Linux Mint Unveils New 'Mintbox Mini Pro' Desktop (linuxmint.com)

It's been 18 months since the original Mintbox Mini launched, and this week saw the release of the new Mintbox Mini Pro (which costs just $100 more). BrianFagioli quotes BetaNews: That extra money gets you a faster processor, more powerful graphics, double the storage, twice the RAM, improved Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an additional Ethernet port... This diminutive desktop is the same size as the previously-released Mintbox... Thankfully, it retains the same cute appearance and Linux Mint branding.
Their article calls it a "beautiful little computer that comes pre-loaded with Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon (64-bit)," and the Linux Mint blog promises this fanless device offers "better passive cooling thanks to an all-metal black housing" -- and comes with six different USB ports.

Comments

What's not to like?

[BarbaraHudson]

I hadn't seen the original mini, and I'm looking at this and wow, it is SMALL. Of course, this is a SoC device, and definitely not for even older games. Still, it's only a bit more than a laptop with the same specs, so if you don't need a built-in screen, why not?

Re:What's not to like?

[somenickname]

Or a faster odroid xu4 from hardkernel. They have fanless boxes available too - twice as fast, less money. I like mint on big boxes, but run odroidian (debian) on my xu4's as it's a lot less bloat and much faster.

I would be very surprised if the XU4 is as fast as this machine. The XU4 is an ARM based chip whereas this thing is a normal AMD64 chip. The XU4 also has a quarter of the memory, extremely limited disk bandwidth and lower memory speeds. The XU4 is a nice little board but, it's kind of apples and oranges to compare this to it.

Re:What's not to like?

[Gavagai80]

Doing the research to determine linux driver compatibility on a non-linux pc before purchase can be an epic endeavor.

Re:But ...

[BarbaraHudson]

Why so expensive?

Can you find a comparative one cheaper? Link, please.

Nice little box

[somenickname]

It seems a bit pricey at first but, you're getting a nice 4 core CPU, a pretty remarkable 8GB of RAM, a sizable SSD, a decent GPU, dual gigabit ethernet, etc. I imagine this would work well as a desktop or as a media player. It would be interesting to see this benchmarked next to a NUC configured to be in the same price range.

Okay, gotta admit...

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Okay, I gotta admit...that looks like a cool little PC.

No, it's not for gaming (duh) but for 99% of what most people do this would probably work beautifully. Browsing, email, youtube, cranking out a letter....this is all they'd need.

Very slick, now I want one. But I'd want one with a wee bit more RAM, say 12 or 16 gigs, then I'd probably buy one.

Re:Okay, gotta admit...

[Mousit]

You can. The Mintbox is just a branded version of the Fitlet micro PC. The summary doesn't mention this, but on the Mintbox blog entry itself they do point this out, and provide links to Fit PC which makes the Fitlets. You can buy unbranded barebones Fitlets. Fit PC sells them from their Amazon store. I have a Fitlet myself, they are awesome little machines, and so I'm totally gonna reply here and evangelize for 'em. :)

The model that Mintbox uses is the new fitlet-RM-iA10. If you want more RAM, look at the fitlet-H model. It uses the same AMD SoC, same GPU, same audio, same LAN chipset, etc. etc. etc. The only differences are that it comes in a slightly larger case (about the size of the average consumer AP/internet gateway like a Netgear or something), and that larger case allows it to fit a full 2.5" SATA drive, have a couple more USB ports, has one extra mini-PCIe slot inside, and--the reason I mention it to you--lets it fit two SO-DIMMs for a total of 16GB.

Here's a link that will show you a side-by-side comparison of the fitlet-H and the Mintbox Pro.

Re:Okay, gotta admit...

[Mousit]

Just keep in mind the Mintbox is sold as a complete unit, ready to turn on straight out of the box. The unbranded barebones Fitlets you have to buy/supply your own drive and RAM, so costs can add up. RAM's not that bad, but depending on how big of an SSD you want, that can get pricey. I'd estimate $500 for a complete fitlet-H. Basically what I spent for my Fitlet-iA10.

However I don't think that's an unreasonable price for a machine that is home-server-grade powerful. I've currently got my Fitlet running Qubes OS R3.2 as an example. Runs it just fine, plenty of power. It can be a HTPC just fine too. The AMD GPU is supported fully in Linux (through binary blobs, admittedly) so full hardware acceleration is available for media playback, and digital sound through the HDMI works no problem. It CAN run some games too. And being x86 it runs Windows just fine too, if you.. uh.. really want that. I guess. ;)

So yeah, it's pretty much capable of being anything short of a "gaming PC".

I'd have rather have six identical USB ports

[wonkey_monkey]

comes with six different USB ports.

Six different USB ports? What, type-A, type-B, type-C, mini, micro, and... jumbo?

Re:Made in China

[nnull]

The funny thing is, you speak the truth. The Chinese don't trust their own home made products. I have a big facility next to me where the Chinese make medical equipment and they put the "Made in USA" sticker on it. They told me because no one in China wants to buy anything made in China, especially for medical use. So they do the next big thing, move the China to the US and have Chinese make Chinese products in the US, to sell in China with a fancy "Made in USA" sticker. None of their products they make sell in the US, it all goes to China.

Re:But ...

[ChunderDownunder]

One can find a comparable brand name Brix or NUC for a similar price and it takes all of 20 minutes to install one's favourite distro.

The novelty here is it's AMD based and profits go back to the Mint project.