Microsoft's own fanless NUC

Coming in April 2025: The $349 Windows 365 Link, a tiny desktop computer powered by an unspecified Intel processor. "It’s compact, lightweight, and designed to maximize productivity with its highly responsive performance. It takes seconds to boot and instantly wakes from sleep, allowing users to quickly get started or pick up where they left off on their Cloud PC. With dual 4K monitor support, four USB ports, an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3". The mini PC is cloud-based, which means that your files are stored on third-party servers, raising concerns about data privacy and security (Who really owns your data in a cloud-based system? Who has the authority to allow or deny access to your files?). On top of that, the Windows 365 Link is subscription-based. Hard pass. 

Source: Microsoft

The N100 ZBOX is a hot mess

"This is the second time I bought the CI337 and the second time I am returning it.

I am currently running on a Zotac CI327 and thought this would be the perfect upgrade for my home server. I've run it for about 8 years now on Ubuntu 16, 18, and now Ubuntu 22 All I have to do is swap out the SATA SSD to the new unit and run.

The first time was from NewEgg. That unit worked for about 15 minutes, then crashed. It booted a few more times, but would crash in under 5 minutes. Then I couldn't even get it to POST to go into the BIOS.

This time, I bought it from Amazon. I even bought memory from the official list of tested RAM listed in the Zotac support page to give it the best chance at stability. (There's a file in the download section that lists them. I bought the Crucial RAM 16GB DDR5 4800MHz CL40 Laptop Memory CT16G48C40S5 from Amazon.

I had the same sort of problems with it crashing/locking up in under 15 minutes, but this time I could always get into the BIOS, so I wasn't sunk.

To give it the best chance possible, I installed a new copy of Ubuntu 24.04 on a new SSD. Then I installed BOINC and set it working on tasks. It ran at full load for 1 hour and 43 minutes before the screen went blank and it turned off with a red power LED."

Source: Amazon 

Fanless Bitcoin mining

Bitaxe is the world’s first open-source ASIC miner, allowing customization and community-driven development. Bitaxe offers a very accessible way to get involved in Bitcoin mining, and we have to say that these custom heat sinks look particularly good.

Source: Power Mining 

Versatile i3-N305 mini PC

The $329.90 X86-P5 is a compact, NUC-sized, fanless mini PC designed as a network firewall appliance (or a capable mini desktop PC). Powered by the Intel Core i3-N305 processor, it supports high-speed networking with two 2.5GbE LAN ports and WiFi 6/Bluetooth connectivity. This barebone system requires additional RAM, SSD storage, and an operating system like OPNsense to function. 

Source: Amazon

Inside the Shuttle DS50U7

The DS50U7 features the 15W Intel Core i7-1355U processor, and supports up to 96GB of DDR5 memory, as well as two M.2 slots and one 2.5" bay for storage expansion. The DS50U7 offers exceptional connectivity, including 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, multiple USB ports, and support for dual 4K displays. Cooling is handled by an aluminum side panel (which houses a 6mm copper heat pipe). Shuttle's fanless PCs are always reliable and very well made, we gladly recommend them.

Source: TheLab.gr

Cincoze rugged Intel 12th Gen low profile computer

The Cincoze P2202 is specifically engineered for industrial IoT edge computing, with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5/i3U-series (Alder Lake P) processor. The U-series features an impressively low 15W power consumption while providing excellent performance, with up to 10 cores (2x Performance + 8x Efficient), and Intel Iris Xe® graphics for use in a wide range of compute-intensive operations like image classification AI inference. This performance and flexibility makes the P2202 ideal for production data collection and processing in smart factories and on mobile equipment.

The P2202’s compact design makes it perfect for space-constrained installation locations, like inside machinery or tooling, control cabinets, and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). The P2202 complies with the industrial-grade EMC standards EN 61000-6-4 and EN 61000-6-2. It has also passed vibration and shock reliability tests for random vibration (5G), sinusoidal vibration (1G), and shock resistance (50G). With a wide operating temperature range of -40°C to 70°C, the P2202 can be depended on to provide reliable computing in a variety of rugged environments.

To support Wi-Fi, 4G, GNss, and Bluetooth connections for data transmission on mobile applications, the P2202 comes with mini PCIe and M.2 Key E slots. Quad independent display connectivity (CDS/HDMI/DP/VGA) can support a variety of graphical display and visualization needs. Onboard I/O, including 2x LAN, 4x COM, 4x USB, and 16x DIO provides diverse expandability for different application needs.

Source: OnLogic 

Fully passive homelab

"Finally put together my dream homeserver. A fully silent, energy efficient, passively cooled server. Specs are: • I5-13500T • Asus Prime Z790M Plus • 64GB DDR5-5200 • 2x 2TB TG Cardea Zero Z440 VM drives • 1x 480GB Samsung SM863a Bootdrive • 2,5G I226-V NIC • 250W HDplex GaN PSU • HDPlex H3 Case

It works like a charm, CPU, SSDs and Chipset hover around 30-40C (22C ambient). I am really impressed with the capabilites and quality of the case. (which it should I guess, given the price). The server currently runs Proxmox with 8 LXCs and 2 VMs, idling at 10-12W and using up to 35-40W under load. Sometime in the future I would like to add 3x 8TB SSDs for an extensive jellyfin/plex library, but this is out of my (already too high) budget."

Source reddit 

The return of the nettop

Inspired by thin clients, the vertical nettop form factor used to be very popular at the end of the 2000s with best-selling mini PCs like the ASUS Eeebox or the Acer Aspire Revo. This $190 N100-powered mini PC brings this form factor back, and we love it. We're not entirely sure about the heat sink itself, which looks to be part of the chassis, but the vertical design is definitely perfect for convection.

60kg fanless music server

"The final production version of the Olympus Server is based on the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960x (24 core) and ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WiFi motherboard, with 64GB of memory.

Other than the motherboard + CPU + Optane storage, there is nothing off the shelf to be found. At the front of the unit is an extensive Taiko proprietary battery and power management system. On the right is a massive Taiko power supply for charging the two battery power supplies (BPS). On the PCIe bus is a Taiko NIC, and a Taiko XDMI board with analog output daughter card. There is also a drop-dead gorgeous passive cooling system (no fans here) for the CPU, charging supply, and batteries."

Source: Audiophile Style 

Maxwell Pro Plus installation guide

Courtesy of Akasa