CHUWI GBOX Pro Review – Intel Atom x7-E3950 mini PC Tested with Windows 10 & Ubuntu 18.04

CHUWI Gbox Pro Review

CHUWI has released a new mini PC called the GBox Pro. This is a passively cooled mini PC that uses the slightly older Apollo Lake Intel Atom x7-E3950 CPU which is a quad core 4-thread 1.60 GHz processor boosting to 2.00 GHz with Intel’s HD Graphics 505. The GBox Pro is somewhat physically larger than typical recent mini PCs and consists of a 189 x 139 x 39 mm (7.44 x 5.47 x 1.54 inches) rectangular case with a front panel that includes the power button, micro SD slot, a couple of USB 3.0 ports and a Type-C USB port and then on the rear, a headphone jack, two USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI (2.0) port and a VGA interface. The full specifications include: The GBox Pro comes with 64GB of eMMC with pre-installed Windows 10 Home (version 1809 OS build 17763.316) together with 4GB of […]

MINIX Unveils NEO G41V-4 Fanless Windows 10 Pro Mini PC

MINIX NEO G41V-4

MINIX has launched several Intel-based mini PCs in recent years, but while their lower-end models such as MINIX NEO Z83-4U were fanless, their Apollo Lake (NEO N42C-4) and Gemini Lake (NEO J50C-4) mini PCs all came with a fan, albeit a pretty quiet one. But the company demonstrated a new fanless Gemini Lake mini PC at IFA 2018 with a new approach to thermal cooling compared to their previous fanless design. MINIX NEO G41V-4 mini PC is powered by an Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core processor coupled with 4GB DDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and an easy to access M.2 SSD expansion slot. MINIX NEO G41V-4 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core Gemini Lake processor @ with Intel UHD Graphics 600 System Memory – 4GB DDR4 RAM @ 2400 MHz (soldered) Storage – 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash (soldered), M.2 2280 SATA 3.0 slot, MicroSD card slot Video Output HDMI 2.0a […]

Intel Mini PCs Linux Performance Comparison

Intel mini PC side-by-side comparison table

Recent vulnerabilities in Intel x86 microprocessors (Meltdown, Spectre, Foreshadow, RIDL, Fallout, ZombieLoad, etc.) are now addressed with mitigation patches for the Linux kernel although have resulted in some performance degradation. As a consequence, my previous comparison benchmarks could be somewhat misleading when compared with new results given the different versions of software at the time of execution. So I’ve repeated running my standard Phoronix Test Suite benchmarks on several of the latest mini PCs each running the latest updated Ubuntu 18.04.2 software with the same Ubuntu 4.15.0-54 kernel. Specifically, the mini PCs I’ve used are as follows: Intel NUC NUC7CJYSAL (Celeron J4005 Gemini Lake) Pepper JobsGLK-UC2X (Celeron N4100 Gemini Lake) Beelink Gemini X X45 (Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake) Beelink Gemini X X55 (Pentium Silver J5005 Gemini Lake) with updated BIOS Intel NUC NUC7PJYH (Pentium Silver J5005 Gemini Lake) Beelink L55 (i3-5005U Broadwell) On each mini PC, I’ve also run sbc-bench which is […]

Beelink L55 Review – An Intel Core i3-5005U Mini PC Tested with Windows 10 & Ubuntu 18.04

Beelink L55 Review

With the shortage of Gemini Lake processors, some manufacturers have taken to releasing new mini PCs using older CPUs. The Beelink L55 is one such example and uses Intel’s Broadwell I3-5005U CPU which is a dual-core 4-thread 2.00 GHz processor with Intel’s HD Graphics 5500. The L55 is a ‘NUC’ style mini PC and physically consists of a 128 x 126 x 46 mm (5.04 x 4.96 x 1.81 inches) box case with a front panel that includes the power button, a headphone jack and a couple of 3.0 USB ports and then on the rear, two more 3.0 USBs, two 2.1 USBs, HDMI (1.4), DP and two gigabit Ethernet ports. Note that there is no SD or micro SD card slot. The full specifications include: The L55 comes with either a 256GB or 512GB (as tested in this review) M.2 SSD with pre-installed Windows 10 Home version 1809 together […]

