In summary, I'm super pumped for these CPU's to show up in more single board computers and NAS units.
MinisForum U100L: amzn.to/4cfs23T
P vs E Thread: / performance_pcores_vs_...
Emulation Demo: • MoreFine M9 Hands On, ...
DISCLAIMER: Minisforum sent over this pc to keep, no money changed hands. I marked the video as paid promotion because of this, but they had no say or any chance to review anything I covered in this video.
Geekbench Results:
Intel Celeron N5095: browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/...
Intel N100: browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/...
Intel N95: browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/...
00:00 - Intro
01:21 - Power
02:00 - Core Types
02:50 - General Use
03:48 - Gaming
05:15 - Specs and Benchmarking
07:08 - UN100L Hardware
08:05 - UN100L Teardown
Also, if you all are more interested in seeing the power of the N95 CPU, as it is slightly more powerful, it's what I used in the Linux vs. Windows benchmarking video here: kzhead.info/sun/mbdxj5h_e3aApZE/bejne.html DISCLAIMER: Minisforum sent over this pc to keep, no money changed hands. I marked the video as paid promotion because of this, but they had no say or any chance to review anything I covered in this video.
@TechHut Do it for the culture and try Game: Senran Kagura Estival Versus at 720p , Remember Me and Shining Resonance @ 1080p
Only intel would make an n95 model faster than n100
What sort of child fondling fed up pile edits video like that?
I realise how boring it might sound but nobody ever tests large spreadsheets on these mini PCs (which is what they are really aimed at +other productivity apps).
That doesn't sound boring, it would be an interesting test
This little thing seems awesome, thank you so much for showing it!
As a headless server, the N100s, N95, N97 is great but as a desktop replacement it kind of sucks once you start to multitask. It stutters a lot and the CPU maxes out easily. A Ryzen 5700U is much better having 8 cores / 16 threads and dual channel RAMs unlike Intel N series only being single channel. After BIOS tweaks, my 5700U idles at 2.4-2.6w and around 10w when playing 4K videos without dropping any frames. It also has a better integrated GPU that can actually game on low res than the N series.
Precisely.. This however would be great for a kiosk for someone to look up stuff; for guest access, or for grandma/grandpa that might need to hit the web on occasion. I would say that the most demanding thing ever put on a N100 is Windows updates; start windows updates and walk away. Come back later, and click restart and walk away again. Not everyone multitasks; I haven't tried one to play Amazon Prime Video on yet; should as an experiment; for youtube it was enough.
For me part of the issue was Win11. Ran much better either on win10 or linux.
I use celeron n4500 on my main internet laptop and I love it. It actually overthrown my other older i5 and i7 computers. Passively cooled and cool to the touch enclosure, 8 hours of battery time with 17" screen and can decode anything I throw at it (1440p youtube and full hd mkv locally) and doesnt skip a beat with million chrome cards etc. I really love it.
What laptop model?
What's odd is 4k playback on youtube. I imagine it's still and Edge + AV1 bug. As the n100 should have no problem playing 4k. You can even transcode multiple streams of 4k on Plex, so just 1 4k playback should not cause a problem.
i played 9k and no porblems at all
Being a fan of low-wattage computing, I recently picked up a Minisforum UN300, which has the 7W i3-N300 with 8C/T. Wiped Windows and installed EndeavourOS Cinnamon. I also have systems with N5030 (6W) 4C/T, N6000 (6W) 4C/T and i3-N305 (15W) 8C/T.
Back in Amiga days we had popular slogan "Intel Outside" =)
The good old days. 😢
I have the N5105 and had it in my Jeep and it could play older games in 720p from ps3/x360 era. Resident Evil 4,5,6, with some older JRPGs, Indies etc. I ppaid $148 at the time with tax and the power consumption is really low on the minis but you get some good performance. I would play Remember Me from Capcom on it great looking game even today
Question: when comparing mini pcs, how can you check if they have sufficient cooling and power delivery? Because the spec sheet may say "processor X with 35W TDP", but maybe it's thermal throttling or it's power limited by the bios...
I'm using the Acer Aspire 3 Spin with the N305 and 8gb of LPDDR5. It plays Skyrim Anniversary Edition at 720p with TAA and Medium Settings. LPDDR5 really ups the bandwidth and making gaming enjoyable for older games. Web browsing is crisp and the convertible function is fantastic as I can hide the keyboard and have a portable monitor with a touchscreen setup. I carry a Gamesir G7 in a laptop bag as well as the Arzopa G1 gaming monitor. Its been amazing for such a basic CPU. Meteor Lake is looking amazing.
I just built a low power computer using a ASRock motherboard with the N100 embedded. I put Debian 12 on it and CASA OS. It's my new Home Assistant machine and I will be soon adding security cameras. The N100 has plenty of power for this application and you don't need a single fan to keep it cool.
