That board is pretty close to the same experience you would get with a random x86 mITX board (once you flash the UEFI firmware on it). It has a m.2 nvme slot, sata, etc. Its one of the lower cost standards based arm boards.
So, yes you have to bring some storage, ram, ps and case. But one can cheap out and probably get all three for <$200, or go crazy and put 64G of ECC, and a few TB of storage in it. The cheaper off the shelf RAM/storage makes it a lot cheaper than a loaded mini with similar specifications.
And as another commenter points out, yes fairly common GPUs tend to work in it. Its not perfect, for that you have to spend more, but the time you will spend fighting with the mac mini+linux is going to be worth the difference.
So, yes you have to bring some storage, ram, ps and case. But one can cheap out and probably get all three for <$200, or go crazy and put 64G of ECC, and a few TB of storage in it. The cheaper off the shelf RAM/storage makes it a lot cheaper than a loaded mini with similar specifications.
And as another commenter points out, yes fairly common GPUs tend to work in it. Its not perfect, for that you have to spend more, but the time you will spend fighting with the mac mini+linux is going to be worth the difference.