Presale Has Started For Our Two New Products Home Workstation & Home Client

45HomeLab & 45Drives News
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Presale is now live for two new products coming soon to the 45HomeLab store – The 45Home Client and 45Home Workstation

We are introducing two new products different from what you would expect from 45HomeLab (and 45Drives) because they are not another storage server. We are starting a presale on two new clients.

Most clients currently are Windows-based. We wanted to add to the market by expanding your options for what is available with pre-built, pre-engineered Linux-based machines.

We thought we could add our 45HomeLab touch: everything from design, high-quality metal construction, pre-installed Linux, and manufacturing within North America. These products will be premium, high-quality, and have 45HomeLab standing behind them.

We designed the home clients for the homelabber who’s done it all - worked with servers, desktops, single-board-computers and more who wants something small, fast, and well manufactured to work as a do-it-all system to interface with their lab, media, and more. This can also be a fantastic starting point for the newer homelabber just looking to dip their toes into the world of Linux.

And, at the end of the day, these systems are completely open and you can run any OS or solution you may want on them.

When are these products going to launch?

They will be going live this spring (2024). We are still finalizing the design and testing of these systems. We want to be completely confident the products we deliver are up to the standard of 45HomeLab and 45Drives as a whole.

The Home Client

The Home Client is a single-board-computer-based device. It features an extremely small footprint of less than 7 inches, making it perfect to stick on a TV stand or mount on the back of a monitor. It is fanless, so it will remain quiet and unobtrusive while staying in a sleek, small-form-factor low profile. It is built in North America with a premium metal construction. We see the Home Client as functioning well in virtualized environments, where it can stream applications from your lab. It can also be great for light office work, streaming and other similar applications. But it is completely open, so it is up to you to make whatever use of it that fits best into your home environment.

Price – starting at $699 USD
CPU - N97
RAM:

  • 8GB
  • 16GB

STORAGE - 250GB

COLOR: Black White

The Home Workstation

The Home Workstation is a bit bigger, but for that extra size you can get more power. While the Home Workstation features a single fan on the CPU cooler, which is a Noctua to keep things quiet. The Home Workstation features a low-profile GPU slot, enabling a wide range of more intensive applications. The Home Workstation can be great for dev work, self-hosting, or whatever you choose. Due to the extra room and mini-ITX board, you will have more space for customizations and upgrades down the line. If you are looking for a ready-to-go, premium, Linux-based, standalone workstation, the Home Workstation is for you.

Workstation:

Price - 1099

CPU

I5 - 12600k

I7 - 12700k*

I9 - 12900k*

GPU

none

4060 low profile 8GB*

RAM

16

32

64

STORAGE – Starting at 256GB

COLOR

black

white

How to pre-order?

If either of these products interests you, and you want to get to the front of the line when they launch, you can place a fully refundable $99.99 deposit right now on 45Homelab.com

We faced some delays due to the high level of demand from the previous launch, so you don’t want to wait to get in line!

Note: This item is currently available for pre-sale. The full product launch will begin in Spring 2024. A deposit will secure your place in line for when the product launches. All deposits are fully refundable. The price posted is the starting price for the unit. Any configuration options chosen now are purely to gauge interest for our supply, you will be able to configure your unit at the time of full purchase. All information currently shared about product design and specifications is subject to change.

Find our new products here:
Home Client

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Home Workstation

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Any further details to share for the motherboard that would be used or what will be the GPU?

When I look at the CPU on Intel’s website, it states that the CPU supports a max of 128 GB RAM.

These are similar issue Framework had to decide when using Intel and AMD cpu for their laptops. Framework had to make a decision to what was comfortable for them (which was 64 GB RAM) because this vendor had to deal with custom BIOS modules, their own hardware components, etc.

I am assuming this team will be trying to make it as user maintainable as the HL-15.

I completed my deposit but I would like to know to help me budget when this is available. I do appreciate the starting price is at $1099, I picked the upper limits on most items (and I am not doubting this might be as high as $2000).

Added footnote: I was looking at getting a System76 workstation, but was waiting for the workstation model to be posted. I am taking an optimistic approach on this unit (though I have more questions but will wait patiently).

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I have deposits in for both, but have questions.

  1. Are there physical dimensions available anytime soon? Or Pics of the rear?
  2. Based on how wide the Workstation looks, this only for the PSU, or is they drive bays or anything else in there?
  3. Will the mITX Workstation be sold as a chassis option like the HL-15?

Feedback.
I am a tiny bummed that they lack a small fan like 40mm fans on front of thin client to keep the iconic 45Drives look going. BUT overall love the looks, will tie the room together with the HL-15.

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Hi @ZarZ,

Thank you, for placing the deposits.

  1. the Current approximate dimensions are 11.25inx3.5inx8.5in for the work station and 7in x 7in for the home client
  2. We are still finalizing on the Drive bay configuration, we will let you know as we come to a final decision on the details.
  3. We do not have a chassis only option for the workstation as of now.

We appreciate your feedback and I will forward this to our team for consideration. Please keep sharing your feedback.

I will look forward to a video or pictures from you sharing your experience with our products.

Thank you,

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I’m using a fire tv stick but it laggs a lot when streaming 4k. Will the home client make a good HTPC? would love to see some tests to see at what birtate i could stream to it.

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Will you be relying on WiFi, or is an ethernet jack available for your use case?

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I have the ethernet adapter for the fire stick. if i was to get the home client id still use ethernet, probably load kodi on it with the plex addon.

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Any chance the Home Workstation motherboard will have 2 PCIe X16 connections? Would love to run dual GPUs.

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Also please if there could be provisions for mounting feet on the bottom, I would really appreciate it. My HL-15 had no holes for mounting feet under it, only in tower mode. So i have to be SUPER careful sliding it on and off it’s shelf so i don’t gouge the wood.

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I agree having options for mounting the feet on the bottom would be great for a workstation.

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I will be honest with you, asking 699$ for a N97 board is just delusional when I can get Asrock N100DC-ITX board + Similarly sized (and even looking) Silverstone or AliExpress case for 200$ combined.

I know it’s a harsh comment but we really need to have a reality check here.

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Or a much more powerful Minisforum MS-01 for ~$699 (if that is the target price).

For me personally the thing I’d be looking for in a “Home Client” that is not already well served by all the NUCs and 1L PCs would be something with 10 Gb networking. I haven’t seen full specs, but I’m doubtful that is part of what is being offered.

Maybe I’m missing something about the market segment or opportunity they’re targeting.

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ya im using as a server, but i need to finish building the server room in the basement and pulling cable through the house. so it sits on this massive wooden cubicle built into the wall here.

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Can you guys add more than just a handful of pictures of the outside of the case to the store pages? I would like to see the inside at a few different angles. Maybe some close up shots too.

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Hi @Glitch3dPenguin,

The products are still in development, we will release more details and images as soon as they are finalized.

Thank you, for your interest and patience.

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Thanks for the update!

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Can the HL4 workstations be stacked on top of each other? How many until the “tower” starts to fall? :slight_smile:

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@Vikram-45Drives @Ashley-45Drives I was just realizing the workstation is 2U high, and would like to suggest maybe some ears to mount in rack as option? Seems like a excellent option for a shallow network wall rack. Allow with those bottom feet i would like to see.

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Hi @ZarZ ,

Thank you, for your feedback. I will make sure to pass along this to our R&D team.

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While I mostly agree with you, because I’ve been eyeing this same exact machine, you also have to consider long term support. These machines, while slightly less modern than an Ali-Express/Amazon units, are made by engineers that live and breathe enterprise. You have the full backing and support of 45 drives along with the build quality to show for it. For what it’s worth, some folks over on the STH forums have been reporting problems with certain PCIE network cards failing to post on their ms-01 with no bios updates in sight. A common theme with outsourced mini pc’s - they are fantastic on paper and provide phenomenal value until it’s time to dig into details and the long term support becomes bleak.

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