MeLE Quieter3C fanless mini PC review with Ubuntu 22.04, Windows 11

Mele Quieter3c review

MeLE’s newly launched Quieter3C is an update to their earlier Quieter3Q product which replaces one of the Type-A USB ports with a Type-C USB port and includes both power delivery and video display output, together with changing one of the HDMI ports to a mini DisplayPort. MeLE kindly sent one for review and given these are the only differences I’m only going to take a cursory look at performance benchmarks together with looking at these new features. MeLE Quieter3C hardware overview The MeLE Quieter3C is physically the same size as the Quieter3Q and consists of a 131 x 81 x 18.3mm (5.16 x 3.19 x 0.72 inches) rectangular plastic case with a metal base plate. The top half of the case has the characteristic fine grooves that mimic the fins of a heat spreader and is made of plastic rather than metal to allow reception to the WiFi antennas as […]

Trigkey Speed S3 mini PC review – Part 1: Unboxing and teardown

Trigkey Speed S3 front

Trigkey Speed S3 is a compact mini PC powered by AMD Ryzen 5 3550H quad-core/eight-thread processor with 16GB DDR4 and a 500GB M.2 SSD with Windows 11 Pro operating systems, as well as two HDMI ports. Trigkey sent CNX Software a sample of the Speed ​​S3 mini PC for review. In this post, we’ll check out the specifications of the device, before doing an unboxing and teardown of the device, and testing Windows 11 and Ubuntu in subsequent parts of the review. Trigkey Speed S3 specifications SoC – AMD Ryzen 5 3550H  quad-core/eight-thread processor @ 2.1 / 3.7Ghz (Turbo) with Radeon Vega 8 Graphics @ 1200 MHz; TDP: 12-35W System Memory –  16 GB (2x 8GB) DDR4-3200MHz via two SO-DIMM sockets (upgradeable up to 64 GB) Storage 500GB M.2 SSD 2.5-inch SATA HDD bay (up to 7mm thick) Video Output – 2x HDMI ports Audio – 3.5mm audio jack with […]

$29 Inovato Quadra Arm mini PC runs Armbian on Allwinner H6 processor

Armbian mini PC specifications

Inovato Quadra is an Arm Linux mini PC based on Allwinner H6 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, and running Armbian-built Debian 11 Bullseye 64-bit. If the device looks like a repurposed Android TV box, it is because it is based on the T95 Mini model with one HDMI 2.0 port, USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, a microSD card slot, a Fast Ethernet port and WiFi 4 wireless connectivity. Inovato Quadra specifications: SoC – Allwinner H6 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz with Arm Mali-720 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Video & Audio Output HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 3.5mm AV port with video composite and analog audio Networking 10/100M Ethernet port Wireless Quadra – 2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi 4, no Bluetooth (can be added with a USB dongle) Quadra Plus – Dual-band 802.11ac […]

BMAX B3 Plus Review – An Intel Celeron N5095 mini PC with two Gigabit Ethernet ports

bmax b3 plus review

BMAX have relaunched their B3 Plus mini PC, aka MaxMini B3 Plus, with an upgraded Intel Celeron N5095 processor and a more distinctive design by having a novel way of accessing both the internal storage and memory together with being very lightweight in construction. BMAX kindly sent one for review and given the B3 Plus is similar to other mini PCs I’ve tested, I’m only going to take a cursory look at performance benchmarks and only whilst running Windows together with looking at the key features of this particular device. BMAX B3 Plus hardware overview The BMAX B3 Plus physically consists of a 125 x 112 x 44mm (4.92 x 4.41 x 1.73 inches) square plastic case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s new 10 nm Jasper Lake N5095 processor which is a quad-core 4-thread 2.00 GHz Celeron processor boosting to 2.90 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics. […]

Making a DIY 10.1-inch All-in-One PC out of AMR5 Ryzen 5 gaming mini PC

Ryzen 5 mini PC all in one computer

Hey Karl here. The first thing I need to do is thank the manufacturer of the brand Ace Magician for sending over a unit of their AMR5 gaming mini PC to more or less play with. I did a tiny bit of benchmarking along the way. This is the last time you will see the system in this state 😀 Story time. I have been really wanting a Steam Deck. But we purchased a Nintendo Switch about a year ago and it has barely been used. As soon as my son picked it up he asked why it was so laggy and has shown very little interest in it. So that got me worried about purchasing essentially a one-trick device. There have been a couple of good attempts at a DIY Steam Deck and I wanted to experiment with a small form factor. I went into this with a general […]

OPS-compliant digital signage player features Amlogic S905X3 CPU (Sponsored)

DataMax DM29 Android OPS mini PC

DataMax DM29 is a digital signage player and mini PC compliant with the OPS (Open Pluggable Specification) standard and powered by an Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor coupled with 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. The Android 9 system also features an HDMI 2.1 port capable of up to 4Kp60 video output, Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band WiFi, and 3G or 4G LTE cellular connectivity, as well as a pair of USB 3.0 ports. The system can be powered from an OPS-compliant display or via PoE. DataMax DM29 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.9 GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL 2.0 System Memory – 4GB dual-channel LPDDR4 or DDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card socket, M.2 SSD socket Video & audio output – HDMI 2.1 up to 1080p120 or 4Kp60 Video Decoding – 10-bit H.265, VP9, […]

Beelink U59 Pro review – A Jasper Lake mini PC with faster GPU performance

Beelink U59 Pro review

Beelink’s newly launched U59 Pro addresses the weak graphical performance offered by the original Beelink U59, which we also noticed in the Beelink MINI S, and was a direct result of the iGPU limitations. By simply upgrading the CPU from a ‘desktop’ to ‘mobile’ Celeron processor the iGPU received a fifty percent boost in execution units. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Beelink U59 Pro Hardware Overview The Beelink U59 Pro physically consists of a 124 x 113 x 42mm (4.88 x 4.45 x 1.65 inches) square plastic case. As before it is an actively cooled mini PC but now uses Intel’s 10 nm Jasper Lake N5105 processor which is the same quad-core 4-thread 2.00 GHz Celeron processor boosting to 2.90 GHz but with improved Intel’s UHD Graphics as the ‘Graphics Burst Frequency’ increases from 750 MHz to 800 MHz […]

Beelink SER5 Review – An AMD Ryzen 5 5600H mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04

Beelink ser5 review

New to arrive in the Beelink SER lineup is the SER5 marketed as a ‘SER PRO’ and features one of last year’s AMD Ryzen 5000 H-series processors typically used in high-performance productivity and gaming laptops. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04. Beelink SER5 Hardware Overview The Beelink SER5 physically consists of a 126 x 113 x 42mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.65 inches) square metal case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses AMD’s 7 nm Zen 3 Ryzen 5 5600H Cezanne processor which is a six-core 12-thread 3.3 GHz mobile processor boosting to 4.2 GHz with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C USB 3.1 port with Alternate Mode, dual USB 3.1 ports, and a reset pin-hole ‘CLR CMOS’.  The rear panel includes a gigabit Ethernet port, […]