Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 393 Comments on MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max mini PC international giveaway

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max mini PC international giveaway

Right before Christmas,  I posted a review of MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max mini PC powered by an Intel Pentium J5005 Gemini Lake processor coupled with 8GB RAM and a 240GB SSD. It’s basically the same as the previously reviewed MINIX NEO J50C-4 except for the extra memory and faster & higher capacity SSD storage.

MINIX asked me if I could do a giveaway of three units on CNX Software after the review, and I thought it would be a good idea so here we are.

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max Giveaway

I wanted to complete the review before launching the giveaway and tested MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max with the pre-installed Windows 10 Pro. I worked just as well as the previous model with no CPU throttling and the performance one should expect from a Gemini Lake processor, but you may want to add an extra 8GB memory stick to take advantage of the higher bandwidth provided by dual-channel memory. This can help with some 4Kp60 video playback and applications using 3D graphics such as games.

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max Power Supply VESA Mount

To enter the draw simply leave a comment. You may consider writing what you plan to do with it to make the contest more interesting. Other rules are as follows:

  • Only one entry per user. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address.
  • The giveaway is open for 48 hours and will end at 11 am (Bangkok time) on January 6th.
  • Comments will be closed after 48 hours. If comments are open, the contest is still going on.
  • Three different winners will be selected with random.org,  and I’ll introduce them to MINIX by email for shipping arrangements.
  • Shipping is free and handled by MINIX

Good luck!

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393 Replies to “MINIX NEO J50C-4 Max mini PC international giveaway”

  7. I am curious how this would compare in performance and utility to my Odyssey Blue from seeed. They both run Windows 10 but differ in target audience, I believe. Thanks for offering the giveaway!

  11. Looks like a pretty much fun piece of hardware. Thanks for the giveaway contest ?

  12. Thank you and wish me luck on 2021. This device gonna great for Home assistant + Plex server.

  24. in! I might try to put the old BSDesque OS, “MINIX” on it, just to confuse everyone.

    (no, but really, it’d probably go in the little homelab)

  30. I would replace my old zoneminder pc with this one. It would save quite a lot of space

  32. Small footprint desktop using monitor’s VESA mounts. Dual boot into Android x86 as media box.

  52. This can be a great home theater PC. I have a raspberry pi but it isn’t powerful enough to handle some of my high res videos. This machine can perfectly replace it.

  57. It could replace my old PC from 2011 which I’m currently using. I mainly do PCB design with Eagle and Kicad. A fresher Architecture and Smaller size would be beneficial.

  60. I would use it as my main desktop PC. It’s much better than my Atom based laptop.

  79. Plex transcode box, most likely. The Gemini Lake chips are supposed to have good hardware transcode support.

  81. OE! That would be nice as an upgrade for my bartop (my DIY arcade emulation machine) which is currently running on a Raspberry Pi 3B 😉

  83. I want to use it as a computer for the children of my old village to learn to use Single Board Computer.

  93. This could be a media center and it also could be a cool retro gaming host !

  94. This will be a great replacement for my cubietruck, compiling is really pain on it.

  96. 8GB justifies it’s “mini PC” name. Less than 8GB is an expensive and wierd TV box replacement.

  98. I take my chance too! It could be a very nice replacement of my current x5 mini-pc that is used for my children to start with a computer. This minipic seems much more efficient and upgradeable!

  99. may I win something for once..! oh, and BTW: armbian for the NanoPi R4S is available as a preview…

  102. i’d use it as a media pc in the living room, currently using an old laptop for that

  105. I’d use one of these as a fixed SDR station, coupler with a receiver and some homemade antennas.
    Thank you!

  107. Not sure what I will use it for just yet, but it will probably have something to do with my TV.
    Thanks CNX and MINIX.

  112. Home Linux server with Pi-hole, Graylog and some other services. SATA SSD is relatively weak for the server, but 8GB is what I currently lack on my RK3399+NVMe.

  113. For me this would make a very nice Plex server due to the HW accelerated H.265 and H.264 de- and encoding.

  114. It seems a good candidate for an home automation server and with some IA processing on images captured by the home cameras

  118. Nice, this would be ideal to replace an ageing Ubuntu server I’ve got running

  120. I regularly follow the site every day, it’s the first time I see so many comments. I realized that there is a gift and I felt like I was in my country, I was confused. :))

  127. That would be fantastic, I’d love to win one 😀 I’d probably use it as a media server for my TV.

  129. Would be nice to replace the old office computer my parents are using at the moment.

  131. Will replace my old Macbook pro, because it is way more handy on desktop than laptop.

  134. Gimme one, so that i can host my Nextcloud @home on my small network cabinet 😉
    Oh and … thanks for this site ! You’re my prefered news source regarding embedded hardware !

  136. I want It for install a daw software and use for music creation. Thanks Minix and CNX. Happy new year from Spain.

  138. Last one i used, had 1GB of RAM /android. Let’s try a powerful one.

  143. I’d like to build a network streamer and connect it to my external USB DAC and HiFi amplifier. This could be the right box.

