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I wonder why you switched and not use your 16-core PC? did it somehow broke or do you just like the benefits of a minipc?

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Not who you are replying to, but likely: 1) heat 2) fan noise 3) power consumption.

I recently (8 months ago) replaced my 10 year-old laptop. The only reason I retired it was because the display was starting to go.

So I bought a second-hand workstation-class laptop with 6 beefy CPU cores and kinda wish I hadn't. Overall I want to like it but the battery life is abysmal, it makes a lot of heat even when fairly idle, and is a bit heavy due to the large heatsink inside. (And that's without a dedicated GPU.)

If I had to do it over again, I would trade it for one with a weaker but more power-efficient CPU.

Laptops are notorious for poor thermal management. I have no doubt that just about anything would be better than a "powerful" laptop.

Depending on your needs, Chromebook + headless workstation tucked away in a different room or garage could also work (with WoL/smart plug)

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