PICO-ITX PSUs and 32GB of DDR3, and it's still cheaper than 8GB variant of Pi 4, and you got more powerfull hardware, better software support, and even better I/O, the power consumption is not that bad either.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

@@pingtime I have an i7 4790s system even now as a backup server, even a video on the subject.

@DailyCorvid

Жыл бұрын

OrangePi5 is $110

@AndrewAHayes

Жыл бұрын

You can get an Orange Pi Zero 2 for $24 on ALi Express and $2 for a USB expansion, it is 100Mhz faster than a Pi 3B+ and can run Debian Ubuntu and Android, OMV and Pihole will run ok on it too, if you get it from the manufacturers Ali Express listing delivery is just 10 days

Subscribed... Keep em coming! 😊

Thanks for the video 💯

Got one of these about 6 months ago and use it for my security cameras, been running 24/7 since set up and hasn't caused any problems. I've also used it as an office PC and for other applications and it just works.

@simonlyons5681

Жыл бұрын

Can you describe your set up? I want to get something similar going (cameras + NVR). Cheers.

Thanks for this! Always looking for little cheap PCs to make into things like firewalls and other little projects.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the comment! I paid about twice this for a small PC with dual NICs and made a pfsense firewall. It is going to need to support Gigabit up and down or I could have opted to use a USB3 to Ethernet adapter. Because of the low idle power this one is ideal for a small network controller or storage. It is nice to have maybe 500GB of files available all the time while TB's of storage go to sleep until you need them.

I bought one of these last year. Made a great 3rd PC for the house, powerful enough for KZread and playing MP3s. I'm not a gamer so it works well for me.

Nice, thorough review. A tip for dealing with driver issues when reinstalling Windows is to copy your C:\Windows\System32\Drivers folder to a removable drive before you perform your clean install. I recently discovered this tip when I decided to do a clean install on an old laptop. Luckily for me, I upgraded the SSD for the clean install and was able to use the drivers from the old SSD to restore Bluetooth functionality after a couple of hours searching in vain for drivers online.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Interesting. I may have to try that out. I still like taking my approach to see if someone didn't do that how hard would it be to fix.

This video is so good! the production is amazing, subscribed and notifications

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! It is something I enjoy doing, and am really getting a kick out of all the views and subs!

@TomMetro

Жыл бұрын

Likewise. Nice job.

I ordered one on a Black friday deal for $55. Half the price of a Windows licence. It's a solution looking for a problem now. Thanks for the review & heads up.

Solid review! and Duck!

Thanks for sharing.

Duck! Nice video mate! Congrats on over 800 subs! I could learn a thing or two from you 🤔

Great review.

A very nice review that checks everything that is important

I have one of these Noname PCs with an J4125 for more than a year now as a Back-UP-PC and Media-Player. With POP OS it works great. I Love it

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Very cool! Are you using the internal drive slot or have something plugged into USB?

@sirdee9607

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I use the Internal SSD, and some Low Spec Games like TuxKart or Blockgames are with my 8GB Ram Modell easy to play

Neat! Honestly, I appreciate that you had no sponsor. Was an honest unbought opinion. :) Id like to see a good affordable mini-pc that could handle some triple AAA games at a decent resolution. So we can make a semi-portable handle-held(using a wireless monitor/low-cost old phone and a bluetooth game controller). But I feel like thats asking for the heavens to rain gold upon us. lol.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Affordable and specs needed are different to everyone. The Trigkey S5 with the Ryzen 5560U that I reviewed might fit the bill, but at five to six times what I bought this machine for and I've not played in AAA games on it to see for certain. I think I've seen a few reviewers do just that though.

Very nice video. this video was wonderful

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

It definitely is an interesting device for the price. I would have had a closer look at the USB C connector as it may not use the standard connections and could have reversed D1+ - and D2+- lines ( 4 wires ) to a non standard pattern, keeping the power connections standard so as to not blow things up ( or not even connected to provide power to a drive adapter ).

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Interesting point. I've decided in part for the next reviews I'm taking a lot more close up video or pictures of the boards, as that could set me apart from other reviewers and keep this more interesting.

Wow.. very cool... now.. I just need to go through every single video of this channel. To see if their are reviews of cheap minis that will be game able

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! There is the miniPC playlist now that should make that part easy. I've done a few things with computers and an ODROID-C4 over the last three years, but you feel free to watch them all if you are so inclined!

duck! I just got a mini pc Lenovo and it's very nice! Thanks for reviewing a "surprise cheap mini pc" :)

Nice review 😊

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you 😊

Quite a good review and find. Keep them coming :)

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm up to three videos of these with a total of four machines, I have three more and one in the mail to do, and maybe some supplemental videos to cover things tested afterwards based on comments or things I just cut due to time and format.

