Hi,
I am looking to buy a MINISFORUM Venus Series NAB7 mini PC.
Main use will be to media player for my TV. I already have a server, I’m looking for a client.
I really need to get away from my Chromecasts.
I read a lot of negative comments online about the general reliability of these mini PCs with potentially wide spread longevity issues.
What’s your experience with these?
Thanks
I have a Beelink GTR model with the older Ryzen 5900HX APU.
It also is being used as a media server connected to some Terramaster DAS units via USB.
I thought the USB3 speed would not be capable but it streams just fine for my use, was using my old PS3 to just play DVD’s + Bluray’s for the longest time.
I had a UM560XT brick on me after six months of essentially sitting idle (was running proxmox, but my secondary pihole was the only thing on it while i was sorting out the rest of my infra). RMA took 2 months to turn around, as well, which would have been less than ideal if it was an all-in-one for me.
As a client or just ‘some compute’, it’s probably fine. But I wouldn’t cohabitate storage for things I cared about on one.
Thanks for sharing. I might build a small itx computer instead. I don’t know.
IMO, you’re on the right track. Designing computer hardware is difficult, and these smaller companies that make these ultra small form factor computers never seem to QUITE nail it for one reason or another.
Between gigabyte brix (~9 years old), intel nuc (~7 years old), intel compute stick (~7 years old, has a CRC bios error but works fine), asrock deskmini (~2 years old), I’ve had no problems with my mini PCs. Though these are all (obviously) big brands.
Laptops have been the most flaky for me. Regular desktops in the middle, and mini PCs the most solid.
Newer Mini PCs I daily drive in my lab:
CWWK Mini PC N Series 8-core N305 (fanless) ESXi cluster- 7 months uptime
2x Beelink GTR 7 Pro (7840HS) ESXi cluster - 7 months uptime
Minisforum BD790i (MoDT motherboard) - 1 month uptime - will run proxmox if it makes it out of torture testing at the end of the month.
Newer Mini PCs used as regular PCs:
Minisforum UM780 XTX 7840HS - daily drive linux PC - 6 months uptime
Minisforum UM790 7940HS - daily drive work PC- 8 months uptime
Minisforum NPB7 12700H - daily driver field PC - 11 months of constant abuse in a field bag.
Minisforum AR900i (MoDT motherboard) - 2nd home office main pc - 1 month uptime
There have been a lot more, but these are the longest running ones.
I did have early issues with the GTR7 Pro. This was related to AMD getting some things wrong with the reference spec, so a lot of the early mini PCs with 7940HS and 7840HS CPUs had power issues. After this was resolved, they have been running 24/7 for the last 7 months with 0 issues.
I had early issues with the BD790i. They for whatever reason did not get something right with the CMOS battery, so it did not work. This was something they resolved quickly, but a really annoying issue for anyone who got a dud.
What I find is that these companies are getting much better with experience and you really just need to watch out for the bleeding edge stuff. With a quick search, you will find any issues with designs that have been out for a few months. I would avoid anything that just launched.
If you do go this route, try to go barebones when you can. The storage is almost always questionable. The RAM on the cheaper ones is as well. I did get Crucial RAM and storage on the higher end beelink stuff since no barebones options were available.
I had two Minisforum UM780 died on me back to back when I wanted to use it for a project.
For the first unit I sent to RMA, I had to pay for shipping and customs because I sent it back after the initial “7-Day Money-Back Guarantee for Any Reason” period.
For the second one (which at least died within the first 7 days) I requested a refund instead of replacement.
They were impressingly powerful, but not fun to have them die on you ramdomly. And customer service is slow. So if you need to buy from them, buying from Amazon would maybe help to mitigate that.
On the other hand, I have an Asus PN-50, and bought two PN-53 and never got much issue. I had one PN-53 with a weird behaviour, would not turn on, close itself, but the replacement worked fine after. The RMA took like 1-2 month though.
Big problem with the mini-PCs is they tend to use laptop style fans for cooling. Those aren’t designed for 24/7 duty cycle and will get noisy or seize up after a few years. If it’s a white box AliExpress special, good luck finding a compatible replacement.
Fanless “industrial” PCs are a thing, but tend to be fairly expensive. Ultra compact enterprise desktops from HP or Dell are also an option. They have more robust cooling solutions and you can easily source replacement parts.
May sound like a promotion, but somewhere two weeks ago bought an Odroid h3+ for the same reason. My only regret so far was not going for the h4 ultra(and don’t take it the wrong way, my experience with h3 is extremely well so far).
I have an aging MinisForum machine and as many might point out in these forums, MinisForum is well… no longer “cool”
BeeLink, however, has come out with some new hotness.
I would give Wendell’s video a watch and see if it fits your use case.
I second this. I only ever get these from Amazon even if it’s a few bucks more (Though I will say they’ve always actually ended up cheaper on Amazon, esp with the random coupons). It’s worth it for the RMA headache on these companies that have zero localized supoprt.
Is it?
I mean Amazon would be easier only if the issue comes up in the first 30 days no?
Is the outcome that pessimistic?
haha
I guess it’s too early to tell but thanks for the input.
Nah, it’s just generally, if you’re going to have a problem, it’s going to be in the first month. I haven’t had any issues outside of that with any of my stuff.
My usecase:
And that’s on a 10-20w budget(I have power outages, and can use this+tv with a powerstation)
I have a Beelink SER9 that they donated to me to support SteamOS porting/testing, which is still running very nicely. I bought a Minisforum UM780XTX about 3-4 months ago, no issues. Just throwing in mine to help offset the “people without problems tend not to post” factor.
Thanks,
I was also looking for positive feedback.
Seems like Beelink might be a bit more reliable.
I wouldn’t say that. The designs change WAY to much with these companies from model to model. Go by specific model and just make sure it’s been on the market long enough to have a good amount of feedback.