TWICE As Fast with No Space Wasted
Summary
TLDRThe video reviews the new iolite Core R2 Mini PC, which packs impressive performance into a tiny, portable package. Featuring an 8-core Intel Core i3 processor and up to 4 2.5GbE ports, it provides significantly more power than the previous R1 generation. While expandable storage and RAM are limited, it remains whisper-quiet even under load. Some connectivity like USB-C for power and audio feel unintuitive. But for a mini server or firewall you can easily transport, its combination of performance, efficiency and compact size make the R2 hard to beat.
Takeaways
- 📦 The iol core R2 is a highly compact and portable mini PC, about the size of a Lego figurine, ideal for low power server applications.
- 🚀 Equipped with a new 8-core Intel core I3 N300 processor, it offers a balance of power and energy efficiency, suitable for various tasks despite its small size.
- 🌐 Features four 2.5 gig Ethernet ports, including three Intel i26 V ports and one Realtek RTL 8156 BG port, enhancing its networking capabilities.
- 📁 Comes with an NVMe SSD for storage, with the option to choose different storage capacities at the time of purchase.
- 🔌 Offers unique power options, including a USB-C to DC barrel jack adapter, catering to different power supply preferences.
- 🔊 Includes a combo audio jack in a USB-C port, a design choice that may not suit all users.
- 📶 Has an optional Wi-Fi feature, with the installed Mediatek RZ 608 providing Wi-Fi 6E connectivity.
- 🔧 The system is designed for easy access to the SSD for upgrades or maintenance, but RAM and processor are not user-serviceable.
- 💡 The iol core R2 is relatively quiet during operation, with efficient cooling that manages the power and noise balance well.
- 👍 Ideal for users needing a compact, low-power server for applications like firewalls, virtualization hosts, or travel clusters.
Q & A
What processor is used in the iolite Core R2 mini PC?
-The iolite Core R2 mini PC uses an 8-core Intel Core i3-N300 processor.
How much RAM can the iolite Core R2 be configured with?
-The iolite Core R2 can be configured with either 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM soldered onto the motherboard.
What kind of storage does the iolite Core R2 use?
-The iolite Core R2 uses an M.2 2242 NVMe SSD for storage.
How many Ethernet ports does the iolite Core R2 have?
-The iolite Core R2 has four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports - three are Intel i226-V ports and one is a Realtek RTL8156-BG USB 3 port.
Can the iolite Core R2 Mini PC support internal Wi-Fi?
-Yes, the iolite Core R2 has an M.2 slot for adding an internal Wi-Fi card, which was not possible in the previous R1/R1 Pro models.
How quiet is the iolite Core R2?
-The improved cooling system makes the R2 very quiet - even when stressed, the noise level is around 37 dBa.
What display outputs does the iolite Core R2 have?
-The iolite Core R2 has HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4a (via USB-C) display outputs.
Can the iolite Core R2 be powered via USB-C?
-Yes, the iolite Core R2 can be powered via USB-C using the included 12V power adapter and USB-C to DC barrel jack cable.
What operating systems or virtualization platforms could you run on the iolite Core R2?
-The iolite Core R2 would work well for running operating systems like OPNsense, pfSense, Proxmox, Ubuntu, or hypervisors like VMware ESXi.
How does the iolite Core R2 compare in size to a typical 1L mini PC?
-The iolite Core R2 is much smaller than a typical 1 liter mini PC like the Lenovo ThinkCentre Nano - it's about the size of a Lego figurine.
Outlines
😀 Overview of the new IoL Core R2 Mini PC.
The paragraph introduces the new IoL Core R2 Mini PC, highlighting its small size, low power usage, and abundant features including 8 cores, 4 ethernet ports, NVMe SSD, and optional WiFi. It mentions reviewing previous IoL Core models and wanting to showcase the improvements in the R2.
👀 Externals and size comparison to other mini PCs.
The paragraph examines the external design, showing USB ports, power button, vents, 2.5GbE ports including a Realtek one, DisplayPort, and USB-C power. It compares the size to the Lenovo Tiny and previous IoL Core, explaining how the small size makes it super portable.