@Airbag888

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I think there's a nice niche out there for low power systems not only for desktop use but as home servers. I have no need for this one personally but it's good to have more people objectively bringing numbers forward and especially deals! Maybe make a community page where people can get deals then a link to your review as it comes out. I imagine that there can be a delay between you spotting a deal and a review video coming out aka deal's gone by the time your first sub/viewer sees the video. I'm personally after a low cost, low power NAS to replace my old one. Sadly it's a bit special.. I have 10Gbit fibre around the house so I need one with sfp+ network (or pcie-x slot to accomodate a card) + 1 or 2 nvme for cache and 2+ sata (ideally 3.5") and I am REALLY trying to avoid just slapping it in a desktop due to idle power draw typically in the double digits.. My other issue is do I make 1 system that includes NAS and other home services or split it in 2.. Case 1: I'll need a beefier CPU + RAM Case 2: I'm not sure how low I can go in CPU/RAM that will be able to stream out 1GB transfers in/out consistently I think I've been chasing that system for 2years now lol.. anyway I'm rambling. Have a fun weekend!

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

@@Airbag888 Have you considered a NAS that shuts down when you don't need it? My current setup here is networked backup server (video on that too) with 2 HDDS, but it only comes on at night to do backups or on the weekends I can go turn it on or send a Wake Up signal. My always on files are on a SBC, so very low power draw.

@Airbag888

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 Given my situation (kids/wife streaming off it, backups made to it and cctv also archiving there, etc it has to stay up 24/7 for me).. I'm considering having SBCs (rpi, etc) for always on systems like home assistant that are not too greedy and maybe have my server hosting vms be switched off more often

This channel is honestly underrated! I look up for watching more videos like this! Opinions about reviewing ARM based mini PCs? I wanna see some of these.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

You are too kind! My main issue with ARM SBCs is lack of long term support. You can find software when it first comes out, but they might not have any new images the next go around and it relies on the manufacture to keep up. Raspberry Pi is the outlier in that statement. That is in part why I'm going these x86 machines. Now x86 SBCs would be neat, but they are often more expensive than what I've reviewed so far.

@InterlacedTech

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 tbh ARM PCs will get better by time so I don't fear these issues. Snapdragon is already joining the market as well.

@SansNeural

Жыл бұрын

@@InterlacedTech "ARM PCs will get better by time" I hope so, but I'm not sure I agree. They tend to suffer from feature/driver fragmentation simple because there are so many different models by so many different manufacturers.

I used to do tech support at people's homes and used these a lot. A lot of my customers would be senior citizens running new software on 15-20 year old hardware and ask me if I could do something to speed it up. These aren't fast but always way faster than their existing machines. If they're just using email and a web browser it's a fine machine. They were always amazed at the small size of the machine and the boot up speed of an SSD. I think I spent about $120 for higher RAM. I liked them so much my mom has one. I had bought her a $2,500 surface PC and saw she never used it as a tablet. The battery started failing and became a fire hazard. So I gave her one of these. She loves it. Slow for me (a gamer and 3D artist with a 3K+ PC). But for her? It's fine. Her most power hungry app is her photo screensaver. I'm not worried about upgrading to Windows 11. She still hasn't forgiven me for upgrading her from Windows XP when it was End Of Life. 😆

Just subscribed. :)

I think this would work great for powering a NAS setup with external drives, or as a system gateway for a home network. i currently have an older HP laptop with a broken screen, for my Koozali/SME server for my gateway, and this would draw considerably less power, not to mention be considerably faster with the SSD drive. All I would have to add would be one of the gigabit USB adapters to get my extra LAN port. Definitely worth looking into! Great review, thanks!😁👍

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! The real big question as a gateway is the RealTek chips. I'm in the midst of trying to figure out what is going on with the little Bytenuc I made a pfsense machine, and why I've had to do three hard resets in a week. As a NAS though absolutely an option for small scale storage solution, or like you said larger with external drives. I've wondered how something like this would work with those enclosures that can do 2/4/6 drives and connected over USB.

@danw1955

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I know some Realtek chips have been a problem in the past on most Linux distros (like the RTL-8169). I wonder what the part #'s are on these? I ended up buying a slightly different brand yesterday, that was only $99 complete, since I couldn't find a coupon that would work for this one, and they're going for $139 now. Same basic setup, just a little slower on the CPU, and 4 gb. of RAM which is still plenty for Koozali/SME server. My aging HP laptop with the broken screen only has 4 gb., and I rarely have to reset it. Pass-though performance is good enough for my 20mb. down and 1024kb. up DSL, so as not to bottleneck the system. I don't think the Realtek chips would even be an issue, since in my case, I'm using 2 USB > gigabit ethernet adapters because the HP doesn't have an available ethernet port, just wi-fi. SME server recognized them immediately.😉

Great video. I purchased one of these $60 mini-pcs and so far I am pleased with it. I agree that the OS that comes on the PC is suspect. I re-installed a fresh version of Windows 10. Most of the drivers auto-installed except for PCI Simple Com Controller and SM Bus. These driver issues were resolved by install the Intel Chipset Software Installer (sm bus) and Turbo Boost Install driver (PCI simple com controller) from Acer (look under the details of the device in "device manager" and then Google the ID string of the device). The system does seem to be more responsive and quicker after resolving these driver issues. I installed a SATA SSD and it seems to perform quite well with Windows 10 for the price/size of the device.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Nice! Thank you for your feedback.