AAEON Launches BOXER-8150AI Compact Embedded Box PC Features 8 USB 3.0 Ports

BOXER-8150AI

The new compact embedded solutions’ addition to the BOXER-8100AI family is specially designed for artificial intelligence (AI) support. According to its makers, AAEON, it has a configuration of eight USB 3.0 ports made available through four USB controllers chips. This makes it perfect for a wide range of computer vision applications, some of which are visual inspection, quality control, and facial recognition. Now, each USB chip controls a pair of USB 3.0 ports. By dedicating one chip to one pair of ports, each chip handles less data traffic overall.   This also improves bandwidth from connected devices and allows the BOXER-8150AI to maximize speeds and framerates of AI image processing. The product is currently in stock and available for purchase on AAEON online store for $1,142.00. Key Features of BOXER-8150AI Nvidia TX2 Module HMP Dual Denver 2 + Quad ARM A57 8GB LPDDR4 32GB eMMC 5.1 HDMI 2.0 8x USB […]

pi-top[4] Raspberry Pi 4 based mini PC has launched on Kickstarter for $199

The announcement about the pi-top [4] came out a short time ago, as a portable mini-pc running the Raspberry Pi 4 board, and plans of package deals for backers on Kickstarter. The campaign started on July 9 2019 and was fully funded within 4 hours. Pi-top has now set a new goal featuring several price packages, each with features, applications and components that expand on what was reported in the original article covering the pi-top [4] mini-pc. The Main Campaign and Company Pi-top is based in Austin and Brownsville Texas. They produce hardware, software and project kits based around the Raspberry Pi family of boards. The latest device is an expandable and multi-purpose platform mini-PC based on the Raspberry Pi 4, and enhanced by sensors, LED’s, components and software. The Kickstarter campaign has already been funded, and there are now a stretch goal and three packages being offered. The pi-top […]

ASRock 4×4 Box is a Compact Mini PC Based on AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000/V1000

The mini PC market has a new product from ASRock, a company, well known for its motherboards and Mini PCs. Following up on their iBOX-R1000 Ryzen Embedded R1000 mini PC, the ASRock 4×4 Box is now available with either the AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 processor or the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor in a smaller form factor. Right now, the new mini PC targets the industrial sector, and not the consumer market. This addition to the industrial motherboards and rugged mini PCs line, the 4×4 Box R1000 and V1000 offers more features and are designed to fit in a smaller case, hence the 4×4 name which likely refers to the 4″x4″ dimensions of the motherboard. The AMD Ryzen Embedded is finding its way into all kinds of industrial and medical uses, because of its Radeon VEGA graphics capability and processing enhancements over the R or C series processors. The ASRock […]

Chatreey AC1-Z Low Power Fanless Mini PC Goes for $153 and Up

The Chatreey AC1-Z mini PC is running either the Intel Celeron Apollo Lake J3455 and the Intel Celeron Gemini Lake J4105 and boasts a full complement of features and SoC peripherals. It closely resembles the series of mini computers similar to the Zotac Nano mini PC. The Chatreey AC1-Z is a silent, fanless mini-PC that offers 4GB RAM, 4K resolution across two display inputs, and housing either the Apollo Lake or the Gemini Lake processors.  The Gemini Lake version has a choice of up to 64GB eMMC storage and offers a drive bay for an optional 2.5 SSD or SATA HDD. I/O 2x USB 3.0 Type A, 2x USB 2.0 Type A 1x LAN 1x Micro SD 1x Audio 3.5 mm 2x HDMI Features Power Button Kensington Lock Power Connector (12V 2.5A) Dual-band WIFI /WLAN 802.11ac+BT The AC1–Z system is inspired by other mini-PC models and carries a lot of […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC