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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on ASROCK Industrial launches NUC(S) Ultra 200 (Intel Arrow Lake-H) and 4X4 AI300 (AMD Ryzen 300 AI) motherboards and BOX PCs

ASROCK Industrial launches NUC(S) Ultra 200 (Intel Arrow Lake-H) and 4X4 AI300 (AMD Ryzen 300 AI) motherboards and BOX PCs

ASROCK Industrial NUC Ultra 200 BOX PC Motherboard

Following new SoC announcements by Intel and AMD at CES 2025, ASRock Industrial has launched the NUC(S) Ultra 200 BOX Series and NUC Ultra 200 Motherboard Series powered by Intel Core Ultra 200H Arrow Lake-H processors with of to 99 TOPS of AI inferencing power, and the 4X4 BOX AI300 Series and 4X4 AI300 Motherboard Series based on  AMD Ryzen AI 300 processors with up to 50 TOPS of NPU performance. ASROCK NUC(S) Ultra 200 BOX PCs & NUC ULTRA 200 motherboards NUC(S) Ultra 200 specifications: Arrow Lake-H/U SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 7 255H (6P+8E) processor up to 5.1 GHz with 24MB cache, Intel Arc 140T GPU (74 TOPS), and Intel AI Boost (13 TOPS); PBP: 28 Watts Intel Core Ultra 5 225H (4P+8E) processor up to 4.9 GHz with 18MB cache, Intel Arc 130T GPU (63 TOPS), and Intel AI Boost (13 TOPS); PBP: 28 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Khadas Mind Maker Kit review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro on an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V AI mini PC

Khadas Mind Maker Kit review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro on an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V AI mini PC

Khadas Mind Maker Kit Review Windows 11

I’ve already gone through the specifications and an unboxing of the “Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit” powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V “Lunar Lake” processor delivering up to 115 TOPS of AI performance and equipped with 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD in the first part of the review. I’ve now spent time with the mini PC/developer kit which is now simply called “Khadas Mind Maker Kit”, and I will report my experience with the Windows 11 Home 24H2 operating system in the second part of the review testing features, running benchmarks including an AI benchmark, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design while under stress, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. It looks like some AI features may finally be usable on Windows, but I’ll test that in a separate post since everything is new and Microsoft Copilot+, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 55 Comments on Radxa Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard is powered by Cix P1 12-core Armv9 SoC with a 30 TOPS AI accelerator

Radxa Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard is powered by Cix P1 12-core Armv9 SoC with a 30 TOPS AI accelerator

Radxa Orion 06 Armv9 mini ITX motherboard

Radxa Orion O6 is an Arm mini-ITX motherboard with performance similar to Apple M1 and Qualcomm 8cs Gen3 platform thanks to the Cix P1 12-core Armv9 processor with four Cortex-A720 cores clocked at 2.8 GHz, four Cortex-A720 cores at 2.4GHz, and four low-power Cortex-A520 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. The Cix P1 SoC also features an Arm Immortalis-G720 GPU for graphics and AI computing, a 30 TOPS AI accelerator for a combined 45 TOPS of AI inference performance, an 8Kp60 video decoder, and an 8Kp30 video encoder. The Orion O6 SBC ships with up to 64GB LPDDR5, features a 4Kp60 HDMI 2.0 port, a 4Kp120 DP 1.4 connector, two 5Gbps Ethernet ports, M.2 socket for storage and wireless, a PCIe x16 slot, and more. Radxa Orion O6 specifications: SoC – Cix P1 (Codename: CD8180, not the CP8180 variant for AI PCs) 12-core DynamIQ processor 4x Cortex‑A720 big cores @ up […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on GEEKOM GT1 Mega review with Ubuntu 24.10 – Part 3: Linux on an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H “Meteor Lake” mini PC

GEEKOM GT1 Mega review with Ubuntu 24.10 – Part 3: Linux on an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H “Meteor Lake” mini PC