For that price, it's definitely worth picking up for a home nas. I already have a home nas that I run truenas scale, but I miss having an open media vault nas, so I think I'll pick this little guy up for that. I like OMV for the one-click install of docker and portainer, as well as the one click updates for both. Thanks for the heads up on the deal and the performance review!

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you found it helpful, and I hope anything you pick up works well for your case.

@Hfil66

Жыл бұрын

My worry about using it as a NAS is until there are tests that demonstrate long term stability and reliability I would worry about whether I would trust my data to the unit. Performance is more than adequate for many data storage or network management roles, but if I find it dies after 6 months, or worse yet starts creating silent data corruption that I don't find out about until two years later then I still have question marks.

@4fouryon

Жыл бұрын

@@Hfil66 how is that scenario is any different with any hardware? having this as a NAS is probably more reliable than getting a NAS Box like synology or any brand with their own proprietary hardware which cannot be bought or available anyway, sure I agree this shouldn't be used as a NAS because of limited I/O for storage, however data corruption 99% in my own case is because the disk failure rather than mainboard/system faulty.

@Hfil66

Жыл бұрын

@@4fouryon I cannot comment specifically about specialised NAS boxes as I tend just to use general purpose computers for NAS. Data corruption can be from many causes. Total corruption of the disk is most likely because of something wrong with the disk or a power supply issue, but bit rot can happen from many causes and the problem is that by the time you find out it happened it is often too late to work out which component caused it to happen (including caching in main memory, or a software hiccup). The problem is that all hardware has design compromises and quality control compromises. This is as true for big name products as the small cost cutters as here, but the difference is that the big names, with big customer bases and high media visibility, are going to get caught out far sooner when (not if, but when) they decide to cut a corner.

@javaman2883

Жыл бұрын

This only has one SATA port. Can USB drives be trusted in a 24/7 NAS setup?? A few years ago, I backed up my wife's WIndows laptop to move everything to her new one. Took a lot of effort to backup, as the USB drive would just randomly disconect when transfering hundreds of files. I eneded up pulling the drive out of the laptop, plugging it into my Linux desktop, and copying all the files that way (to the same USB destination drive).

Nice video. Not a fan of the Intel Celeron J3455 though it's usually the standard budget device/aio offering. If given the choice you can obtain a system of the same era, or newer for around the same price point that's more capable in a Lenovo ThinkCentre M93 or HP EliteDesk 800 G3. Those come in varying configurations and the second hand market dumps them for $50-150+. I've got a few in production running some containers and I can go on about how great they are. The most recent variants also support m.2 sata/SSD.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Agreed, but these new machines will also be targeted at people wanting something they don't have to mess with. My goal is to show what you get for the money, but I'm also looking at them for power consumption. I have worked with HP Elitedesk SFFs and Minis and the power draw is the difference. The video I'm uploading now concerns processors from 2021 at least.

@cdgonepotatoes4219

Жыл бұрын

For handling documents, mail and browsing I'd say you could even go down to an Atom CPU... not that I have first hand experience, I was in the market for a mini PC and landed on that instead of Celeron. Lower voltage, cheaper, you come to the point your monitor costs more and takes more power than the PC itself.

Interesting thanks

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

I certainly would have bought it at that bargain price. Prices on the east of the Atlantic for such products are far higher! Love the format, independence so have subscribed.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I lived on that side for a while. I'm impressed too when some European YT creators can find some used things there for a sweet deal that we never got here.

I have no use for a device like this, but it's interesting to know they exist.

Wow, best review I've seen for these, your channel is going places my man. How about swapping the CPU in one of these things? That'd be fun.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Aw, my initial comment didn't save. Thanks! As for swapping CPUs, they are soldered on and beyond my skill and equipment to swap out. Defiantly would be some sort of adventure.

Perfect summary of a low end machine. Makes me consider using it as a small minecraft server for a couple of friends.

