The available power budget and memory bandwidth will be the limiting factors for those new APU-s, just like for the current generation. Given the performance requirements that I have seen for VR I don't think the new APU-s will be able to reach that performance level.
For something less demanding it could be OK, not sure where your use case would fit in the performance requirement scale though.
LowSpecGamer did an experiment with VR and Ryzen APU-s, if you want to get an idea of what performance to expect: https://youtu.be/huT6fp7nzwA
I wholly support projects like these but I wonder if wanting to do the right thing is enough.
Large hardware companies have lots of resources to invest in reviewing and testing their products, even though they don’t prioritize the ideals of Librem.
Not parent but I think I made the step too early. Since I got my MacBook Pro in 2016, I decided to replace my cables with USB-C versions. That's all very nice, but now I prefer new hardware to have as much USB-C ports as possible.
A nitpick: The Mac mini doesn’t have an external power brick right? So this isn’t really smaller than a Mac mini, it just moves the power supply outside the computer.
I like what Purism is doing in regard to disabling the Intel ME and having more open source boot components, but there’s something about the company that rubs me the wrong way (especially with the continual overpromising on the Librem 5, and really, releasing it in its current state at all).
That’s not really how their marketing website frames it.
It says it’s a great choice for parents, enterprises and businesses of all sizes.
It’s got a shop now link and you can add the phone to your cart, shipping in 6 months. The batch FAQ says that every phone shipped is a high quality smartphone despite the “loose fit” components.
> Q: If I receive the Librem 5 from one of the first batches, will I have a fully functional phone?
> A: Yes! Even the very earliest batches will be capable smartphone, including a modern web browser and core cell phone functionality.
In contrast, reviews from as recent as March 2020 state that the phone can’t make phone calls and the battery lasts for about two hours maximum:
Look, I want this kind of phone as much as the next person, but that doesn’t mean I want to buy it from a company that is misleading at best about its capabilities. I know that smartphone hardware, especially smartphone hardware with custom open source components, is not easy. But this is a prototype-level device that shouldn’t be marketed in this way. It should be called the “Librem 5 preview development kit“ at best.
Their marketing is definitely not perfect, but the early batches do have a web browser and core cell phone functionality. Even though the latter not from the very start. Phone calls already work according to several Youtube reviews.
Battery life is definitely still a problem. But software updates should significantly improve it. The main problem is that all CPUs are constantly on even when the screen is off...
Otherwise, in 6 month we indeed expect the final batch usable by "parents, enterprises and businesses of all sizes".
I, and many others, ended up funding puri.sm to actually undertake this project. Which included hiring a bunch of people full time to work on the software on all layers of the stack.
Today we have a much different landscape with pinephone and others working to slowly release phones too.
My take is that we needed this kickstart of the libre-phone movement. They started it, before them there was nothing relevant going on. They obviously didn't do it alone, far from it. But they showed there was real money to be made, they pushed consistently and had actual people do the hard work.
So, even though I have not actually received an actual piece of hardware, I'm still happy I funded their campaign. I may not get a great piece of hardware, but I did get a lot of worth for my money.
Hmmm.... I definitely need a "secure", separated computer like that. The presented form factor is ideal, but the price is meh. 1,177 USD for 32GB RAM and a nice 512GB NVMe storage. That's too much. It's the same problem like with that German company that sells workstations with Coreboot, also for a little bit too much.
I need at least 24GB RAM and a good NVMe drive for Qube OS. The processor isn't that much important, though. I could live with i5 as well.
The best solution I came up with for now is an old Intel Core 2 Quad processor + old Asus motherboard (Coreboot supported) that supports 32GB of RAM. Plus an NVMe drive on a PCI slot. The good side is that it's commonly known Core 2 Quad was the last "secure" Intel processor. Yet it's old and will be a little bit to slow for extensive virtualization.
People know a thing or two about Coreboot and Libreboot, but they don't realize that's still a wild west of computing. You either go with old platforms like the one I have mentioned, or you can choose from the offerings of a couple of quirky vendors that by definition must overprice their hardware.
Those vendors and their new platforms (Purism is one of them) use some custom methods to cripple Intel Management Engine and switch UEFI to Coreboot. I'm not sure how secure the result of that process is to be honest.
With old platforms it's always problem with motherboards supporting more than 8GB RAM. Kinda sad :(
The support from Coreboot isn't that great. It fits within the abovely mentioned problems.
If you have better ideas than me (complaining for the pricing and security status of new solutions like the one from Purism vs. suffering from virtualization low performance from old processors that are IME free) - please let me know. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'd be so happy to be able to get a new mini PC with let's say an AMD processor, deprived of RAM, SSD, etc.,; but also reasonably priced and PROVEN THAT the vendor managed to kill IME and implemented Coreboot properly...
29 comments
[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 93.3 ms ] threadThe double M2-SSD and double 2.5" SATA for RAID is also great in such a tiny box.
I really hope a new BIOS will make it compatible with the Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs when they arrive later this year.
For something less demanding it could be OK, not sure where your use case would fit in the performance requirement scale though.
LowSpecGamer did an experiment with VR and Ryzen APU-s, if you want to get an idea of what performance to expect: https://youtu.be/huT6fp7nzwA
Noctua NH-L9A-AM4, 37mm Premium Low-profile CPU Cooler for AMD AM4 (Brown) £36.17 incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-NH-L9A-AM4-Premium-Low-profi...
