Comment by bhouston
3 years ago
I saw this mini-computer recently, the UM790 Pro, and I almost bought one as well. The AMD Ryzen CPU, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU, has a rating of ~30,000 on the CPU Benchmarks page (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html) which is quite high end for the size/cost.
The only caveat is that I am running a 10Gbit ethernet network at home and it wasn't that costly to setup. A 10GigE switch costs around $500 CAD right now and that is all you need.
> A 10GigE switch costs around $500 CAD right now and that is all you need.
Surely your machines all need 10GbE NICs as well? Admittedly my hardware isn't the newest (2.5GbE at most), but from a quick search 10Gig PCIe cards are around $150 each. Meanwhile 10-20 Gbps USB3.0 is reasonably common already. Though, using Ethernet still has many other advantages over running USB C cables everywhere.
There are also adapters from USB4 to 10 Gb/s Ethernet, for the case when it is desired to use a switch or long cables.
My MacMini M2 has one built in. My other machines, yeah, I did buy some, which go for around $100 CAD on Amazon (e.g. TX401). Ethernet is advantageous because my house is wired, so I can have my switching a central location.
server-grade 2x SFP+ 10G NIC pulls are pretty easy to pick up from eBay for about $20 each
With a multigig capable SFP+ module it can handle 2.5G/5G copper as well.