Awesome High-Power MiniPCs

#HomeLab, #Gadgets

The Old Legends

These guys are ~7 years old, but still very popular amoung homelab enthusiasts:

Why? Because there is a possibility to buy a refurbished PC in a mint condition for a price of a cheap incapable miniPC. The difference is versatile and reliable hardware of top notch quality that can handle homelab server tasks better than anything for that price.

Reason not to buy: Doesn't work for people who love to peel off the protective films. This 7y.o. guy will eventually pull all the money saved on the initial purchase through electricity bills. At it's supposed to. But posts like this make me hesitate.

All of them can make a solid foundation for a home lab server. Here are the reviews:

The New Heroes

Minisforum Mini MS-A1

Another example of Minisforum shipping a very good stuff. Basically it's a 2024 alternative to Lenovo ThinkCentre m710q (which I personally love), but with homelab server use case in mind.

Reason not to buy: Not sure if it is worth paying for. For mac Mini price I would better get a mac Mini.

Review: This Might Be The Perfect Mini PC - YouTube

LattePanda Sigma

That's one of the most impressive gadgets I came across recently. Literally Raspberry Pi DIY vibes with a performance of Beast and a price of Mac mini, lol.

Reason not to buy: Honestly, for me the the exact use case of "Hackable Single Board Server" is rather questionable.

Anyway, it's a very curious thing. Here is a review: This Single Board Computer is Faster than a Mac Mini AND a Raspberry Pi - YouTube

Apple Mac mini

Apple Mac mini with M chip blows out of water any other mini pc in regards of performance, power consumption, and even price. Under 10W of idle power consumption with all the capabilities it provides is unbelievable.

The 2024 Apple Mac mini with M4 is a reason to fall in love with Apple if you haven't yet. If someone is wondering why the power button is on the bottom it's because it was intentionally created for my home lab!

With just a single con: it doesn't fit any typical home lab stack.

However, the old intel-powered Mac mini could be an viable alternative to old refirbished legends but it seems to be an overprice.

Workhorses

There is actually a ton of other alternative mini PCs in 500-700$ range with AMD Ryzen or Intel i5/i7/i9 but they are all kind of ... soulless boxes?

It looks like the most reasonable home lab with out-of-the-box solution without too much of an overthinking.