🔬 Hardware overview and taking apart the device.
The paragraph looks inside the device, showing how to access the SSD and optional WiFi slot. It examines the dual PCB layout and highlights the use of LPDDR5 memory soldered to the board along with the soldered Intel Alder Lake CPU. It notes improved cooling and noise reduction versus the R1.
📈 CPU performance, power consumption and noise levels.
The paragraph discusses the surprising performance of the 8-core Intel i3-N300 CPU, noting it's over 2x the R1 models. It measures full load power at around 30W with quiet acoustics around 37dBA. It confirms there's enough power for basic routing and firewall needs.
💡 Key learnings about the R2 Mini PC.
The paragraph summarizes key learnings. It likes the i3-N300 performance but wishes for more memory capacity and standard ports. It recommends lower end for basic needs but the N300 for virtualization. It suggests external storage expandability and gives advice against overprovisioning.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mini PC
💡processor
💡Ethernet
💡Wi-Fi
💡RAM
💡storage
💡virtualization
💡low power
💡home lab
💡portable
Highlights
This Mini PC has four 2.5 gig ethernet ports, a new 8 core low power processor, and runs just about everything in a small package the size of a Lego figurine
The Intel Core i3-N300 processor has 8 cores and a 7W TDP, providing strong performance while remaining energy efficient
It has an M.2 2242 SSD slot and optional internal Wi-Fi, enhancing the portability and flexibility of the system
The R2 generation adds a copper heatsink and more vents for improved cooling and lower noise compared to the R1
The system benchmarked with over 2x the performance of the previous generation thanks to the newer 8-core architecture
It can easily push a 2.5 Gbps network stream thanks to the abundant CPU resources
The idle power draw is only 7-8W, while heavy load is around 27-30W total system power
The fan noise measures only 35-37 dBa under load, making it extremely quiet
The N300's all E-core design avoids VMware ESXi compatibility issues that can occur with heterogeneous cores
The system is compact enough to create an easy travel cluster with multiple units
Most home lab users waste money and energy buying overpowered servers they barely utilize
The 8-core N300 provides plenty of power for common virtualization usage without noise or excess energy draw
Optional external storage can supplement the internal M.2 SSD to meet higher capacity needs
The R2's size and capability makes it a versatile platform for portable computing projects
Realtek NIC performance lags the Intel i225 ports; use Realtek for management and Intel for VMs/data
Transcripts
this Mini PC has four 2 and half gig
ethernet ports a brand new 8 core
processor that is super low power and it
runs just about everything you can
imagine in such a tiny package that it
looks about the scale of a Lego figurine
if you want a tiny low power server this
might be the best option out there so
let's get to it hey guys this is Patrick
from s and this is the iol core R2 it is
absolutely tiny low power and packed
with features now you might be thinking
hey didn't we see this already on St we
did do the previous generation iol core
R1 we did a video and article on that we
also reviewed the iol core R1 Pro and
showed the upgrade kit and we also had
that one in a cameo in another video but
this one is so much different I said no
we got to do another video again and
that's what we're going to do today
inside this is an Intel core I3 N300
processor which is super low power but
it also has eight cores to go along with
the eight cores we have four 2 and half
gig ethernet ports we have an nvme SSD
we have Wi-Fi in this one although
that's an option and it's all in this
little tiny itty bitty package and
before we get to the hardware overview I
just want to say thank you to all the s
YouTube members you're going to see some
stuff on the new set which was made
possible by those that subscribe so if
you can help we'll definitely do that
down below and I do want to point out
that the iol core team did send this
unit but they do not get to review this
they don't even get to know if we're
going to do a video or not they just
send the unit and we get to produce
whatever the heck we want out of it but
I do think these systems are super cool
so when I heard it was available I said
yes let's go do one with that let's get
to the
hardware okay so taking a look at the
outside of the unit there are definitely
some things that are very similar to the
R1 Pro but there are also some things
that are very different and I'm not 100%
sure if I like them better or not let's
start out with the front of the system
and you're going to see that we have two
USB ports and a little power button just
like we did in the previous generation
now something I just want to point out
real quick is that when you take the
system apart if you do decide to take
the system apart the little power button
just falls out so you got to be a little
bit careful when you do that now moving
to the other side you're going to see
