Inside China's Mini PC Production: How Tiny Computers Are Made
(www.youtube.com)
from otters_raft@lemmy.ca to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 18 Jul 2025 20:18
https://lemmy.ca/post/48214055
from otters_raft@lemmy.ca to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 18 Jul 2025 20:18
https://lemmy.ca/post/48214055
This post is a bit borderline, so I can take it down if you think it’s inappropriate for this community (tag @otter@lemmy.ca for a faster response). These computers are often suggested by various selfhosting tutorials so it might be interesting to see how they’re made.
threaded - newest
Think of all the stuff they are breathing...
I bought one of the extremely generic ones with the heatsink build into the top and it lasted a single month.
Id have expected thousands of cheap ARM boards with 8 core cpu's by now for cheap, instead raspberry pi's are now over 100$.
Minisforum are pretty well regarded.
I bought the same kind, and its lasted me 6 months now. Hopefully that means I got one of the good ones and that it’ll last me a good while.
When a mommy computer and a daddy computer love each other very much…
What do they do with the daddy computers? All of mine only have female ports.
Never heard of a flash drive? All they provide is the initiation. Mom does all the work
All I’ve got is a nubby yubikey nano
I have a beelink very similar if not the same as the ones they are building in the video. It’s my primary desktop. I purchased it after my tower died. I have an n100 that is my plex, *arr platform and VPN. Works very very well…
I would not think twice about buying another beelink.
The ONLY thing I don’t like about it is having to finish the install of windows before you can wipe the ssd.
But other than that. Gravy.
Why? Can’t you get to the bios, change to usb boot loader, boot linux and wipe the disk?
You’d think you could… but you can’t even get to the bios before finishing the install.
There’s probably a way… But I wasn’t able to find it.
Probably some fastboot shit. I like the idea of fastboot… if only it wasn’t so tied to Windows.
I had the same on my second hand thinkcentre. It was the only 10 seconds I spent on windows 11: input random data, enter the OS and shutdown the machine. Never touched win 11 again.
The one guy hand-soldering and fumes with no PPE or vent 😱
I can’t see the video but I can just imagine. I’ve had first hand experience with Chinese manufacturing. I used to have the patent on a tool I created for small gas engines. After soliciting US manufacturers for pricing, it was quite evident, even on my small scale, why manufacturing has gone overseas. So we hit upon a guy in China to do a run, I went to observe the process. I’ll have to say, it was not what I had imagined. At one point, the ‘guide’ took us around to vats where they ‘washed’ off the product in some very caustic chemicals that would physically burn my nose when I inhaled. I’m not sure what the chemicals were, but it would eat all the grunge and any reminent slag off. We come around the corner, and there is this dude, standing in the vat of unknown chemicals, fishing around with his arm up to his shoulder in this muck, trying to unclog the drain, so they could proceed to the next step. I didn’t say anything but I remember thinking, for the sake of future generations, I hope that poor guy in the vat doesn’t replicate. That would be a genetic disaster.
I’m going to keep manufacture local to the west coast, but yeah, price deltas are almost extreme in comparison.
It was a frustrating experience. On the one hand, I really really really wanted the tool manufactured in the US. However, if I went the US route, I would have never sold one piece because it was just too expensive. It wasn’t an easy decision to go to China. After doing a couple runs, I had recouped my investment plus a little pocket change to put some 'taters on the table. I learned a lot on the way tho. You hear people say, ‘You outta patent that’, but the process is not that easy. At any rate, at least I can say ‘Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. No better or worse for the exercise.’
Have you looked into other countries than just the US and China? Why did you choose China specifically over, let’s say, India or even Eastern Europe? I am curious to know the perspective
This was my first foray into bringing an idea to fruition, patent it, and market it. I wasn’t looking to make a million dollars off the tool. If it happened, great, if not, no worries. It was a very simple tool to allow someone to easily put the spring coil back in your mower without cutting yourself to ribbons. If you’ve ever yanked the pull cord out of a chainsaw, mower, etc and tried to put it back in, you’ll understand. I wanted a product the average homeowner could purchase, have in their tool shed to use when needed. I found that the better marketing strategy was to market it to repair shops.
After reviewing production pricing, I ‘chose’ China quite begrudgingly. Like I mentioned, I really wanted this tool to be US made. I could have just decided to have it made in America, but I would have never recouped my initial investment and would have never made any profit. I at least wanted to break even. Despite Americans enthusiastically waiving the ‘America First’ flags during election years, when it gets down to brass tacks, they want cheap goods, and that usually means manufacturing outside of the US. The good ship ‘Made In The USA’ sailed in the 60s and it’s not coming back. It makes for good campaign fodder tho.
Looks good to me. Venting of gasses, ear protection, two hand safety. It’s not prefect and its menial work but it looks like they have certain standards which are upheld.
With tiny hands, obviously.
We see the convergence of computer and cell phone everyday