I really like your HBA idea in the PCIe slot. This mini PC sipping 45 watts would go so hard as a compact storage server with an external JBOD enclosure. Plus it has Quick Sync transcoding.
I was gonna poo-poo on this device and just call it a laptop and dock without the "lap" part, but the PCI slot is interesting, and the mini PC is impressive. But in the end, not for me. It is basically a device attempting to overcome limitations imposed by its size by increasing its footprint with a dock. At this point, I would rather spend the money on a full PC with case that is easier (and cheaper) to expand. Wait ... did i just say the same thing as RaidOwl?
I laughed out loud at the edit to the Acemagic listing. 🤣 I've been looking at mini PCs for a while for homelab stuff but haven't pulled the trigger for a number of reasons. For every one I've checked out, some people say they work great and are reliable, others say they died after a few days, weeks or months. It doesn't matter what brand either, Beelink, Acemagic, Trigkey, Minisforum. There are so many varying reviews that I've stayed away. Plus, HP, Lenovo and Dell make reliable, business class mini PCs that can be gotten used super cheap. Sure, they're not nearly as expandable as this one but, and it's a big BUT (and I cannot lie 😁), who are they targeting with this mini PC and dock (as you mentioned in the end of the video)? If someone buys this, I wouldn't see them docking and undocking the mini PC very often, if at all. At that point, if the buyer is concerned about space, like you say they could get an ITX build which is much more repairable if something fails. I think it's a gimmick.
So I actually kinda like the single lane of PCIE for the storage. Yes the differences show up on benchmarks but I doubt that you would actually notice a difference in real world use. The important thing is that like you said if that were a gen 5 lane you would be getting about 3.5GBps which is plenty fast and gen 6 is around the corner which would double that. I guess part of my frustration is that with newer Gen5 drives we are starting to see active cooling solutions for them because they are so stupid fast when that speed does little for the actual user experience. Given how limited we are on PCIE lanes in consumer platforms I actually would like for them to drop down to 2 or yes even single lane connections to the m.2 drives instead of needing heat pipes and a cooling fan. Edit: That would actually be an interesting video. You could take a gen 5 drive and run it a x4, x2, and x1. Run it through a series of benchmarks and real world tests and see if you can actually notice a difference and where it comes into play. Obviously you are going to see a difference in crystal disk mark and probably in a file transfer assuming you can transfer from something else that is fast enough but is it even that big of a difference in the file transfer? 3.5GBps for a single lane of PCIE 5.0 is still really fast. It would be really interesting to compare things like the Random 4k reads and writes in crystal disk mark. In regular desktop use random reads and writes are a lot more common that sequential and going off the two charts you shared in this video they aren't even all that different. The charts in here likely weren't controlling for the same SSD model though so that is going to add variance and I think you said they weren't even the same generation of PCIE. Would you notice a difference in a steam game download or are you going to be bottlenecked by either your CPU or your WAN connection? Can you measure a difference in boot times or loading applications? Another test would be if there are any big changes along the duration of a transfer. Many drives advertise a really quick peak transfer rate but once their cache fills up move to a much more pedestrian rate. Would you see that level off on longer transfers where yes it may be 4x faster at the very beginning but end up only 30% faster by the end? Just some ideas for some tests.
Hmm ignoring the typical desktop use case here with the dock and costs. Potential for a cluster of them for a home lab? Small flash NAS, VM Host with good horsepower, and a monster media transcoder.
Hi, I'm a mobile DJ and I have 2 setups, one at home and one mounted on a rack to transport to shows, and what I do is disconnect the CPU and use it in both places. I don't like notebooks because the screens are small and I don't like built-in keyboards either. Instead of carrying a large CPU with the risk that this implies, I prefer this mini PC that is light and fits in my backpack. The only thing I haven't managed to do yet is to get the thunderbolt port to send a video signal since I need 3 screens to work.