that we have just our label and this is
very similar to the R1 Pro label but not
necessarily the same as the R1 this is
an area that's been upgraded you'll also
see that we have a giant vent on the
bottom and we're going to get to that
when we get to the inside of the system
now flipping this around you're going to
see that we have two USB typc port
looking things and the first one is a
USB 3 Port but it's also a display port
type 1.4a now the other side is
something that's very different in this
generation versus the previous
generation so you're going to see that
we have a combo audio jack that's in a
USBC Port interesting but on the
previous generation we had a TF slot
which is basically a Micro SD card slot
so maybe if you're using this as a
desktop then maybe that makes sense but
I'm not really 100% sure that a lot of
folks are going to use an audio or combo
audio jack out of a USBC Port okay now
flipping this around we get to the part
that I think everybody wants to see we
get three 2.5 GB ethernet ports now
these are all Intel i26 V ports which is
pretty standard but this generation
there's something that's a little bit
different that is the fourth 2 and a
half gig ethernet port which is a
realtech port so it's not an Intel port
and that real Tech Port isn't just like
a standard RTL 8125 or something like
that instead it's an RTL 8156 BG which
means that it's actually a USB 3 Nick
that's embedded in a system to get the
fourth Nick now of course having four
Network ports is awesome if you're going
to run this as a firewall if you're
going to run pfSense OPN sents something
like that that's always great also
you're going to use it as a
virtualization host like for proxmoxve
or V where or something like that I
think that's also pretty useful just
having more Nicks but for a lot of folks
one or two Nicks is going to be fine and
so I don't know how I feel about adding
a fourth Nick using USB right now there
definitely are some other features on
the back of the system we get an HDMI 2
Port so that's always kind of nice if
you want to run like a 4K display off of
this you totally can but the other thing
that you can do is you can power this
via USBC but there's definitely a catch
so kind of first off this is the power
adapter which is the USBC it's a 12volt
adapter and I know a lot of folks are
going to say like okay cool that you
have a 12volt adapter but I'd rather go
and you know use my own power adapter
instead of this little power adapter
that's totally fine um but this cable
comes with the system now this is a USBC
to just kind of like a DC Barrel Jack so
if you want to use a more standard type
of power supply then you would plug this
into the USBC port and now you have your
adapter I guess that's an okay solution
I just think that a lot of folks are
going to want either a kind of standard
USB PD solution or they're going to want
a um you know just a standard power jack
DCM Jack right and before we wrap up our
external overview I want to just show
you guys how small this is and why it's
important right this is something that
you can throw in your backpack if you
are traveling or something like that
it's not going to take up a whole lot of
space like this is a project tiny mini
micro one liter node from Lenovo and you
can kind of see this thing is uh this
thing is way way bigger than the iol
core R2 right the other thing though is
if you are going to use multiple units
we'll use this R1 Pro is kind of our
second unit right like this is a cluster
that is super small so you can imagine
that if you wanted to have have like
three of these units and you want to
have like maybe a small switch or
something like that you could go and
create a pretty cool little travel
cluster so there are a lot of folks that
do things like sales there are faes and
stuff like that or people that have to
go and like set things up remotely and
they just need a little mini cluster um
you know this is a pretty powerful
solution right you can get a bunch of
ports a bunch of network ports a bunch
of nodes and stuff like that all in a
very tight package and I think that's
one of the reasons that you would buy
something like the R2 is just to be able
to travel with it and go on the road and
by the way this is a cool Haso switch
that we're going to have a review of
soon with 4 2 and2 gig ethernet ports it
also has an SFP Plus Port and it has a
10g based T Port there are management
options Poe options all kinds of stuff
like that and we're going to have a
review of this pretty soon still I think
it's probably worth getting inside the
unit so we can see how this thing is
made okay so getting inside the system
if you just want to get to the SSD let's
start with that because I think that's
kind of the easiest so what you have
here is you have four pegs that go into
this top and and then you can pull the
top off like this now something that the
iol core folks did between like the R1
and R1 pro version is they started
adding and making this uh this top piece
like a little heat sink so you see a
little thermal pad here and that's