ASRock USB 2.0 Header to 2 x USB 2.0 Cable for DeskMini Series Chassis £10.93 Incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-Cable-Deskmini-Mini-Stx-Chas...
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G Processor (4C/8T, 6MB cache, 4.2GHz Max Boost) with Radeon™ RX Vega 11 Graphics £139.99 incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SXNDKNM/?tag=pcp0f-21
Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance Solid State Drive (SB-ROCKET-1TB) £109.99 incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07LGF54XR/?tag=pcp0f-21&th=1
ASRock DeskMini A300 Mini PC Barebone for Socket AM4 £146.94 incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P9GL1LN/?tag=pcp0f-21
ASRock Wi-Fi Kit for DeskMini Series Chassis, includes 2 x Antennas £29.42 incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-Wi-Fi-DeskMini-Chassis-Anten...
2 x ADATA AD4S2666316G19-S 16GB DDR4 2666 MHz Memory Module - Memory Modules (16GB, 1x 16GB, DDR4, 2666MHz, 260-pin SO-DIMM) 2 x £73.12 incl. VAT https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADATA-AD4S2666316G19-S-16GB-Memory-...
Cost from a few months ago - £619.68
Large hardware companies have lots of resources to invest in reviewing and testing their products, even though they don’t prioritize the ideals of Librem.
Is this really a net win?
I like what Purism is doing in regard to disabling the Intel ME and having more open source boot components, but there’s something about the company that rubs me the wrong way (especially with the continual overpromising on the Librem 5, and really, releasing it in its current state at all).
It was not actually released to the general public yet. Only limited batches with opt-in.
It says it’s a great choice for parents, enterprises and businesses of all sizes.
It’s got a shop now link and you can add the phone to your cart, shipping in 6 months. The batch FAQ says that every phone shipped is a high quality smartphone despite the “loose fit” components.
> Q: If I receive the Librem 5 from one of the first batches, will I have a fully functional phone?
> A: Yes! Even the very earliest batches will be capable smartphone, including a modern web browser and core cell phone functionality.
In contrast, reviews from as recent as March 2020 state that the phone can’t make phone calls and the battery lasts for about two hours maximum:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/librem-5-review-the-lin...
Look, I want this kind of phone as much as the next person, but that doesn’t mean I want to buy it from a company that is misleading at best about its capabilities. I know that smartphone hardware, especially smartphone hardware with custom open source components, is not easy. But this is a prototype-level device that shouldn’t be marketed in this way. It should be called the “Librem 5 preview development kit“ at best.
Battery life is definitely still a problem. But software updates should significantly improve it. The main problem is that all CPUs are constantly on even when the screen is off...
Otherwise, in 6 month we indeed expect the final batch usable by "parents, enterprises and businesses of all sizes".
"The goal is clear, make the Librem 5 last at least a day of regular use. "
https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-power-management-improvements...
A counter-point:
I, and many others, ended up funding puri.sm to actually undertake this project. Which included hiring a bunch of people full time to work on the software on all layers of the stack.
Today we have a much different landscape with pinephone and others working to slowly release phones too.
My take is that we needed this kickstart of the libre-phone movement. They started it, before them there was nothing relevant going on. They obviously didn't do it alone, far from it. But they showed there was real money to be made, they pushed consistently and had actual people do the hard work.
So, even though I have not actually received an actual piece of hardware, I'm still happy I funded their campaign. I may not get a great piece of hardware, but I did get a lot of worth for my money.
The imx8mq has a USB download mode so the device can be flashed via USB-C. You can completely corrupt the eMMC including u-boot and still recover it.
"Smooth 4K video at 60 fps".
But I guess you're doing a lot of Deep Learning so 4k @60fps wouldn't work for ya.
The box has the specs that completely match my requirements (I have no use for GPU so I'd disable it in BIOS if possible)
How does that fit together with yesterday's discussion of coreboot not supporting anything Intel from 2008 or newer?
I need at least 24GB RAM and a good NVMe drive for Qube OS. The processor isn't that much important, though. I could live with i5 as well. The best solution I came up with for now is an old Intel Core 2 Quad processor + old Asus motherboard (Coreboot supported) that supports 32GB of RAM. Plus an NVMe drive on a PCI slot. The good side is that it's commonly known Core 2 Quad was the last "secure" Intel processor. Yet it's old and will be a little bit to slow for extensive virtualization.
People know a thing or two about Coreboot and Libreboot, but they don't realize that's still a wild west of computing. You either go with old platforms like the one I have mentioned, or you can choose from the offerings of a couple of quirky vendors that by definition must overprice their hardware. Those vendors and their new platforms (Purism is one of them) use some custom methods to cripple Intel Management Engine and switch UEFI to Coreboot. I'm not sure how secure the result of that process is to be honest. With old platforms it's always problem with motherboards supporting more than 8GB RAM. Kinda sad :(
The support from Coreboot isn't that great. It fits within the abovely mentioned problems.
If you have better ideas than me (complaining for the pricing and security status of new solutions like the one from Purism vs. suffering from virtualization low performance from old processors that are IME free) - please let me know. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'd be so happy to be able to get a new mini PC with let's say an AMD processor, deprived of RAM, SSD, etc.,; but also reasonably priced and PROVEN THAT the vendor managed to kill IME and implemented Coreboot properly...