MINIX NEO J50C-4 Pentium J5005 Mini PC Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Windows Remote, M.2 SSD, and Teardown

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Review

MINIX has just announced a new Windows 10 Pro mini PC with MINIX NEO J50C-4 mini PC that just looks like their previous models like MINIX NEO N42C-4, except it comes with a Pentium Silver J5005 “Gemini Lake” processor. The company sent me a sample together with some accessories, and it will be interesting to see how it performs. But before I’ll go through the specifications, checking the devices and some extra accessories namely NEO W2 windows remote control, and an M.2 SSD pre-loaded with Windows 10 Pro. Finally, I’ll have a look at the internals in the first part of this review. MINIX NEO J50C-4 Specifications SoC – Intel Pentium Silver J5005 quad core “Gemini Lake” processor @ 1.50 / 2.80 GHz with 18 EU Intel UHD Graphics 605 (10W TDP) System Memory – 4GB DDR4 upgradable to 16GB via 2x SO-DIMM slots Storage – 32GB eMMC 5.1 flash, […]

Acer Aspire 3 A315-41G (AMD Ryzen 7 2700U) Laptop – Installing Ubuntu 18.04 and “Hidden” M.2 SSD Socket

Acer Aspire 3 A315G-41 Ubuntu 18.04

Everyday I’m using a tower PC running Ubuntu 18.04 to take care of this blog, but when I travel it’s obviously not so convenient, so a few years ago I bought an  Acer Aspire E5-421G laptop powered by an AMD A4-6210 processor with 4GB RAM, 512GB HDD, and a 14″ display. I installed Ubuntu on the laptop and it works, but with 4GB RAM, it’s not always usable while multitasking. For example I can run Thunderbird and Firefox, but if I ever make a Skype call for example, the system becomes unusable, and I have to close one of the programs. Tasks like video editing are also quite slow on the machine. So since I’m going to travel in a few weeks, I decided I needed a new laptop. My requirements were 8GB RAM,  SSD and HDD support, a 15″ display, the ability to run Ubuntu 18.04, and possibly a […]

A Quick Look at MINIX NEO C Plus USB-C Adapter, and Windows 10 M.2 SSD Card for N42C-4 Mini PC

MINIX NEO C Plus USB-C Adapter Android 7.1

A couple of weeks ago, MINIX announced their NEO C Plus USB type C adapter with 9 ports including two HDMI outputs. The company has now sent me samples of the adapter, as well as an M.2 SSD for MINIX NEO N42C-4 pre-loaded with Windows 10 Pro. I’ll first have a look at the accessories I received before testing MINIX NEO C Plus adapter with Android 7.1 running on NanoPC-T4 board. MINIX NEO C Plus and M.2 SSD Unboxing I received two USB-C multiport adapter with dual HDMI output which are identical, except for the color with one white version and a silver version, as well as a “128GB M.2 SSD for MINIX NEO N42C-4”. The USB-C adapter comes with a bilingual English-German user manual. We learn some interesting information and limitations from the device. First, the adapter is only certified to use with MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, and […]

Beelink X45 Basic/Premium NUC Clone Launched for $220 and Up

Beelink X45 SSD HDD

Last week, we started to read about Beelink X series mini PCs powered by Gemini Lake processors, and with a design similar to Intel NUC mini PCs. Three models will be available at first with Beelink X45 Basic/Premium based on Intel Celeron J4105 processor with respectively 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB RAM/storage configurations, and Beelink X55 with a more powerful Intel Pentium Silver J5005 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD. The Beelink X45 models have now showed up on GearBest with pricing starting at $219.99 shipped, but you can bring that down to just under $200 with GBmidyear2018 coupon. Beelink X45 Premium model sells for $259.99 before applying any coupon. [Update: Banggood lists Beelink X45 for $172.99 shipped] Beelink X45 Standard/Premium specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J4105 quad core Gemini Lake processor clocked @ 1.50 GHz / 2.50 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 10W TDP System Memory / Storage […]

