Any favorite "off brand" NUCs you've tried?

[phaZed]

I'm not saying anyone is wrong - but I have sold a few Beelink's in the past (6-12 months back) and I was able to reload Windows and didn't have any issues with licensing, so something may have changed?

Looking back at my orders, it was this one:
"Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12 Intel 12th N95(Up to 3.4GHz), 8GB DDR4 256GB M.2 SSD, Desktop Computers Support 4K Dual HDMI Display/USB3.2/1000Mbps LAN/WOL Home/Office"

 

[Sky-Knight]

I'm not saying anyone is wrong - but I have sold a few Beelink's in the past (6-12 months back) and I was able to reload Windows and didn't have any issues with licensing, so something may have changed?

Looking back at my orders, it was this one:
"Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12 Intel 12th N95(Up to 3.4GHz), 8GB DDR4 256GB M.2 SSD, Desktop Computers Support 4K Dual HDMI Display/USB3.2/1000Mbps LAN/WOL Home/Office"

That's specifically the model I used, and on reloading one of them I had to contact BeeLink to get their image to redeploy it after an SSD failure.

I honestly expected it to be as simple as, new SSD, insert Windows 11 USB, install, click I don't have a key, pick Pro... move on. Sadly, that didn't work.

 

[fincoder]

From my post on the 1st page:

I suspect the other reason for being so cheap is their OS licensing arrangement. I have no idea what that arrangement is, but they're certainly not buying a license for each PC in the normal sense. They don't come with a license key sticker, and they don't have embedded license in the BIOS, but they're sold with Windows 11 preinstalled and activated. If a reinstalled OS doesn't reactivate automatically by Microsoft servers or account, apparently the mini PC owner needs to contact the company (e.g. Beelink) by email and request a license key that might only work once. That licensing seems dodgy to me and is the main reason I don't resell these generic mini PCs to customers.

If they have no product key sticker or embedded license, they aren't properly licensed. I'd happily use them for personal or even in-house use, but I don't re-sell them. The low cost of the hardware also implies they don't include a Windows license.

Interestingly, I just checked amazon.com.au and checked the two generic mini PC brands that are also sold by a small distributor I use, xitdistribution.com.au. The brands are Beelink and Mele. Amazon no longer mentions any Windows OS, in the product details it says "OS: OS" or "OS: OS-P" (presumably implying Windows 11 Pro). The distributor still mentions Windows 11 Pro for the same models, probably being B2B they haven't got a letter from Microsoft's legal department like Amazon might have.

 

[HCHTech]

I usually can still find some solid deals for business refurb on ebay if I look a little bit.

Late to this party, but I would look for refurbed Lenovo M70q or M75q's. There is always a small selection on Amazon every time I have had to dip into this market to help a customer with no budget for a new computer. We've probably done 4 or 5 over the last month.

 

[lan101]

Late to this party, but I would look for refurbed Lenovo M70q or M75q's. There is always a small selection on Amazon every time I have had to dip into this market to help a customer with no budget for a new computer. We've probably done 4 or 5 over the last month.

Looks like a nice variety of those on ebay. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[GTP]

Dave Plummer discusses the "Best Mini PC Yet?" on Dave's Garage

 

[John Kennedy]

I prefer Minisforum. I buy them all the time and deploy them in businesses. They rarely have problems and the support I've needed has been ok. The products are often featured on many established tech YouTube channels, which is how I heard about them. Solid bang for the buck all around.

I stay away from Beelink. I've had so many problems with them. Machines that wouldn't update properly and when I reinstalled Windows, couldn't find a valid license from Microsoft. Slowness out of the blue for no apparent reason. Cheap fans. Power issues. Every Beelink I've ever deployed had some sort of problem. I was recommended them by a colleague at a different company that has had no problems, though. Your mileage may vary.

Any time I ever had to reinstall Windows on a Minisforum machine, it found the Windows 11 Pro license without a problem.

Example machine: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9NNLVLR

 

[britechguy]

Thanks to all for the ongoing exchange of experiences and information. This is definitely a market segment that's "dynamic" to say the least, and certain players are almost bound to be pushed out while others become "established brands" in that segment.