Beelink SER6 Pro mini PC review – Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04, and USB4

Beelink SER6 Review

Beelink upgraded their earlier SER6, which used an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor with integrated AMD Radeon 660M graphics, and released the SER6 Pro which has a faster AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor with much more powerful integrated AMD Radeon 680M graphics. Beelink kindly sent a SER6 Pro unit for review however since receiving the mini PC, Beelink have ‘refreshed’ the processor to use an AMD Ryzen 7 7735H also with AMD Radeon 680M graphics, and called it the SER6 Pro Refresh. As a result, this review looks at Windows performance which should be indicative for both versions, together with a quick look at running Ubuntu and also a more detailed look at the USB4 port which is a new inclusion to Beelink’s mini PCs. Update: you may be interested in the review of the Beelink SER6 Pro 7735HS – in Windows 11 only – as we’ve also received it […]

NanoPi R6S RK3588S mini PC & router review – Part 2: Ubuntu 22.04

NanoPi R6S Ubuntu 22.04

NanoPi R6S is both a mini PC and a router based on Rockchip RK3588S processor. I received some samples in November and started the NanoPi R6S review with OpenWrt/FriendlyWrt quickly testing the 2.5GbE interfaces and routing with iperf3, and it worked pretty well. But using a system with an octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor and 8GB RAM as an OpenWrt router only feels like a waste of resources, so I wanted to install a more versatile operating system – Ubuntu 22.04 – for further testing. My struggles installing Ubuntu 22.04 on NanoPi R6S FriendlyELEC provides various images on the Wiki either booting from an SD card, installing from a MicroSD to the eMMC flash (aka eFlasher imagers), or flashing through USB with Windows tools. I like the eFlasher images since the OS runs from the internal eMMC flash and no special tools are needed. I had just used the FriendlyWrt eFlasher image, […]

KC12 Alder Lake-P mini PC supports up to 64GB RAM, four displays, and dual 2.5GbE

Alder Lake-P Mini PC quad display dual 2.5GbE

KC12 is a mini PC powered by either an Intel Core i5-1240P or Core i7-1260P Alder Lake-P hybrid processor with up to 64GB DDR4, SATA and NVMe storage options, HDMI and DisplayPort for up to four 4K displays, as well as two 2.5GbE networking interfaces. The actively-cooled computer also comes with six USB ports, four of which are USB 3.x, audio jacks for a headphone and a microphone, an optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 module, an RS232 COM port, and a Kensington lock slot. KC12 mini PC specifications: Alder Lake-P SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-1260P 4P+8E (16 threads) processor @ 3.40/4.70GHz with Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP Intel Core i5-1240P 4P+8E (16 threads) processor @ 3.30/4.40GHz with Intel Xe graphics; 28W TDP System Memory – Up to 64GB RAM via 2x SO-DIMM DDR4-2666/3200 sockets Storage M.2 2280 SSD slot for SATA or NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD […]

Storaxa is a 3-in-1 5-bay NAS, WiFi 6 router, and 4K media center (Crowdfunding)

5-Bay NAS WiFi 6 router 4K media center

The Storaxa is a multi-purpose device powered by an Intel Celeron N6005 Jasper Lake processor which works as a 5-bay SATA NAS, which also happens to take up to four NVMe SSDs, a 4K media center with HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces, and a WiFi 6 router equipped with four 2.5GbE ports. The solution is fitted with 16GB RAM, comes with four 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, and runs Proxmox VE to handle both TrueNAS SCALE and OpenWrt for the NAS and router functions respectively. Storaxa specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N6005 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 3.3GHz (Turbo) with 32EU Intel UHD graphics @ 450 / 900 MHz (Turbo); 10W TDP System Memory – 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory Storage 128 GB SATA SSD for OS 5x 3.5-inch SATA bays 4x M.2 2280 sockets for NVMe SSDs (connected via ASMedia ASM2812X PCIe […]

