A non-Mac Mini PC without a power brick?

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Originally published at: A non-Mac Mini PC without a power brick? | Boing Boing

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I still love my agéd alienware alpha with its hefty power brick. I would gladly pay good money for a similarly small pc with vr-tier graphics. (I don’t do vr, I just enjoy games) Maybe I’ll have to break down and settle for a laptop.

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I’m still not sure why they don’t just make their SFFs a trifle larger and get rid of the line lump that everyone hates; but the one thing that makes me incrementally more accepting of the Dell, HP, and Lenovo ones(but extra-enraged at the Intel NUC ones) is that all the major corporate vendors that do mini-PCs with power bricks at least reuse the connector(and the bricks themselves, except the fairly low wattage ones) with their laptop and docking station bricks.

Things that fall within USB-PD limits will more commonly use that instead; but the mini PCs, docking stations, and higher wattage workstation/gaming laptops will all use the same style brick; which makes doing corporate IT logistics easier.

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I always thought it was a cooling issue. Getting that warm brick out of the case seems like it would make things easier.

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More or less, yes. The last two Lenovo laptops I was issued from work use USB-C thunderbolt connectors and appear to be more or less PD compliant; their docks? they use the same rectangular ‘not a usb’ plug as the last three generations of laptops. and the same brick will power all three docks (not at once, obviously)

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:rofl::joy: This is the writing that keeps me coming back to BB. #TeamBeschizza

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Admittedly special case, but some uses I have desired are to run computers or monitors in the field from battery power.
In those cases. A power brick is super awesome not to have to convert to AC just to rectify it back.

:wink:

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I guess this is the wrong form factor, but these can be somewhat discretely mounted:
https://simplynuc.com/product/nuc12dcmi7-full/

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I keep looking at one of these for my RV for the rare occasion I need a Windows computer on the road. I hate packing up the laptop and bringing it along. It rarely gets pulled out but the first time I don’t have a regular computer with me is the first time I’ll need it.

I’ve also looked at those mini boxes but this thing just seems cool to plug into the TV ans relatively cheap.

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I had one of those for a short time. Before I returned it. So slow running windows that it was basically useless even for basic web browsing. It worked…ok…with Ubuntu, but if you are going to do that just buy a Raspberry Pi - it’s that level of performance

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You know, I think most of these mini PCs come with 65W bricks. It’s basically criminal that they have 2 pound power bricks and proprietary connects when a 4 ounce GaN adapter could deliver that over USB Type C

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I think the hidden catch on these is that HDMI doesn’t supply the power, so you end up with wires everywhere anyway. A Thunderbolt/DP Alt Mode version of those things would be much more reasonable.

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As I recall, the one that I had was usb powered, so I was able to plug it into one of the USB ports on the TV…and it only worked when the TV was on…

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… a monitor does have an appropriate surface-to-volume ratio for a heat sink :thinking:

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I appreciate that it still has a headphone jack. I like technology that just works.

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