really to cool the SSD now getting to
the SSD you can see we have the SSD here
and this is a m.2 2242 so a 42 mm SSD it
does not take a full 80 mm SSD cuz that
just wouldn't fit in the system now of
course with this you can do a couple
things like one you can get these
systems as a bare bone so you don't have
to get an SSD with it there's 256 gig
512 I think they also have a one tbte
and they used to have at least or they
may have in the future a 2 tab option as
well the big thing however with m.2 2242
drives is that you're not going to get
like the best performance because
usually you're going to see that these
are single package drives so you're
going to have like dless drives you're
just not going to get a ton of
performance and so that's just something
to keep in mind that if you do need like
a ton of storage performance these are
nvme drives but they're not necessarily
going to be like the fastest nvme drives
just because of the form factor okay now
underneath the SSD we get something new
for this generation which is a Wi-Fi
slot you just couldn't put a internal
Wi-Fi card in the previous generation R1
and R1 pros and so now you have the
option to do that and I really like the
fact that you can just because I think
it makes a portable box more useful if
you have Wi-Fi as an option now
installed in here we have a mediatech RZ
608 which is a pretty like kind of
mediocre Wi-Fi 6E solution for being
honest but something that adding Wi-Fi
in here introduces is that you need the
antenna cable and you also need to go
put the antenna somewhere which
complicates ever so slightly putting
back together the system or I guess also
taking it apart but overall the chassis
comes apart pretty easily and then what
you see is that we have our sandwich of
two different pcbs now the top PCB
controls things like our three Nicks and
you can see that those Nicks are on the
little board here now aside from your
Nick connectivity you also have things
like your USB ports and also the nvme or
the pcie lanes that go to the nvme
drives and Wi-Fi and all that kind of
stuff that that's all on this top PCB
it's kind of become like the io PCB or
something like that right now as part of
the sandwich you have two ribbon cables
that go between the top and bottom now
the bottom one that's where a lot of the
magic happens because that has our
processor it also has our memory it has
things like our power input and one
thing I think they changed a little bit
in this generation is how they connect
those cables these things are now have
little uh like covers so they're more
securely in there and I think that
that's really good I just kind of like
the design better in this generation now
taking a look at that bottom PCB
something I want to point out is the
fact that this system is a little bit
different from a lot of the other mini
PCS that we look at and the reason for
that is that the ram is not on an sodm
because an sodm basically wouldn't fit
in this form factor at least wouldn't
fit easily instead we get lpddr memory
on the system itself so the memory is LP
ddr5 and you have to pick at the time of
ordering if you want 8 GB or 16 GB I
kind of wish that you know there was a
higher end option but these are like
kind of the alra l n series processors
so we got to kind of remember that but
the memory is a fixed to the little
motherboard here so you just get stuck
with whatever you order so if you do
think you might need 16 GB I would say
just get it even if you got like the
lower-end processor I just generally
would tell people to get the 16 GB
version and on that processor note you
can see that we have our Alder Lake end
processor which in this system is an
Intel core I3 N300 now that is a super
awesome processor we're going to get to
the performance in a second but you get
a total of eight cores now there is an
option to get an end 95 instead of
getting an N300 and you lose half your
core count which that kind of stinks but
on the other hand the system tends to be
about $100 less when you configure it
with the n95 versus the N300 so I think
a lot of folks you know if you're going
to look at the system you're like oh
it's too expensive I don't need eight
cords or something like that I'm just
trying to replace the Raspberry Pi then
what you really want to do is get the
n95 version and just save that extra
$100 now one of my big complaints with
the original R1 was that it was a little
bit noisy and the R1 Pro added a copper
heat sink a kind of better fan and that
cooling solution helped a lot with the
noise so on the R2 it seems like we have
a similar copper solution we have a lot
more vents around the system and that
allows the system to be cooler but also
at a lower noise level so I really like
the fact that they did that on this
generation now before we close this up I
just want to point out that because you
can't really service the ram that's a
something you have to pick when you
order the system and also you can't
service the processor because it's also
soldered on well your only real option
is to change out the SSD and maybe add a
Wi-Fi card you do need a screw to be
