I have received my Librem Mini a few days ago and did now install the hardware and OS to make some first tests which I publish here (I am a customer, I do not and have never worked for Purism so I think I am unbiased):
1. Hardware -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have bought the pure bare bone without RAM and SSD but with the WiFi card.
The SeaBIOS version is rev-1.13.0-1-g55d6754 (from July 1st, 2020).
International shipping took only 4 days to the EU (with DHL).
The box contained
- the bare bone (case with CPU)
- the external power supply (EU version)
- a SATA mini cable to attach a 2.5 inch HDD (optional extension)
- 4 screws to attach a HDD below the case cover and 1 screw to attach a M.2 SSD
Extensions:
- 2 RAM modules with 16 GB each (Crucial) = 32 GB RAM
- Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1 TB NVMe M.2
- ICY BOX Heat sink IB-M2HS-701 for M.2 2280 (80 mm) SSD (low profile - only 5 mm height) - costs less than 10 USD
Total costs below 1.000 USD (incl. customs and taxes + shipping to the EU).
DHL did the customs clearance for me since the total costs were below 1.000 EUR.
I had to pay 105 EUR for customs and taxes when DHL handed-over the package to me.
2. Installations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04 desktop (with online updates)
-
stress-ngfor load tests -
lm-sensorsfor temperature measuring -
vlcfor playing a music video (mp4)
Booting from the Ubuntu-Image USB stick as well as the installation on SSD (EXT3 without LUKS) went without a single problem.
Everything was working within 30 minutes.
The WiFi adapter was recognized, Bluetooth too after installing the BLOB’ed driver.
I did not test WiFi or Bluetooth (this may follow later)…
3. Test setup -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Network plugged in via cable
- WiFi and Bluetooth disabled
- Keyboard and mouse attached via USB cable in the back-side USB slots
- Display with near-4K (3820 x 1600) - attached via HDMI with 30 Hz refresh rate (didn’t check if 60 Hz would work with HDMI so far)
- EU power supply (240 V)
- Power consumption measured with a Voltcraft Energy Check 3000
4. Test results -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power consumption:
- Idle: 5,5 - 6 W
- Suspend mode: 2,2 W
- Max (CPU and SSD load): 26 W
- SSD load: 7 - 8 W
- VLC video (full screen): 7,5 W (no fan noise audible, fan seemed to stay off)
- VLC video (windowed): 8 W
Temperatures:
Tested with stress-ng --cpu 4 --hdd 1 --vm 2.
CPU:
- Idle: 54 degree Celsius
- Full load: 66 degree Celsius (max)
SSD:
- Idle: 50 degree Celsius
- Max: 59 degree Celsius (note: I have attached a passive heat sink to the SSD since NVMe SSDs can get very hot)
Fan:
The CPU fan seems to start working if at least one CPU is above 61 degree Celsius
and stops immediately if the temp drops below 62 degree.
The fan has different RPM speeds (depending on the CPU temperature):
- Off when idle and under low load
- slow under low to medium load
- high when one CPU core reaches 62 degree Celsius
The fan noise at full speed (full load) is audible but not too disturbing and stops
immediately after the load reduces (about 2 - 5 seconds after being idle again).
Timings:
- Cold boot to Ubuntu login screen: abt. 16 seconds
- Switch-on from suspend mode until login screen: 5 seconds
5. Known issues and open questions --------------------------------------------------
Known issues:
- Confirmed: USB-C does not support DisplayPort video output (DP alt mode)
- There is no installation manual available at the moment (but a short video at Purism’s web page)
Open questions:
- WiFi and Bluetooth speed was not yet tested
- 4K output with 60 Hz not yet tested (esp. over HDMI 2.0)
- Sound output and mic jack not yet tested (but audio over HDMI did work out-of-the-box)
- SSD write speed not tested (eg. via
Disksbenchmark) - this would overwrite my installation
- How good does PureOS work with the Librem Mini (compared to Ubuntu 20.04)?
Note:
- Rumors that RAM may possibly not use dual-channel access even when installing two RAM modules are wrong.
6. Personal impressions and summary ------------------------------------------------
- The Librem Mini worked as hoped for me: Fast, silent, low energy consumption.
- The case is heavy and I guess it would reduce vibrations too if a HDD would have been installed
- My fears that the SSD gets too hot because there are no cooling openings on the top of the case
were prooved wrong: The SSD stays cold enough (with the passive heat sink - luckily the Mini has
enough space above the SSD for a heat sink!) - The case does not get hot (only warm)
- The Samsung NVMe SSD has a reading throughput of 3 GB/s (no typo!), so the Mini has sufficient PCIe lanes for NVMe
- Surprisingly the Ubuntu 20.04 suspend mode is working out-of-the-box, fast, reliable and with only 2.2 W power consumption during suspend
(which makes it easy to break your work without having to reboot and open all apps again later) - The CPU is fast enough for me (almost same speed compared to my old i3770 CPU from 2012 which I still use for software development - but with more RAM and a ways faster NVMe SSD)
So all in all I would buy this device again (even if I could save a few hundred bucks with another non-Purism device like an Intel NUK) but sponsoring Purism for their work on free and libre hardware and software was worth it (to me) paying more.
So in my eyes: Well done, Purism!
PS: I will add some pics later and perhaps “benchmark” results from compiling a Linux kernel.