Those used to be sold under the brand "Acepc" some 3 years ago. I bought one for a friend of mine who has a doctor's practice as his office PC. It replaced a years old tower. External USB hard disk for data storage and backup purposes, a wireless Logitech mouse/keyboard combo and a 27" Philips monitor, a USB to serial adapter for a pin printer form carbon copy forms was needed, it's hooked up to a VPN tunnel box for data transfer between health insurance and the practice, and a laser printer is connected via USB as well. We needed a small usb hub as we needed one port more than the machine had. The mini pc hides underneath the monitor, and can easily be locked away in a safe during holiday absences. The perfect solution.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Very nice! I've seen these sold under a few different names, like you've seen Acepc I've also seen it as Kamrui, and something that starts with OU.

Good Editing. Thanks for making it short. So many howto youtube host love to hear their own voice. And they would probaly turn this video into a 20 minute video. Good practicle info. I'm hoping you are going to show how to turn it into a linux server of some sort.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I really like to develop 3 to 5 minute videos, but I think to cover just what little I do with these 10 minutes is going to be the norm. I'm more likely to click on videos under 15 minutes. Next year maybe I can give a quick guide on install, as I've done it just about as many times as Windows installs in the past three years.

0:21 Nice.

Great review, great little Mini PC for the price!! Would have liked to see something on the noise levels while under load. I've just purchased a "Mele Quieter3Q" to use as a home Linux server. Setting it up as we speak. So far, very impressed. I've been using Raspberry Pi units before the Quieter3Q. I basically use these to run my home gitolite server, LAMP stack (for my blog), Samba server, etc... I chose the Quieter3Q because it doesn't have a fan. I tried out the Windows 11 it came pre-installed with, worked well, but the unit becomes too hot to touch! Running Arch Linux (headless, no desktop), it runs cool.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

I've seen a couple of reviews on the Quieter3Q. Someone put sat a big aluminum heatsink on there and it was a big difference in temps running Windows outside in the heat of Atlanta. He also mentioned removing the stickers from the top helped. This machine is pretty quiet at idle, you can hear it but not bad. At load it sounds kind of like a laptop but a slightly deeper tone, if that makes sense. With something like what you are doing you'd rarely get it under enough of a load, unless your blog gets lots of traffic.

@MnemonicCarrier

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I've ordered a 40mm silent fan and a large heatsink. Not sure I'll need them though - when not running a GUI, it runs quite cool.

Good video, and yes, I would take a chance on a computer like this, especially at this price. I’m actually impressed. I probably wouldn’t use it as a general purpose computer. I might put a single app on it like home automation.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

It is probably powerful enough to use several Docker images and you could run a few things. I've been bad over the years and just run multiple things like web host, file server, and database server all on the same machine. That was a lot less powerful than this.

Thanks! For me, the 4k playback test was actually the most telling bit, because I'd be using something as a more powerful retro emulation system than a Raspberry Pi.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Glad it helped!

nice vid man i would use that for a media server like jellyfin

It wasn't terrible. Thanks

I also bought this AK2 5 days ago at Amazon US. The parcel has just arrived and I will re-install Linux on it. Thank you for testing this AK2.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

You are very welcome! Did you happen to see the video before you purchased or after? Also interesting to hear what Linux distro you chose to go with, and it it all works out well for you.

@madmacuser

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I only aware of your video today and shortly after the arrival of the parcel. 😀I am thinking to install Mint Linux on it.

@GORILLA_PIMP

Жыл бұрын

How you like it so far? Any problems?

Good video, I like the honest review which is a hard item to come by with 99.99999999991% of youtube being paid $hit reviews. I'm frequently trying to evaluate these cheaper mpc (mini pc's) and your video hit on all points, appreciate you showing the streaming (maybe put a game next time for fun? maybe mech warrior 4?), good looking out with your note about wiping the system don't just plug and play 👍 Quack quack 🦆and keep up the good work ✌

In future reviews, I would suggest testing the USB 3 ports for what version and speed. On these small boxes, the USB ports tend to be used by many.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion. I can't imagine most of these are anything more than 3.0 or 3.1 Gen1, and probably nothing more for power. The U59 Pro I just tested is probably USB 3.2 Gen1 as it has a USB-C connector. I wonder what the best way to see/test that is...

@gsekse

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I agree with the idea of assuming the basic 3.0, but some hardware has the higher transfer rates at times

If I were going to run Windows on it, I'd use something like Double Driver (yes it still works!) to take a snapshot of the installed drivers before reloading it. When adding an SSD, did Windows give you the option to install on it instead of the built-in drive? Thanks for the no nonsense review!

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I've tried to apply this concept to the other machines I've reviewed afterwards. That is a good idea, but in part I want to see how bad or hard it is to get support. That stems from the first mini I got (not yet reviewed) and was disappointed but found work arounds. So many brands selling the same thing (or so it seems) I'd like to see how their support services run. I found the fix for the drivers in my update video. For reinstalling Windows, I didn't install a second SSD just overwrote what was there.