QNAP preps Rockchip RK3588 AI NAS and Intel NAS with hot-swappable E1.S SSDs

QNAP RK3588 NAS E1.S SSD

QNAP has been teasing two potentially interesting NAS coming up soon: the TS-AI642 AI NAS leveraging the 6 TOPS NPU in Rockchip RK3588 Arm processor for image and facial recognition, and the TBS-574X NAS powered by an Intel Core i3-1220P Alder Lake CPU and taking up to five hot-swappable E1.S NVMe PCIe SSDs. Details are limited since neither device is available yet, but both NAS are equipped with relatively powerful Arm and Intel processors and offer some innovative features. QNAP TBS-574X NAS with Rockchip RK3588 Preliminary specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core 64-bit Arm processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.2 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, 6 TOPS NPU Storage – 6x SATA III bays Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.1 ports Networking – Built-in 2.5GbE, PCIe Gen 3 slot for 10GbE module The main highlight is the 6 TOPS AI accelerator that boosts the performance of the […]

Khadas VIM1S (Amlogic S905Y4) SBC review with Android 11

Khadas VIM1S Android 11 review

We’ve previously tested Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM1S Amlogic S905Y4 SBC, so we’ll switch to Android 11 in the second part to check out the user experience and benchmark the system under Android. Installing Android 11 on Khadas VIM1S board with OOWOW We’ll basically follow the same procedure as with Ubuntu to flash the Android OS. Press and hold the Function button, press the Reset button, and release the Function button. to enter the OOWOW Wizard, and if an Ethernet cable is not connected, select Network to configure Wi-Fi as the installation process requires downloading an image from Khadas servers. This time, we’ll select the latest Android 11 image namely vim1s-android-11-v221020.raw.img.xz At just 525 MB in size (when compressed), the Android 11 image for Khadas VIM1S board is fairly compact. Installing Android with OOWOW is really easy with the interface downloading and flashing the image to the eMMC flash without […]

Orbbec Femto Mega 3D depth and 4K RGB camera features NVIDIA Jetson Nano, Microsoft ToF technology

Femto Mega 3D camera

Orbbec Femto Mega is a programmable multi-mode 3D depth and RGB camera based on NVIDIA Jetson Nano system-on-module and based on Microsoft ToF technology found in Hololens and Azure Kinect DevKit. As an upgrade of the earlier Orbbec Femto, the camera is equipped with a 1MP depth camera with a 120 degrees field of view and a range of 0.25m to 5.5m as well as a 4K RGB camera, and enables real-time streaming of processed images over Ethernet or USB. Orbbec Femto Mega specifications: SoM – NVIDIA Jetson Nano system-on-module Cameras 1MP depth camera Precision: ≤17mm Accuracy: < 11 mm + 0.1% distance NFoV unbinned & binned:H 75°V 65° WFoV unbinned & binned:H 120°V 120° Resolutions & framerates NFoV unbinned: 640×576 @ 5/15/25/30fps NFoV binned: 320×288 @ 5/15/25/30fps WFoV unbinned: 1024×1024 @ 5/15fps NFoV binned: 512×512 @ 5/15/25/30fps 4K RGB camera FOV – H: 80°, V: 51°b D: 89°±2° Resolutions […]

$96+ Banana Pi BPI-M2S Amlogic A311D/S922X SBC offers dual GbE, optional PoE and WiFi 5

Amlogic A311D and S922X SBC

The Banana Pi PPI-M2S is a single board computer (SBC) powered by either Amlogic A311D or S922X processor with 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, HDMI 2.1 and MIPI DSI display interfaces, one MIPI CSI camera connector, two Gigabit Ethernet ports with one PoE capable, as well as optional WiFi 5 & Bluetooth support. When we first covered the Banana Pi BPI-M2S over a year ago, all we had were some 3D renders of the board and some preliminary specifications. The company has now manufactured the board, provided some documentation, and started to take orders for the board on Aliexpress for $95.79 or $100 depending on whether Amlogic S922X or A311D is selected. Banana Pi BPI-M2S specifications: SoC – Amlogic A311D or S922X hexa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A73 cores @ 2.21 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G52 MP4 (6EE) GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 […]