Why do these exist?

It's been a while since I have looked at a tiny thin client style PC, so I found these two on Amazon... were they worth it? You can check them out at the links below.

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○○○○○○ Items featured in this video available at Amazon ○○○○○○

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[blahblahblah]

The audience for these things is people running small home servers that are tired of messing with Raspberry Pis.

[JeffRevell]

I use a CNC router in my shop for woodworking. I used to control the CNC with a laptop but that died and I needed a replacement. I purchased a BMAX and mounted it to the back of a monitor to use as my CNC controller. While I wouldn't do any serious computing on it, it does work well as my CNC controller. It has decent WiFi connectivity, which I need for the CNC. After two years of living in my dusty shop it still is performing well. I think computers like these have their place as long as you don't overestimate their capabilities.

[autiebleSam]

At my work, we've found good use for these as a one-trick pony. These little nodes basically run a kiosk; the user taps their ID on the reader and the node grants them access to a beefier machine that runs a scanner (e.g. an MRI). We can't install the software directly on the bigger computer as it interferes with the computer's main function (and we can't control the vendor's maintenance schedule) so we just get one of these that will lock the computer.

[ABaumstumpf]

The Bmax is a media-box/thin-client. They are not meant to be used for gaming or anything like that. Even as an office-machine these are plenty of capable but that requires an IT-department or at least somebody with some basic knowledge on how to configure windows.
At our local technical university they had some real thin-clients and switched to these mini-PC thinclients cause those were just marginally more expensive but far easier to setup and manage (and we were not bound to specific software and hardware vendors).

[patricketheridge]

I've used those mini PC's a few times in industrial applications, no moving parts and locked up in a cabinet.

[shattered_helix]

I can tell you a use case for these machines that I have experienced firsthand. My aunt works for a medical billing company, and she works remote, so the company provided her with one of these little mini computers because all that has to do is run a couple of web pages and web interfaces, and drive two monitors. These machines are cheap and perfect for that kind of application.

[AznPhatty]

My mom is 76 years old. I got her a mini PC since her previous computer was like 12 years old. I got the N100 processor with 16 GB RAM all for $159. Not a bad deal. All she does is read emails, watch some videos online and that's about it. No need to spend more money. I even mounted it to the back of her monitor. If you need something cheap to use as a media center, then I would consider something like this. Gets the job done.

[johnnybaird]

Mine sits on top of my telescope and provides all the software needed for capturing images and controlling everything. Couldn’t live without it.

[davebauer]

I got one for $280. It has a ryzen 5800h I think with 16 gigs of ram. Has been our Minecraft server for the family for a year and a half. She does her job well 24/7!

[KienTran]

The n100 chip has been a huge game changer for home servers with its native HEVC hardware encode/decode and highly efficient power usage. You can run an entire Plex stack while it sips power. Connect it to a low power NAS box and it’s a perfect combo

[ericchandler]

These are perfect for basic office use and for people that only need laptop power, but don't want to spend laptop money, ruin a battery, and don't want a large desktop!

[Haksdo]

Jay, the fact that you don't see a usecase for that lowend machine doesn't mean there aren't any. These things are meant for minimal usecases where other options are too expensive and/or where people otherwise wouldn't have bought a pc. Using this as your daily driver, even as a pure office pc...no, I would get the other one for 50 or 60 dollars more.

But if you want to setup a most basic domotics server, or home assistant server, or converting an old beamer into a somewhat useable device for watching a movie outside on your porch/deck, or even using it in an office just for remoting into your virtual desktop, that thing is excellent. For those usecases, if it gets the job done in a somewhat decent fashion it's fine, lowest cost and lowest power consumption then is king.
Deploying 200 or 500 of those machines in a callcenter for remoting into your VMs, it makes a hell of a difference if they are 109 or 169 dollar.

[Chatagorath]

I bought a lenovo ThinkCentre M93P remanufactured last year before a back surgery that made me bed bound for a month and I use it just for internet surfing and YouTube and twitch on my TV. I upgraded the 8 gigabytes of RAM to 16 gigabytes of RAM and the processor. And I freaking love the thing!

[WrackPharmd]

I bought my dad a Chewi Larkbox X for Xmas. I got it in a Black Friday sale for around $169. It does everything he needs it to do: email, internet browsing and Zoom calls. He even has it mounted to the back of his monitor with the kit that came with it. He’s also been tinkering with Linux on it via a USB C drive. I 100% recommend it for anybody in your family over like 70 who you have to help with computers. It has great IO and very few moving parts aside from a fan.

[DOdoubleNY]

I have two of them. One I turned one into a Linux Debian 12 Owncloud server. It only has 4 GB of ram and a N4200. But I connected a multi drive storage bay with 24 TBs of space and it works perfect! The other one I have has AMD 5500U with 16 GBs of Ram and 512 GB space. I connected a 4 TB external drive to it and use it as my Plex Server. It works like a dream. They are just a really solid solution for building servers that manage media. Thanks for doing this video. I was curious about the N95. Looks pretty darn goodfor the price.

[NeoTrantor]

Super appreciate the streaming gaming pc angle. I’ve been trying to get a solution like that for living room/bedroom for a while and refuse to get a console. Seeing the capabilities of these machine for that task was awesome. Thanks Jay!

[norkshit]

every time i see jay transform into an admiral i can’t help but laugh my butt off. you guys always have the funniest ad reels!

[Nix-]

I have one to “borrow” software online

[wolf]

Actually we have good use-case for this mini PCs. In industrial manufacturing plant just shove it behind 4K TV to run monitoring software - production plan, truck turns, HR announcements, etc. In corporate environment you need something that can run Up to date OS (Windows 10 support will end in October 2025) and for easy management capable to join company domain. This kind of PC is perfect.

[GaryGreene]

Agreed with the fact that they are really aimed at home lab environments. The one that has an eMMC would likely be MUCH snappier as a Linux box than a Windows machine