Radxa X4 review – An Intel N100 alternative to Raspberry Pi 5 tested with Ubuntu 24.04

Radxa X4 Ubuntu 24.04 review

We already looked at the Radxa X4 kit featuring an Intel N100 SBC with a design similar to the Raspberry Pi 5 and accessories including a Radxa Power PD 30W power adapter, an NVMe SSD, and a USB-C to USB-C cable, in the first part of the review, before installing Ubuntu 24.04 on the board.

In the second part of the review, we will test Ubuntu 24.04 in more detail with some benchmarks and power consumption measurements to show how well it works (or not) compared to a Raspberry Pi 5. We will also test the 40-pin GPIO header on the Radxa X4 controlled through a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller.

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 […]

Radxa ROCK 5 ITX RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard review – Building an Arm PC and NAS with Debian KDE

ROCK 5 ITX Review: Build Arm Computer NAS

In this review, I’ll show how I installed Debian on the ROCK 5 ITX mini-ITX motherboard powered by a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor, before building a computer/NAS with the Arm mini-ITX motherboard, testing various features and running benchmarks. In the first part of the review, we checked out the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX (Arm) and Jupiter (RISC-V) mini-ITX motherboards with specifications and unboxing, and the Auriga 6-Bay NAS mini-ITX chassis used in this review. I already built the computer with the Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard, so here I simply switched the RISC-V motherboard with the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX Arm motherboard and installed a few SATA drives. Radxa ROCK 5 ITX first boot – A tricky start… Radxa provides getting started instructions on the documentation website which I mostly follow to hopefully boot within a few minutes. I had to prepare the hardware first. So I installed a […]

MILK-V Jupiter review – A RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard and PC tested with Ubuntu-based Bianbu OS

Milk-V Jupiter RISC-V computer review

In this review or preview of the the Shenzhen Milk-V Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard, I’ll assemble the motherboard into a mini-ITX chassis, before installing the Ubuntu 23.10 Mantic-based Bianbu OS optimized for RISC-V platforms, and testing the device to see how much progress has been done on RISC-V since I tested the StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC with Debian 12 about 18 months ago. In the first part of the review, we checked out the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX (Rockchip RK3588 Arm) and Jupiter (SpacemIT K1 RISC-V) mini-ITX motherboards with specifications and unboxing, and the Auriga 6-Bay NAS mini-ITX chassis used in this review. I planned to start with the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX, but due to logistics and technical issues, I went ahead testing the RISC-V motherboard first. Installing Bianbu OS to the Jupiter RISC-V motherboard The board does not come with storage, so no operating system is installed. So […]

LattePanda Mu Intel N100 SoM and carrier board review – Part 2: Ubuntu 24.04

LattePandu Mu Review Ubuntu 24.04

We’ve already checked out the hardware for LattePanda Mu and tested it on Windows 11 using both the Lite Carrier Board and Full-Function Evaluation in the first part of the review. We’ve now had time to test the LattePanda Mu Intel N100 board with Ubuntu 24.04 to see how it performs in Linux with the following tests:

Initial system information
Benchmarks for CPU, disks, peripherals, and networking (GbE and WiFi)
Web and multimedia usage
Power consumption

Since LattePanda Mu is an x86 machine, we can create a boot disk from the Ubuntu 24.04 ISO as we would on a PC.

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

GEEKOM AE7 mini PC review Windows 11

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 – […]

Cincoze DS-1402 review: Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an Intel Core i9-12900E embedded system

Cincoze DS-1402 Ubuntu 24.04 review

In part one of the Cincoze DS-1402 review, I checked out the hardware of the modular rugged computer before testing the Intel Core i9-12900E embedded computer with Windows 11 Pro in the second part, and I’ve now had time to test the Cincoze DS-1402 embedded system with Ubuntu 24.04. I’ve tested most features in Linux, ran some benchmarks, evaluated the gigabit Ethernet performance of some of the ten Ethernet ports, checked CPU temperature under a stress test with and without the fan, measured power consumption, and more. Ubuntu 24.04 system information I installed Ubuntu 24.04 with the official x86_64 ISO in dual boot configuration with Windows 11 Pro. The installation process was smooth, and I have nothing specific to report here. Going to the Settings->About window confirms we have a CINCOZE-DS-1400 system (DS-1402 is part of the DS-1400 family) with a 24-thread 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900E processor and 64GB […]

Cincoze DS-1402 review – Part 2: An Intel Core i9-12900E embedded computer tested with Windows 11 Pro

Cincoze DS-1402 Embedded Computer Review Windows 11

I’ve already checked out the hardware of the Cincoze DS-1402 modular embedded computer in the first part of the review with an unboxing and teardown of the Intel Core i9-12900E computer that ships with expansions such as an NVIDIA GTX 1630 graphics card held in place with a patented solution and two CMI expansion modules with four gigabit Ethernet ports each. I’ve now had more time to test the Cincoze DS-1402 with Windows 11 Pro, so I’ll report my experience with the system in the second part of the review checking out system information, testing features, running benchmarks, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. I’ll also compare some of the second to the GEEKOM XT12 Pro mini PC powered by an Intel Core i9-12900H SoC since embedded SKUs – like the Core i9-12900E – are usually slightly slower […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC