I was in the market for a mini PC to host my home automation, so I asked a computer science professor friend for some advice. Turns out that a couple of years ago his department outfitted a new gaming lab with about 15-20 KAMRUI mini PCs. He was very comfortable recommending KAMRUI to me, since the mini PCs were easy to configure, quiet, and have held up to a lot of student use/abuse! So I ordered one for my home use and am VERY pleased with it.

Since comes with Windows 11 Pro preinstalled, I initially installed Home Assistant for Windows. That worked fine, but I also wanted to try out Proxmox (a totally new OS). However, I was concerned about my ability to go back to Windows if needed (it doesn't come with any installation media). I contacted KAMRUI via their support website and worked with Kin, a very helpful and knowledgeable customer service rep. Kin answered all my questions and made sure I could go back to Windows 11 Pro if/when I decide to. All in all I'm quite happy with both the KAMRUI mini pc and their customer support. Note: While the graphics on this model are more than enough for home automation and even light gaming, intense gamers should probably consider a model with a more powerful CPU.)