  147. I want to build a home dvr which my whole family and parents (using a plex client) can use to view their fav shows

  148. Happy New Year ! I like to do home computing and media server with this little beast !

  151. Would be amazed to win such a device drawing and surfeiting, would use it gladly with much joy. Thanks !

  155. Let’s see, maybe I finally get my zfs experiments going with this unit 🙂

  159. I have 2 possible use cases for it: as HTPC or as file server replacement.

  161. This small but powerful PC will be used as my fixed office PC. (Laptop getting old…)

  167. Always-on development machine to run bleeding edge distros to easily test latest compilers and latest libs.

  172. I’ll be using it to do some data testing and analysis projects for research projects.

  182. Count me in, I’d like to give this a try to see if this is a brand that is really worth my money

  186. Seems like it would do nicely as an upgrade for my current RPI3 home automation server. Should improve responsiveness quite a lot I would imagine.

  203. that would be a nice competitor against my odroid-H2+ as a always-on desktop workstation

  210. I’d use this to for a surveillance system to catch people stealing my persimmons!

  211. Nice giveaway for 2021 ! Planning to use for development on some opensource projects. Thanks you

  212. I am doing Linux development for IoT and multimedia – audio – video capture, encoding – transcoding, streaming. I mostly use systems on a module. But mini-devices on the Intel processor are very interesting for their capabilities thanks to the QickSync technology.
    It was very interesting to read the reviews, I hope that this device will help me in further research and sailing in the boundless space of Linux.

  225. What a nice mini PC <3 It will perfectly fits my living room : listening music, watching videos (thanx to video projector), playing games and browsing the Web and driving home automation.

  227. It is Januworry and I just spent $1 on the powerball, think I have a better chance here. Banged up a shelf, adding the power and network, this would be sweet to introduce for the homelab.

  228. I would gladly use it as a tiny proxmox server for homelab use.
    Happy new year and thanks to you and minix for the giveaway 🙂

  253. Lovely looking little box, most likely a media player i. The first instance, should stand up to some games as well.

  265. Hey, I’m in.
    I’ve heard so many good things about minix hardware … I want to judge by my own.

    And it will be for sure a good replacement for my old but still healthy zotac fanless NUC like (CI323 to be exact, with 4G ram and celeron N3150 CPU) that I use as my main computer.

    BTW, first time posting here, but I’m long time anonymous CNX reader and I take the opportunity to thank you (and all the valuable commentators) for this excellent blog and to wish you a happy new year..

  266. Many thanks to Jean Luc and to Minix for a nice, bright start to the new year.
    A little boring, but I’d like to replace an existing machine which has hardware problems (no, not a Minix box).

  273. I’ll try my luck. been looking for a small, low powered pc to run for general web browsing & office apps etc.

  285. I would run Minix on it
    Minix on the box
    Minix in the CPU
    Minix in the box

    … just to compile a linux on it

  291. I own an old Citrix box with an Atom CPU to run Kodi, Sonarr, Radarr and my own IOT platform. Sadly, Ubuntu won’t provide updates for its i386 platform, so I am on the lookout for a successor.

  293. My first toy like this was Compaq Evo T20 Thin Client flashed with Slackware 11. Time flies ;).

  296. I’ve never owned a mini PC before so I’d use it to try out pretty much anything I can think of, and I’m sure something will stick. Desktop use, a home server, a testing machine for running tests on actual hardware rather than virtualised. I’m sure I’ll think of more!

  297. Would love to use this as a space saving PC, VESA mounted to the back of my monitor.

  303. Me..me..me.me.me.me.me. 😉 I think would be an excellent computer to use for my work tasks.

  308. It’d be interesting to see how this stacks up against my current media server!

  310. I know its boring but Id just use it as a media player. Having one that is x86 would make me very happy as its easier to code solutions for than android (for me anyways).

  316. Probably I would use it as a little office pc for the kids to study on… Lockdown again in the UK…

  317. Oh nice, will be good KODI+TVH server for my house 🙂

  318. It’s x86, one can do anything with this thing, Is try to use it as power efficient home server, for instance.

  319. Yes please. I need a new home media server and this would come in very handy.

  320. It would be great for a project for our volunteer fire station to display data from the calls

  330. Already have a few mini PCs at home (Intel NUC, Chromebox, etc.) Curious about what this new Minix brings to the game.

  338. Quite unsure where to put it. I need (read: want) a PC in my tinker lab. On the other hand, there’s my idea to have a dedicated Windows PC for financial related stuff (tax declaration, online banking) that should disappear in the closet for most of the time.
    We’ll see.

  342. This would be wonderful to use as a Linux based media server playing videos with Kodi!

  346. I currently have a full Win10 PC as a makeshift-server for Plex, AirSpy (SDR radio), UT2K4/UT99, and SMB among other smaller things. It’s relatively power-efficient (Asus J1800I-C M/B) but i’d reaaally love something with more oomph, smaller and quieter 🙂
    Thanks for the giveaway, let’s try this!

  347. If I won this PC, I would give it to my mom. Now she has an old slow PC.

    P.S. Good luck, everyone!

  353. Would be an awesome machine to hook up to the TV in the living room to watch videos and play games through emulation.

  354. I’m planning on using it as home server for several selfhosted software.

  357. I would use this for a Minecraft Bedrock server for my children and their friends.

  363. I’m going to use it as a small home server, running various containers (pihole, mpd, rsync etc.).

  376. Please count me in.
    The MINUX would replace my IBM z15 (which seemed like a good idea at the time but is really, really hard to lug around).

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