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November 8, 2024November 17, 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 […]

September 4, 2024September 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Maxtang T0-FP750 (AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS) mini PC review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

Maxtang T0-FP750 is a mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS octa-core/sixteen-thread SoC supporting up to 64GB 5600 MT/s dual-channel DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, equipped with two M.2 slots for up to NVMe 2280 SSDs, and an additional M.2 slot for a WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 module. The Windows 11 Pro mini computer can drive up to three displays via HDMI 2.0, USB4, and DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and offers 2.5GbE networking. Maxtang sent us a review sample of the T0-FP750 mini PC with 32GB DDR5 RAM, a 512GB M.2 SSD, and a WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module. Despite having a similar name to the earlier AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS-powered Maxtang MTN-FP750 mini PC reviewed last December, the T0-FP750 design is fairly different as we’ll see below. As usual, we’ll do a three-part review starting with the specifications, an unboxing, a teardown, and a quick first try […]

July 15, 2024July 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Khadas Mind Graphics NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti GPU dock for the Mind mini PC is now available for $999

The Khadas Mind Graphics is a dock for the Khadas Mind Raptor Lake mini PC that integrates an NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4060 Ti GPU and enables users to run high-end games, edit videos, design graphics, and experiment with AI while keeping the portability and small size of a mini PC. As we’ve seen in our reviews, mini PCs now match the performance of larger machines in almost all aspects with tools like PassMark Performance showing higher-end models’ CPU, memory bandwidth, and storage in the top 10% or 20% of systems. The exception is 3D graphics performance because integrated GPUs can’t match the performance of higher-end graphics cards. The Khadas Mind Graphics solves that by adding an NVIDIA Geforce RTX 40601 Ti GPU to the Khadas Mind mini PC through its Mind Link connector also bringing out other connectors such as 2.5GbE, USB, SD card, etc… Khadas Mind Graphics specifications: Graphics […]

July 13, 2024July 19, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

GEEKOM AE7 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

Today we’ll review the GEEKOM AE7 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS octa-core processor with up to 32GB DDR5, a 1TB NVMe SSD, four 4K capable video outputs through HDMI and USB-C ports, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E connectivity, and six USB ports for expansion. As its name implies the GEEKOM AE7 is an evolution of the earlier GEEKOM A7 with almost identical specifications that we reviewed with Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 earlier this year. So we won’t do our usual three-part review and instead focus on differences between the two Ryzen 9 7840HS mini PCs in terms of features, performance, and cooling ability in a shorter review that covers hardware, Windows 11 Pro, and Ubuntu 24.04 testing. GEEKOM AE7 specifications SoC – AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 8-core/16-thread processor up to 4.0GHz with 16MB cache, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics; TDP: 35 to 54W System Memory – […]

July 12, 2024August 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Ugoos SK1 8K Android TV box with Dolby Vision comes with Amlogic S928X-K SoC, 8GB LPDDR4, 128GB eMMC flash

Ugoos SK1 8K TV Box Dolby Vision Atmos DTS HD

Ugoos SK1 8K Android TV box is based on the Amlogic S928X-K penta-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC with 8GB LPDDR4, a 128GB eMMC flash, and support for Dolby Vision HDR. The SK1 model follows the Ugoos AM8 model introduced last year with the Amlogic S928X-J processor, 4GB LPDDR4, and 32GB eMMC flash. The new model provides additional licenses with the S928X-K SoC and more resources that should be suitable for more than just watching 8K videos, and some games and other apps could easily run on the device. Ugoos SK1 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S928X-K CPU – Penta-core processor with 1x Cortex-A76 core @ up to 2.0 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 2.0 VPU 8Kp60 H.265, AV1, VP9, AVS3/AVS2 10-bit video decoder; 4Kp60 H.264 decoder, 1080p60 MPEG-4, WMV/VC-1, AVS, MPEG-2, MPEG-1 decoder Low-latency 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 encoder AI […]