MeLE Fanless Stick PC PCG02 Pro is a Pocket-sized Mini-PC That Runs Off Any USB-C PD Power Source

[btarunr]

MeLE, designers of mini PCs, and industrial PCs, unveiled the Fanless Stick PC PCG02 Pro. Measuring 146 mm x 61 mm x 20 mm (LxWxH), this thing is about the size of two smartphones duct-taped together, but weighing as much as one (since there's no battery inside). Under the hood is an Intel N100 "Alder Lake-N" processor, which features one "Gracemont" E-core cluster for a 4-core/4-thread CPU, and an Intel Xe LP-based iGPU with 24 execution units. The N100 in the MeLE PCG02 Pro is wired to 8 GB or 16 GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory. Storage is in the form of 128 GB or 256 GB of eMMC. The device comes with Windows 11 Home single language pre-installed.

The Fanless Stick PC PCG02 Pro comes with an impressive set of connectivity for its size. Networking options include Wi-Fi 5 ac + Bluetooth 5.1, and a 1 GbE wired Ethernet. Display outputs include two HDMI 2.1, which can power a pair of 4K Ultra HD displays at 60 Hz, each. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) type-A ports; and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) type-C. There is a second type-C port used for power input through any USB PD 3.0 source that can deliver 25 W. A power adapter is included. Depending on the memory- and storage size opted for, the Fanless Stick PC PCG02 Pro is priced between USD $270 to $290. It can power a range of applications between home-entertainment (it's completely fanless), through digital signage, or even most office applications.



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[P4-630]

Interesting, albeit quite slow in windows I suspect but still interesting.

 

[Chaitanya]

Interesting, albeit quite slow in windows I suspect but still interesting.

Thats manufactured ewaste, emmc storage hard pass. That not much different from those cheap laptops you can find on many online retailers.

 

[P4-630]

Thats manufactured ewaste, emmc storage hard pass. That not much different from those cheap laptops you can find on many online retailers.

Would it still be as worse as an Asus Eeebook?...
This eMMC must be somewhat faster..No?..

 

[wickerman]

Interesting, albeit quite slow in windows I suspect but still interesting.

The N100 is an interesting little chip that could manage windows 11 just fine. Run a lighter weight linux distro and its brilliant. These are a big step up over the class of chip we used to see in the really small fanless stuff like the celeron N5105 or atom x5 z8330s in intels compute sticks. Its a cpu offering performance not unlike an old i5 2500 except its got a 6w TDP and modern features, codecs, and ports. Picking this over an old dell ATX tower is a no brainer if youre tight on space, but theres plenty of 1L mini pcs out there from the major OEMs in that sub $300 range, stuff with early ryzen chips and intel 8500T 6-core chips that would offer more performance no doubt and expandability (2.5 sata, multiple m.2, some even had gpu options).

I think you're right, its interesting even if its not chart topping performance. If it had some modularity and maybe a m.2 2230 slot with pcie x1 bandwith instead of mmc it would be much more interesting. Far easier to swap a busted ssd when its not soldered to the board...

 

[Chaitanya]

Would it still be as worse as an Asus Eeebook?...
This eMMC must be somewhat faster..No?..

Depends on eMMC chip used, latest ones are supposedly as fast as SATA SSDs(Surface Go uses eMMC and its on par with HDDs). Also like RAM, storage seems to be soldered so eventually when drive fails its expensive repair or throw the PC away.

 

[Space Lynx]

Interesting, albeit quite slow in windows I suspect but still interesting.

I think if a bigger company with better engineers and resources, say MSI or ASUS, attempted this with say a slightly lower clocked future nodes say the 20A node cut down, 2 e-cores from that node, with a lesser clock, it might be possible to make this a decent little device for the average consumer who just wants to web browse and watch YouTube videos.

Not there yet, but a lot of potential.

 

[Wirko]

The N100 is an interesting little chip that could manage windows 11 just fine. Run a lighter weight linux distro and its brilliant. These are a big step up over the class of chip we used to see in the really small fanless stuff like the celeron N5105 or atom x5 z8330s in intels compute sticks. Its a cpu offering performance not unlike an old i5 2500 except its got a 6w TDP and modern features, codecs, and ports. Picking this over an old dell ATX tower is a no brainer if youre tight on space, but theres plenty of 1L mini pcs out there from the major OEMs in that sub $300 range, stuff with early ryzen chips and intel 8500T 6-core chips that would offer more performance no doubt and expandability (2.5 sata, multiple m.2, some even had gpu options).

I think you're right, its interesting even if its not chart topping performance. If it had some modularity and maybe a m.2 2230 slot with pcie x1 bandwith instead of mmc it would be much more interesting. Far easier to swap a busted ssd when its not soldered to the board...

The processor itself is probably even faster than you said, and comparable to Haswell or lower-end Skylake i5. That's if eMMC and the cooling system aren't holding it back, which seems likely in this case.

I think if a bigger company with better engineers and resources, say MSI or ASUS, attempted this with say a slightly lower clocked future nodes say the 20A node cut down, 2 e-cores from that node, with a lesser clock, it might be possible to make this a decent little device for the average consumer who just wants to web browse and watch YouTube videos.

Not there yet, but a lot of potential.

Hm, just two E-cores would be far too little. Even if Intel achieves a surprisingly good performance boost with their "Angstrom" nodes, such a processor will still lag behind an Alder Lake Celeron (2 P-cores, no HT), which no one wants (but may do fine in a home NAS/server/router box).

 

[Readlight]

for 300 dolars you get i3 14100 + motherboard.

 

[Wirko]

for 300 dolars you get i3 14100 + motherboard.

You pay for portability. But sure, you don't pay if you don't need it. For a PC that stays in one place for its entire life, a pocketable device seems to be one of the worst options.

I think you're right, its interesting even if its not chart topping performance. If it had some modularity and maybe a m.2 2230 slot with pcie x1 bandwith instead of mmc it would be much more interesting. Far easier to swap a busted ssd when its not soldered to the board...

Yes. M.2 is what it lacks most. The N100 only has nine PCIe 3.0 lanes and those are shared with USB and UFS but one lane really should be made free. I'm not thinking about busted SSDs here, I'm thinking about storage expansion. Besides, notebooks with the N100 and M.2 (3.0 x4) exist, so it's possible.

 

[Sandbo]

N100 can run rather hot, being passive it's probably heavily throttled.