I see everyone plugging n100/n150 deals but you can get mini pc's based on the 6500t for sub $150 easy and 9500t systems for low 200's
The n100 uses slightly less power but even if both are under heavy loads does it really make a difference even 10w difference is only ~7kw a month
The 6500T is almost ten years old, the N100/N150/N200 CPUs are quite modern in comparison.
6th gen Intel CPUs are already unsupported for use on Windows 11, who knows what security requirements Windows 12 will have.
Better video transcoding support, new hardware, boxes that have more build specific components like dual lan, multiple M2 slots etc.
The n100 uses slightly less power
N100's typical TDP is 6W, whereas i5-6500T is 35W. So it's not slightly less power. It is therefore possible to run N100 with passive cooling — lots of those dual or quad eth port mini PC without fan. That's just for server use. For desktop use, newer CPUs also support newer codec for video playbacks.
6500T's use fairly minimal amounts of power, my old Dell 7040 idled at around 11-12 watts and under moderate load was still less than 20 watts. N100's vary wildly however, some idle at 12-14 watts… It all depends on how the cooling and BIOS is configured, if the vendor put a large actively cooled heatsink on it then there's a high chance they turned up the TDP in the BIOS to allow higher performance.
Thast max load i personally use my 6500t only to download (sonarr/radarr/SABnzbd) which then gets sent to my nas (as i hate docker) so the higher use for maybee an hr a day is next to nothing.
TBH i never thought of passive fan use but my mini is pretty darn quiet to start with.
But guess my use case is pretty basic
Ive just bought a 9500t based dell which will likely start to use.
I'll buy the Dell as well for mostly backend uses. The build quality of those 1litre corporate PC is far better than the cheap mini PC off Amazon or AliExpress so likely to last longer. My main development PC is still a i5-4570T Lenovo that just kept on going…
This question is pretty well timed for me as I contemplate purchasing a $200 mini pc for my dad in law…
I'd personally go the Lenovo over an N100, 8400T is 6 cores with around 10-12% less single core performance but having 2 additional cores means multi core performance is going to be 25-30% better than the N100.
If you don't mind spending more and can wait for a deal then these are a solid little thing with a 10 core 12 thread CPU, when on sale they get down to around $400.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Beelink-EQI12-i3-1220P-Computer-Di…
Hmm… What about vs an n150 with twice the RAM and 4 x storage? At $299
https://www.amazon.com.au/DreamQuest-Pro-Pre-Installed-Compu…
@Gros21: I got it recently for around $220 after the 20% code. Gone up a little bit now and have to wait for the next round of codes.
N150 is only a marginal upgrade over an N100, a couple hundred MHz and a new security feature is abotu it.
I don't care much for either.
This more your speed jv? https://www.amazon.com.au/MINISFORUM-AI-X1-Pro-Computer/dp/B…
Admit it, you want a fingerprint reader and a copilot key on the chassis!
My Dell 7040 with i5-6500 struggles with anything h265, which means even my pixel 6 camera videos are problematic.
N150 I believe has much better support for this codec.
2nd hand N150 mini PC is even cheaper on eBay, Dual LAN, DDR5 RAM, and you save $5/mth for electricity (unless you have solar).
It wouldnt be anything near $5 unless it was pinned 24/7
There is 4 used N150's on ebay.
New devices have new features that can be useful that old devices don't have even if they have the same performance.
I have a N100 NAS, better decoding (like Av1), and performance really didn't matter here.
if i need to use it directly with monitor and GUI, I'd go with 6500T/9500T etc. As N100 doesn't have decent enough cache.
in terms of power consumption, a lot of ppl got it wrong, TDP means nothing, idle power consumption can be very low even if the TDP is real high. These choices probably won't make much of a difference in terms of power bill. ALSO, if performance is crucial, then non of the 3 CPU should be used, as non of them are particularly fast.
refurb = old, higher chance of becoming faulty.
I see everyone plugging these MG and Haval deals, but you can get a pre-loved Commodore …
I've got a HP SFF with an Intel i5-8500 running a Proxmox box for a few VMs plus whatever random things I might need/want to play with.
I've got an even older HP desktop running an i5-4570 as my pfsense box.
Then I have three Raspberry Pi 4's, two running Pihole so I have redundancy + one dedicated to Home Assistant.
I like having bare metal dedicated machines for things like pfsense and Pihole as they can just ben left running and aren't dependant on the success or failure of anything else I might touch.
I could consolidate the secondary Pihole and Home Assistant to VM's since they are far less mission critical to the network, but at 2 or 3w each, it's barely worth the effort. That and I'd have to give up RAM to each of those tasks leaving less to share around the other VMs. Small amounts to be sure, but still, effort for no real tangible benefit.
The pfsense box though, that 4570 is an 85 CPU and while it spends it's entire life at near idle, I do contemplate something smaller and more energy efficient, but the reality is that it would likely take over a decade to realise a cost saving :P The real reason I should replace it is just because it's getting older.
I'm also currently swapping over my i3-2120 pfsense box to a 1L 7070 micro.
Mainly to take up less space and fit in a 10" mini rack
N100 / N150 have quicksync, which means they can do 8x 1080p or 2x 4k streams for media transcoding.
A 6500T can't do 2x 1080p streams without the cpu maxing out, since the ancient skylake encoder cannot run anything except h264 and it has to software render av1 etc on the actual cpu.
For media, the QSV encoder on the N100 / N150 is around the same capacity as a 7920x or 3900x (12 core Zen2 / skylake+) attempting to software transcode cpu only, the 6500T is nowhere near the same ballpark.
A more suitable comparison would be a 6500T + Quadro P400/620, and even then the encoder on the N100 is a bit better than the unlocked Pascal NVENC one.
I have 3 refurbished Dell 7040 i5-6500T micros - 2 bought in 2022 and 1 last month with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD drive - I upgraded all 3 to Windows 11 on 16GB RAM, as all came with Windows 10 Pro, once MS allowed the hack update. None gave me me a single problem and are used daily by family members. In April I bought a brand new Kamrui E2 N150 16GB RAM 512GB SSD. Simple answer to why, is to try something new and feel the difference. A new N150 mini-pc comes with new features and runs on improved technology despite the CPU/GPU low specs. I use the N150 mini PC daily for WFH, teleconferencing, streaming and everything else. I love it's small size, it runs quietly (silent) and all 4 cores never go above 40c (mostly stay at 38c or under). I can do multiple streams PIP with ease and the WIFI connection is always 5 bars at -50 dBm on the 5Ghz band.
For a pure local or networked streaming box using Kofi, what would be the minimum generation I'd need to run high bitrate 4K HDR 10-bit rips? Using my Sony A95K, the 50GB+ rips freeze for a few seconds every 30 seconds.
Not sure whether to get one of these 9500/t versions of an N-150 box. I could also access an i5-1135g7 NUC.
Some people place a high value in warranty of new devices and feel the new devices will be supported longer.