Cenava P14 Apollo Lake Laptop Comes with a 512GB SSD

Most Intel Apollo Lake laptops come with just 32 or 64GB SSD or eMMC flash storage, and if you need much more storage we previously covered DERE A3 Air laptop with an Intel J3455 processor, 64GB eMMC flash, and a 512GB hard drive. But if you don’t need any mechanical storage in your laptop, while still wanting more capacity, Cenava P14 laptop comes with a large 512GB SSD, 6GB RAM, and a 14″ display. Cenava Ultrabook P14 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N3450 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 GHz / 2.20 GHz (Turbo) and 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500; 6W TDP System Memory – 6 GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 512 GB M.2 SATA SSD flash, micro SD card slot up to 128 GB Display – 14.1″ IPS display with 1920 x 1080 resolution Video Output – micro HDMI port Audio – micro HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, […]

LM-902 USB3.1 Gen2 to NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD Enclosure Sells for $43

Yesterday, I wrote about ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCIe NVMe SSD chip that will allow for connecting NVMe SSD into (largish) USB stick enclosures delivering up to 10 Gbps raw throughput. The post generated several comments including that JMicron Technology was also showcasing their own solution at Computex 2018 with JMS583 USB 3.1 Gen 2 to NVMe PCIe Gen3 bridge controller, and that enclosures were already for sale in China. If it is for sale in China, it should also be for sale on Aliexpress, or at least on Taobao. Bingo! LM-902 “USB 3.1 to PCI-e SSD NVMe” enclosure offers just that for $42.93 including shipping  on Aliexpress. Listed features and specifications: Storage I/F – NVMe M.2 M-key socket with PCIe 3.1a USB – USB 3.1 Gen2 type C up to 10 Gbps Features Supports TRIM to the SSD USB Type-C multiplexer& configuration channel(CC) logic NVM Express 1.3 USB […]

Tigo S300 480GB SSD is Now Offered for $79.99 (Promo)

I would consider purchasing a computer without SSD anymore, at least to install the operating system, and store things like email databases and web caches, since it makes a huge differences in terms of performance compared to traditional mechanical hard drives. That extra performance comes at a cost however, as SSDs have been much more expensive than HDDs, and still are, but costs have come down a lot. If you’re looking for an SSD with a fairly large capacity, Tigo S300 might be worth considering with the 480GB SSD now offered on GeekBuying for $79.99 shipped with coupon TXHIHAZC. Specifications listed for the device: Capacity –  480GB NAND Flash Type – TLC Master Controller – Marvell Interface – SATA 3 up to 6 Gbps Performance – 500MB/s read speed, 370 MB/s write speed Dimensions – 2.5″ model; 100 x 69.9 x 7 mm Weight – 50 grams 500GB HDD’s are […]

Firefly AIO-3399J All-in-One Industrial Board is Powered by Rockchip RK3399 Processor, Supports M.2 SSDs, 4G LTE Modems, and More

Firefly-RK3399 was the very first Rockchip RK3399 development board when it launched in late 2016, and it mostly stayed that way until others joined in late 2017, early 2018 with products like Orange Pi RK3399, ODROID-N1, Rock960, or Pine64 RockPro64 among others. Firefly team has now unveiled another higher end “all-in-board industrial board” with their Firefly AIO-3399J board featuring their RK3399 CoreBoard module, and a baseboard exposing plenty of I/O and connector, including support for M.2 drives, and 4G LTE mini PCIe cards. Firefly AIO-3399J specifications: SoM – RK3399 CoreBoard: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with dual core ARM Cortex A72 up to 2.0 GHz and quad core Cortex A53 processor, ARM Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with OpenGL 1.1 to 3.1 support, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL and DX 11 support System Memory – 2GB or 4GB DDR3-1333 Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash (other capacities also available on demand up to […]

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