able to secure your SSD and your Wi-Fi
card and all that kind of stuff but to
get inside the system it is actually
toolless which is kind of nice and
something that I wouldn't have expected
in a system like this but I'm really
glad that that's the design okay with
that let's get to the
performance now the performance of this
is something I was not expecting inside
you have an Intel core I3 N300 which is
an a core eight thread processor so you
don't get hyperthreading or anything
like that but it's still an eight core
processor what's more is that even for
that eight core processor the TDP on
this is only 7 Watts Which is less than
one watt per core of TDP which is kind
of awesome now of course that's just for
the CPU it doesn't include any of the
you know memory or NYX or anything like
that so the overall system power
consumption we'll show you that in a sec
but um you know overall the the CPU just
doesn't have it's just not that high
power of a device and when we tested
this little system the cooling on it is
actually pretty good and as a result the
system performed pretty darn well it
performed pretty close to the old
n305 unit that we reviewed previously
and I was kind of shocked frankly with
how well this thing performed now the
previous generation had the older quad
core processors but the new a core
processor well there are two things like
first the architecture is newer so you
get more performance per core your
single thread performance goes up but
you also go from four cores to eight
cores and you get a lot more performance
just by having more newer cores and so
the overall performance is like more
than 2x what you had in the previous
generation now we're not going to go
into all of the quicks sync video
performance and all that kind of stuff
but this does have an integrated GPU so
if you do want to run it as a desktop
you could do that you can run Windows on
it and all that kind of stuff but also
if you want to use quicksync or
something for transcoding this has that
as an acceleration option because there
is a little igpu in this and just so
we're clear if you're just going to go
run like a pretty simple firewall or a
simple just kind of like Gat device or
something like that then you know using
two of these ports as a you know two and
a half gig networking absolutely no
problem you have plenty of CPU
horsepower to go push like a two 2 and
half gigabit feed like through one Nick
and out the other easy peasy the only
thing that's a little bit weird is that
the 2 and 1/2 gig real Tech Nick you
know you're not going to get the same
level of performance out of that as you
do the Intel i26 and that's kind of a
bummer now one thing I will tell you
though is that you can use that to your
advantage in some ways like for example
if you're going to run a operating
system and have a hypervisor like prox
or you're can run a buntu where you have
like a hypervisor one thing I would
definitely do is think about using this
real Technic as kind of like a
management Nick and then using the i26
vs as your kind of data ones for all
your VMS and containers and all that
kind of stuff but if you just want to
run a simple OPN sense PF sense firewall
you know you got plenty of performance
to go do you know one in one out 2 and
half gbit per second no problem but you
probably want to know more about the
power noise so let's get to that
next
okay so let's talk about the power
consumption here on the new set for the
icool core R2 now you're going to see
that the package power consumption is
somewhere in that maybe less than a half
a watt range this is a very low power
processor you're going to see this in a
second now of course this is idle in
proxmox V but the idle power consumption
at the low- ended idle is about 72 watts
and just so you know the new studi is
about a 34 and a half DBA noise floor
and when we have this thing running at
idle I I frankly can't hear it from this
distance and we have the sound meter up
the 342 goes up to maybe about 35 so it
is a very quiet system there is a fan
running if I put my ear right up to it
you can definitely hear it but at this
distance absolutely not okay so
something I thought would be fun is we
are now running stress NG on the system
you can see that the power consumption
is significantly higher but it's not
crazy numbers by any means okay so this
thing has now been running flat out 100%
for around two minutes now and frankly a
couple things have changed first off
you're going to see that the package
power consumption is now in that like
seven to seven and a half watt range
you're going to see the total power
consumption of the system is now
somewhere in the 27 to 30 watt range in
proxmox v and then the other big thing
that you're going to just notice is the
noise or lack thereof I can kind of hear
a fan right now and it's running at
about 37 is DBA maybe a little less than
that this is a super quiet system and I
think that's really due to the core I3
N300 and not having a higher TDP CPU but
at the same time you can see we have a
course here so this is pretty darn
