Recommendations for Dedicated Mini PC?

[C_615]

I have been testing out Trunk-Recorder and Rdio-Scanner on Ubuntu 22.04 and my laptop, which is a Dell XPS 15 with an i9 processor, 64GB of RAM, and Samsung 980 Pro SSD.

I want to get a relatively cheap mini PC to dedicate to monitoring two large P25 systems. There will be constant recording of multiple talk groups. I have been thinking about this Beelink (and installing Ubuntu):

Beelink SER5 Mini PC, AMD Ryzen 7 5700U(up to 4.3GHz) 8C/16T, Mini Computer 32GB DDR4 RAM 500GB NVMe SSD, Mini Desktop Computer 4K 60Hz Triple Screen Display HDMI&DP&USB-C WOL 35W HTPC​

The reviews concerning fan noise has me concerned. I have noticed the fan on my laptop is running continuously.

What should my expectations be with trying to record two large P25 systems with heavy traffic? Should I expect the fan to run continuously?

Any thoughts on a better choice of computer or how to keep the system cool?

 

[a417]

No.

Your issue right now is your current implementation. Likely your current XPS 15 has way more HP than is necessary to decode 2 large P25 systems. The main factor you have is heat offload, and not processor workload. Laptops don't like a ton of heat, as the are designed to maximize portability and not computational power. If you had the exact same processor setup in a desktop, where there was room for appropriate cooling, it would likely be nearly silent. You also need to look at what is under the skirt of that XPS. That's could be a 13th gen i9 (which has TDPs as high as 250 watts) and is putting out tons of heat, the mini system you linked says what...35 watts? That's a fraction of what you currently have going.

I have done some simply foolish things to decode p25 systems, one of which was to run 3 separate & simultaneous instances of DSD+ FL on a Dell Optiplex 270, on Windows XP. Decoded and recorded all traffic on multiple tuners w/o a hiccup. The actual decoding and processing of a p25 stream is a trivial task, it's the nonsense that runs around it and the misconceptions that people make that place additional burdens on the system.

Too many people "i NeEd tEw sEA thE s!gNalZ!" and insist on running a partial-baked abortion of virtual audio cables, SDR#, virtual tuning software, microsoft edge windows and a world clock on a computer that is primarily decoding a miniscule audio path ... and then the computer barfs and lags. I have several ultra mini PCs that are similar to that thing you linked, and they all do Just Fine™ when the priority of the system is to decode p25. I can't speak to any of the really heavy SDR suites out there that run DSD in a kludgy manner, but likely all of the purpose-coded software run in an appropriate manner will do well.

 

[merlin]

Small form factor Dell is a geat little box.

 

[KMG54]

I use Lenovo 6th gen I5's cheap on ebay. Add memory to get 16Gigs, and pop a cheap M.2 Hard drive in it. I have several and love them. I run dsd+FL and can open unlimited browser pages with no problem. Just ebay lenovo tiny PC.

 

[CKnobb]

FWIW, I use a ACEMAGICIAN mini PC which uses an N5101 CPU (up to 2.9 GHz), a 512 SSD and 16GB of RAM. It's far from a powerhouse, but I grabbed it in one of those "Lightning Deals" at Amazon for $189. I am currently running 2 scanners w/Proscan on a stereo Broadcastify feed, an SDRtrunk P25 large system monitor for personal listening, Microsoft Edge with a 24hr ADS-B (FlightRadar24) web monitor for personal monitoring, and 24 hour Pingplotter monitor for my Broadcastify feed. The CPU utilization gets up to 95%+ on occasion but most of the time is between 75-85%. I have no issues with crashes, overheats etc.

Next time I will spend a few extra and get a machine with more horsepower (this one is only an quad-core, which explains the CPU utilization) for this stuff. My other mini PC is an octo-core and I run a TON of simultaneous processes, including Proscan (BCD536HP) , SDRtrunk, SDR#, several open web browser tabs along with DXlab suite and JTDX ham radio processes. CPU utilization may top out at 50% every so often. SDR# is the largest CPU hog. Without that going, it's maybe 20% tops.

The more CPU cores you can afford, the better. Makes it nice for future expansion and experimenting.
Jim

 

[N9JIG]

Look for resellers or PC's for used Thin Clients or NUC's etc. I have a few Intel NUC's, two of which I bought new and 2 that came from an IT guy (ie son). I have seen the same NUC's on eBay and elsewhere for well under $100.

Small, cheap and can run headless with remote access.

 

[rneals]

I've bought a couple of these recently with good results. $130 and it's quiet.
Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, Win 10 Pro

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Business-600-G3-Professional/dp/B0CP7GRGWC/

 

[vagrant]

Heat Kills - I shove these 120mm USB fans under, or on top of various gear to keep things cooler. Even amateur radios. There's a switch to adjust on/off and the speed as well. They run 24/7 and two of them are about three feet away. The noise does not bother my listening to six scanners, one SDR and five transceivers when everything is going. Even when nothing is coming in on RX, they are not loud.

20 years ago I had a Macbook Pro that Apple finally admitted had a GPU heat problem and fixed them for free. Three years after they finally offered a fix I took mine in due to failure. Apple store guy was puzzled why mine worked for so long. I explained that I always used a laptop fan underneath.

Heat Kills - If any gear you own feels hot/warm to the touch, you should add an inexpensive fan.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085WMNN3Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1