Gem12 Pro Mini PC: Ryzen 7 8845HS, Mini Screen, and OCuLink eGPU
tomshardware.com
tomshardware.com
However, unless I am mistaken there's not much of an advantage over the Gem10 based on https://i.imgur.com/G9YNO6I.jpeg (who cares about that AI?) and that's already available at https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-gem10-amd-ryzen-7-7840h... and this one is LPDDR5 in case anyone cares about that.
One more interesting thing on this page is https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-t-box-intel-n100-metal-... which is even smaller than a usual NUC yet quite rich inports and has a very agreeable price.
Triple SSD support. Sweet! Do you have any experience with these systems? And if you do, would you know how good their Linux support is?
I am possibly the worst possible person to ask about Linux experience with anything current. I have been posting since 2018 how untenable is running Linux as a daily driver which is when I stopped. I started using it as a daily driver in 2004. Overall I started in 1993 and still using it on command line (WSL) and routers and servers.
> I have been posting since 2018 how untenable is running Linux as a daily driver which is when I stopped.
User experiences vary, so to see. I've been running Linux as a daily driver at home and at work since 2012, and I haven't looked back. I've cursed the battery life on my laptop recently, but two weeks back the self-diagnostic pre-boot software on my Dell informed me that the battery was dead. So the culprit might not have been Linux after all.
Oh, and count on an Nvidia update to randomly and regularly break your system. But that blame lays squarely on Nvidia.
That is the problem both with the OS and the users sorry to say. Of course the problem is with drivers. Well and Bluetooth and Wifi and streaming DRM but I digress: I do not care whose fault it is if I can't work. Companies do not prioritize desktop Linux drivers , that's just a fact. And users will say "oh it's not the fault of Linux" as if it would matter.
Why have a SFF desktop PC with a laptop APU and a niche and expensive OCuLink external GPU connector, when you can just build a Mini-ITX/SFF desktop system with a dedicated desktop APU/CPU, and a dedicated desktop GPU for cheaper and much more performance and might also be quieter?
This system is basically a non-portable laptop built from laptop parts but without a display and battery, which costs nearly as much as a laptop but that one comes with the advantage of portability thanks to the display and battery.
I get the cheap Chinese NUCs, but this device basically has the disadvantages of both a desktop PC and a laptop combined, with almost none of the upsides.
Compare versus USB4, which is quite expensive. Alas neither Intel nor AMD offer on-package USB4 in their new line-up: both require a rather expensive & serious chip for USB4 (ASM4242 for AMD). It's a great capability but it has a real cost. Where-as Oculink requires so little.
As for desktop vs mobile: this is the same Phoenix chip that AMD just released as the 8700G APU. The HS part here is targeting a smaller 45W power budget than the desktop 65W part, but otherwise similarly capable & loaded out. And the case seems designed for either some mild overclocking with it's 75w ought, which if not used means it will remain nice & quiet at stock. I think there's many many people for whom stock will be more than adequate for their uses, and who wouldn't need a bigger hotter version. And they can just tell the chip to drink more power of they want a desktop equivalent, since the cooling is there.
These chips are also boast much higher efficiency (computer/watt) at lower power levels too, which is another boon for users, another reason to look here.
Bigger hotter more powerful has a lot going for it, and it seems like it's what you want. But don't make the mistake of assuming it's what everyone wants. The NUC form factor is pretty amazing, is really a delight with how flexibly it can fit into your environment. I ran a NUC velcroes to my monitor for 3 years; it'd be impossible or cumbersome even with a svelte mini-itx build. Let's just try not to have such a harsh negative reaction so strongly out of the game, yeah?
Oculink GPUS are not. Far more expensive than PCIe ones.
As for the price of using Oculink? Here's a riser board and frame for $40. There are even cheaper options about that folks report as working just fine! https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806254754959.html
Having PCIe ports is good for more than GPUs too. There's Oculink to nvme adapters aplenty: go right ahead and plug in 2 (or 4 at reduced link width) ssds! Plug in a 25Gbit network card! Ideally some day PCIe switches make a comeback at non-exorbinant prices & we can have whole socks of this stuff; the inherent complexity is lower than pcie-transporting USB4 but we just don't have ecosystem options alas.
Sure, for most users where they want one peripheral all the time getting a much bigger mini-itx system makes a lot of sense. But it keeps seeming to me like this is a near zero cost way to create a small computer that still has really good options, that can adapt incredibly well. If you have a portable powerful compact computer, that you take with you, ideally you can just plug it in to the GPUs, network cards, storage, or other peripherals in the world around you; we're not there in most cases but I cannot emphasize enough that it costs so little to add the flexibility/option.
I could also see it being a good option for business deployments, similar to the absurdly popular Lenovo SFF PCs, especially where some but not all users might be pushing a GPU pretty hard.
IT can swap out an eGPU in no time, but lose the silicon lottery with an iGPU or a laptop GPU and the entire unit needs to go back. Likewise, there's a reason no IT dept builds their own PCs. It's not that they can't, it's that a factory in China can do it faster, better, cheaper.
Yeah, but this is not a laptop, it's a desktop PC. This make sense for a laptop since you take it places but don't need the eGPU everywhere, but this is a desktop PC, it's not going anywhere.
So why do you need an expensive eGPU on a desktop PC that doesn't go anywhere when you can just build a PC with a discrete GPU in it, saving you money and not loosing performance from the Thunderbolt bottleneck?
It makes no sense.
>IT can swap out an eGPU in no time
Have you ever swapped the GPU in a profesional HP/Dell/Lenovo tower? It can also be done in no time. Even the water cooled ones. They're designed to be serviced quickly because time is money. They're not like your average gaming tower PC.
One might ask why not just use a laptop in that situation, but depending on how the device is used (e.g. always docked), the screen and battery could be seen as a waste.
That said, I think I’d opt for a custom build too, probably in something like the Streacom DB4[0] which allows low power systems to operate fanlessly by doubling as a heatsink.
[0]: https://streacom.com/products/db4-fanless-mini-itx-case/
As for PSUs, an "80 platinum" rated one will have 90% efficiency at 10% power draw.
Undervolting is a good option I agree, but there’s evidently value in machines that run on a lower power profile out of the box.
I think it’d make for a compelling product if one of these extended their vertical footprint a bit, making for a more cube-like shape and adding space for a 2-4x more heatsink and a big slow fan (maybe even a 200mm fan if making footprint slightly larger is permissible). It’d be a bit larger but cooler and much more quiet.
That’s pretty much what I was expecting. Would prefer a slightly larger machine (e.g. Mac Studio) that’s inaudible even at load.