I subscribed just because of the intro.

@ntgm20

9 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Looks like a nice upgrade from Raspberry PI for a home automation system .. Thank you for sharing

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! My thoughts too.

For that price, that is a great system for someone that needs a cheap PC right now. If it were me, I would suggest spending a few dollars more, and pick up a mini PC with the J4125, which can be upgraded to Windows 11. I have a NUKBOX(2nd design) with the J4125, upgraded to Windows 11, and its a great little system for surfing. I have all of the desktop systems in the house upgraded to mini PC's, and the NUKBOX has the lowest specs... but it is still snappy and fun to use.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

I hope to get the Gemini Lake version of this done this week, it was an interesting find.

Looks like this would be a great homelab app server :)

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

That is my thought. Take all these little machines I'm getting and use in a lab setting, and if one goes kaput you still have others and they don't take up a lot of room either.

Still available and I ordered one. I'm going to try and use it with Linux and run Klipper for a 3d printer.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

That's great! Come back anytime and let us know what you think about it.

Guess I bought it at the right time-mine has a 64gb drive but all other specs are the same-5 days ago I paid $21.99 for it but now back up to $89.99 on Amazon. Everything started up just find and it works ok to internet surf. Something to play with hooked up to my TV

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Wow that is quite a deal!

Taking a chance on one, just ordered. We will see.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Very cool. You are welcome to come back and let us know how it goes.

@Ghosthawk332nd

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 Well I have mine up and running. Like you I find that the USB C port just provides power. My only real issue with this purchase is the lack of sound. But I think a low cost USB sound device would solve this. I do like the fast boot up and low power use and low noise factor. For the cost IMO its hard to beat. I think I will be trying your windows update trick to reinstall drivers. I did have one question. Just about where is that Micro SD card reader located? Could a slot be milled into the case to make it accessable? I do have a spare 64 gig micro that I could slip into there and use for storage. Or I suppose I can just pull the motherboard, slip in the card and put it back together.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

@@Ghosthawk332nd No sound? I could get sound over HDMI and out the headphone jack. As for the card slot, it would be to the right of the USB if looking at them straight on, about in line with the bottom of the USB ports. I think you could modify the case fairly easy, it is plastic. You would need to do that, be ause with a card in there you can't get it to fit back in the case. I had that idea too. I'm hoping to mod it after I move, of the boxes I sent myself get there.

@Ghosthawk332nd

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 I did get mine to fit back together with a SD card in it but it was not easy. Long term moding the case would be the elegant solution. The spot is to the left of the power button and above the air intake for the CPU fan. I had a 64 gig micro SD card laying around so I used it. Nice to have some extra storage.

I have had something like this running as a pfsense router for years. I have one with 4 intel gigabit nics integrated in it. And it has regular laptop memory you have to add yourself, so not soldered onto it. It also comes from china and works fine, never had any issues with it. It basicly is an intel nuc. Or a laptop without screen and keybord. They have many uses, they work great as a nas, a little home server, an extremely powerful router and firewall etc.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your feedback. I had something similar running with pfsense, but moved from it due to it having Realtek NICs and it locking up. Switched to a firewall like appliance with Intel NIC chips and it seems to be running okay. Otherwise I think there is enough power to do a lot with this machine, it is just waiting for me to ask it.

@baronvonlimbourgh1716

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 yeah, had so many issues with non intel nics as well. They are fine on consumer devices and stuff usually. But when using multiple in one system or in things like routers and stuff the drivers just don't seem to manage to be stable.

I have had two similarly specced machines like these for the past few years. My experience is: They are lackluster to use as a NAS (external storage), but sufficient if you aren't demanding optimal performance (~80MB/s). They are ideal media servers. They make good routers (external NIC) up to about 600Mbps, USB NICs are too demanding on the CPU for it to go faster. They are perfect for small web/mail/db server setups. I have a few Raspberry Pis, and consider these cheap NUCs vastly superior at roughly the same price point.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your feedback!

This is an interesting option, as I have been looking for a budget lowend computer but with an Intel or AMD architecture x64 or in worst case x84 structure, to run some Windows games that basically have "Potato" as required specs. The games I think of came in 2011 and 2014 respectively. I have been toying with the idea of getting them to start on a RPi4 but most likely they will not be very happy of the ARM environtment, and I'd have to add a VM to it. This solution could actually be permanent while the ARM will only be a show-and-tell anyway

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

I do think something like this than running on the Potato (Le Potato board I think). If you do go with a mini PC, a NUC clone basically, I'd love to hear how it goes for you!

I replaced my tower with one of these but with 16gb ram and 512gb ssd and I have noticed very little differance and upgraded to win11 pro no problem and dropped from a 650w power supply to a 35w one

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Very nice!

