Trend-KAMRUI via Amazon has
KAMRUI AK2 Plus Mini PC (AK2PLUS) on sale for
$150.45 when you clip the $30 off coupon on the item page and apply promo code
ZU8V38U4 at checkout.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to community member
davidj8281 for finding this deal.
Specs:- 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake-N100 4-core, 4-thread (0.80GHz Base / 3.4GHz Boost) Processor
- 16GB DDR4 RAM
- 512GB M.2 Solid State Drive
- Intel UHD Graphics
- Gigabit Ethernet 2.4G+5.0G dual-band WiFi 5 + Bluetooth 4.2
- Windows 11 Pro
- Ports:
- 2x HDMI 2.0
- 2x USB 2.0
- 2x USB 3.0
- 1x RJ 45
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Top Comments
1. No m.2 slot, only SSD. This is a significant bottleneck
2. No USB C connector
3. Only has wifi 5 (we are almost at wifi 7!)
Some other things that are normal but good to know for this price range, RAM is soldered on and the fan seems like it could be quieter.
For a few bucks more you can go with several other vendors that don't have the first 3 limitations noted above. I for one think the $20-$30 more could get you a better N100. I see why it's on sale.
During normal PC usage including boot and application start the bottleneck isn't SSD speed, it's seek latency, which is similar between PCIE ssds and even the very old now seeming SATA ssds. Difference in boot to windows is literally like two seconds.
Don't let the throughput numbers fool you. On that or the WiFi technology. WiFi 5 is totally fine for pretty much anything anyone would wanna do with this box. Don't be fooled into thinking you need stuff that you don't.
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https://a.co/d/0QeHmVV
1. No m.2 slot, only SSD. This is a significant bottleneck
2. No USB C connector
3. Only has wifi 5 (we are almost at wifi 7!)
Some other things that are normal but good to know for this price range, RAM is soldered on and the fan seems like it could be quieter.
For a few bucks more you can go with several other vendors that don't have the first 3 limitations noted above. I for one think the $20-$30 more could get you a better N100. I see why it's on sale.
You have to pay more to get more.
It has the newer BT
I have no doubt it would be fine for a home lab and light use. I haven't had the time to dig too deep into things but my gut is leaning towards just sticking with LXC or Docker. Redundancy is nice, but extra complications and overhead isn't ideal. It's not like the lack of high availability hurts me much when it comes to microservices. It would still be nice to keep things going if a system failed, though.
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I am assuming this might not be the best mini pc for work purposes?
I have a i7-10870 and 16 gb laptop and task manager says I'm using 25% of my cpu and 86% of my ram. Mainly use lots of browser tabs, and run multiple programs like 1password, slack, project management, office, zoom, voip software, AV.
Anything similar that is at least as powerful or more and totally fanless?
Nvidia shield or android based/box anything is no go for living room, too many software limitations, sideloading hassle, etc
It needs to run win/Linux with full browser with ublock etc.,
Suggestions?
Since the N95/100 have a 12th gen IME (media engine) that is not a problem at all if you need to go from say 4k to 1080p or lower. It can even retain the HDR metadata (I have done this). I would say it can easily do 3-4 at the same time. I have done 3 just to test, but all of my clients go direct (GCCtv, Onn 4k, Fire 4k max) so I never transcode unless on mobile and that is only the kids. Zero issue.
If you are doing such operations, you should really have your Plex/JF server connected to wired ethernet, not wifi.
When I told Plex to create a 1080p copy of a 2160p blueray file it took a long time to do that. Maybe if it was transcoding on the fly it would have worked fine. Need to do some testing.
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1. No m.2 slot, only SSD. This is a significant bottleneck
2. No USB C connector
3. Only has wifi 5 (we are almost at wifi 7!)
Some other things that are normal but good to know for this price range, RAM is soldered on and the fan seems like it could be quieter.
For a few bucks more you can go with several other vendors that don't have the first 3 limitations noted above. I for one think the $20-$30 more could get you a better N100. I see why it's on sale.
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