Eric
Will Not Buy From That Manufacturer Again
Bought a maxed out Thelio Mira at over 5000 canadian dollars after taxes, what I got was a user machine, not a workstation. Where do I start? Well, computer took about 2 months to arrive as I recall. Also, pay attention, because unlike a lot of distributors abroad, they won't charge you taxes and your shipment will get stopped at the border where you will have to arrange for tax payment. Half the ram went bad within 1.5 years (not a hard crash, more subtle than that enough to slip past the warranty period). The technician (I trust him) told me the RAM they provided was cheap. The machine crashed a lot at first because the System76 drivers where not really compatible with Ubuntu 24.04 (from end 2024 to mid 2025 where I stopped installing them anyways). It took a couple of reinstalls before I realized it was the System76 drivers and my machine was stable after I stopped installing them. Beyond that, I have a couple of second-hand Dell poweredges, an Asus Tuf gaming machine and aging Lenovo D30 for comparison and compared to those machines, the inside of the Thelio Mira feels like an art project. Countless steel components and screws (good if you intend to smash your computer with a baseball bat, not so much if you want to access most components in a timely fashion) and unlike all my other machines I worked on so far, the Mira won't boot unless the external casing is on (no quick troubleshooting without having to put things back on for you sir). Oh yes, and the BIOS doesn't have hardware diagnostics. Unless you want to unscrew everything and pop out your RAM to test it elsewhere, you need to run RAM diagnostics while the OS is running (really not ideal). If there had been a BIOS diagnostics, I might have identified the RAM problem before the warranty ran out. Also, the PSU they ship with is conservative. Be prepared to change that if you significantly want to upgrade your GPU for something that consume more power (you'll be cutting it very close). I'm definitely buying my next workstation from a local distributor. Just more accountability. I'll give it 2 stars because the machine is powerful and having a flip switch for the nvmes is neat.
Response from System76Mar 16, 2026
Hello, thank you for the feedback about Thelio Mira. We understand when components fail that it can be a rough experience, but we always do our best to work with customers on handling warranty issues in a timely manner when they are reported. We'll take your feedback into account when developing the next generation.