Great video! What computer do you recommend for stand alone video editor type machine? That's cheap but good! Thanks

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! That is a hard one to answer exactly, especially not knowing what file type or resolution you're trying to edit. Intel CPUs are normally a little better than AMD, and if going with any used computer with a Core i3/5/7 I'd stick with 6th generation, 8th or newer even better (more cores). Little systems like this, not sure, N5100 or higher probably better than this system, and I've seen those kinds of systems for $150 or less on sale, kind of like the Beellink Mini S I reviewed.

Have you seen a mini pc with 2 SATA connections instead of just one? Great content. Keep up the good work. Thank you

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! So far no, they've only had expansion for one SATA device. That would be really neat to see though.

Usb inside is probably for those NAS distros that normally get installed into usb drives so the main hdd/ssd is used for storage. That way the usb flash is hidden inside and no one can touch it

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

I think the USB-C connector is used in other minis like the AK1 that have a an entire bottom that disconnects where the extra drive sits. That then is used to connect the SATA drive. On this one my guess is the data transfer is disabled in the firmware, but the power is still there because the traces are there.

if you want to find those other drivers for the unknown devices, right click them, do properties, details tab, and choose hardware ID under the proprty pulldown and then copy/paste the longest string (usually the top one) which shows vendor ID and hardware ID and google for that device.....i have hda cases where it SEEMS like it wont matter since everything seems fine but it will actually be a major system device that really DOES make a diff...sometimes you have to use driver installers from other manufacturers but thats usually fine too, as long as the HID/VID is the same, they should install, and thats how i always get all of my devices up and running from dev manager

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info!

Thanks for posting this video. Have you figured out how to set the 2nd drive as the boot drive? On the one I have, the BIOS doesn't seem to see the installed SSD but it appears in Windows. Any ideas?

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Can you see the second boot device when hitting F7 during boot? If not there is something wrong with the install. Also you may need to disable secure boot. Hopefully that can help you figure it out, I don't have access to the machine for a couple weeks.

Thank you for covering the USB C port on the inside. I saw it and wondered what it could be for myself. Now I just need to figure a workaround for my power issue. I don't have enough available outlets near my TV and the cables it came with don't reach the next closest outlet (plus there's a doorway between the two). So I've been thinking of adding a wireless connection to my TV so the TV can be my monitor. I need to find one that can plug into the TV's HDMI port. Any suggestions on which one will work best? My TV is a bit too old to be a Smart TV as I bought it used from the Salvation Army thrift store.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. Sorry, I don't have experience with wireless HDMI adapters. Would it be easier to use a long power extension cable and run it over the doorway? I've done that with some other items and 15 foot cords.

The Amazon page pictures show a microSD card slot next to the power button. At least one version of this pc box has microSD storage.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Yes, they do have at least that variation, and it seems really odd that this one still has the reader under the surface.

Took a chance and ordered one with new price and $45 coupon, turned out to be $80 price after that. I think I'll format it and give it to a relative that has been using my gaming PC for only browsing Facebook, and get my gaming PC back from them. Seems like just enough machine to do everything they need.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like a great idea!

Thank you for the review, what would be the minimum specs/features you would want in a mini PC?

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

For me I'd want a 4 core processor and it would be great to have AES and some video encode/decode support. RAM I'd say 6GB, 8 is better. 4 is okay but you can hit that limit fairly easily with moden web browsers. USB 3 as well and enough ports to plug in keyboard and mouse as well as a drive or two.

cool

Sounds good as a Batocera box.

Could you post the product link? I'm actually looking for this type of device, and since raspberry Pis are unavailable, it seems like a good option.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Sure! I just put a link in the video description. You might not see it at the same price I snagged it for, but it is worth looking around, some of these are sold on multiple listings and you can save a little shopping around.

For me it's best as a retro gaming/emulation rig, or a cheap 1080p HTPC/Jukebox Setup. I would not use it for anything that may require "sensitive" data though. For me Batocera Linux would be the best I can install Kodi for video playback of my backup videos, and a web browser so I can go to Internet Archive without needing to give away any personal info to watch/get stuff (as long as I put in a 1TB SSD/HDD) as well as play all my favorite classic games. At the time I watched this I could only get a $30 off coupon on the 64GB version so I'd just wait until a better coupon comes around before buying it (with $50 off it's a way better deal.)

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

All sound like good uses. Finding a deal is the hard part after deciding if it is something worth getting for sure. Maybe I can give you some alternatives soon to look at.

@JeremyLeePotocki

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 Well I look for other people that want something really cheap, but Amazon's search feature is anything but helpful. I did find some other systems that are just as cheap (or cheaper) though they have different CPUs in them. One of them has a AMD A9-9400 for around $75~85 after coupon.

