Whilst the first mini PCs were relatively simplistic using low-powered Intel Atom processors with minimal memory, storage, and ports, more recent mini PCs have become so advanced they can challenge SFF builds for both performance and functionality. However, such mini PCs come with prices to match. Beelink has now released the MINI S which is a mini PC that goes back to the basics and is based on a cut-down version of their earlier Beelink U59 mini PC and priced to match. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu and compared it directly against the U59. Beelink MINI S hardware overview The Beelink MINI S physically consists of a 115 x 102 x 41mm (4.53 x 4.02 x 1.61 inches) square plastic case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s new 10 nm Jasper Lake N5095 processor which is […]
Morefine S500+ Review – An AMD Ryzen 7 5700U mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04
Morefine has recently released their S500+ series of mini PC series which features models with either a Zen 2 or Zen 3 AMD mobile processor. Morefine kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Morefine S500+ Hardware Overview The S500+ physically consists of a 149 x 145 x 40mm (5.87 x 5.71 x 1.57 inches) square metal case with a plastic top. As an actively cooled mini PC, it is available with either an AMD Zen 2 or Zen 3 mobile processor. The review model came with AMD’s 7 nm Zen 2 Ryzen 7 5700U Lucienne processor which is an eight-core 16-thread 1.8 GHz mobile processor boosting to 4.3 GHz with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has a power button, a light to indicate power, two USB 3.1 ports, and a Type-C USB 3.1 port with Alternate Mode. The rear panel includes a […]
Beelink SER4 Review – Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04, and “overclocking” AMD Ryzen 7 4800U SoC
Beelink has released the SER4 which is the latest in their ‘SER’ mini PC series and it features a Zen 2 AMD mobile processor. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu and dabbled with ‘overclocking’. Beelink SER4 Hardware Overview The Beelink SER4 physically consists of a 126 x 113 x 40mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.57 inches) square metal case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses AMD’s 7 nm Zen 2 Ryzen 7 4800U Renoir processor which is an eight-core 16-thread 1.8 GHz mobile processor boosting to 4.2 GHz with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C USB 3.1 port with Alternate Mode, dual USB 3.1 ports, and a reset pin-hole ‘CLR CMOS’. The rear panel includes a gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 3.1 port and a USB 2.0 port, […]
UP Xtreme i11 mini PC review with Ubuntu 20.04, Edge Insights for Vision
UP Xtreme i11 is both a single board computer and a mini PC powered by an Intel Tiger Lake processor and designed for industrial edge applications. I received the one sample of the mini PC called “UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit” last December based on an Intel Core i7-1185GRE processor, fitted with 16GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, and pre-loaded with Ubuntu 20.04 operating system. I’ve now had more time to play with the system, and I’ll report my experience with Ubuntu 20.04 and Edge Insights for Vision, a computer vision framework that’s part of the getting started guide. The latter was missing from my package possibly because customs opened the package, and forgot to put it back in. The most important part is “devkit” is used as username and password. Software for UP Xtreme i11 and Fan Control While Ubuntu 20.04 is pre-installed on the mini PC, it’s […]
Rockchip RK3588 benchmarks – Geekbench4, GFXBench, Antutu
We’ve been talking about the Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 processor since it showed up in a roadmap in the Spring of 2019, and the initial plan was for a release in Q1 2020. But as most regular readers know, there have been delays after delays, and some people have even started to associate RK3588 with vaporware. But there may be light out of the tunnel with Rockchip RK3588 platform being showcased at the Rockchip Developer Conference 2021, notably with CPU and GPU benchmarks for the device. The results for Geekbench 4 reveal around 2.7 times (single core) or 3.4 times (multi-core) higher CPU speed, but the most impressive part is the GPU as GFXBench shows Rockchip RK3588 being multiple times faster than RK3399, in some cases over 10 times faster. A few weeks ago, we noted some Geekbench 4 results with a system running Android 12 with 8GB of RAM, and […]
Dimensity 9000 – MediaTek’s 4nm, 3 GHz octa-core Armv9 processor for flagship 5G smartphones
MediaTek is the top mobile SoC vendor in terms of unit shipped, well ahead of the competition, but the company’s processors were mostly found in entry-level, mid-range, and “premium” smartphones, while flagship smartphones usually feature application processors from Qualcomm, Samsung, or Apple. But MediaTek has upped the ante with the introduction of the Dimensity 9000 smartphone processor featuring an octa-core Armv9 CPU subsystem, including one Cortex-X2 core clocked at up to 3.05 GHz, a Mali-G710 MC10 GPU, 5G connectivity, and manufactured with the bleeding edge 4nm TSMC manufacturing process. Dimensity 9000 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 1x Arm Cortex-X2 “Ultra Core” at 3.05 GHz 3x Arm Cortex-A710 “Super Cores” at up to 2.85 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A510 “Efficiency Cores” up to 1.80GHz 8MB L3 cache GPU – Mali-G710 MC10 @ 850 MHz with support for Vulkan, (software) raytracing AI Accelerator – 5th generation APU (AI processing unit) with up to 4x […]
Rockchip RK3566 Benchmarks in Android 11 (Zidoo M6)
I received Zidoo M6 last month, a mini PC based on Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor. I initially understood it came with Ubuntu Linux, but actually, it came pre-loaded with Android 11, so I’ve decided to run some benchmarks on the RK3566 device to see how it performs compared to other Arm systems Zidoo M6 system info But before running benchmarks, let’s have a look at some system info with CPU-Z CPU-Z has never heard about RK3566, so it detects it as RK3066, but the rest of the information seems correct with a quad-core Cortex-A55 clocked between 400 MHz and 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G52 GPU, 3775KB RAM, and 24.12 GB internal storage from the 32GB flash. The system runs Android 11 on top of Linux 4.19 which will be supported until December 2024. I can set the video output to 4K, but the UI is still limited to 1920×1080 […]
Cincoze GP-3000 review – An expandable Xeon-based GPU computer
Cincoze GP-3000 is an expandable high-performance GPU computer. It consists of either a 9th or 8th generation Intel processor-powered embedded computer which can be expanded with Cincoze’s proprietary GPU Expansion Box (GEB) capable of housing up to dual 250W full-length graphic cards. Additional I/O expansion is also possible through the use of various modules. With a total 720W power budget the GP-3000’s additional GPU performance massively accelerates complex industrial AI and machine vision tasks. As a rugged computer, the GP-3000 has passed a series of stringent quality assurance tests and industry standards including MIL-STD-810G military standard, E-mark for in-vehicle applications, and EN50155 (EN 50121-3-2 only) for rolling stock environments. It can withstand hot and cold temperature extremes, shock and vibration, and high electromagnetic radiation. In this review, I’ll cover some performance metrics from both Windows and Ubuntu and also discuss the thermals. Hardware Overview The GP-3000 (see PDF datasheet) loaned […]