My normal Fujitsu compact tower with i9 9900T idles at 6w (5w with I3) measured at the wall. 12w at youtube 4k. If i ad a 1650ti its 12w idle, 15w at youtube 4k. Every modern compact PC from a big brand (Fujitsu, Dell, HP) will perform like this with their proprietary power suplies and minimum configuration.
Things I Like: That bottom with plenty of uninhibited airflow. The cooling solution also looks pretty good. The N100 I'd compare it to is the Beelink EQ12, which has replaceable memory, and can indeed take 32 G of ram. Yes, still a single bank, but that's not the end. The EQ12 also has dual 2.5G ethernet and most of the rest of the specs are similar. Use case can be as a simple computer to run as a PI replacement that is not as limited as Raspberry PI's tend to be. Beelink should take that open approach for the bottom cover..
The n100 and n200 have become my goto for office PCs after years of using bulky retired workstations. It's been so long since Intel had a compelling value oriented product.
I wish these came with USB4. Egpu tests might be interesting. Overclocking support would be nice too.
My new home server
I'm going to do a follow up soon on a device with a similar CPU for that. 😊
@@TechHut omg yess!! Perfect timing
@@TechHut Would be much of a waste to attach it to JBODs mostly to do a media server ?
Have you tried used HP Elitedesks? They are quite the bang for the buck.
Could you please review new edition of Minisforum UM690 Pro. The difference in name is "Pro". It seems to be quite a redesigned PC with same processor. I am looking forward to such material.
Well I recently found out that MSI makes these too. Am sells these on their site and they have two LAN’s, lower N100 and N200 have 1 GbE ports and the higher end ones have One 2.5 GbE port and One 1 GbE port. They have a $240 i3-1315U model on sale now, dropped like $25 to $45. Worth the extra money I think with two ports and the i3 has two DDR4 ports, I asked on Amazon. Could you do a review of these MSI little boxes. Since two LAN’s could always be a little Proxmox server and run a VM and containers later on. I’m thinking streaming box but Mainly for KZhead; especially so I can watch vids at 5%, 10%, 15, 20% faster speeds ( Chrome Browser) and make comments with wireless keyboard with touchpad.
What do you mean by "6w at base power under load"? Under load they all turbo and use whatever their PL1 and PL2 are. Base frequency is basically irrelevant (800 MHz for N100). Also, N95 is not allowed to consume more power, it's just that Intel chose an arbitrary frequency to label as "base" and slapped an approximated TDP to it.
The big problem with these low power Intel solutions is limited pci lanes and no ecc. While perfectly fine for the desktop replacement for basic office/web browsing, not so good for homelab/virtualization/diy nas. Had they added those features, even at a reasonable premium, would close the gap between low power stuff and xeons.
Useless for router/firewall as well since only 1 internet port
@@AnotherSkyTV The Beelink EQ12 (N100) has 2-2.5GB ports, and there are numerous fanless versions available with 4-2.5GB ports which seem to be meant for networking/router tasks.
@@AnotherSkyTV Yep.. And it's only a 1G at that. It could work in a pinch, but the Beelink EQ12 is better suited for that sort of purpose, or one of those firewall appliances based upon N100 or N305.
Most home labs are on the cheap side; ECC is not as big of a deal as you'd think. This model would be my LAST choice for a N100 or N305 model for a home lab as well. Many are finding that their N100/N200/N305's can take 32G of DDR5, but the limited PCI lanes really limits use for anything beyond ; those wanting to build a NAS or more complicated should probably consider something else. ( Personally, a used desktop is probably still a better choice in many ways ). For a router / smaller setup, a N100 /N305 is probably enough. But NOT this particular model
The Atom C3000 series is probably a much better CPU for homelabs than these N100s. Too bad almost nobody is building readily-available machines using that CPU. 😢
Quick question why ranting over the choice for 32 bit windows 7 with only 1gb ram? I also used 32bit win10 on all machines up to 4gb ram
9:24 “Gofatoo” I’m offended on behalf of all fatoos 😂😂
What "Intel NUC"-like (like the one from this video) and RaspberryPi-like computers would you recommend for kiosk usage? It should be on cheaper side. Lightweight Linux distro, fullscreen browser with video playback (bonus points for AV1 decode support).
Depends upon what "Raspberry PI -like features" you're talking about ? Low power ? Kiosk usage ? GPIO stuff ? This won't have GPIO stuff; but in many cases is still a better choice than a RPI except that the power draw is going to be higher than a RPI. Besides it comes with a case. However, for a KIOSK, even an interactive KIOSK, it might be OK; I'd go with the Beelink EQ12 first over this, but this is cheaper, and in most use cases, good enough. For more power, I'd look at one of the AMD chips..
