I bought 2 of the MiniX N100s for working from home - Zoom, web, Google Docs and Power Bi / Looker studio. It works great 95% of the time, but does stutter a little when I am doing many things at once. Overall, it's an AMAZING value and high quality. This brand is as good or better than the big names. I'm considering getting this upgrade, but maybe I'll hold on to the N100 to see if there is a more substantial upgrade in a year or two at or near this prince point. Thank you for the excellent work that is transparent and trustworthy, as always! 👏👏👏
Almost every N100 that I have that has removable sticks of memory support DDR5 32GB sticks, and some even support 48 GB DDR5 Sticks. N300's & N305's are similar.. The cheaper brands will skimp out and put in DDR4, which has less bandwidth than DDR5. Minix appears to have cut corners here.. If Minix cuts corners in any place, they'll cut corners in others too, like storage.. Another area of "FREE" upgrades is in the BIOS sometimes; there may be a power limit option where the manufacturer set the limit low to keep the unit running cooler; sometimes this can be simply bumped up. Mounting the fanless computer vertically, with the fins arranged vertically up can help with keeping the unit cooler. Manufacturers also skimp out in one other common area and that is the M.2 drive that is included. Many will skimp out and include a SATA SSD, which is limited to about 500 MBps speed ( Megabytes per second ( not megabits per second ) ). Most N100's and N300's/N305's support a 3 lane M.2 NVME, so a speed boost up to about 2000 ~ 3500 MBps .. Some designs split that up into 2 lanes + 1 Lane to support 2 NVME drives. A single lane PCIE M.2 would still push about 1000 MBps. Looking at the specs on Amazon, it does appear that Minix included a M.2 NVME not a M.2 SATA SSD, which is better than I initially expected. For anyone owning this brand, or similar model, the first thing I'd do is upgrade the ram to 16G or 32G. 16G makes the most sense. 8G is too much of a struggle nowadays. IF that does not help, then upgrade the NVME drive to a brand name like Crucial, Western Digital, Seagate, Gammix, Sabrent, etc and maybe to a gaming NVME that includes a DRAM cache. However, on a lower end system, it's hard to drop a $90 to 130 drive into a sub $200 machine. An upgrade to a 512G / 1TB of any name brand would be more palatable.
For $324 I could buy a used HP workstation from 5-8 years ago with the same core count and 25% more powerful CPU. Don't get me wrong, if you absolutely need compact and silent these look neat but, price wise you could do better.
I bought a Minix PC a few years ago, it was reasonable but had some software issues that were never resolved. People on the official forum complained but in the end Minix stopped supporting the device, never fixed the issues and just told the community to buy their new device. Lesson learned don't buy that brand anymore.
I like Intel's use of the low-TDP computing (I have several - N5030, N6000, i3-N300, i3-N305), especially the 6W-7W range. Of course, it would be nice if they could lower the TDP further while supplying at least 8C/T (or Higher). I believe this is the pretty much the "Perfect PC" for the vast majority of people with regards to basic computing.
I have the Minix Neo Z100-0db. I have zero complaints. I will buy from them again. Would love to see one of these with 10GBe and an extra USB-C port. I don't need multiple HDMI. Is that the new standard now that the raspberry pis include them?
Running gaming benchmarks like timespy on this is silly. For the stress test are there any bios settings you can change to help bring temps down to improve stress tests etc?
The problem with this brand is the approach towards supporting. And oh boy, they really do have a short leg. You’ll end up in a few years without updates and good luck arguing with a guy in low level english over in China. To their defense, I found the build quality of this to be quite good and not a cheap plastic cranked up little box. Recommended for home servers.
Its rediculous the price premiums these Nxx go for. Ryzen 5/6/7xxx ftw. For Ryzen you can get low tdp models which are much more powerful. or can just underclock/volt and still be more powerful. N97 model is actually faster than N100.
fanless is fanless. So every fanless has the same noise level n=0. Performance becomes the only intetesting variable. N300 is slow even for 7W and the GPU is stuck in the 2017. Nothing under Xe is valuable. BTW 890M is unbeatable. Any fanless implamentation of the HX 370 should be my next pc, even if this N300 would be sold dor 100bucks.
We need more choice for fanless Mini PCs. This is a solid little unit.
I bought 2 of the MiniX N100s for working from home - Zoom, web, Google Docs and Power Bi / Looker studio. It works great 95% of the time, but does stutter a little when I am doing many things at once. Overall, it's an AMAZING value and high quality. This brand is as good or better than the big names.
I'm considering getting this upgrade, but maybe I'll hold on to the N100 to see if there is a more substantial upgrade in a year or two at or near this prince point.
Thank you for the excellent work that is transparent and trustworthy, as always! 👏👏👏
Almost every N100 that I have that has removable sticks of memory support DDR5 32GB sticks, and some even support 48 GB DDR5 Sticks. N300's & N305's are similar..
The cheaper brands will skimp out and put in DDR4, which has less bandwidth than DDR5. Minix appears to have cut corners here.. If Minix cuts corners in any place, they'll cut corners in others too, like storage..