amazing for such a low power system with
that let's get to our key Lessons
Learned now with all of these videos I
like to have a key Lessons Learned
because if we get these systems and we
reviewed tons of them we should have at
least something that we learn from the
system and I can tell you the number one
one that I have with this system is that
I love this processor the Intel like n95
that's an option in this is good it's
four qus if you just need something
that's less expensive then frankly I
would save the $100 and I would not get
the core I3 N300 that's in here however
if you do want performance then the N300
is just flipping awesome having a lot of
cores without hyperthreading makes it
pretty easy to go do virtualization and
have a very easy system this also uses
all EC cor so you don't run into the
heterogeneous core issue that you have
with like VMware esxi and like modern
Intel processors where you have like
different you know p and ecor this is
all ecor so you don't run into to that
issue at all now while I love the fact
that the Intel core I3 n 305 is very
fast and it's a low power processor the
system is very quiet there are a couple
things that I'm not a huge fan of like
the fact that you can only get up to 16
GB of memory that 16 GB by the way is a
spec maximum for this processor so it
isn't like you know if you went to like
32 gigs you would be out of spec and I
can understand why if you had a ceron
ram you would not go and say like you
know hey let's go let's go test and try
doing 30 2 GB and unsupported
configuration cuz that just wouldn't
make sense but on the other hand that
also means that you have 2 GB per core
maximum and if you get only the 8 gbt
with this processor then you have 8 gbes
of memory and you have eight cores or 1
gab per core a lot of systems that we're
seeing these days you know people are
looking at like 4 gbt of core and so it
just feels like the ratio is a little
bit off however if you do want to
maintain 4 GB per core well then you
just get the n95 and you have four cores
16 GB memory and your set now we have
been looking at a lot of Mini PC
recently and something that I just freak
out in comments when I see is that
people are always like I need way more
performance I need like a Zeon E5 or a
skyl Xeon or something like that I need
24 cores in my home lab frankly most of
the people that do that they get these
like big servers they use a ton of power
they have to figure out how to cool them
they spend tons of money on fans or they
just run a loud server something like
that and then they run these things at
CP utilization that's like 1% 2%
something like that it's just atrocious
to go and use a giant CPU burn all that
power and just not really use it right
so I think for a lot of folks if you
want a home lab node that's not like a
workstation or a laptop and you just
want to have like a little Home Server
this is pretty darn awesome it gives you
all the capabilities of having a server
add a low power low noise and I just
think that that's an awesome combination
and you get plenty of Nicks so if you
want to do something like you know you
want to use two Nicks for your firewall
and you want to have that going and then
you also want to have another Nick for
like your VMS and you want to have
another one for managing the hypervisor
you can do that on a little platform
like this which is always nice to do to
me though I'm not a huge fan of this
real Technic I also don't like the fact
that everything is looks like a USBC
port on it like the audio the power
input all that kind of stuff I would
rather just have you know the plain
ports because I think that makes it
easier for just everything and while I
know that there are adapter cables I
don't necessarily want to use them for
everything now I think a lot of folks
are going to see this and they're say
hey I need more storage it's just not
enough storage for me and if you have a
little node like this something you can
do is you could go get one of these like
little external raid boxes or jbods this
is this from qap we have not done the
photos for the St main sight review yet
so uh the plastic is still on there so
we can this is a definitely a
fingerprint Magnet or whatever and you
know you get something like this you can
put two hard drives in here we have I
think like uh two Western Digital like
20 terab drives in here and so you get
40 terabytes that you can hook up to a
little system like this and it's a
relatively compact solution so I know
there are folks that are going to want
storage and that's probably how I would
solve that problem but overall I have to
say if you just need a little tiny node
that you can bring with you anywhere I I
don't know what is much better than the
iol core R2 at this point the R1 Pro is
awesome but on the other hand the R2
with eight cores is much better and the
fact that you can put wify in it is
super useful in a portable platform and
hey guys I hope you like this review if
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thanks for watching have an awesome day
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