I have the same one, its good.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Cool

Hi! I am a sort of "good omen" on YT. I am really picky, and YT knows that, so you should get a lot more attention on your channel. :) I rarely get bad videos recommended, I mostly see channels I already subbed. Interesting vid!

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

you got another now

good video, as a lunix user ( i have a 2000+$ gaming pc thats never had windows run on it). I really like how you run a few bench marks on a Linux distro . could i suggest adding geekbench5 for windows as well to show the diffrince in performace , that you would get to people who doubt Linux`s performance.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. The main reason I do the Geekbench test under Linux is to get a truer since of the different machines. It would be interesting though to do a video at some point showing the two together and how that can impact benchmarks. I've seen videos where people are trying to benchmark while running OBS on the same machine and wonder if they realize how that negatively impacts their scores.

@666willis666

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 oh okay I got you makes sense I was just saying cuz you said you were going to use it as a Linux server after the Windows 10 thing

You have my Sub + Notif

Do you have the original BIOS firmware available? I flashed the firmware myself in order to modify the frequency, but now my NVMe drive is not being recognized. I happened to come across your video, and it seems that you have the same machine as mine. Thank you!

@ntgm20

11 ай бұрын

I still have the BIOS it came with. If I can find how to easily dump it I'd be glad to share. Of note: mine came with M.2 SATA and I've not tried a NVMe drive.

Can I use it with just the kodi to watch movies and live sports matches? I don't want it for another job!!! Does it play smoothly, or will there be any sticking? Does it play all modern audio formats from the hdmi output? Thanks.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

I've not used Kodi to know for certain. I played local files last night from a USB3 thumb drive and those all went smoothly, up to 4k 30p at over 100 Mbps for H264, H265, and VP9. The audio played over HDMI to the TV I was testing with.

I love the concept of mini PCs albeit I have almost no use for them. I would be tempted at $70 though! Thanks for the review. Some comparison of benchmark scores with other CPUs or other mini PCs would be appreciated. Was this a good score for the price? Mediocre? Disappointing?

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! For the price and performance per watt I think it was a pretty good deal. It isn't hard to get older systems that would be from the same timeframe of this CPU or older that can outperform it for the same price or cheaper, but at a cost of power consumption, which can equate to more cooling inside as well (excess heat). I've been keeping up with all my tests as the videos progress. The latest one on the T11 (at this time) will have the table of 6 systems so far tested.

Hey, you should take a look at AtlasOS for this specific build as it runs with under 50 processes in the background using Windows 10 image to run a highly streamed edition of Windows. It can also make this an actually useful home server.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Sounds interesting, especially for those who run services under Windows. When I install Debian Linux (no GUI) it has about 15 processes running. One of the reasons I like starting with that.

I would be willing to take a gamble on this to run PLEX. Do you think it has enough power to run 2 streams? my use case is not very intensive.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

That all depends on if transcoding is required. If not and it is simply streaming that should be okay. I've not messed with Plex instead I've done testing with Emby on my ODRIOD-C4 and some 10th gen iCore processors. I have stuff that plays well, stuff that transcodes okay, and stuff that will make machines cry for mercy.

I’m curious about the startup times of this machine, and if there is any delay when launching applications.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Once you were past the BIOS it wasn't bad. If you've ever upgraded a regular desktop from hard drive to SATA SSD that is about what this is like.

Seems like a neat little PC for making into a retro games console or media player. Is that a Lenovo Q190 I see underneath it? I've been using one of them as a media player for about 9 years and it's still going strong.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. It is sitting on a HP Elitedesk 800 G3 mini that is sitting on a HP Elitedesk 800 G2 mini that is sitting on a HP Elitedesk 800 G2 SFF.

@colinwatt9387

Жыл бұрын

@@ntgm20 It's HP Elitedesks all the way down.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

@@colinwatt9387 Yes. Earlier this year I had 5 HP Elitedesks and 1 Prodesk here at the same time.

Interesting. I've been looking at micro PCs and SBCs for DNS, NTP, and other fun things on my network. So much cheaper to buy and maintain... but they seem sketchy for some reason.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

I'm really trying to decide if these NUC knockoffs as they are (in the since PC clones were the IBM PC knockoff) are any more risky than the SBCs made by half a dozen companies that are making a fruit named board after the Raspberry Pi. At least with these being x86 you aren't held to an OS image that the board manufacture puts together.

Might also be able to yank out the wifi card and installs a pci-e break out card so you could add a 2nd nic and have a nice low power gigabit router for pf/opnsense

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Maybe? The card on this one looks smaller than m.2. Hooking up a USB3 Ethernet adapter could work too, if your Internet speeds aren't super fast.