Another area of "FREE" upgrades is in the BIOS sometimes; there may be a power limit option where the manufacturer set the limit low to keep the unit running cooler; sometimes this can be simply bumped up. Mounting the fanless computer vertically, with the fins arranged vertically up can help with keeping the unit cooler.
Manufacturers also skimp out in one other common area and that is the M.2 drive that is included. Many will skimp out and include a SATA SSD, which is limited to about 500 MBps speed ( Megabytes per second ( not megabits per second ) ).
Most N100's and N300's/N305's support a 3 lane M.2 NVME, so a speed boost up to about 2000 ~ 3500 MBps .. Some designs split that up into 2 lanes + 1 Lane to support 2 NVME drives. A single lane PCIE M.2 would still push about 1000 MBps. Looking at the specs on Amazon, it does appear that Minix included a M.2 NVME not a M.2 SATA SSD, which is better than I initially expected.
For anyone owning this brand, or similar model, the first thing I'd do is upgrade the ram to 16G or 32G. 16G makes the most sense. 8G is too much of a struggle nowadays.
IF that does not help, then upgrade the NVME drive to a brand name like Crucial, Western Digital, Seagate, Gammix, Sabrent, etc and maybe to a gaming NVME that includes a DRAM cache. However, on a lower end system, it's hard to drop a $90 to 130 drive into a sub $200 machine. An upgrade to a 512G / 1TB of any name brand would be more palatable.
For $324 I could buy a used HP workstation from 5-8 years ago with the same core count and 25% more powerful CPU. Don't get me wrong, if you absolutely need compact and silent these look neat but, price wise you could do better.
@@quademasters249 These things are intended for 24/7 working machines with low energy consumption.
Looks like my car amp from 1994
They used the same approach to thermal management!
It would be perfect for a noiseless home server.
I bought a Minix PC a few years ago, it was reasonable but had some software issues that were never resolved. People on the official forum complained but in the end Minix stopped supporting the device, never fixed the issues and just told the community to buy their new device.
Lesson learned don't buy that brand anymore.
If this had a Dual NIC it would have made a killer PfSense box!
it should be mandatory that every mini pc has dual nics
Keep up the great work
It would be great for Plex
When a version that comes out that can handle well with Counter-Strike, I'm going for it. :)
I like Intel's use of the low-TDP computing (I have several - N5030, N6000, i3-N300, i3-N305), especially the 6W-7W range. Of course, it would be nice if they could lower the TDP further while supplying at least 8C/T (or Higher). I believe this is the pretty much the "Perfect PC" for the vast majority of people with regards to basic computing.
Looks retro
This one actually looks much better than the Zotac N300 fanless mini
A fanless 8 core version of Alder Lake N launches just as the much better new E-cores appear on the market.
I have the Minix Neo Z100-0db. I have zero complaints. I will buy from them again. Would love to see one of these with 10GBe and an extra USB-C port. I don't need multiple HDMI. Is that the new standard now that the raspberry pis include them?
Running gaming benchmarks like timespy on this is silly. For the stress test are there any bios settings you can change to help bring temps down to improve stress tests etc?
I run them for consistency's sake - If it scores significantly lower than other Mini PCs it's worth noting.
no ECC support
The problem with this brand is the approach towards supporting. And oh boy, they really do have a short leg. You’ll end up in a few years without updates and good luck arguing with a guy in low level english over in China. To their defense, I found the build quality of this to be quite good and not a cheap plastic cranked up little box. Recommended for home servers.
I really appreciate that you tested a common Linux distribution. This looks like it would make a great little Linux application server.
You're welcome! Yeah I think this could make a really good app server.
Its rediculous the price premiums these Nxx go for. Ryzen 5/6/7xxx ftw. For Ryzen you can get low tdp models which are much more powerful. or can just underclock/volt and still be more powerful. N97 model is actually faster than N100.
A Vivex Mino really screams Apple-like quality. By the end of the night all will have a mimvex nio.
Wait… no 2,5 hdd possible like in the EXACT SAME size maxtang pcs??! What is this shit??!
I hoped to upgrade from n100 to n300.
I am very mad now!
fanless is fanless.
So every fanless has the same noise level n=0.
Performance becomes the only intetesting variable.
N300 is slow even for 7W and the GPU is stuck in the 2017.
Nothing under Xe is valuable.
BTW 890M is unbeatable.
Any fanless implamentation of the HX 370 should be my next pc, even if this N300 would be sold dor 100bucks.
The CPU alone costs $100
@MrChihinwong show me a single site offering i3 N300 @100USD.
Btw a 300USD complete system 5825u has double the performance, for CPU and GPU
Ussing a fan on the top will make it a lot better. One of the USB ports will provide power. But I see that the BEELINK SEI 14 is still a better buy.
yea better buy 700 usd 54w take pills
I have Z100 with 12cm low RPM Noctua Redux on top with USB to 3 PIN adapter. PC runs 24/7.
Makes me sad to see you get old - I remember watching your videos on Raspberry pi stuff way back in 2015!
ouch! :)