The products that attract attention in the computer world are concentrated at both ends: large and comprehensive, or small and refined. In today’s era, with limited living space, small and refined IT products are more appealing. The so-called SFF (Small Form Factor) mini PCs are becoming increasingly popular. They are often referred to as mini PCs, roughly the size of a palm, standing no taller than a can of cola. The overall volume of a mini PC is about 600 to 700 milliliters, which is roughly equivalent to two cans of cola.

What can such a small host do? You can think of them as a transformed laptop, just without a battery and screen. Since a fully functional PC system can fit into the small space of a laptop, it is equally feasible to stack these components in a different shape.

The rise of mini PCs is attributed to the development of OEM factories. After more than a decade of OEM accumulation, the massive digital industry has spawned a large number of factories capable of mass-producing integrated circuit boards, packaging, and even designing. As the OEM factories for Intel, HP, and Dell gradually matured, production capacity increased, costs decreased, and competition intensified. The entry threshold for the industrial chain lowered, leading to the emergence of numerous small factories.

Last year, I bought an Intel NUC mini PC. It only has a motherboard and CPU, and of course, there is a case. The memory and hard drive need to be purchased and installed separately. The new model of this mini PC can be bought for just over 2000 yuan on second-hand platforms. I installed Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on it to manage an 80TB disk array that continuously computes strange data every day. After more than a year of 7×24 operation at 70-80 degrees, it has only failed once, due to my choice of a ten-year-old solid-state drive for the system, which finally failed, taking the system with it.

In 2021, more mini PCs emerged. Especially with the release of AMD’s Yes!, the integrated CPU+GPU, or APU, mini PCs became even cheaper. A large number of foreign trade factories that originally produced TV boxes started to shift to mini PCs, and the market saw an increasing number of mini PC boxes featuring AMD Yes! or Intel Core 11th generation. Are they worth buying?

I observed the sources of popularity for mini PCs. Since the second half of 2021, bloggers who previously recommended soft routing began to recommend mini PCs. It can be said that the demand for soft routing is one reason for the growth of mini PCs.

So, is it necessary to buy a mini PC for soft routing?

The existence of soft routing is entirely due to national conditions. This small, low-power host, which has excessive computing power for households, was originally used in industrial applications to perform edge computing in specific scenarios. The surplus computing power only has one use: encryption and decryption. The selling point of soft routing and its target audience have only this one demand: to perform continuous encryption and decryption of data traffic 7×24. The speed of encryption and decryption determines whether the user experiences buffering when watching certain content.

In the early days of purchasing soft routing, players still had a concept of cost control, with prices ranging from 200 to 300 yuan, at most 500 yuan. Multiple network ports and hardware encryption and decryption were basic requirements. As the number of small hosts increased, the pursuit of soft routing transformed into a demand for living room mini PCs, NAS mini PCs, downloading mini PCs, and various multifunctional small hosts, leading to increased spending.

The device I am currently using is a professional soft routing with built-in FPU floating-point computation, the ubnt ER 4, which cost over 1000 yuan. The ER 4 uses MIPS 64 as its core processor and runs a customized Debian system. Its overall performance is far behind popular soft routing devices, but under a 500Mbps internet bandwidth, it shows no bottleneck. It can be said that for bandwidth under a gigabit, a small host with an X86 or ARM core under 1000 yuan can fully meet the needs.

This level of players is very numerous, with no major manufacturers. Many factories that previously produced industrial computers and TV boxes have sufficient capabilities to mass-produce these highly integrated “weak electrical box artifacts.” Common brands include beelink, morefine, minisforum, and minix. There are even some second-hand Lenovo, Dell, or HP industrial computers modified to have multiple network ports that can also meet the demand.

These hosts are powerful enough to run Windows 10 smoothly. The original positioning that was neither high nor low has begun to gain popularity due to the empowerment of soft routing. As a result, users began to feel dissatisfied. Since they can run Windows 10, can they do more? More powerful mini PCs naturally followed.

Minisforum has made considerable investments in YouTube and domestic KOLs, and the results seem promising, hinting at a breakout from the small factory image. In 2021, minisforum launched a Ryzen 9 mini PC, the HX90, which uses liquid metal for thermal conductivity, boasting impressive performance and marketing hype.

Liquid metal has a higher thermal conductivity efficiency compared to traditional thermal grease. It appears to be very sincere, yet it precisely showcases the common problem of mini PCs: poor heat dissipation. I have used an Intel NUC for a year, and if it runs slightly heavier computational tasks, despite the metal’s superior heat dissipation compared to the solid Mac mini, the casing still gets hot.

If major manufacturers face such issues, what about smaller ones?

Foreign trade factories, including beelink and minis forum, have their main base overseas. A Google search for beelink reveals an intriguing answer among the extended questions Google provides.

Beelink’s GK mini is a decent host with a high cost-performance ratio. However, do not use it in a production environment unless you have a lot of patience.

For small hosts, the biggest test for manufacturers is heat dissipation. AMD has provided very good APU systems in recent years, with cost performance exceeding Intel, but in terms of power and heat dissipation, they are not on the same level as the M1 chip Mac mini, which is the ceiling for small hosts. Almost all X86 architecture hosts have a common problem: high temperatures lead to frequency reduction. Therefore, the high main frequency and performance claimed by manufacturers should not be taken too seriously for such a small device. But if I don’t take it seriously, why would I want to buy it? Wouldn’t a larger device with better heat dissipation and stronger expandability be more appealing?

Another pitfall of small hosts lies in second-hand markets.

Second-hand platforms offer many options for cheap used hosts. However, when you actually buy a mini PC worth a few hundred yuan with potential for modification, you will find that to reach the level of an Intel NUC, you will need to spend another 1000 yuan. Meanwhile, a brand new low-spec Intel NUC costs about 2000 yuan, which is almost the same as saving for another meal. Even in high-spec hosts, even the more cost-effective beelink does not have a significant price advantage compared to major brands like Intel and ASUS, due to the small volume.

It’s awkward.

Before anyone thinks about buying a mini PC, I suggest first checking the prices of second-tier brand ASRock’s products on JD.com. ASRock is ASUS’s budget brand. But even as a budget version, the build quality, after-sales service, and BIOS updates are much better than those of small factories. Buying an Intel NUC is also easier; you can go to Pinduoduo for cheaper options. If all else fails, genuine ASUS also has stable quality mini PCs available, including AMD versions.

Conclusion.

It is not cost-effective to study a powerful mini PC for soft routing. 1000 yuan is enough to buy a soft routing system with outstanding performance and smooth experience. Spending more money on a mini PC is only worthwhile if the small factory’s products can meet certain very specific needs, such as multiple network ports, WiFi 6E, or USB-C power supply. Otherwise, major brands are more likely to achieve good standards in stability and durability.