"This Is The ONLY Home Server You Should Buy"

This is the

only

home

server

you

should

buy, at least that's what a lot of people keep telling me in the comments section and they're not talking about

this

specific PC, but the n100 CPU inside the Intel n100 is a really impressive processor on the paper. With performance that rivals desktop CPUs from just a few years ago, while

only

having a TDP of 6 Watts, for many people looking to do simple self-hosting, something like

this

is the perfect solution, well, in the today's video I'm going to talk. About what you can expect from this specific Mini PC, as well as many others like it, and see if the inside of the n100 is as good as it looks, and also talk about why this CPU might not be as eco-friendly as you think, let's get started now.

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home

server

s and similar using old hardware. I get a lot of comments asking. why don't I use N1 100 and yes that makes sense in many ways, there are plenty of affordable mini PCS with the n100 and they will probably be more efficient than most of the hardware I cover on this channel and It's not that I didn't want to cover a n100.

I've just been busy and haven't been able to do it, but today is today. If you go to a website like Amazon, you can find so many models of mini PCS n100. as there are brand changes for the usb3 spec but while looking to buy a camera ruy reached out and offered to send his ak2 plus mini now as with any other brand that ships hardware camera, ruy had no say in what say. the topics I cover or my opinions on this PC and they don't get to see it until you do hopefully if you've been watching my channel for a while you know I strive to be honest and transparent but if you don't Trust me, that goes a long way. meaning and I understand it.

You probably

should

n't do this, but I hope I can give you some useful information. Obviously, the Ak-2 plus mini features the n100 with four Alder Lake efficiency cores capable of boosting to 3.4 GHz, four threads, and 3.4 GHz. GHz probably doesn't sound like much, but the point of the n100 is to be efficient. Alter Lake's ecores are not as powerful as their urine counter parts, but they are still very competent, especially compared to the older processors, the ak2 plus. Mini also comes with 16GB of DDR4 memory as well as a 512m.2 SATA drive. There's only one memory slot, but that's because the M100 only supports single-channel memory, so having a second socket doesn't really provide much value. and this includes a SATA m.2 drive instead of nvme because, well, they have to be affordable somehow.

The ak2 plus mini is currently only $170 and has been available at an even cheaper price and the only way this is really possible is for the manufacturer to cut costs. where they can and this becomes really apparent when you just pick this up, the whole system weighed just 383G which is less than double the weight of an HP Elite G3 mini desktop and still lighter than even the cotus mind I recently covered which is Substantially smaller, almost the entire case is made of plastic and feels quite cheap. I mean, just listen now, obviously a plastic case means nothing in terms of performance or even usability, and I know most of you watching this video probably won't.

I don't care, but I wanted to let you know anyway that the ak2 has pretty minimal I/O with just two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2 gigabit Ethernet ports, a combo audio jack, and a barrel jack for DC power. It now has two HDMI ports, which would be great for office use, but for more Home Server stuff, I personally would have loved to see the dual Nix which can be found on systems with similar prices and specifications. I would have also loved to see at least one Type C port at least on the outside now. One thing I loved about this is the easy access to the internal parts, just slide a small locking tab to open the top and you can easily access the 2 and 1/2 inch drive bay after removing just three screws , you can access the only DDR4.

The sodm connector and also this weird USBC port which as far as I know does nothing, having easy access to both the RAM and 2 and 1/2 in Drive Bay is great but things got a little more complicated when Trying to replace the boot drive, you have to disassemble the entire case and take out the other motherboard, which is a bit annoying outside of the camera. I actually broke one of the Wi-Fi antenna connectors just trying to maneuver the motherboard out of the case, now realistically it's not. that's hard to do, especially compared to working on a laptop or something for example, and realistically I should have been a little more cautious, but it still would have been nice to have easier access to the m slot. 2, The motherboard was pretty much a simple small single board PC without much in terms of additional expandability, the Wi-Fi module is soldered on, so don't worry about adding any m.2 e key devices, the board it actively cools and I have to give Cam I want some credit here because during testing I don't think I heard this Once granted, it's probably not that hard to cool a 6 watt TDP chip and that's pretty much all there is to say about it. this Mini PC, so let's talk about how it works and the n100 worked.

I started with Windows 11, which was pre-installed, and as you would expect with any modern CPU, basic use was fast and enjoyable. Now I've seen a lot of places online where people compare the performance of the n100 to something like the i56500 I didn't have that specific CPU on hand but I have my HP Elite mini G3 desktop which has an i5 6500t and I thought this would be a pretty apt comparison Starting with the R15 cabin, the n100 was actually 11% slower than the I5 6500t. I switched to the much newer cinebench R23 to see if things could improve there, but not really, the n100 was 16% slower slower than the previous I5, at least when running the multi-threaded test when switching to the single-threaded test.

The n100 was 12% faster. I also ran PC Mark 10 or the systems performed fairly similarly. The n100 system performed a little better in the essentials category, which is likely due to its better CPI and new integrated graphics. The old I5 took the lead in the content category. probably thanks to its better multithreaded performance, so the n100 was no faster than a low power desktop chip from 8 years ago, so it was much more efficient, sure, yes and no when idle in Windows. 2 plus mini drew 6 watts from the wall, while the HP Elite desktop drew 7.4 watts when under load although running cinebench R15, the n100 system consumed 56% less power than the G3 mini and was only 11% slower, so the idle power consumption of both these systems were practically the same, the n100 system was much more efficient when running a heavy workload, but this runs Windows and you guys don't care about Windows.

They want to know how it runs Linux and how it works as a home server. To keep things simple, I installed Debian with Kasa OS so I could quickly spin up some containers. I ran Home Assistant Jelly Fin Adguard Home and Crafty and also set up an SMB share and did all that without any problems. I came across a really cool one. The important thing when setting up Jelly Fen is that this integrated GPU does a great job of trans-coating. It's not based on the newer Iris XE graphics, but it still handles transcoding duties very well.

I was able to transcode to a 10-bit 4K hvvc stream at over 100 frames per second and by enabling VPP tone mapping the M100 still got over 80 frames per second so the n100 is really impressive for transcoding as well that if you are streaming with Jelly Fin or Plex or MB and you want to have really big files and transcoding them on the n100 is going to be a great option for that, now the CPU showed a little weakness when running a basic minecraft server, every time running very fast to generate new terrain, I saw the CPU increase a lot. 70% now I didn't really notice any problems in the game, but I was also alone, regardless of whether you run a Minecraft server with this, there are ways to optimize things and you could probably get it to work pretty well, but you could run into problems.

If you're looking to run large or busy servers while running all of these services but the Minecraft server, the ak2 plus mini only pulled four watts from the wall, which is really impressive until I installed the exact same setup on the HP Elite G3 desktop. mini and I saw that it only took 5 Wat out of the wallet idle, now clearly the older I5 will consume more power when actually doing things so the n100 PC is even more efficient and by buying a more efficient PC you will be saving money and saving the environment, so that's it for this, thank you all so much for watching and see you in the next one, well it's not that simple, I'm sure something new will be more efficient and therefore save you money . on your energy bill, but how much and if you already own something or can find something used for half the price, let's say what will be the most affordable option, well, that starts to get really complicated, especially if you're not just trying to figure out what It will save you more money but will also be better for the environment.

Let's jump over to my computer and take a look at a few things real quick. Well, I'm here in front of my computer and I have this little calculator stopped because I find this kind of stuff funny, maybe not and I apologize, but yeah, let's dive into it, so here I have my two PCS, the I5 with the 6500t and the one with the n100, and what we can do is I can give you some idle power consumption numbers here, as we go with our Linux numbers, five and four, and this will generate how many kilowatt hours per day, but we have to give it a cost, where I live is about 12 cents per kilowatt hour. but let's go with something like 35 that might be more representative of something in oh no $35 jeez 35 that might be more representative of somewhere in Europe, for example, and then we can give it a number of years, let's say over the course of 3 years and We can see that with this energy cost in more than 3 years we would be paying approximately $36 or $37 for the n100 PC and 46 for the I5 6500t, but we also have to think about the cost for which we are buying these systems. for the M100 PC, you know if we spent $170 on that Camu ak2 and then let's say I feel like it's probably fair that you can find the HP Elite desktop with an SSD for around $100, if not less, so if we put that value in we can Let's see that Over the course of 3 years, even paying 35 per kilowatt hour, we would be spending more money on the newer system now to be clear, these numbers are not exact, this is not an exact science, it is just a rough idea. of what some of these costs might actually look like and I find it useful to put things into a spreadsheet like this to get a better idea of ​​what we would actually spend if we were looking at these two options now to be fair, these systems are probably not going to be completely idle all the time, so let's give some numbers here, like maybe six watts for the n100 and let's go up to 15 for the I5 6500.

Let's not say that every once in a while they are processing some data and they are going to consume a little more power , now we can see that over the course of 3 years at that power cost we're going to spend a little less on the n100 overall compared to the older I5 system and then we go crazy here. Let's say we're running Camin R15 non-stop so we'll put those numbers in and we can see that over the course of 3 years we're definitely going to pay more for the old system, but now I'm curious because where I live. power is pretty cheap so let's change this to 12 cents per kilowatt hour and over the course of 3 years running CCH R15 constantly all of those prices are really similar if we only ran it for 2 years you would actually be saving money by going for The older system is much less efficient, so it isIt's important to consider both the initial cost of the PC you're looking at and the long-term cost of energy, and that will change depending on the cost of electricity where you are. but I don't just want to talk about how much this is going to cost you.

I like to talk about the environmental impact of these PCS and this is not because I get up on my soapbox and talk about climate change and all that, but I get the comment quite often when I talk about older computers that I should throw them away. garbage, they belong in a landfill. I need to use something newer that's more efficient because it's better for the environment, which is interesting because I feel like people don't take into account the environmental manufacturing cost of those newer systems. If you look at virtually any study that covers the environmental impact of computer manufacturing and use, virtually all of them say exactly the same thing. which is manufacturing and shipping are much more harmful to the environment than long term use and generally the recommendations of any article you have posted.

