buying new micro PC compat with MX, any advice?

[imschmeg]

I'm about to buy a new mini PC (Intel NUC or something like it, perhaps System76 Meerkat or StarLabs Byte), and am wondering if anyone else has done so recently and installed MX on it. Which one? Any problems with it? Were there any issues with MX compatibility? What kernel did you use?

I know StarLabs installs MX21 themselves, so there's probably no issues with that.

Thanks in advance.

[pianokeyjoe]

While I never considered buying a LINUX based system from the git go, I can tell you I have had success(brilliant success I might add) with Lenovo, HP, and especially DELL ultra small form factor PCs like the(Dell optiplex 3020.9020,etc). Basically most iCore 3,5 and 7 Intel motherboard based machines using 4GB ram or more, have worked for me. If you want a NUC system for MX, stay away from the ATOM and CELERON based NUCs!! They suck in my opinion! But it also depends on WHAT you are wanting to do with the nuc. If it is just a Office/text based system with no multimedia, then ANY PC will do. But if you are trying to build a Kodi machine for playing audio video and pictures like I am doing, the aformentioned systems will do and for NUCs, you want iCORE 3,5 or 7 based units with a minimum 4GB ram, and a minimum 128GB SSD inside. You can get away with an 16GB ssd but that will install MX with what is on the dvd and not much else.. Most NUCs are UEFI based and Win 10 based so you will have to disable secureboot in the NUC's Bios first, in order to boot into LINUX. Really that applies to ALL machines with secureboot turned on, but I am sure you knew that if you are looking into system76,starlabs,etc. Shop on EBAY for the lowest prices..

[imschmeg]

Thanks for that info, pianokeyjoe.

While I never considered buying a LINUX based system from the git go, I can tell you I have had success(brilliant success I might add) with Lenovo, HP, and especially DELL ultra small form factor PCs like the(Dell optiplex 3020.9020,etc). Basically most iCore 3,5 and 7 Intel motherboard based machines using 4GB ram or more, have worked for me. ...

Did you have any temperature/fan/power issues with the Dell optiplex?

[pedruchini]

Almost two year now running MX19 on an Intel NUC 10 with an i5 processor. No problem at all.

[pianokeyjoe]

Thanks for that info, pianokeyjoe.

While I never considered buying a LINUX based system from the git go, I can tell you I have had success(brilliant success I might add) with Lenovo, HP, and especially DELL ultra small form factor PCs like the(Dell optiplex 3020.9020,etc). Basically most iCore 3,5 and 7 Intel motherboard based machines using 4GB ram or more, have worked for me. ...

Did you have any temperature/fan/power issues with the Dell optiplex?

You most welcome! No I do not have issues with overheating. I would say though, that if you are buying used, make sure to check your CPU/fan for alot of dust build up BEFORE you plug it in and clean it that way you avoid issues. IF it is already clean, you would be good to go!

[pianokeyjoe]

Almost two year now running MX19 on an Intel NUC 10 with an i5 processor. No problem at all.

Yes indeedy! I too use MX19.4AHS with solid state fanless computers(i5 and and core2duo) and no issues. SO here we have one more witness that intel iCore Nucs are a way to go!! Thanks for the info!

[JayM]

I have a Beelink U59 mini PC with an 11th generation Intel Celeron Jasper Lake N5095 4 core/thread CPU and UHD integrated GPU, and it runs fine on MX-21 AHS. The only issue I have with it is that sometimes, not always, it hangs during boot at the grub menu's 5-second timeout and I have to do a second soft reboot (ctl+alt+delete), then it boots. For my use-case (ACARS and HFDL reception from aircraft using two SDRs) I generally leave it running 24x7 anyway so that's not too much of an issue. Wifi works OOTB, no futzing around needed. I haven't tested the supported 4K resolution from the GPU as I only have a FHD monitor. The little computer has no problem running my two fairly CPU-intensive apps (acarsdec and dumphfdl) 24x7 though, with the CPU temperature rarely climbing over 90C (the maximum Tjunction temperature's rated at 105C so 90's still OK.)

[luk3Z]

What about HP & Dell Thin (Celeron N2807, N4000 & AMD GX-212JC & GX-217GA) Clients ?
I know they are not super fast but they are energy efficient enough (good for NAS, web browsing, playing video & old good calssic games '90-2k5).
Does somebody tried MX with them ?
BTW greetings everyone.

[dings]

One of my machines is a new Minisforum UM 340 mini PC (Ryzen 5 3450U, 16 GB RAM), running flawlessly so far on MX-21 KDE. Mostly reading, writing, YouTube, a little VR. It actually performs better than my slightly better equipped Windows PC.

[pianokeyjoe]

What about HP & Dell Thin (Celeron N2807, N4000 & AMD GX-212JC & GX-217GA) Clients ?
I know they are not super fast but they are energy efficient enough (good for NAS, web browsing, playing video & old good calssic games '90-2k5).
Does somebody tried MX with them ?
BTW greetings everyone.

I have 6 HP T5740 Intel Atom based thin clients all with my own respin of MX19.3 Embedded as read only on the 8GB flash drive and 3GB ram(32bit machines) that I use as media players for MP3s, some video files and pictures. The issue with these machines is the onboard graphics is NOT for HD video so most 720P and higher MP4 and ALL MKV clips will stutter or not play right at all. I have ONE unit for midi sequencer work which is fine and like I said, for MP3 and Wav audio playback of the common bit rates and so on. No HD audio.. So YES, MX LINUX works stupid good on these but you have to KNOW how to respin MX to "FIT" in the small drive and Ram constraints while getting the most out of the Unit and the OS. By Embedded I mean that I dd copied a LIVE respin onto the internal drive while booted from the desired live USB stick, and a copy of the embedded ISO file is on the usb stick. Check my MX Embedded thread for more info as it directly applies to small solid state and special use computers with SSD/nand/flash drive tech. Why? It reads only from the flash disk and only writes to ram. The boot sector is another ball game, I do not know what happens there even if the iso is read only and DD on to the SSD or flash drive stick. A thin client has those 2 very limitations: drive sized/type and ram, that force creativity and innovation.. Good suggestion!!