This is like all I wanted! almost, I hope they make some compatible mini-pcs with lower specs, I really dont need a lot of cpu/ram, but the PCI slot would be great for an Arc gpu o use with Jellyfin. May in theory be cheaper and consume less power, would love to see a test And yes, I'd prefer this solution than building an ITX pc, having the gpu on an open space removes the problem of finding a case that is as small as possible but still fitting
I'm still trying to figure out why a mini-pc plus this whole dock cluster eff to run a fullsize GPU is better than just an ITX build in a case like the Fractal Terra. The MS-01 was a more interesting direction for mini-pcs.
@@RaidOwl the slim HP dock is cool but they removed that on newer laptop Newer laptop all goes typeC docking now , one cable but didn't have that slot in / bolt action like connector This beelink designed is more close to industry standard ( pcie ) so if something is broken in future we still have a workaround / way to fix it
I use a Minisforum Mini PC as my home server for now and it's amazing. Eventually I'm gonna build my own home server /NAS with similar specs but with way more hard drive space.
I know there are uses for this, but i picked up a mini hp, 10700 8 cores, 32GB, 2 nvme slots + 1 sata 2.5, 1x1Gb and 1x2.5Gb nic for $370. I think for most people this is the way to go for a mini pc.
"What do we call this" I think maybe a solution in search of a problem. Mini PCs are cool, docks for laptops are cool, dock for mini pc? like you say I don't know who this is for.
Nope. I had a Beelink mini PC badly fail on me. It had an entry level CPU that should not have overheated but it or something else in the Berlink did overheat. These days I would never pay more than $100 for a Beelink. The quality just isn’t there with Beelink. Buy anything but a Beelink.
Brett love how your content has evolved but sure miss your home lab content and projects and hardware setups, I totally understand how sometimes you got to take the bag of money but really enjoyed your stuff more before. But no hate man got to support a Texas guy!
it's not all "take the bag" -- after all "I dunno who this thing is FOR" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement 😂 I agree with Brett that it was worth covering. at minimum it's kind of weird and interesting. but I bet we'll get back to hardcore lab content soon.
I'm not very confident in PSU. With 150$ budget for case, several custom PCB's and bunch of wires you just don't have much left for 600W Flex ATX PSU, if you taking into consideration logistics, taxes and profits, that included in price. I would prefer something tested by cybernetics or 80plus.
I am not sure the whole dock concept is that revolutionary. Doesnt look much better than a megacd or 32x, and I am not a fan of having unprotected cards like that... feels like a gimmick to me
The built-in power supply has one downside, that you might not think about in the first place. I use a Mini-UPS, small, power saving, and reasonable priced (on sale 60 instead of 80 bucks). It is powerful enough to power multiple devices, in my case an N100 mini PC and an N100 based homebrew router, both 12V/5A. For this Beelink with built-in power supply, I would need a UPS with a fullsize outlet. These are big, expensive, and the two-times transformation has a significant impact on efficiency, which causes higher power consumption.
so… what exactly is the appeal of this over just building a Micro ATX or ITX system? lower power requirements, sure, smaller physical footprint I guess… but at a much higher cost, and with far less expandability. I really don't get it.
I really like your HBA idea in the PCIe slot. This mini PC sipping 45 watts would go so hard as a compact storage server with an external JBOD enclosure. Plus it has Quick Sync transcoding.
Why doesn't this guy have a million subs yet?
One day…maybe lol
Takes time, is a relatively young channel. But we here and we watching! 💪💪💪💪
because home labbing is a niche topic
It’s crazy, this man it’s gold 🙌🏻
patience it will come, pin this comment 🎉
I was gonna poo-poo on this device and just call it a laptop and dock without the "lap" part, but the PCI slot is interesting, and the mini PC is impressive.
But in the end, not for me. It is basically a device attempting to overcome limitations imposed by its size by increasing its footprint with a dock. At this point, I would rather spend the money on a full PC with case that is easier (and cheaper) to expand.
Wait ... did i just say the same thing as RaidOwl?
Congrats on 100k brother!!!
Great videos, just subscribed!
Building your own PC over laptops, pre-configured PCs, mini PCs or AIO PCs, all day every day.
I laughed out loud at the edit to the Acemagic listing. 🤣 I've been looking at mini PCs for a while for homelab stuff but haven't pulled the trigger for a number of reasons. For every one I've checked out, some people say they work great and are reliable, others say they died after a few days, weeks or months. It doesn't matter what brand either, Beelink, Acemagic, Trigkey, Minisforum. There are so many varying reviews that I've stayed away. Plus, HP, Lenovo and Dell make reliable, business class mini PCs that can be gotten used super cheap. Sure, they're not nearly as expandable as this one but, and it's a big BUT (and I cannot lie 😁), who are they targeting with this mini PC and dock (as you mentioned in the end of the video)? If someone buys this, I wouldn't see them docking and undocking the mini PC very often, if at all. At that point, if the buyer is concerned about space, like you say they could get an ITX build which is much more repairable if something fails. I think it's a gimmick.
Great, now what about the extra pins on the connector? I want to use this with an extender cable and my Minisforum MS-01. Can it work?
So I actually kinda like the single lane of PCIE for the storage. Yes the differences show up on benchmarks but I doubt that you would actually notice a difference in real world use. The important thing is that like you said if that were a gen 5 lane you would be getting about 3.5GBps which is plenty fast and gen 6 is around the corner which would double that. I guess part of my frustration is that with newer Gen5 drives we are starting to see active cooling solutions for them because they are so stupid fast when that speed does little for the actual user experience. Given how limited we are on PCIE lanes in consumer platforms I actually would like for them to drop down to 2 or yes even single lane connections to the m.2 drives instead of needing heat pipes and a cooling fan.
Edit: That would actually be an interesting video. You could take a gen 5 drive and run it a x4, x2, and x1. Run it through a series of benchmarks and real world tests and see if you can actually notice a difference and where it comes into play. Obviously you are going to see a difference in crystal disk mark and probably in a file transfer assuming you can transfer from something else that is fast enough but is it even that big of a difference in the file transfer? 3.5GBps for a single lane of PCIE 5.0 is still really fast. It would be really interesting to compare things like the Random 4k reads and writes in crystal disk mark. In regular desktop use random reads and writes are a lot more common that sequential and going off the two charts you shared in this video they aren't even all that different. The charts in here likely weren't controlling for the same SSD model though so that is going to add variance and I think you said they weren't even the same generation of PCIE. Would you notice a difference in a steam game download or are you going to be bottlenecked by either your CPU or your WAN connection? Can you measure a difference in boot times or loading applications? Another test would be if there are any big changes along the duration of a transfer. Many drives advertise a really quick peak transfer rate but once their cache fills up move to a much more pedestrian rate. Would you see that level off on longer transfers where yes it may be 4x faster at the very beginning but end up only 30% faster by the end? Just some ideas for some tests.
that "external" drive makes a fine boot disk.
1:04 Dan behind the 711 😆😆😆
Hmm ignoring the typical desktop use case here with the dock and costs.
Potential for a cluster of them for a home lab? Small flash NAS, VM Host with good horsepower, and a monster media transcoder.
Hi, I'm a mobile DJ and I have 2 setups, one at home and one mounted on a rack to transport to shows, and what I do is disconnect the CPU and use it in both places.
I don't like notebooks because the screens are small and I don't like built-in keyboards either.
Instead of carrying a large CPU with the risk that this implies, I prefer this mini PC that is light and fits in my backpack. The only thing I haven't managed to do yet is to get the thunderbolt port to send a video signal since I need 3 screens to work.
mini pcs and bayside, I'm here for it
Bayside shirt goes hard!
Is the dock connector following pcie standard? If so, I’m interested to mod my ms-01 to work with this dock
This is really cool but it needs to have an upgrade path you can trust.
