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Even knockoffs are coming out now.

I

ivnj

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 8, 2006
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Just found this. Looks almost same as M4 mini. But different ports. And same price. Except Ryzen 7 and Windows or Linux probably. But not as good as Mac OS and M4 CPU probably way better than anything Ryzen. Except 32gb of ram at this price. But 16gb enough for me. 32gb is no good if not as good CPU or graphics.

Beelink

And Microsoft is finally coming out with a PC that looks very similar to Mac mini M1 and M2 shape. Only 350 dollars but all cloud based. That is not good. I need my own desktop offline. Cloud OS no thanks.

MWL3651

Here are some pics.

MWL3652
 
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The "Windows 365 Link" thin client is not really a knock-off, but it's funny how that device has the same dimensions (12x12x3cm vs Apple's 12,7x12,7x5cm) but seems to lack so much compared to Mac mini. It's more of an enterprise solution, surely they know that market well enough to produce something useful. But it does seem like a horrible (and expensive) device to me.
 
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No, LOL. That form factor has been out for ages.

That Beelink product was launched at least 6 months ago. The Mini ITX form factor has been out for at least two decades.

Windows 365 Link is based on Intel NUC, which itself is a decade old.
 
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ivnj said:
Just found this. Looks almost same as M4 mini. But different ports. And same price. Except Ryzen 7 and Windows or Linux probably. But not as good as Mac OS and M4 CPU probably way better than anything Ryzen. Except 32gb of ram at this price. But 16gb enough for me. 32gb is no good if not as good CPU or graphics.

Beelink

And Microsoft is finally coming out with a PC that looks very similar to Mac mini M1 and M2 shape. Only 350 dollars but all cloud based. That is not good. I need my own desktop offline. Cloud OS no thanks.

MWL3651

Here are some pics.

MWL3652
Click to expand...
There have been a lot of mini PC that looked like that way before the Mac Mini..

2020 https://www.pcworld.com/article/393290/july-2020-top-product-announcements.html

One would argue that the Mac Mini m4 is the knock off.
 
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The Microsoft one is a glorified thin-client, it's not a PC.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising folks don't try and make it do things it wasn't intended to do in the future.
 
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ivnj said:
Just found this. Looks almost same as M4 mini. But different ports. And same price. Except Ryzen 7 and Windows or Linux probably. But not as good as Mac OS and M4 CPU probably way better than anything Ryzen. Except 32gb of ram at this price. But 16gb enough for me. 32gb is no good if not as good CPU or graphics.

Beelink

And Microsoft is finally coming out with a PC that looks very similar to Mac mini M1 and M2 shape. Only 350 dollars but all cloud based. That is not good. I need my own desktop offline. Cloud OS no thanks.

MWL3651

Here are some pics.

MWL3652
Click to expand...
Big difference is the Mac Mini has internal power supply, the others have power bricks.
 
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At the same time they manage to instantly make it look like ass compared to a Mac Mini.

"Hey Ken, just spew all the cheapest PCB mount connectors onto that half of the board and we'll work out where they will come out the front later"
 
ivnj said:
Just found this. Looks almost same as M4 mini. But different ports. And same price. Except Ryzen 7 and Windows or Linux probably. But not as good as Mac OS and M4 CPU probably way better than anything Ryzen. Except 32gb of ram at this price. But 16gb enough for me. 32gb is no good if not as good CPU or graphics.

Beelink

And Microsoft is finally coming out with a PC that looks very similar to Mac mini M1 and M2 shape. Only 350 dollars but all cloud based. That is not good. I need my own desktop offline. Cloud OS no thanks.

MWL3651

Here are some pics.

MWL3652
Click to expand...

Beelink has actually been around a long time and I’ve been running a Beelink SEi12 as a Plex server for 2 years.

Like:
- expandable RAM, NVMe SSD slot and extra SATA slot for additional hard drive.
- much cheaper than Mac Mini, was especially true before Mini came with 16GB standard. Still comes with more SSD storage than base Mini
- can run Windows or Linux
- relatively energy efficient
- was smaller than Mac Mini before M4 model came around

Dislike
- cannot run MacOS
- uses more energy than Apple Silicon Mini (no computer beats Mac Mini energy efficiency, period)

I understand that people on these forums favor Macs and I personally think Apple knocked M4 Mac Mini out of the park, but to call these products “knock offs”, no, in fact Beelink was using the smaller form factor years before Apple shrank the Mac Mini with M4. Beelink’s products stand on their own.
 
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SFF (Small Form Factor) PCs, whether Windows/Linux or MacOS-based, are not "new" and have nothing to do with copying Apple anything.

They're tools, not lifestyle choices. There is no reward for rushing to defend a trillion dollar company. Buy what makes the most sense for your workflow and needs, whether it be a Mac or a Windows/Linux-based PC. Isn't it great we have so many choices with so many different priorities and price points?
 
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Pretty nice to see a dust screen on the Beelink. The Mac mini could use one.

1732133934623.png
 
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So the 365 Link isn't really a PC - it's a box with most likely the cheapest components possible - and everything else relies on connecting to the Cloud.

Meanwhile, a Mac Mini has the same size, actually has a computer inside, and is a real beast... Hmmm....
 
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PsykX said:
So the 365 Link isn't really a PC - it's a box with most likely the cheapest components possible - and everything else relies on connecting to the Cloud.

Meanwhile, a Mac Mini has the same size, actually has a computer inside, and is a real beast... Hmmm....
Click to expand...

To be fair, it's not the same size. The Microsoft product is only 1-inch tall, fanless, and $349.
 
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MagicBoy said:
The Microsoft one is a glorified thin-client, it's not a PC.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising folks don't try and make it do things it wasn't intended to do in the future.
Click to expand...
That`s where the lot origins from to my knowledge. Thin clients which in a good many cases were waaay to limited. Most mini pc`s got in common that they started being palatable when laptops got some juice in them. Most are in reality "laptops" without battery, screen and keyboard. Mac Mini is just the Apple iteration of the lot, the difference being the user segments they are focusing on. For Linux/PC it is regular office work in corporations, for Apple it is for consumers. Dell got a fairly ok solution fixing them to the Vesa mount of their monitors. Like an iMac but with any screen size you may prefer. FOR office work. Lenovo got their versions too.

Built 3 mini pc`s 20+ years ago, and they were terrible. Noisy and HOT. Couldn`t do any work with them without the horrible fans whining.

Consider Mac Mini M4 brilliant compared to the Windows/Linux lot. That`s why Linux guys are very hard at work reverse engineering and what not to get Linux on Mac Mini (and MacBooks). Hardware is of superb quality and provides great performance.
 
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They put all that work into a really nice machine and then slap the ugliest logo on top..

1732140578889.jpeg
 
While this design is obviously mimicking, I’ve been using BeeLink mini PCs at the office for years now to run dashboards for room availability. Great little machines.
 
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