New Asrock DeskMini Fanless

Ice Tea · 24 Mar 2023 at 23:31

ASRock DeskMini 4205 Series

Intel Celeron Processor 4205U Dual Channel DDR4 SO-DIMMs, up to 64GB Multi Video Outputs：1 x DisplayPort, HDMI & D-Sub 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C port 3 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A Ports, 2 x USB 2.0 2 x M.2 2280 SSD Slots 2 x 2.5 HDD/SSD 2 x...

www.asrock.com

Intel Celeron Processor 4205U

What a crap CPU.

WJA96 · 29 Mar 2023 at 15:21

For an Untangle or pfSense box it’s perfect. In fact, it will probably be a very nice PC for someone you just wants to browse the net and do a little word processing in silence. That Celeron CPU is actually pretty decent.

Ice Tea · 31 Mar 2023 at 09:36

FanlessTech that originally suggested the idea to Asrock are not happy about it by their recent tweets and as someone pointed out on reddit you can buy a better spec Arm boards for the same money.

Rroff · 31 Mar 2023 at 09:55

Aside from upgradeable RAM not sure what this offers over many other fanless mini PCs with much better CPUs.

WJA96 said:
That Celeron CPU is actually pretty decent.

Yes and no - it is quite strong for a dedicated system primarily doing a specific task but chokes quite badly for more general purpose stuff.

Rroff · 31 Mar 2023 at 23:04

Ice Tea said:
FanlessTech that originally suggested the idea to Asrock are not happy about it by their recent tweets and as someone pointed out on reddit you can buy a better spec Arm boards for the same money.

I've been using the MeLe series of fanless mini PCs - aside from not having upgradable RAM which potentially could be a benefit they are pretty decent little systems in a decent form factor not much bigger than your average router with a full Windows experience (or can put Linux on, etc.). Perfect for general network services as they use very little power at idle.

Ice Tea · 31 Mar 2023 at 23:24

Th new Orange mini boards look interesting with up to 32GB of ram.

Minstadave · 31 Mar 2023 at 23:27

Jesus the AMD 7 series APUs make this look like a pocket calculator. 2c2t at 14nm and 12.5W TDP - get out of town.

I guess this is aimed at industrial use with the COM ports. 8.2W idle and totally fanless is actually pretty impressive if it wasn't for such an ancient CPU.

Rroff · 31 Mar 2023 at 23:37

Minstadave said:
Jesus the AMD 7 series APUs make this look like a pocket calculator. 2c2t at 14nm and 12.5W TDP - get out of town.

I guess this is aimed at industrial use with the COM ports. 8.2W idle and totally fanless is actually pretty impressive if it wasn't for such an ancient CPU.

Actually got fairly strong performance if you are doing something heavily single threaded in a network services type task - but yeah does not cope well if you are doing something multi-threaded. The other Intel variants like the J4125 aren't hugely slower, better at multi-threaded stuff, and use quite a bit less power idle or even the N5105 if setup right for low idle power.

Ice Tea · 1 Apr 2023 at 09:32

Originally a few years ago the Deskmini Fanless was supposed to be based on a 35w cpu with a twin lan socket as the idea came from people who were successfully using the Deskmini series with Arctic's Alpine Passive CPU coolers, the only hassle was the need for a hole to be cut in the top of the case.

Rroff · 3 Apr 2023 at 10:06

Shame the 1235U struggles under passive cooling and is performance limited by the TDP otherwise ideal for this kind of setup.

Ice Tea · 3 Apr 2023 at 11:45

Rroff said:
Shame the 1235U struggles under passive cooling and is performance limited by the TDP otherwise ideal for this kind of setup.

Shame the above board uses a engineering sample mobile CPU as it looks like you get a lot for the money though it maxes out at 80w so that's not going to be passive unless you undervolt it.