GEEKOM GT1 Mega Ubuntu 24.10 Linux review

We’ve already had a look at GEEKOM GT1 Mega’s hardware with an unboxing and a teardown before following up with a thorough review of the Intel Core 9 Ultra 185H mini PC with Windows 11 Pro. After being interrupted by some Raspberry Pi reviews, I finally had the time to test the GEEKOM GT1 Mega with Ubuntu 24.10 to check out how well (or not) it works with a recent Linux distribution. I’ve tested the features of the Meteor Lake mini PC in Linux, ran some benchmarks, evaluated storage and network performance, played 4K and 8K videos on YouTube at various frame rates, went through a stress test to check its thermal design, and finally measured the mini PC’s fan noise and power consumption. Ubuntu 24.10 installation I would usually review mini PCs with the latest Ubuntu LTS version which would currently be Ubuntu 24.04.1. However, since the Intel Core […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Boardcon Compact3588S SBC – A Raspberry Pi 5 alternative based on Rockchip RK3588S AI SoC with M.2 socket for SSD or 4G LTE module

Boardcon Compact3588S SBC – A Raspberry Pi 5 alternative based on Rockchip RK3588S AI SoC with M.2 socket for SSD or 4G LTE module

Boardcon Compact3588S SBC Raspberry Pi 5 Alternative

Boardcon Compact3588S SBC is another Raspberry Pi 5 alternative powered by a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC with a 6 TOP NPU for AI acceleration, up to 16GB RAM, up to 256GB eMMC flash, and all the features found in the Raspberry Pi 4, plus an M.2 socket supporting either an NVMe SSD or a 4G LTE module in conjunction with a Nano SIM card slot. It more closely follows the Raspberry Pi 4 form factor, but Rockchip RK3588S’ performance and capabilities make it a direct Raspberry Pi 5 competitor. Contrary to most credit card-sized single board computers, it follows a carrier board + soldered-on system-on-module design, rather than a single PCB. Boardcon Compact3588S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2,  OpenCL […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost mini PC

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost mini PC

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Ubuntu 24.04 review

We have already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC in the first part of the review, before testing the low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC with its 8GB RAM and 256GB SATA SSD running Windows 11 Pro in detail in the second part. We’ve now had time to test the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite with Ubuntu 24.04 in the third and final part of the review. We’ll test the features in Linux, run some benchmarks, evaluate storage and network performance, play some 4K and 8K videos in YouTube playback, perform a stress test to check its thermal design, and finally measure the mini PC’s fan noise and power consumption. We’ll also compare the results in Linux to the earlier GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC with the same CPU, but better specs and a higher price. A challenging Windows 11 / Ubuntu 24.04.1 dual boot installation […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite review – A low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite review – A low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC review windows 11

We’ve already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review. It is a low-cost mini PC based on an Intel Processor N100 CPU, coupled with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory, a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD, dual Display output through HDMI and DisplayPort connector, GbE, WiFi 6E, and a 9-pin expansion header port – as found in some NUC model – to access an external power button, reset button, and LEDs when housed in a cabinet or kiosk. You’ll find the full Mini Air 12 Lite specifications in our previous article about it. We’ve now had more time to test the mini PC, so we’ll report our experience with the Mini Air12 Lite running Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review. We’ll go through a software overview, test most of the features, run […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on GEEKOM GT1 Mega Review – Part 2: An Intel Core Ultra 9 185H Meteor Lake “AI” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM GT1 Mega Review – Part 2: An Intel Core Ultra 9 185H Meteor Lake “AI” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM GT1 Mega Windows 11 Pro Review

I’ve already gone through the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown of the GEEKOM GT1 Mega AI mini PC powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H “Meteor Lake” processor with 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD in the first part of the review. I’ve now had more time to play with the GEEKOM GT1 Mega, so I will report my experience with Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review testing features, running benchmarks including an AI benchmark, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design while under stress, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. Software overview and features testing Going to the System->About window in the Settings confirms we have a GT1-Mega mini PC powered by a 2.50 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with 32GB of RAM running Windows 11 Pro 23H2 build […]

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