DreamQuest Mini Plus n95, 12g, 512g mini-PC

[Greg_E]

Normally this would only be an average price, I hope we get back to where this is only average. Currently it is a decent deal for a mini-PC, in the USA, with no additional tariff applied:

https://www.amazon.com/DreamQuest-Mini-Plus-Preloaded-Bluetooth5-3/dp/B0GD751WRD?th=1

n95 processor, 12gb soldered ram, and a 512gb SATA drive. You can opt for a more expensive 1tb drive if you want but I didn't see any with more ram.

So far I've only powered up one of them, and it seems to work and seems to have a real Win11 Pro license and activation, I'll get it connected to the internet and check this in the coming days. There is a discussion thread so we don't clog up the deal thread:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/dreamquest-n95-mini-pc.55230/

Can't touch my preferred Mele branded mini-pc for anywhere near this price, this makes it a decent deal, please forgive if you think it is not a deal at all.

[edit] lots of typos, felt like I was writing the directions for this device.

 

[Greg_E]

Looks like the link no work, there is a go-skim link checker in the middle. I'd suggest copy and paste the text above if you want to see it. It's an older model that doesn't show up in the DreamQuest site without a bunch of messing around. [edit] my firewall might be blocking the go-skim thing

$230 for a complete Intel n95 is about the best I found in the USA, these may be left over units in a warehouse which is why they seem to be pre-tariff pricing.

The only thing I don't really like is the LED inside the case, I'd like to turn them off and save the watt or two.

 

[nmpu]

FYI: everything in this forum is subject to affiliate promotion. Even non-link text can be rewritten.

 

[Greg_E]

This is the first time my firewall has blocked any links. Works at home. And I'm fine with them getting $0.30 off this link per person (or whatever trivial amount it might be), that's how we get some of the reviews they do and how they keep the lights on.

 

[Fritz]

There's a new one on eBay for $200.

 

[Greg_E]

It appears to be gone, but $200 would be better.

 

[WANg]

Normally this would only be an average price, I hope we get back to where this is only average. Currently it is a decent deal for a mini-PC, in the USA, with no additional tariff applied:

https://www.amazon.com/DreamQuest-Mini-Plus-Preloaded-Bluetooth5-3/dp/B0GD751WRD?th=1

n95 processor, 12gb soldered ram, and a 512gb SATA drive. You can opt for a more expensive 1tb drive if you want but I didn't see any with more ram.

So far I've only powered up one of them, and it seems to work and seems to have a real Win11 Pro license and activation, I'll get it connected to the internet and check this in the coming days. There is a discussion thread so we don't clog up the deal thread:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/dreamquest-n95-mini-pc.55230/

Can't touch my preferred Mele branded mini-pc for anywhere near this price, this makes it a decent deal, please forgive if you think it is not a deal at all.

[edit] lots of typos, felt like I was writing the directions for this device.

Eh, you might be able to catch a deal with the Dell Optiplex 7090 Ultra - sometimes the chassis with 16GB RAM/256GB SSD goes for as little as 150 or so.

 

[Fritz]

Eh, you might be able to catch a deal with the Dell Optiplex 7090 Ultra - sometimes the chassis with 16GB RAM/256GB SSD goes for as little as 150 or so.

Or for $50 you can roll your own.

Dell Optiplex 7070 Ultra Intel Core i5-8365U @ 1.60 GHz NO HDD/RAM/OS PC | eBay

Up for sale is a Dell Optiplex 7070 PC. Unit has been reset and is ready for use. See pictures for condition details. POWER CABLE IS NOT INCLUDED. RAM:NO RAM. Hard drive:NO SSD. Optical Drive:NO.

www.ebay.com

 

[WANg]

Or for $50 you can roll your own.

Dell Optiplex 7070 Ultra Intel Core i5-8365U @ 1.60 GHz NO HDD/RAM/OS PC | eBay

Up for sale is a Dell Optiplex 7070 PC. Unit has been reset and is ready for use. See pictures for condition details. POWER CABLE IS NOT INCLUDED. RAM:NO RAM. Hard drive:NO SSD. Optical Drive:NO.

www.ebay.com

The Whiskey Lake i5 in that 7070 Ultra is roughly the same firepower as that N95, but the iGPU Is substantially weaker, both in terms of perf and in terms of functionality. Both the N95 and any of the Tiger Lake iGPUs will be able to handle AV1 decoding (not encoding), but the Gen 9.5 UHD graphics on the 7070s will not.