@@MrPir84freeI don't need any Pi-specific features like the pins. What I care about is hardware decoding for videos, so it can be played within a browser. I recall that Pi-likes struggled with that in the past and needed active cooling. This is probably where NUC-like come in, though I still asked for Pi-likes for non-video use-cases. NUC-likes are obviously better choice, as it's all in one, with case, M.2 SSD instead of MicroSD which tends to fail, overall better compatibility due to x86 arch, almost likely to decode videos without struggle. However, price matters if multiple units were to be purchased.
Perfect for automated operations. Small space, small power consumption. Love it so much
This one is perfect for Office user as well as casual web browsing upto 4K youtube video and budget would not break your bank.
For the follow up, could you please compare this to the Steam Deck or an AMD device. How good can it run linux? I wish this devices could be powered by USB-C, maybe next generation...
Hey there, man. I see you have a lot of user friendly tutorials about linux. Do you have a community forum or a discord server? I need some help with linux server that I made, and I don't know where else to go.
I"ve got a different brand N100 mini PC and it just kicks butt. Never used a 4C/4T this zippy, 4k in youtube no issues, 30 tabs open ? Still works fine. It does pretty much everything but run AAA titles. Also works so well on linux with recent kernel has all the support, best IMO was on Mint. Main issue I had was when running this on win11 which comes preinstalled. With win10 (after running debloater scripts)or linux it was a lot zippier. Also comment to Mr. TechHut : The singular of Hertz is Hertz, not Hert. It's because it's named after a German guy called Hertz.
Just in time before arm64 takes over.
I keep telling my buddies that once the Qualcomm exclusive deal runs out with Microsoft in 2025, AMD and Intel are gonna bust out their arm offerings. Maybe even Nvidia will get in some attempts. Time for the revolution!
@@VelcorHFwhy should they? AMD and Intel both have access to very capable ISAs (amd64), why should they want to move on to arm64 and pay licensing fees to ARM? It’s not like the efficiency benefits of arm CPUs are inherent to the ISA. Intel showed with meteor lake that you can gain significant grounds on performance per watt regardless of the isa as the design is key in that. For amd and Intel, the huge market is the server market, not the desktop market. If arm indeed would have so major advantages Intel and amd would be speeding to bring more efficient server chips based on arm
@@Mooooov0815 Why should they ? $$$.. as long as they can pay the licensing fees and still make a profit, I can't see why they would not. Well, actually, the only reason would be if the PTB thinks that it will cut into other sales..
i just bought a n100 laptop and it works great, especially when u tweak windows 11 with atlas os/revi os, or using linux mint I actually made dualboot atlas x linux mint, and overall it works great!
0:41 "This thing was essentially unusable..." Can confirm. I had the misfortune of playing with one of those crappy HP "netbook" machines at the time. Actually maybe a couple of years later, TBH - it was my wife's dead grandma's computer. It was horribly slow. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB, which helped some, but I didn't go for an SSD (was thinking about it) - that might have helped more, but then the processor would have still been completely inadequate for anything more than office apps, VERY light web browsing, and 16/32-bit emulation (SNES and MAYBE PSX). It was, weirdly enough, actually fast enough to run an Amiga emulator at A4000-level speeds (!). But that doesn't mean it was anywhere near decent by 2011 standards. Even the 1024x600 screen was rather limiting. What ultimately doomed it, however, was being replaced by a better laptop, as well as its typical "HP" = Hinge Problems.
Those things work great as a single board computer replacement.
This mini pc plays 8k60 video through KZhead without a hitch. I don’t understand how you couldn’t get 4K to work.
You can use it as a router and firewall very easily (if your upstream is 500mbts) with a L3 switch (or use a ethernet usb dongle)
Beelink EQ12 gives you up to 32G expandability on the memory, dual 2.5G network ports, and is only slightly more. For a firewall, going with a fanless N100 might be better option or even better is to go with a fanless n305 solution. Hate the noise, and cut it every chance I can.
Was the video encoding test done using CPU or QuickSync hardware encoder?
Look out for the Trigkey G5 same but better case, 2 HDMI and USB C +DP, 2 2.5 nic's and no micro sdd card otherwise it is the same. but at the cost of a PS port for HDMI and SD port replace with another network nic. Also LPDDR5 is upgradable on the Trigkey option. And many better internal parts. This MinFurom U100L was option 2 now I am so Glad I didn't buy the U100L as it is more expensive here(not sure if that is a UK thing as where near china and Trigkey is cheap here as a brand). The beauty of these little boxes is 7w idle they make great home lads. Routers two but that is a bit of a waste given router start at £15>. and switch £10>.
