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November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite review – A low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC review windows 11

We’ve already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review. It is a low-cost mini PC based on an Intel Processor N100 CPU, coupled with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory, a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD, dual Display output through HDMI and DisplayPort connector, GbE, WiFi 6E, and a 9-pin expansion header port – as found in some NUC model – to access an external power button, reset button, and LEDs when housed in a cabinet or kiosk. You’ll find the full Mini Air 12 Lite specifications in our previous article about it. We’ve now had more time to test the mini PC, so we’ll report our experience with the Mini Air12 Lite running Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review. We’ll go through a software overview, test most of the features, run […]

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

GEEKOM GT1 Mega Review – Part 2: An Intel Core 9 Ultra 185H Meteor Lake “AI” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

I’ve already gone through the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown of the GEEKOM GT1 Mega AI mini PC powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H “Meteor Lake” processor with 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD in the first part of the review. I’ve now had more time to play with the GEEKOM GT1 Mega, so I will report my experience with Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review testing features, running benchmarks including an AI benchmark, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design while under stress, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. Software overview and features testing Going to the System->About window in the Settings confirms we have a GT1-Mega mini PC powered by a 2.50 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with 32GB of RAM running Windows 11 Pro 23H2 build […]

November 11, 2024November 10, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - No Comments

iBASE IB962 3.5-inch SBC features Intel Core Ultra 5/7 SoC, up to 64GB SODIMM memory, and three M.2 slots

iBASE Technology has unveiled the IB962 3.5-inch single-board computer (SBC) powered by the Intel Core Ultra 5/7 100 Series processor family (formerly Meteor Lake U/H) and delivering an “optimal balance of performance and power efficiency.” The IB962 3.5-inch SBC mostly follows the IB961 board‘s design, offering more powerful SoC options, more system memory, and an HDMI 2.0 display interface supporting 4K resolution at 60Hz. It provides dual Gigabit Ethernet networking, three USB 3.2 ports (two via pin headers), three USB 2.0 ports, and three M.2 slots (M-Key + E-Key + B-Key) for networking, storage, and cellular communication. While IB962 is not a single-board computer in the strictest sense since it uses SODIMM sockets, it is still quite compact and useful for portable or space-constrained applications. It is intended for industrial automation, manufacturing, retail, entertainment, healthcare, and various edge AI applications. It is a larger alternative to AAEON’s PICO-MTU4 Pico-ITX SBC […]

November 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Maxtang T0-FP750 review – Part 3: An AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC tested with Ubuntu 24.04

Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC Ubuntu 24.04 review

We’ve already checked out the hardware of the Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review, before thoroughly testing the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC in Windows 11 Pro. The time has now come to report our experience with Ubuntu 24.04, and more exactly Ubuntu 24.04.1 “dot” release, with the Maxtang T0-FT750 mini PC in the final part of the review. This will include a software overview, feature tests, benchmarks, storage and USB performance evaluation, 2.5Gbps Ethernet and WiFi 6 network performance tests, a stress test to check for thermal and/or power throttling, and fan noise and power consumption measurements. We will also compare the results of the Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC in Ubuntu 24.04 against the ones for the earlier Maxtang MTN-FP750 mini PC using AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU which we tested with Ubuntu 22.04. Ubuntu 24.04 system […]

November 8, 2024November 16, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite is a mini PC based on Intel Processor N100 CPU whose unique feature is to include an external 9-pin expansion header port for expansion to add an external power button, a reset button, and a few LEDs. As its name implies, it’s also a cheaper version of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 that ships with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory and a 256GB NVMe SSD. The mini PC also features HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, and six USB 3.2/2.0 ports. GEEKOM sent us a sample of the Mini Air12 Lite for review. So today, we’ll start by checking out the hardware with an unboxing and teardown, before trying to boot it up, and we’ll then test the system in more detail with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04.1 in the next parts of the review. GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite unboxing We received the […]

October 2, 2024October 1, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Thunderbolt 5 devices are starting to show up with OWC portable SSD and Kensington docking station

Kensington SD5000T5 EQ Thunderbolt 5 Triple 4K Docking Station

Thunderbolt 5 was first unveiled last year with promises of 120 Gbps bandwidth and support for multiple 8K monitors. The good news is that the first Thunderbolt 5-compliant devices are now coming to market. There’s not too much to choose from for now, but we need to start somewhere, and the OWC Envoy Ultra portable SSD ($299.99 and up) and the Kensington SD5000T5 EQ Thunderbolt™ 5 Triple 4K Docking Station with 140W PD ($399.99) – also found on Amazon – are some of the first Thunderbolt 5 devices to make it to market. OWC Enjoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 portable SSD Key features: Speed over 6000MB/sm or up to twice faster than Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Capacity – 2TB or 4TB Compatibility – Macs, PCs, iPad Pros, Chromebooks, and Surface devices with a Thunderbolt 3 to 5 port, or USB4 port Rugged design – Waterproof, dustproof, and crushproof Power Supply – […]

September 11, 2024September 10, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Khadas Mind 2 portable mini PC gets Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Ultra 7 155H update, USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 interfaces

Khadas Mind 2 is an update to the Raptor Lake-powered Khadas Mind portable mini PC offered with either an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Core Ultra 155H Meteor Lake processor. It ships with up to 64GB LPDDR5, PCIe 4.0 storage, and adds Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 interfaces that were missing from the first model. We reviewed the original Khadas Mind Premium with both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04, and its dock, and it was indeed a pretty cool, albeit pricey, device with features like a small built-in battery to move the computer from one room to another without turning it off, and the Mind Link interface enabling connecting to the Khadas Dock for extra peripherals, the Mind Graphics for higher-end graphics, and more. Limitations included the lack of USB4 and 2.5GbE ports and the Khadas Link was limited to 64GT/s, but the second generation model addresses most of these […]

September 8, 2024September 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Maxtang T0-FP750 review – Part 2: An AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC review windows 11

We already listed the specifications and performed an unboxing and a teardown of the Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC in the first part of the review. We’ve now had time to test the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC in more detail with the Windows 11 Pro operating system. So in the second part of the review, we’ll report our experience with the Maxtang T0-FP750 in Windows 11 Pro with a software overview, features testing, benchmarks, networking and storage performance, cooling performance, and measurement of fan noise and power consumption. Software overview and features testing The System->About menu confirms we have an “FP750” Mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor clocked at 1.80 GHz (base frequency) with Radeon 780M Graphics, equipped with 32 GB RAM, and running Windows 11 Pro 23H2, OS build 22631.4112. HWiNFO64 provides additional details about the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS 8-core/16-thread processor, the Maxtang […]