Apollo ThunderBolt interfaces and mini pcs (Minisforum, Beelink ...)

heraldo_jones

heraldo_jones

Member
Hello!
Lately, I've noticed many mini PCs from different brands like MinisForum, Geekom, Beelink, equipped with AMD processors and USB4 ports (backward compatible with TB3). I believe I've even seen some with Intel cpus and TB4. I would like to know if anyone has tried any of these mini PCs with Apollo TB2/3 interfaces and if they have worked correctly. On another note, I've seen that people with custom PCs have not had great experiences with AMD processors. I'm not sure if this could be a potential issue with these mini PCs as well. I'm already great with my Mac Mini M2, but just would love to know for simply curiosity.
 
J

jnorman

Active Member
I have been using mini pcs for years (now using a Mac mini m2). Prior to my Mac I had a Minisforum with a ryzen 9 6900hx and 32 ram - sadly I was never able to configure that machine for pro audio - I literally tried every tweak and setting you can think of (and I have over 30 years with windows), tech support, other audio wizard friends, several attempts at clean installs, etc - just a no go. It just couldn’t pass latencymon. I never had that problem with the previous two intel NUCs I had (both were awesome little audio machines). So, yes, mini pcs can be a great solution for audio, but based on my only experience with AMD, I suggest that you stick with an intel processor. Btw, the Mac mini was way easier to set up for audio than windows - it basically just worked right out of the box
 
heraldo_jones

heraldo_jones

Member
jnorman said:
I have been using mini pcs for years (now using a Mac mini m2). Prior to my Mac I had a Minisforum with a ryzen 9 6900hx and 32 ram - sadly I was never able to configure that machine for pro audio - I literally tried every tweak and setting you can think of (and I have over 30 years with windows), tech support, other audio wizard friends, several attempts at clean installs, etc - just a no go. It just couldn’t pass latencymon. I never had that problem with the previous two intel NUCs I had (both were awesome little audio machines). So, yes, mini pcs can be a great solution for audio, but based on my only experience with AMD, I suggest that you stick with an intel processor. Btw, the Mac mini was way easier to set up for audio than windows - it basically just worked right out of the box
Click to expand...
Sad to know. Hope to see soon some improvements in the AMD ecosystem. At the moment there is no HX version from Intel with TB4, whichs is weird IMO.
 
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