 

[Fritz]

The Whiskey Lake i5 in that 7070 Ultra is roughly the same firepower as that N95, but the iGPU Is substantially weaker, both in terms of perf and in terms of functionality.

Thanks. Glad I didn't order one. Knowledge is power.

 

[Greg_E]

Have you priced RAM and storage these days? Bare bones on these guys is only good if you already have what you need to fill them. A DDR4 sodimm 2x8 kit is $112-$140 these days, that's half the price I paid for these little n95 guys, then add even 256 worth of storage for another $50+ and that bare bones would need to be cheaper or better enough processor to make up the different. Buying stuff like this is just a giant suck these days.

What really made these a "deal" was they have probably been sitting in a warehouse for the last 2+ years so they came in pre-tariff, similar mini-PC are in the $320 to $600 range. $600 for an n100 with 16GB and 512GB is CRAZY!!!

Anyway, on hour #3 with Trellix Stinger scanning the drive (nothing found yet). Running ~18 watts at 50% CPU and just about 3Ghz, faster and it starts to throttle. Probably good enough for what I need to do, but would have been nice with 5 to 10mm taller and a better cooling solution in place. I may pull the fan/heatsink and replace the thermal compound just as a precaution. Eventually I might ditch the factory cooling solution and attach something "better". Have to see where the project goes.

 

[Fritz]

Most of these tiny PCs have pathetic cooling and most are very hard to impossible to improve it. I have some Shuttle DH370's which have a heatsink with 4 times the surface area of the CPU and 2 cooling fans and it still overheats. They're socket 1151 (I think) so not hard to use a better heatsink/fan but the you can't put the lid back on it.

 

[TrevorH]

I suspect that replacing the heatsink compound would help - it's usually applied with a trowel in the hope that "more is better" - but it would also probably invalidate any warranty. Those vortex fans tend to clog up with gunk where they blow over the heatsink fins so you'll need to remember to go in and remove the layer of felt that builds up every now and then.

 

[WANg]

Have you priced RAM and storage these days? Bare bones on these guys is only good if you already have what you need to fill them. A DDR4 sodimm 2x8 kit is $112-$140 these days, that's half the price I paid for these little n95 guys, then add even 256 worth of storage for another $50+ and that bare bones would need to be cheaper or better enough processor to make up the different. Buying stuff like this is just a giant suck these days.

What really made these a "deal" was they have probably been sitting in a warehouse for the last 2+ years so they came in pre-tariff, similar mini-PC are in the $320 to $600 range. $600 for an n100 with 16GB and 512GB is CRAZY!!!

Anyway, on hour #3 with Trellix Stinger scanning the drive (nothing found yet). Running ~18 watts at 50% CPU and just about 3Ghz, faster and it starts to throttle. Probably good enough for what I need to do, but would have been nice with 5 to 10mm taller and a better cooling solution in place. I may pull the fan/heatsink and replace the thermal compound just as a precaution. Eventually I might ditch the factory cooling solution and attach something "better". Have to see where the project goes.

Well, the point of those barebones machine is that you are supposed to BYOP (bring your own parts) - but either ways, there are okay machines out there with RAM+SSD included, like this Kamrui P2 for 330 (Ryzen embedded R2544/16GB, 2 SODIMM slots/512GB), OrigiMagic C2 Neo for 269 (N95, 12GB LPDDR5/512GB with 2 NICs) or this one also for 269 (N97 with a 16GB in a single DDR4 SODIMM slot/512GB and an i226V). I really dislike soldered RAM unless they have warranties or the performance improvements to justify it, and eeeh, fanless miniPCs only makes sense with a big aluminum chassis - in which case you might as well just buy that Seneca USFS05 HDN Element box.
...and no, I don't think tariffs did this to the pricing. This is just parts shortage induced price gouging. For the price at least get something more efficient, more powerful or possibly both.

