[LarMachinarum]

having had quite a bunch of MiniPCs, mostly from reputable brands (Intel NUC series back when Intel had those, then Gigabyte Brix series, then some cheapo china ones), I have moved away from those, because every single one of them (independently of the brand) ended up dying spuriously not long after warranty end and in any case far sooner than any µATX desktop would (in fact I've very rarely had any of the latter die; they usually live far beyond their phase out / replacement)

Even without wanting to attribute that to any malicious planned obsolescence, my impression is that the very small size of mini PCs makes it almost impossible for the manufacturer to ensure proper thermal management for keeping all components constantly at a temperature low enough for device longevity.

[CharlesW]

My 2008 Mac mini is still running, so it can be done. I'm shocked that Intel NUCs weren't more reliable for you.

[sys_64738]

I had one NUC fail due to CPU failure. Intel RMA'd it without any issues.

[LtWorf]

Only one of my rpis ever broke, the 1st one I ever bought.

[ThrowawayR2]

> "... Intel NUC ..., then Gigabyte Brix series, then some cheapo china ones ..."

That's the mistake. Secondhand Dell, HP, or Lenovo mini PCs would probably have served better. They're cheap when second hand and the ones I've had have lasted a decade because the big OEMs are experienced in building office PCs.

[al_borland]

I bought a cheap Beelink mini pc to tinker around with. It didn't take long before something went wrong. It still technically works, but I can't simply reboot it anymore. I have to unplug the power, let it sit for 10-20 seconds, plug it back in and then boot. It's too annoying, so it's basically trash at this point. I tried a new PS, but that didn't help. I assume there is a bad capacitor in there or something.

I've had great luck with Mac minis over the years. I've had many of them. I'll probably go that route in the future if needed.

I know there are better quality x86 options out there, but the prices go up fast, and I find them hard to justify for what I'd be doing with it. The Mac is really price competitive, which makes it even harder to justify those other options.

[akho]

As an alternative experience report: I have two beelink mini s12s, and administer another one that lives under my mom's tv. All work fine (though I wouldn't be bothered by your issue as much — I reboot maybe once every few months?).

[al_borland]

The latest project I had for it was to host a radio station. I got a home FM transmitter and was going to load the Beelink full of music, set it to shuffle, and stick it in a corner for years. Then I could tune any radio in my home to the broadcasted station and have quick and easy music synced all over my house without and “smart” stuff. A $20 transistor radio would do the job. There were a lot of reboots during setup, and then after about 4 days the OS (mint) locked up and I needed another reboot. I think that happened a time or two after that, and I just gave up.

The whole idea was that I wanted it to be a simple flick of the switch, or turn of a knob, to play some music. The “smart” stuff and apps have more friction than I’d like when I just want some background noise. The random lockups and reboot issues created a different kind of friction.

A few old G4 Mac minis just came back into my possession. Maybe I’ll just use one of those. My main issue there is memories of old iTunes getting caught in a loop when shuffling. Do it do long and it starts to essentially play the same playlist it generated on repeat. But maybe for this I won’t care, that’s how most radio stations seem to operate anyway, and I’d have the power to force it to mix things up.

[akho]

Cool project.

Not sure what went wrong with the beelink; the os shouldn't have locked by by itself, too.

[BeelinkOfficial]

Sorry to hear you're running into this issue. Please feel free to contact our support team at [e-mail] — we're happy to help and will do our best to assist you!

[pjmlp]

I thought to have bought a reputable Gigabyte Brix last year, in the end it travelled two times to support, could only boot from USB regardless of the OS, and eventually with all these travelling around and trying to get the SSD connection to work, it died.

So much for being reputable.

[glitchc]

Yeah a Mac Mini seems to be the only one that can go the distance.