First result on ebay for a optiplex 3060m with i3 8100t, 4gb ram and a 120ssd is $100 obo. No power cord or wifi/Bluetooth but they're $35 combined. Native win 11 support and will take up to a 9900t, 32gb of ram and 8tb of on board storage. Not that anyone would ever do that but compared to a little no name, soldered together box, I'm taking the optiplex.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Good find and to each their own. Shipping used PCs to Alaska can be really expensive, so finds like this on Amazon can ship for free and save some on that too.

Cloudready should rock on this. I guess it's ChromeOS flex now. I would suggest testing this is as well since it would be perfect for older parents that have an ancient desktop.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Interesting solution, especially considering the first machine I reviewed actually came with a USB stick with ChromeOS Flex on it. I didn't install it though, in part because I didn't trust that image and I was going to be deploying it as a pfsense machine.

i would love to play with that thing for a linux system

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

That is my plan.

I use a slightly more powerful system as a low power Jellyfin server/NAS/home theater. I just attached a 4gb external hard drive and it works for what I use it for.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like a nice setup.

Looks great for a home server

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

That is kind of the idea, except I have lots of these (different minis) now.

What’s the best mini PC and software for digital signage? I’m looking at Intel Nuc, would appreciate your suggestions.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

That is a good question, and very broad. I don't have any experience with digital signage.

it would be interesting to know if it can and how run CounterStrike 1.6, and or source

Dang, that's a nice deal for a Default device. If only it had 8gb on board otherwise I'd consider belink even if it's $50 on top of that. Also, some nice content you end up producing so I'm definitely leaving a sub.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! What if I told you I snagged a machine for just under $100 last night that has 12GB of RAM? I don't have it yet, so can't really say much, but the design isn't far off from this one.

@anispinner

Жыл бұрын

Wow, that's a solid steal! Looking forward to hearing more about it, when you got the beast. I wonder what's up with the 6gb division? Like, where the hell did they even get those modules from? Not that rare for VRAM but for RAM I find it interesting.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Memory modules are made up of chips and are now divided in to nice multiples, but that isn't always the case. This just has chips soldered on so they can do things differently. The new one I imagine they will be soldered on too.

@anispinner

Жыл бұрын

Right, I realized that right before you answered, haha!

@anispinner

Жыл бұрын

Yeah now that I thought about it, they should be using 2GB dies that are slowly going extinct. 4GB modules are too expensive to put at that price point. I remembered one day I was looking if it's possible to reball a 2gb RPi4 with a 4gb chip, and it was but the price of that module was sky high in comparison. But for your new device they should be using 3x4gb modules? Otherwise it would take crap load of real estate of that board :D

Dude there's a budget mini PC you could do a video on. It has a AMD Athlon 300U, it supports nvme with a kinda decent integrated graphics.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Is it the Kamrui one that I could snag for just under $200 with coupon on Amazon?

geek bench Isa good idea. I also have a similar mini pc running an i3. no power house at all. I did install mint on it. seemed to like that and installed steam with the Linux patch. it dose alright with some old titles. have you tried any games? I only have 4gb of ddr3 as to your six.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Very cool. I don't play games on PC very much at all (think SNES emulation). Maybe I will try running Wide Screen Super Mario World in newer reviews.

@jasonsteele901

Жыл бұрын

I also was thinking emulation too. Trying to find the right one was a bit taxing, along with getting the rooms to be excepted. Do you have a suggestion? thank you.

I'd suggest that you run Intel Assistant for these generic PCs. It identifies drivers needed quite well.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. I did find out that the optional driver installs under Windows Update fixed the ones having issues.

Does the KZread homepage load smoothly? I'd like to know how the webpages with heavy graphics loading. Some Windows 11 tablets (particularly the Asus vivobook 13 slate with Intel Pentium Silver N6000 cpu) will load the webpages like in a slow motion. This behavior is absolutely unacceptable for a tablet's role. Hope this little PC box will do better in this regard. I don't know. Thank you for the review.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

KZread homepage seems to load okay. Not as fast as my normal desktop, but nothing like you are describing. I also am using Ethernet. As for graphic heavy, I pulled up Fox News and CNN and things load up fast enough. If you scroll like a sane person the pictures load before you get there, but if you're crazy like me and scroll from top to bottom it takes a second or two for the pictures to come in. It is also in part how they page is coded to not retrieve some items until needed.

I had a Windows 10 PC stick. It never fit in the hdmi port correctly and would drop out. Then I tried 2 different Intel HD graphics (2k and 3k)l aptops on the same tv and the drivers would freeze (last driver update was for Windows 8). I wiped one and installed Ubuntu. It hasn't failed since. I like the small size

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

Very weird. I've had more problems with Intel UHD systems under Linux than Windows. I've seen the PC sticks but price of this was just too good to pass up.

Considering the price of r.pi 4, this is a steal.

@ntgm20

Жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly, though I'm really eyeing the fanless T11. More cooling testing is needed on that one though, and it is packed up for shipping.