MINIX Z100-0dB review – Part 3: A fanless Intel N100 mini PC tested with Ubuntu 22.04

MINIX Z100-0dB review Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

After the first part of the review with an unboxing and a teardown of the MINIX NEO Z100-0dB mini PC, we tested the fanless Intel N100 mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in the second part, and we are now ready to report our experience with Linux, and more specifically Ubuntu 22.04, on the MINIX Z100-0dB mini PC in the final and third part of the review. We will go through features testing, run some benchmarks to evaluate the performance in Linux, perform storage and network performance tests, check the cooling ability of the mini with a stress test, and also check its power consumption under different scenarios. We will also compare the MINIX Z100-0dB to the actively cooled GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC that uses the same Intel Processor N100 CPU. Ubuntu 22.04 installation We will install Ubuntu 22.04 alongside Windows 11 Pro in dual boot configuration, so we […]

Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC review – Part 3: Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC Review Ubuntu 22.04

After going through an unboxing and teardown of the Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC, and testing the 12th gen Intel Core i7-12650H mini PC in Windows 11 Pro, we’ll now report our experience with Ubuntu 22.04 in the third part of the review to show how the Beelink SEi12 performs in Linux. We will perform feature testing, run some benchmarks to evaluate performance, test Ethernet, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth, submit the system to a stress test to check its cooling performance and measure fan noise and power consumption. We’ll also compare it to the GEEKOM Mini IT12 mini PC with the same Intel Core i7-12650H CPU. Ubuntu 22.04 installation We shrank the Windows partition is about half to install Ubuntu 22.04 in dual boot configuration along with Windows 11 Pro. We then installed Ubuntu 22.04.3 ISO from a USB flash without any issues. Ubuntu 22.04 system information After a system […]

MINIX Z100-0dB review – Part 2: A fanless Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11

MINIX Z100-0dB review Windows11

We’ve already done an unboxing and a teardown of the MINIX NEO Z100-0dB fanless mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N100 CPU, and equipped with a 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM and a 512GB M.2 SSD before quickly trying the preinstalled Windows 11 Pro operating system in the first part of the review. We’ve now had time to test Windows 11 in the MINIX Z100-0dB fanless mini PC in more detail. So we’ll report our experience in the second part of the review with features testing, benchmarks, some storage and networking performance tests, measurements of fan noise and power consumption, and more. We’ll also compare the MINIX NEO Z100-0dB against other Alder Lake-N mini PCs such as the actively-cooled GEEKOM Mini Air12 that we reviewed at the end of last year. Software overview and features testing The System->About window confirms the Z100-0dB mini PC features an Intel N100 processor at 800 […]

GEEKOM A7 mini PC review – Part 3: Ubuntu 22.04 (and Ubuntu 24.04)

GEEKOM A7 Ubuntu 22.04 Linux review

After a GEEKOM A7 mini PC unboxing and teardown, I tested the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC in Windows 11 Pro, but I’ll now report my experience with the GEEKOM A7 running Ubuntu 22.04.4 to see how well the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS system performs in Linux. I also had to install Ubuntu 24.04 to check the wireless module further, so I’ll report on that too. The Ubuntu 22.04 review will include features testing, several benchmarks, storage, 2.5GbE, and WiFi 6 networking performance testing, a stress test to check thermal performance, as well as fan noise and power consumption measurements. Ubuntu 22.04 installation I resized the Windows 11 partition to get an unused 500GB partition to install Ubuntu 22.04 from a USB drive. But the first time, it did not work as I was asked to disable BitLocker disk encryption in Windows 11 just like I did for the […]

GEEKOM A7 review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro tested in a compact AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC

GEEKOM A7 Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC review Windows 11 Pro

We previously had a look at the hardware of the GEEKOM A7 with an unboxing and a teardown of the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC with 32GB DDR5, a 2TB NVMe SSD, four 4K-capable video outputs, and high-speed interfaces such as USB4 and 2.5GbE, as well as WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity. We’ve now had time to test it with Windows 11 Pro in detail, so in the second part of the GEEKOM A7 review, we’ll report our experience with the mini PC including a software overview, features testing, various benchmarks, networking and storage performance testing, fan noise, power consumption, and more. Software overview and features testing The System->About window confirms the GEEKOM A7 mini PC is powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7840HS processor with Radeon 780M graphics with 32GB RAM and runs Windows 11 Pro 23H2 build 22631.2861. That also means we only had […]

Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro

Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC review Windows 11 Pro

We’ve already listed the specs and done an unboxing and teardown for the Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H Mini PC powered by a 10-core Intel Core i7-12650H processor with 32GB DDR4 and a 500GB M.2 SSD preloaded with Windows 11 Pro. In the second part of the review, we will test the Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H with the Windows 11 Pro operating system in detail with a software overview and feature testing, benchmarks, networking and storage testing, thermal efficiency, fan noise, and power consumption. Since we also reviewed the GEEKOM Mini IT12 with the same processor last month, we’ll try to compare both in this review and list the pros and cons for each system. Software overview and features testing The System->About menu confirms that we have a “SEi” Mini PC powered by a 12th Gen 1.5 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core i7-12650H processor and  32GB of RAM, running Windows 11 Pro operating […]

ODROID-M1S review – Part 2: Ubuntu 20.04 benchmarks and features testing

ODROID M1S Review Ubuntu 20.04

Over one month has passed since our unboxing and quick Ubuntu 20.04 testing of the ODROID-M1S SBC and we’ve now had time to test more features and run benchmarks using the official Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS release from Hardkernel. One user mentioned Ubuntu 22.04 is supported, but that’s supported by a third party and we used the official image for testing.

Our test results will show the performance and supported features of the Rockchip RK3566-powered ODROID-M1S SBC when running Ubuntu 20.04. Read on to find out how well the board works.

ODROID-M1S benchmarks

Let’s start benchmarking the ODROID-M1S with Thomas Kaiser’s sbc-bench.sh script:

Maxtang MTN-FP750 business mini PC review – Part 3: Ubuntu 22.04

Maxtang MTN-FP750 review Ubuntu 22.04

We’ve already checked out the hardware of the Maxtang MTN-FP750 mini PC in the first part of the review with an unboxing and a teardown, and tested the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS Mini PC with 32GB DDR5 and a 512GB SSD in Windows 11 Pro in the second part. In the third part of the review, we will report our experience with the Ubuntu 22.04 Linux operating system. This includes features testing, several benchmarks, storage and networking performance testing, a stress test to check thermal performance, as well as fan noise and power consumption measurements. Ubuntu 22.04 installation Since the plan is to install Ubuntu 22.04 alongside Windows 11, so we will shrink the Windows 11 partition by about half first, before inserting the Ubuntu 22.04.3 USB drive to install the Linux distribution. The installation went smoothly with no issues to report on. Ubuntu 22.04 System information Going to Settings->About […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC