The price seems pretty good. I don’t really know much about mini PCs. Do you think there is a better alternative?

Update: ok, not price efficient. Noted 👍

    • PoopMonster@lemmy.world
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      24 天前

      If you’re hosting plex or jellyfin I’d recommend an old Intel processor with quicksync. I paid like 200 for my pc on ebay gutted it and put it in a bigger case for more hard drives. Runs 4k videos like a champ with no GPU installed.

    • tahoe@lemmy.world
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      25 天前

      What’s great about Mac minis is that they’re extremely power efficient since they’re ARM machines, so if you live somewhere like in Europe where power is expensive, it can save you a lot of money. They’re usually completely silent too.

      Depending on their needs, I’d suggest OP to get a used M1 Mac mini, they’re great value for money.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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        25 天前

        You may want to check your specs again. The Ryzen APUs are very power efficient and run the same stretch as M3 (reported): 15W-45W

        Though the more realistic at the wall measurements of the 2023 Mac Minis pretty much seem to have it pegged at a solid 15W-25W min under normal service workloads. The reported “idle” measurements of the M* chips being at 6W are literally just saying “if it has power”, and unrealistic considering you can’t even run them without a the GPU being engaged somewhat without a fully headless software configuration.

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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            25 天前

            I’m not saying idle power is unimportant. I’m saying the M-Class chips can’t ever go idle with a minimal set of features NOT being engaged, because they’re going to be more engaged in general vs other chips that can run truly headless. macOS doesn’t allow for that.

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              25 天前

              Yup. My old 1st gen Ryzen desktop system isn’t particularly power efficient, but it idles <50W (I think closer to 25W, but I haven’t measured for a while). And that’s a desktop class chip from 7 years ago with two HDDs and a discrete GPU and PCIe wifi card, so it’s not winning any awards for efficiency. Even at that, it’s barely a blip on my power bill.

              An AMD or Intel laptop-class chip should be able to get to 10W or so idle, and not spike too much with basic tasks. And those can be had for $200-300, less if you’re okay with older chips. Run Linux headless and it’ll likely stay below 15W at the wall most of the time.

                • stuner@lemmy.world
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                  25 天前

                  It’s an Apple Silicon Mac Mini. Do you have a particular reason to think the new one is less efficient?

                  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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                    24 天前

                    Yes, because each one has been. Just because it’s “Apple” and you think it’s better every iteration is a mistake on your part.

      • babybus@sh.itjust.works
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        25 天前

        What’s great about Mac minis is that they’re extremely power efficient since they’re ARM machines, so if you live somewhere like in Europe where power is expensive, it can save you a lot of money.

        I want to see numbers. How much is “a lot of money”?

        • stuner@lemmy.world
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          25 天前

          I don’t have a Mac Mini, but for always-on systems, the idle power consumption can become quite significant.

          • Gaming PCs can consume up to 100W (876 kWh / year).
          • My AMD B650 NAS consumes about 17W in idle (150 kWh / year).
          • A NUC / Mac Mini can idle as low as 5W (44 kWh / year).

          If you pay 0.30$/kWh, running your old 100W gaming PC all the time would cost you 263$ per year. My NAS is 45$ per year…

          It also depends on what you need/want from the machine. The Mac Mini doesn’t have any HDDs and can’t run a regular Linux distro, for example.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            25 天前

            Would the Mac Mini actually idle at that wattage if it’s open for connections? I doubt it, it’s probably more like 10W, which is generally the range for those smaller AMD MiniPCs or NUCs.

            If it’s 10W, that’s a $20 savings from your NAS w/ a desktop CPU (and probably a discrete GPU, unless it’s running an APU). I can get 4% easily on savings, so I’d only need a $500 savings vs the Mac Mini to recoup that difference every year ($500 * 4% = $20). So if you already have an old PC, use that instead of buying a Mac Mini, and you also won’t have to fight macOS to do what you want.

            • stuner@lemmy.world
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              25 天前

              I do think it can achieve that while waiting for network packets (see e.g. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested).

              But in terms of money savings it would rarely make sense, as you need to make it back during the time you run the system. If we assume 6 years lifetime then it would only make sense to pay $120 more. But yes, I’d also go for a system that runs regular Linux :)

        • tahoe@lemmy.world
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          25 天前

          I’m no lab scientist but when I switched from a hackintosh to an M1 Mac mini a few years ago, my total electricity consumption went down by around 15-20%. This can mean a lot on the long run if you’re tight on budget.

        • suction@lemmy.world
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          25 天前

          Cheap in Germany for example nowadays is 0,20 EUR / KWh + 15 EUR / month base fee. Most people have more expensive contracts though, 0,30 EUR / KWh and more