mini pc News - Page 75 of 145 - CNX Software

September 5, 2017September 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro Mini PC Review – Part 2: Windows 10 Pro

MINIX launched NEO Z83-4 Cherry Trail mini PC last year, but the company has now launched NEO Z83-4 Pro, an updated version with a slightly faster Atom X5-Z8350 processor, Windows 10 Pro (instead of Home), and a a VESA mount kit. I’ve already checked the hardware in the first part of the review, so today I’ll report my experience with Windows 10 Pro. Windows 10 Home vs Windows 10 Pro My main computer runs Ubuntu 16.04, and I’m only using Windows 10 during reviews… But so far all other mini PCs I tried came with Windows 10 Home, and NEO Z83-4 Pro is my first Windows 10 Pro computer. So I had to educate myself, and Microsoft website has a comparison between the two versions of Windows 10. Windows 10 Pro supports all features of Windows 10 Home, plus the following: Security Windows Information Protection – Formerly Enterprise Data Protection […]

August 31, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Bben MN10 Apollo Lake PC Stick Comes with 3GB RAM, 64GB Flash, Windows 10 Home or Pro

Back in April, BBen showcased their “Micro computer”, an Apollo Lake mini PC in stick form factor, at the Hong Kong Global Sources Electronics Fair, which was scheduled to launch in July. With about one month delay, the company is now selling Bben MN10 PC Stick starting at $157.30 including with an unlicensed Windows 10 installation, but also offer Windows 10 Home, and Windows 10 Pro for an extra $21.39 and $30.33 respectively. BBen MN10 HDMI TV stick specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.4 GHz, 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500 @ 200 MHz / 650 MHz; 6W TDP System Memory – 3 GB DDR3 Storage – 64 GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 128 GB Video Output – HDMI port Audio – HDMI + 3.5mm headphone jack Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0 USB […]

August 28, 2017August 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Testing KingDian N480 240 GB M.2 SSD in MeLE PCG03 Apo Mini PC

MeLE PCG03 Apo Apollo Lake mini PC supports M.2 80mm SSD’s, but at the time of the review I did not have such accessories, so I only tested the computer with its 32GB eMMC flash and external USB drives. I’ve now received Kingdian N480 240GB SSD courtesy of GearBest, so I’ll install it in the mini PC, test it in Windows 10, and install Ubuntu 16.04. KingDian N420 M.2 SSD Hardware Installation I’ve received a big carton box for the SSD, but finally the retail package is minimal. You’ll find the SSD and a screws in the package. You’ll note the device supports both M.2 Key B and Key M sockets. I’ve already explained how to open MeLE PCG03 Apo, basically loosen 6 screws, and then I just had to insert the SSD with the right orientation (check the 4 / 5 pins on each side), and use the screw […]

August 25, 2017August 28, 2017 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 20 Comments

Beelink AP34 Ultimate Fanless mini PC Review with Windows 10 and Ubuntu

The AP34 Ultimate combines the passive cooling of an Apollo Lake N3450 SoC with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage in a small box form-factor mini PC. Together with the device comes a pair of HDMI cables, a power adapter, VESA mount with screws, and a couple of leaflets covering basic information. Not only does this device have three USB 3.0 ports, full size SD card, Gigabit Ethernet, headphone jack and HDMI port, it also has a (vacant) M.2 slot allowing additional storage with the full specification being: although there was no included remote control. The device comes pre-loaded with activated Windows 10 Home 64-bit and plenty of available free space at (initially before updates) just over 43GB. The Windows performance is unremarkable and the reason for this is obvious looking at the basic benchmarks. The reason being that the eMMC is slow which is disappointing for an ‘ultimate’ […]

August 24, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ComfilePi Industrial Touch Panel PCs are Based on Raspberry Pi CM3 Module

ComfilePi CPi-A070WR & CPi-A102WR are industrial IP65 panel PCs powered by Raspberry Pi CM3 compute module, with respectively 7″ and 10.2″ resistive touchscreen displays, and that run modified version of Raspbian OS. ComfilePi CPi touch panel computers specifications: SoC – Broadcom BMC2837 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.2GHz with Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU System Memory – 1 GB Storage – 1x micro SD Slot Display 7“ 800×480 Touchscreen Pressure-sensitive (Resistive Film Type) LCD display OR 10.2” 800×480 Touchscreen Pressure-sensitive (Resistive Film Type) LCD display Audio – 3.5mm audio out port I/Os 40-pin header socket based on Raspberry Pi 40-pin header pinout with 22x GPIO with ESD protection circuit 2x RS-232 terminal blocks 1x I2C terminal block USB – 3x USB 2.0 ports Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, optional WiFi via USB dongle Misc – 1x Piezzo buzzer Power Supply – 12~24V DC via 3-pin terminal block Dimensions (housing […]

August 15, 2017August 19, 2017 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 2 Comments

ECDREAM A9 Apollo Lake HDMI “TV Stick” Review with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 17.04

The ECDREAM A9 is arguably the first Intel Apollo Lake ‘PC stick’ available for purchase. However, in reality it is surprisingly large, and when compared to earlier Intel Atom ‘sticks’ and mini PC ‘boxes’ it lies somewhere in between. Measuring 2.3 inches (58 mm) wide and 0.6 inches (16 mm) thick it feels almost double in size of the original Intel Compute Stick (1.5 in/38 mm by 0.5 in/12 mm) and like nearly half of a mini PC (Beelink’s AP34 is 4.7 in/119 mm by 0.8 / 20 mm). Given that you only get two USB ports, an micro SD card slot and the obligatory HDMI and power port, the large size would be better justified if an Ethernet port had also been included given other smaller ‘sticks’ have shown this is possible. However the reason for its size is due to the oversized fan and heatsink… and that […]

August 11, 2017September 5, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro Windows 10 Pro mini PC Review – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing & Teardown

While I reviewed MINIX NEO Z83-4 mini PC last year, I found out the fanless mini PC based on Intel Atom X5-Z8300 processor performed well, even matching some Atom X7-Z8700 and Braswell systems in some cases, and offered some BIOS features not always found in competitor models, with the only real downside being the 32GB eMMC flash with average performance. Since then, it’s become quite popular becoming the best seller on Amazon US in the mini PC category, outselling devices like ASUS Chromebox and Apple Mac Mini, and the company has now launched a new variant called MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro with Windows 10 Pro, an upgraded Intel Atom X5-Z8350 processor, and an included VESA mount making it more suitable for enterprise applications such as digital signage, point-of-sales, and thin client. MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro Specifications Highlights show differences against Z83-4 model: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad […]

August 4, 2017August 4, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Intel Mini PCs Sold with Ubuntu on Aliexpress

Many low power mini PCs equipped with Intel Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, Braswell, or Apollo Lake processors have been launched over the years, but most of those come pre-loaded with Windows 10, and many readers of this blog prefer to run a Linux distribution. It’s usually possible to install Ubuntu by yourself, but not always, and when you buy a Windows 10, this increases the price by several dollars (around $20). The ideal case would be to get such low power, low cost mini PCs pre-installed with a recent version of Ubuntu, without having to worry (too much) about hardware support, nor having to pay the “Windows tax”. MeLE used to sell Ubuntu mini PCs on Aliexpress, but sadly not anymore, so I went to Aliexpress to look for those Ubuntu mini PCs, and BBen offers three operating systems options for some of their systems with “Windows 10 Activated”, “Windows […]