Depends on what you want/need out of a router. N100 is great with opnsense + suricata with low power, intel NICS that can handle gigabit speeds and enough CPU power and memory to run it all. For the price if you want something with a bit more unf than most consumer routers but don't want to pay an arm and a leg for something like a protectli or netgate box this is a good middle ground for DIY/homelabbers.
On amzn, trigkey G5 (2 NIC's) costs $269 with $55 coupon, beelink N100 (1 NIC) costs $179 with $20 coupon.
If you look at this as a cheap latte panda alternative it seems great.
I think it is comparable to a i5-6500T. Just takes less power? That sound right?
Same as 7500T
Definitely not. Those can perform much better if there is any kind of processor heavy task. Evening just browsing the net.
CPU test is comparable. Graphics are better on the N100, but the i5-6500T has 16 PCI-E Gen 3 lanes versus 9 for the N100.
No way, I'ved used a i5 6500T (which was limited to 15W) and it was WAYYY slower.
Good but to low. A 8500 or 9500 take idle 3-4W on Linux and if u need the power u will get it. My N100 is on 100% when I ust surf in the www
Just commented a very similar opinion
@@bluesquadron593 good boy :D
Take an i3 8100t. Disable turbo. And you have the same power efficiency. Nothing special on these n100 except you have AV1 decoding and sometime fanless pc.
This
This with proxmox and 'proxmox ve helper scripts' to deploy all the main containers... nice.
N-100 is the chip to get if shopping for a low cost and efficient PC.
I hope AMD makes cheap Zen 4c/5c-only processors with 1-2 Gen4/Gen5 lanes for NVMe storage and single-channel RAM (up to 64/96GB, once those DIMMs come out) to rival or surpass Intel's N-series processors.
cool
Just got one the other day with 16GB and a 512K m.2. It's great I have a 1440 monitor so no worries. I had some severe problems trying to watch 4K Dune 2 but installing VLC solved that. Very impressed. Totally silent too. I think I'll stick a 4TB m.2. in it.
This is not a news... N100 has been around for some time.
My channel (nor wallet) isn't big enough to get things when they first come out lmao
N100 makes for a great router.
Presume it's fine for outlook, excel and browser?
Works great. I have an N95 box running Linux Mint 24/7 acting as my Plex server. I also use it as a general purpose home computer and it's plenty quick for those tasks as well. It's really good with video playback as well; the Intel Quicksync decoding does a great job with 4k video. Mine also has 16GB of RAM, which seems to be the minimum these days for a "snappy" feeling PC.
The N100 is about 2X the speed of the Raspberry 5
The N series is working great as a Minecraft server.
I am not a mini pc or cpu geek. Like knowing the power usage. Best use cases for a reviewed box or best boxes for specific use cases would be helpful for me. “This box is excellent for xyz or if u are looking to do xyz, consider these devices”. Thanks!
ETA prime do game on everything 😂
I am afraid the longevity of these mini PCs wont be great after inspecting several of them.
I bought old 1L Lenovo PC for $220, it cousumes 8 W(!). I use it as real job PC doing hard dev work. It is fully upgradable, all pars are in sockets. Only issue is fan soumd on high cpu load. So now explain, why I should buy overpriced newest 6W punny soap box with potato performance with all soldered parts?
Not worth it at all. For the same price or less i can find used dell laptop with an i5 and 8gbs of ram that would murder that thing. The battery of the laptop acts as USP if i lose power.
I guess it's made in China, this configuration mini-PC sold about $110 USD in China.
I still think a 3-4 years old sff tiny-mini-micro with an 7th or 8th gen i5 would be much better choice for almost everything. Difference of the cost in power draw is almost negligible.
Why does every KZheadr reviewing PCs that are obviously not designed for gaming have to spend time showing it running games? 😫 Rhetorical question, no need to answer...
E-waste. A better deal for the same TDP is: "AMD Ryzen 7 5700U" which has a 2596 rating on PassMark vs 1515 for a single thread, the only metric that matters for most programs. Speaking as a sometime INTC shareholder too. Intel should do better.
Usb2 kills it
AMD has an advantage, but as always is so sloowww... Where are the APU with Zen 4C only? It should be ready already. A little APU with Zen 4C and Zen 2 would be so cheap and powerful!
prove it.
First
bro used the ugliest font available
Stop wasting everyone’s time these cpus are just a waste of time they can barely run an OS.
It depends on what you want to do with them. As a day-to-day desktop machine then you’re far better with something else (though small form factor machines can pack reasonably powerful APUs these days). If you want a network attached appliances then they are fine. Something with a low power CPU and a bunch of Ethernet ports is great for a network firewall/router for example.
Please stop all the ads I just block them so stop wasting my time.
The editing is terrible! Picking up and putting down the unit is so annoying.