Testing Category - Page 3 of 158 - CNX Software

February 18, 2024March 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

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 […]

February 12, 2024February 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Testing AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS’ AI Engine in Windows 11

AMD Ryzen 7940HS AI Engine Image Sorting

Some of the newer AMD Ryzen processors come with an AI Engine (also called NPU or IPU) that works in Windows 11 including the Ryzen 9 7940HS, Ryzen 7 7840HS, Ryzen 5 7640HS, Ryzen 7 7840U, and Ryzen 5 7640U. I’ve just completed the review of the GEEKOM A7 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU with Windows 11 – but need to wait before publishing it – so I decided to try the AI engine on the Ryzen 9 7940HS processor. The AI Engine relies on AMD XDNA architecture, and AMD provides instructions to get started with examples, demos, and developer resources. So I decided to try some examples, but for some reasons I’ll explain below, I eventually had to settle for some demos. Ryzen AI software installation (for the demos) The examples hosted on GitHub require us to install dependencies for the Ryzen AI software […]

February 9, 2024February 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

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

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:

February 7, 2024February 7, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Maxtang MTN-FP750 business mini PC review – Part 3: 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 […]

February 5, 2024February 6, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Review of Blackview MP80 Processor N97 mini PC with Fedora 39 Linux (Part 2)

After reviewing the Blackview MP80 (Processor N97) mini PC with Windows 11 in detail, we now had time to test it with Fedora 39 Workstation to find out how well it works in Linux. In this second part of the review, we’ll explain our “choice” of Linux distribution, go through benchmarks and features testing, as well as measure fan noise and power consumption, among other test Finding a Linux distribution that works with Blackview MP80 Last year, we reviewed the Blackview MP80 model equipped with an Intel Processor N95 CPU and after the Windows 11 review, we were unable to install Ubuntu 22.04 on the machine with the company eventually telling us Linux was not supported. But several months after the review, a reader commented he could install Fedora 39 on the Blackview MP80 and that it “worked like a charm“. We thought maybe the BIOS had been updated and […]

February 2, 2024February 24, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

GEEKOM A7 mini PC review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM A7 is a compact mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS (or Ryzen 7 7840HS) processor with up to 64GB DDR5, up to a 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD, four 4K capable video outputs, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E connectivity, and six USB ports for expansion. The company sent us a sample of the GEEKOM A7 with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU, 32GB DDR5, and 2TB SSD for review. We’ll do a three-part review starting by listing the specifications, checking out the hardware design and accessories, and quickly trying it in the first part of the review, before testing both Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 in detail in a few weeks. GEEKOM A7 specifications SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS 8-core/16-thread processor up to 4.0GHz with 16MB cache, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics; TDP: 35 to 54W AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-core/16-thread […]

January 31, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Femto Mega 3D depth camera review – OrbbecViewer and Orbbec SDK in Ubuntu 22.04, body tracking in Windows 11

We had a quick look at the Orbbec Femto Mega 3D depth and 4K RGB camera at the end of last year with a look at the hardware and a quick try with the OrbbecViewer program in Ubuntu 22.04. I’ve now had the time to test the OrbbecViewer in more detail, check out the Orbbec SDK in Linux and various samples, and finally test the Femto Mega with a body tracking application using Unity in Windows 11. A closer look at OrbbecViewer program and settings As noted in the first part of the review, the OrbbecViewer program provides color, depth, and IR views for the camera. Let’s go into details for each. The Color mode would be the same as your standard USB color camera. The Femto Mega supports resolution from 1280×720 at 30 fps to 3840×2160 at 25 fps using MJPG, H.264, H.265, or RGB (converted from MJPG). We […]

January 30, 2024January 29, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 5 Comments

Review of SONOFF SNZB-03P new Zigbee motion sensor with eWelink and Home Assistant

SONOFF continues to release new Zigbee products series including the wireless switches/buttons (SNZB-01P) and temperature and humidity sensors (SNZB-02P) that we reviewed last year. Today, we will review another new sensor, that is the Zigbee 3.0 motion sensor (SNZB-03P) and we’ll need a Zigbee Hub/Bridge/Dongle to receive Zigbee signals to make it work. The technology of this sensor remains PIR, which uses infrared waves similar to before. This is different from the Human Presence sensors that are gaining popularity, which use mmWave (millimeter wave, frequency 3-30GHz). Both types have their pros and cons. SONOFF has also recently released a Human Presence sensor, namely the SNZB-06P which we will review soon. The SONOFF SNZB-03P is suitable for applications where motion needs to be detected (staying standstill won’t work) and places where it is not feasible or practical to run power cables. The latter is advantageous compared to Human Presence sensors because […]