News Fanless Intel N100 stick PC bundles Windows 11, 16GB RAM and 256GB eMMC into a tiny form factor

[Admin]

With an intent to provide a multi-tasking capable general-purpose PC that's small enough to be carried in our pockets, Mele's NEW PCG02 Pro now packs Intel N100 SoC, giving the ability to allow decent enough light computing.

Fanless Intel N100 stick PC bundles Windows 11, 16GB RAM and 256GB eMMC into a tiny form factor : Read more

 

[JamesJones44]

Pretty cool, but eMMC is disappointing. I'm sure that is the best they could do for the price envelope, but my experiences with eMMC have been very disappointing as far as performance goes. Great for secondary storage, but for primary storage it's just too slow.

 

[mac_angel]

these aren't new. They have been around for a few years now at least, just slightly updated specs.

 

[derekullo]

We used a combination of Intel NUC, Asus NUC and Intel Compute Sticks velcroed to the back of a TV for displaying camera feeds from the cameras for different areas of the multiple libraries we serve.

The NUC's still work just fine, but the Intel Compute Sticks which these mirror only lasted for about a year and half before the fan started to go out and staff complained about the noise since it was located just above their circulation desks.

They were never taken off so it was a literal year and a half of uptime before the fans in the Intel Computer Sticks started to go out.

Not having a fan that can fail could make us reconsider them for our future needs.

 

[Notton]

I hope that eMMC is sitting in a M.2 SATA or NVMe slot.
I like that it comes with 16GB of RAM. That's the maximum N100 supports, and is plenty for windows.

 

[wr3zzz]

I would definitely consider getting one if they can get it under 1 lb. Also from a more reputable brand. I need fanless but not if it means the unit is easily fried due to poor design/build.

 

[BleuCheddar]

"the performance of the N100 is close to Skylake flagships without E-Cores"

N100 uses Alder Lake E-Cores which have roughly the equivalent performance of a "flagship Skylake CPU" core, individually. Skylake didn't have E-Cores (those are a new development still) and the wording could mislead an inexperienced reader to think an CPU architecture from 2015 (a.k.a. 6th Gen Core series) had P & E cores-which it did not.

Another way to say it would be "the Alder Lake E-cores that power the N100 have roughly the same performance as the individual cores (the equivalent of today's P-cores) found in Intel's Sky Lake flagship CPUs from 2015."

 

[CelicaGT]

Better off getting one of the dozens of mini PCs on the market. About the size of a current Gen Apple TV but with upgradable RAM and NVMe SSD, same processor and for less money. Recently picked up a Beelink version for the old man, was around 170CAD iirc. As received spec was 8GB RAM, 256GB NVMe Gen3 storage. Dumped in 16GB RAM that was laying about, and a 1TB SATA. For general computing there's no beating the value of these things.

 

[usertests]

Pretty cool, but eMMC is disappointing. I'm sure that is the best they could do for the price envelope, but my experiences with eMMC have been very disappointing as far as performance goes. Great for secondary storage, but for primary storage it's just too slow.

I hope that eMMC is sitting in a M.2 SATA or NVMe slot.
I like that it comes with 16GB of RAM. That's the maximum N100 supports, and is plenty for windows.

The somewhat larger MeLE Quieter4C has an M.2 2280 slot:

MeLE Quieter4C ultrathin fanless Intel N100 mini PC supports up to three displays - CNX Software

MeLE has just launched a new model from its Quieter family with the Quieter4C ultrathin fanless mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder

www.cnx-software.com

I'd get that over this (or more likely some different brand). It's also fanless if that's the requirement.

N100 "unofficially" supports 32 GB of RAM. Intel is not honest about Atom lineups.

Another way to say it would be "the Alder Lake E-cores that power the N100 have roughly the same performance as the individual cores (the equivalent of today's P-cores) found in Intel's Sky Lake flagship CPUs from 2015."

Alder Lake E-cores (Gracemont) have about the same IPC as Skylake cores but are hitting lower clocks, and without hyperthreading. So an N100 is comparable to roughly an i5-6600T, but with a superior iGPU, AV1 hardware decode, etc. It is limited to 32 GB of single-channel (64-bit) memory, sometimes using slower DDR4/LPDDR4(X) instead of LPDDR5/DDR5 to cut costs.

Intel N100 vs i5-6600T vs i7-6700T vs i5-6600K vs i7-6700K [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Without a fan there could be even less performance since an N100 can be made to use over 20 Watts despite the "6 W TDP". Unlike other Alder Lake chips, Intel has been cagey about clocks and base/turbo TDP for Alder Lake-N.

 

[das_stig]

eMMC no thanks, would it have taken much space to put in a small m2 ?

 

[usertests]

eMMC no thanks, would it have taken much space to put in a small m2 ?

This chonky "stick" form factor is for people who think the MeLE Quieter 4C (w/ M.2 2280) is unacceptably large.

It looks large enough that you'd think they could fit 2230/2242 in there, but I guess not.