What we have seen is that we should try to repair and reuse things when possible instead of buying new things because that encourages the making of new materials, which has a much bigger impact on the environment, so I made this other little calculator that I think is fun and very similarly, we have our consumption of energy in kilowatt hours per year, but now we're looking at pounds of CO2 emissions per year and I have this manufacturer cost here, which to be clear, there was a manufacturing cost in the previous I5 system, but if you buy that product from second hand, we're not actually incentivizing a company to make another product, so this value is zero and then this £330 value I got here was about half of most estimates I saw for a laptop, which It will be a laptop. much worse because you are also making a screen so this is just a guess, again these are not exact numbers, it is not an exact science, but I tried to get a rough estimate based on what I could find on the internet that the manufacturer of a Mini PC like this might have in terms of CO2 emissions, that's where this number 330 comes from.

Down here we can put the number of years, so you know, let's say two years whatever, but then these pounds of CO2 . Emissions per kilowatt hour depend a lot on the type of power generation we are talking about, because there are very clean types of electricity generation, but there are also types of electricity generation that are not clean, so, for example, coal everywhere I found it was around 2.2 pounds of CO2. per kilowatt hour, so let's do 2.2 let's assume that all of our electricity comes from coal generation and we go with our oh, we could start with the rough numbers here, let's do 4118, this is our workbench running all the time and you can See Over the course of 2 years, even without any manufacturer costs, our I5 system is causing 1580 lb of CO2 emissions versus 10.24, so in this case the older system is much worse for the environment than the newer system, but what if we change our numbers to something like idle power consumption running Linux, so let's say four watts and 5 watts and we'll even increase this.

I'll say like 7.4 I don't know, again, these are not exact numbers. I'm just giving an idea, you know, I'll come back to it. I think we did 15 and five, these are pretty generous for the n100 here if we take into account mainly idle power consumption but also occasionally running a workload and We can see that over the course of two years it's once again closer, but the I5 system is worse for the environment than the n100, but that assumes our electricity is generated entirely from coal, where I live for example, most of our energy comes from natural sources.

Gas followed by a very close second from wind energy, which everywhere I've read, natural gas only emits about a pound of CO2 per kilowatt hour generation and now this number is starting to look very different and , realistically, depending on where I live, wind generation is located. is in second place and is closer to zero, so this number could be less than one, but we will stick with one and over the course of two years we can see that the cost of emissions just in terms of CO2 emissions is substantially worse when you take into account the n100, let's increase it to about 5 years, okay, now, over 5 years, we are looking at something different.

Four years, we can play with this a little bit, but again, if we just go with the direct idol running our server, no. running any type of workload very often over the course of 20 years, it will take a long time before yes, okay, 50 years, 40 years, let's see well, it will take 38 years before the old I5 has a worse impact on the environment than the n100 and this also does not take into account the other computer component manufacturing problems such as waste water and rare earth element mining and labor problems. There's a lot more involved than just CO2 emissions, but I thought it was interesting to bring this up. real data and see what the impact could be and if you just look at CO2 emissions, by far the manufacturing stage is the worst contributor to emissions, so by reusing older equipment where possible and discouraging companies to make more components is actually making a better impact on the environment in terms of CO2 emissions by using older, less efficient hardware now, once again, I'm not on my soapbox here.

I'm not telling you not to buy new computers. I buy new computers all the time, but yes The reasoning is fine. I'm buying this new computer because it will be more efficient and therefore less expensive for me to use and better for the environment. It's probably a good idea to put some thought into both aspects to make sure you're actually achieving what you want to achieve, so I hope this was helpful. Let's get back to where I'm in front of the camera, if you're looking for a new PC to run a home server on anything with an n100.

It's going to be a very good option because let's be honest, most of us when we build home servers spend way too much on CPU resources, for me at least I've realized that most of the things I run can get by without a whole ton of horsepower. CPU and something like this will probably do the job just fine, plus it's really efficient and you get some nice perks like the integrated GPU which handles transcoding really well; However, if you are running some things that are really demanding on the CPU, you may find that this is not powerful enough and you should also take into account some of the other limitations of the CPU, such as memory channels and pcie lanes, because it only supports one memory channel; many of the devices you buy it in are only going to have one slot, which will make upgradeability a little more difficult and because the CPU only supports nine gen 3 PCI lanes, even if you buy an ITX motherboard cool like this, you'll be limited in what you can do in terms. of expandability too because of the race to zero to have the 100th cheapest PC you can buy, there's a good chance you'll end up with something that's a bit Yes, I want to thank camur for sending this to me to take Take a look and If you're looking for one of these and you don't need dual Nicks and can find them for a good price, it's a pretty decent option now if you're interested in other types of home servers, perhaps.

Watch this video here as always, thank you all so much for watching, especially my RAID members are curious and can't wait to see you in the next one.