 

[grenskul]

At these prices I'd look for used Mac minis (m1 8gb should be about this, m2 and up if you find a deal) to be honest. Unless you really need the ram. It's quieter, cooler, faster and can run docker just fine.

 

[WANg]

At these prices I'd look for used Mac minis (m1 8gb should be about this, m2 and up if you find a deal) to be honest. Unless you really need the ram. It's quieter, cooler, faster and can run docker just fine.

The issue with any MacMini before the M4 is that they have soldered RAM and storage - I can see tolerate some soldered RAM, but soldered storage gives it a limited shelf life.
I also think that the pricing on a typical MacMini m1/16/512 (almost 400) is a bit high for what it is.

If you can score a used M1/M2 Max Mac Studio off an estate sale or from someone’s post-upgrade leftover stash, those are fun machines for Asahi and local inferencing, and Mac Studios have storage modules that can be swapped out.

(…and yes, I spent 230 to upgrade my base model, 450 dollar MacMini M4/16/256 to 2TB using a similar module back in early Q2 ‘25. Man I miss the pricing back then)

 

[grenskul]

The issue with any MacMini before the M4 is that they have soldered RAM and storage - I can see tolerate some soldered RAM, but soldered storage gives it a limited shelf life. If you can score a used M1/M2 Max Mac Studio, those are fun machines for Asahi and local inferencing, and Mac Studios have storage modules that can be swapped out.

(…and yes, I spent 230 to upgrade my base model, 450 dollar MacMini M4/16/256 to 2TB using a similar module back in early Q2 ‘25)

The soldered ram is a pain, there's a reason they're so cheap.
The storage meh. It's slow, you can just plug in an nvme over TB and get decent performance compared to the onboard ssd anyway (or a 10G nic and use your network) .
The m4 base model is homelab goldilocks but still going for 400€+.

 

[WANg]

The soldered ram is a pain, there's a reason they're so cheap.
The storage meh. It's slow, you can just plug in an nvme over TB and get decent performance compared to the onboard ssd anyway (or a 10G nic and use your network) .
The m4 base model is homelab goldilocks but still going for 400€+.

Is the internal SSDs that slow though? From what I remember the base model M-series SoCs have PCIe 3x4/4x2 equivalent SSD setups, so they ballpark around 4GB/sec sustained read/3GB write, and that’s assuming that the internal storage isn’t gimped by using one module instead of 2 (which it was on the base model M2/M3s with the 256GB model). That’s not that far off the PCIe3x4 setups used on typical TMMs or MiniPCs, and on the older Atom stuff, you would usually get PCIe3x2 or worse.

Then there’s that entire issue of running thunderbolt+power to an external dock hosting NVMe drives, which brings up another can of worms.
Either it’s a cheap one on a base M-series off a single USB-C connector and the power draw on the NVMe causes it to brown out/disconnect, or it’s designed poorly and the drive(s) thermally throttle because the enclosure doesn’t dissipate heat well, or the dock itself messes with the wifi reception on the Mini and causes its own issues.

I mean, sure, you can buy a multi-bay powered dock and connect it to the Mini using a good quality, certified cable positioning it away from the mini itself, but that’s throwing good money trying to remedy the issues. Even assuming that you inherited an existing dock as a hand-me-down, it’s not that cheap even to pick up a base model MacMini M1/8/256 (and most won’t have the 10GbE build-on-demand option which is 100 USD more at the time of purchase). Most auctions on ebay sits at ~300 USD or around that ballpark stateside, and up until last year retailers like MicroCenter were selling base model m4 minis stateside at 450-500 USD new (it’s now 600) - from a pricing standpoint you might as well wait for one to show up refurb at Apple. The m4s were at least also significantly smaller than the models before it. It’s small and the storage is theoretically upgradeable.

Then you have Walmart mini-PC weirdos like this - 310 USD for a Ryzen 5 6600H/16 GB LPDDR5/512…that SoC is roughly in the same ballpark as an actively cooled M1. Given that, unless you have a need to fit a certain power profile…why even go Apple Silicon?

 

[Fritz]

FIREBAT??? I wonder where the Chinese are getting these silly names from.