MINISFORUM S40 Celeron N4000 PC Stick with HDMI & miniDP Goes for $190

MINISFORUM S40 is yet another Gemini Lake mini PC, but it comes in a super-compact PC Stick form factor and combines an Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core processor with 4GB DDR4 RAM and 64G eMMC flash storage. All that for just $189.99 on Banggood.

MINISFORUM S40 specification:

SoC – Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.1GHz / 2.6GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphic 600; 6W TDP
System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4
Storage – 64GB eMMC flash and microSD card slot
Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz, mini DisplayPort port up to 4K @ 60 Hz
Connectivity – Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0
USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 port
Misc – Power button, reset pinhole, Kensington lock support, cooling fan, ventilation hole with dustproof net
Power Supply – 12V? via USB-C port
Dimensions – 133 x 46 x ?? mm

The PC stick is supposed to ship with Windows 10 Pro, but at this price, it might just be a trial version…

It’s also challenging to pack a 6W processor into a really small form factor, and they had to use a fan to keep things cool. We’ve previously seen another ultra-compact Gemini Lake mini PC, about as thin but larger, with SSD-sized ZOTAC PI225-GK equipped with the same Celeron N4000 processor but fanless.

We did not test that specific model, but earlier Linuxium reviewed Zotac ZBOX PI225 with the 6W Celeron N3350 Apollo Lake processor and found it did the job but with lower performance as they had to disable turbo boost frequency in the BIOS to keep the CPU temperature in check. Again that was a fanless PC stick, and MINISFORUM S40 is actively-cooled, but it’s not impossible they had to lower the TDP, or performance may suffer under load.

Thanks to Whiterat for the tip

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.