This is like all I wanted! almost, I hope they make some compatible mini-pcs with lower specs, I really dont need a lot of cpu/ram, but the PCI slot would be great for an Arc gpu o use with Jellyfin. May in theory be cheaper and consume less power, would love to see a test
And yes, I'd prefer this solution than building an ITX pc, having the gpu on an open space removes the problem of finding a case that is as small as possible but still fitting
I'm still trying to figure out why a mini-pc plus this whole dock cluster eff to run a fullsize GPU is better than just an ITX build in a case like the Fractal Terra. The MS-01 was a more interesting direction for mini-pcs.
IBM/HP : Hello mate ,new to docking ?
Lol yeah my work laptop has the proprietary connection for docking at work
@@RaidOwl the slim HP dock is cool but they removed that on newer laptop
Newer laptop all goes typeC docking now , one cable but didn't have that slot in / bolt action like connector
This beelink designed is more close to industry standard ( pcie ) so if something is broken in future we still have a workaround / way to fix it
Sickkkkk Bayside shirt
I use a Minisforum Mini PC as my home server for now and it's amazing. Eventually I'm gonna build my own home server /NAS with similar specs but with way more hard drive space.
I know there are uses for this, but i picked up a mini hp, 10700 8 cores, 32GB, 2 nvme slots + 1 sata 2.5, 1x1Gb and 1x2.5Gb nic for $370. I think for most people this is the way to go for a mini pc.
"What do we call this" I think maybe a solution in search of a problem. Mini PCs are cool, docks for laptops are cool, dock for mini pc? like you say I don't know who this is for.
I'd have called it a chuzwazza
🤨🤨🤨
I have one and it is good. I can run LLMs.
Nope. I had a Beelink mini PC badly fail on me. It had an entry level CPU that should not have overheated but it or something else in the Berlink did overheat. These days I would never pay more than $100 for a Beelink. The quality just isn’t there with Beelink. Buy anything but a Beelink.
Scorched desktops, hooray
Brett love how your content has evolved but sure miss your home lab content and projects and hardware setups, I totally understand how sometimes you got to take the bag of money but really enjoyed your stuff more before. But no hate man got to support a Texas guy!
it's not all "take the bag" -- after all "I dunno who this thing is FOR" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement 😂 I agree with Brett that it was worth covering. at minimum it's kind of weird and interesting. but I bet we'll get back to hardcore lab content soon.
Yeah got some Ceph stuff coming, TrueNAS Scale revisit, network upgrade and some other treats.
@@RaidOwl lfg, etc.
I'm not very confident in PSU.
With 150$ budget for case, several custom PCB's and bunch of wires you just don't have much left for 600W Flex ATX PSU, if you taking into consideration logistics, taxes and profits, that included in price. I would prefer something tested by cybernetics or 80plus.
Three of these in a Kubernetes cluster for AI training and machine learning 🤑
A desktop that needs a docking station 😂😂😂
What have we done
I like it!
I initially heard: "In reality I know you are just buying more drugs, and that's OK!"; I had to double check!
Hey man whatever floats your boat 🤷🏻♂️
I am not sure the whole dock concept is that revolutionary. Doesnt look much better than a megacd or 32x, and I am not a fan of having unprotected cards like that... feels like a gimmick to me
Nice unit but these add ons sort of defeat the idea of a mini PC.
Yes
The built-in power supply has one downside, that you might not think about in the first place. I use a Mini-UPS, small, power saving, and reasonable priced (on sale 60 instead of 80 bucks). It is powerful enough to power multiple devices, in my case an N100 mini PC and an N100 based homebrew router, both 12V/5A. For this Beelink with built-in power supply, I would need a UPS with a fullsize outlet. These are big, expensive, and the two-times transformation has a significant impact on efficiency, which causes higher power consumption.
so… what exactly is the appeal of this over just building a Micro ATX or ITX system? lower power requirements, sure, smaller physical footprint I guess… but at a much higher cost, and with far less expandability.
I really don't get it.
First
Most of these are Chinese made products. It's ignorance to ignore that fact and cry tinfoil hat just because someone wants a cheap price.
Who is “crying tin foil hat”?
@@RaidOwl You know it's coming by someone as it always does.
basically crap
I feel like you’re being negative just for the sake of it
First