Looking for a small desktop that has great Linux support? Star Labs just announced the Byte, and it looks to be a pretty mighty little unit. It might be a Mini PC but nothing it does in mini. Starting at £663, this AMD Ryzen powered unit won't take up much room but it will give you plenty.
You get a choice of firmware to load it up with too, with it supporting coreboot+EDKII or American Megatrends+EDKII, if you prefer to have a device that's more open — you can!
Specifications:
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 1.90GHz octa-core 5800U |
| Graphics | Radeon Vega 8 |
| RAM | 8GB 3200MHz G.Skill Ripjaws memory (1 × 8GB) Up to 64GB 3200MHz memory (2 × 32GB) |
| Storage | 240GB SSD SATA "Over-Provisioned" storage Up to 1920GB SSD Gen3 PCIe "Over-Provisioned" storage |
| Ports | Combo Audio Jack, USB-C, USB-A x 2 (USB3), DC power jack, HDMI x 2, RJ45 Ethernet port, USB-A x 2 (USB2), Micro SD (on the side) |
This is the first desktop unit from Star Labs, who usually do their own laptops. All of which come with good and tested Linux support and of course this is no different. You can pick between Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro and more with Windows also an option but that will cost extra (+£110 for Windows 10 Home for example).
Tinker to your liking too, as their warranty allows you to take it apart, replace parts, upgrade, use whatever operating system you like all without voiding it.
When will it be available? You can order now, but it won't ship out until approximately "Late June" but they give a 5% discount if you order now. See more on the Star Labs website.
hardpenguin Apr 16, 2022
Avehicle7887 Apr 16, 2022
Quoting: txtsdBase config costs ~USD960 in my country. 1/7 of the price is tax.
Likewise, in euro it translates to about €800 for the base config. Unless you're a diehard coreboot fan I wouldn't recommend it.
Last year I built an ASRock Deskmini X300 for much less and performs better. The whole thing cost me a little over €500.
Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 16 April 2022 at 9:35 am UTC
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