News Mini PC With Off-Roadmap Intel Processor N95 Chip Appears at Retail

[Admin]

The Intel Processor N95 is a 15W processor with just four Gracemont E-cores. It also comes with Intel UHD Graphics, offering 4K/60Hz support.

Mini PC With Off-Roadmap Intel Processor N95 Chip Appears at Retail : Read more

 

[1_rick]

While potentially interesting, you can get a much more powerful i5-1235u with 16GB of RAM and 500GB of SSD for only about $100 more on Amazon right now. I picked up a Beelink box a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised at just how fast it is. Doesn't beat a high end desktop but it's closer than you'd think for a lot of things.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure calling it off-roadmap is fully accurate. Googling "Intel N95 processor" takes you straight to the Ark page, although if you click the "products formerly Alder Lake" link on that page, you won't find the N95 listed with the other processors, only a 12W N97.

 

[cyrusfox]

More than enough for a grandparent PC, The iGPU acceleration for media decode does all the heavy lifting. Great to see initial MSRP so cheap on this.

I would love to see practically how this compares to the quad cores of old (Every I5 from 2000-7000 generation). I generally usually use old Dell/HP SFF for that purpose, but these small footprints couple with great low introductory price definitely have me looking at these new platforms.

 

[cfbcfb]

I've tinkered around with N5095 and N5105 boxes before, and the "N95" sounds suspiciously like the 5095, which also sports a higher TDP than the N5105, 16 gpu eu's instead of 24, etc.

Far from "grandpas computer", the 5105 with 24 eu's was an excellent performer while the 5095 disappointed, feeling slow, sluggy, and dropping frames on youtube 4k video. I used the 5105 based item as a secondary PC on a tv for media streaming, with a bluetooth remote and xbox controller. Perfect for 4k streaming, it could really handle the load, and not at all disappointing for single tasking everyday computing.

So...you probably want to avoid the 16 eu gpu parts, if you're interested in something that can decode 4k vp9 to a 4k hdmi output without dropping stuff. It surprised me that the 16eu's were that terrible. I had presumed that ANY modern igpu would handle media decode and display @ 4k. Not so.

Where these machines diverge is in the rest of the parts. Sata m.2 ssd's, the occasional single sodimm slot, slow noname memory, and sometimes erratic performance of the usb ports. I had one box that'd have its ethernet "disappear" as though it was a usb peripheral that had been unplugged. Never saw a built in network port just no longer appear in device manager after working for hours. One had a usb port that'd run between super fast and bog slow, depending on what else you were doing. Poor shielding.

And the next thing you know, while spec'ing out something like this with actual modern components and no build/design issues, you start bonking into $300+ price tags and at that point, why wouldn't you buy a used mac mini for a few $ more, and get a far more capable media machine? ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[helper800]

And the next thing you know, while spec'ing out something like this with actual modern components and no build/design issues, you start bonking into $300+ price tags and at that point, why wouldn't you buy a used mac mini for a few $ more, and get a far more capable media machine? ¯\(ツ)/¯

Because at that point you would have a mac.

 

[drajitsh]

Also apple gimped their Mac minis
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/macbook-pro-m2-pro-mac-mini-ssd-downgrade
And macs are designed not be be urgradable or repairable. Why on earth would you buy a 2nd hand Mac

 

[bit_user]

What is this mystery N95 processor?

I've definitely seen it on a roadmap... I forget where, though.

According to this, there's also a N97:

New 2023 N-Series Gracemont CPUs Are a HUGE Upgrade

Intel has nine new Alder Lake-N SKUs as part of its N and X series of efficient core processors with new features and up to 2x the core count

www.servethehome.com

Its TDP is listed at 12 W, in contrast to the N95's 15 W or the N100's 6 W. Interesting theory about them running less efficiently.

One big negative about the Alder Lake N-series is that they're single-channel. Upgrading to DDR5 makes up for some of that, but I guess Intel just decided that so many of its customers implement only 1 channel that why waste die space or pins on the second?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Yeah, I’ll stick with my Beelink with powerful AMD iGPU thanks. Intel can keep their garbage.