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Beelink EQi 304 review – Part 3: Ubuntu 26.04 on a Wildcat Lake mini PC

Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake mini PC Ubuntu 26.04 review

After checking out the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown of the Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake mini PC, we reviewed the Intel Core 3 304 computer with Windows 11 in detail. We’ve now had time to test the Beelink EQi mini PC running Ubuntu 26.04 with Linux 7.0/7.1 kernels. We’ll report our experience with feature testing, benchmark results, 2.5GbE, 10GbE, and WiFi 6 networking evaluation, storage and USB/Thunderbolt tests, and more, including power consumption measurements. Ubuntu 26.04 installation and system information I’d usually resize the Windows partition to install Ubuntu alongside it in dual boot configuration. However, since the Beelink EQi mini PC also comes with two PCIe Gen4 x1/x2 sockets, I installed Ubuntu 26.04 on a 256GB NVMe (PCIe Gen3 x4) SSD fitted into the PCIe x2 socket and left the Windows 11 partition on the UFS storage alone. Despite the Intel Core 3 304 chip being a […]

Beelink EQi review – Part 2: An Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake Core 3 304 Windows 11 mini PC review

We’ve already checked out the specifications and hardware of the Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake mini PC in the first part of the review, with an unboxing and a teardown, before booting the mini PC into the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro for a first quick look. We’ve now had time to test the Intel Core 3 304 mini PC in more detail on Windows 11 Pro, so we’ll report our experience. The review includes feature testing, benchmark results, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, 10GbE, 2.5GbE, and WiFi network performance evaluation, cooling performance, and measurement of fan noise and power consumption. Software Overview and Feature Testing After fully updating Windows 11 Pro and drivers to the latest version (excluding previews), I went to System > About window again. We still have a 1.50 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core 3 304 processor with 16GB 6400MT/s memory, and 834GB of storage from the […]

GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 26.04 on an AMD Ryzen 5 7545U mini PC

GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition Review Ubuntu 26.04 Linux

We’ve just reviewed the GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition mini PC on Windows 11 after having checked out the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review. We’ve now had time to review the AMD Ryzen 5 7545U mini PC on Linux using Ubuntu 26.04 distribution. The Ubuntu 26.04 review includes feature testing, benchmarks, storage and networking (2.5GbE and WiFi 6) tests, and measurements of CPU temperature under stress, fan noise levels, and power consumption of the mini PC under various workloads. Ubuntu 26.04 installation We decided to install Ubuntu 26.04 alongside Windows 11 in dual boot configuration. To do so, we shrank the Windows (C:) partition to approximately half its size. We then inserted a USB drive flashed with the Ubuntu 26.04 ISO and began the installation process by entering the BIOS and selecting the drive. From there, the installation went smoothly, and we got […]

GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition Review – Part 2: AMD Ryzen 5 7545U Mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition Windows 11 Pro review

We have already checked out the GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition mini PC’s hardware with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review, before quickly trying the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro. We’ve now had time to test the AMD Ryzen 5 7545U mini PC more thoroughly in Windows 11, and we’ll report our experience, including feature testing, benchmark results, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E network performance evaluation, and cooling performance, as well as fan noise and power consumption measurements. Software Overview and Feature Testing – GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition The System > About window confirms we have an A7 computer equipped with a 3.2 GHz (base frequency) AMD Ryzen 5 7545U processor with Radeon 740M graphics, 16 GB of RAM, and 466 GB of storage preloaded with Windows 11 Pro 25H2. HWiNFO 64 provides additional details about the AMD Ryzen 5 7545U […]

SpacemiT K3 Pico-ITX RISC-V Chassis Kit Review – Part 2: What works, what doesn’t in Bianbu OS 4.0

SpacemiT K3 Pico-ITX Chassis Kit BianbuOS 4.0 review

Last month, I received the SpacemiT K3 Pico-ITX Chassis Kit based on the company’s K3 16-core RISC-V SoC, and started the review with an unboxing, a teardown, and a first boot to Bianbu OS 4.0. Since the system features a 10Gbps Ethernet SFP+ cage, I also had to order a 10GbE SFP+ to Copper adapter, as my 10GbE networking gear is exclusively based on RJ45 ports. In this review, I’ll check system information in Bianbu OS 4.0.1, run a few benchmarks, test 10GbE, GbE, and WiFi 6 networking performance, play YouTube videos at various resolutions, run AI workloads (LLM), check all/most features work as expected, and measure the power consumption of the SpacemiT K3 “Pico-ITX Chassis Kit” mini PC. It’s a fairly long review, so if you are short on time, you can check out the “what works, what doesn’t” section. Bianbu OS 4.0 System Information Before running anything, I […]

ODROID-H5 Review – Part 2: A dual 10GbE mini PC tested with Ubuntu 26.04

ODROID-H5 review dual 10GbE Ubuntu 26.04

I received a kit for review last week with an ODROID-H5 SBC, a Type1 case, an M.2 10GbE module, and other accessories. In the first part of the review, I went through an unboxing, assembled the kit, and tested whether it could boot an M.2 NVMe SSD with Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 11. I’ve now updated the system to Ubuntu 26.04, run a few benchmarks, tested the two 10GbE RJ45 ports, as well as other features. I’ll report my experience about all that today. Upgrading from Ubuntu 24.04 to Ubuntu 26.04 The 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD I use in the ODROID-H5 comes from a laptop, which I upgraded with a 2TB SSD. That means the operating systems were not upgraded for a few months. While Ubuntu 24.04 could boot, it would not show the two 10GbE interfaces. That’s because the required drivers were not available in the version of Ubuntu […]

Khadas Mind Graphics 2 review – A powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti eGPU dock for the Mind 2 mini PC

Khadas Mind Graphics 2 review

Earlier this month, I received the Khadas Mind 2 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) mini PC with two accessories connecting through the Mind Link (PCIe x8) connector: The Mind xPlay Display and Keyboard combo, and the Mind Graphics 2 dock, adding a range of interfaces and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU with 16GB of VRAM. After going through the specifications, an unboxing, and a partial teardown in the first part of the review, I tested the Mind xPlay using the Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs running Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04. I’ve now had time to test the Khadas Mind Graphics 2 dock with the Mind 2 mini PC running Windows 11, so I’ll report my experience with the NVIDIA GPU (3D graphics and AI), and test all features, including 2.5GbE networking, the built-in speakers, microphone array, and so on. A few gremlins and system info When […]

SiFive introduces RVA23-compliant Performance P570 Gen3 RISC-V core for consumer and AIoT applications

SiFive Performance P570 Gen3 Core Complex

SiFive has just launched the SiFive Performance P570 Gen 3 out-of-order RISC-V processor core, compliant with the RVA23 ISA profile, and designed for edge AI, high-end consumer, and commercial IoT applications running Android or enterprise-grade OS. Besides the CPU core, SiFive also provides system IP, such as the RISC-V standard-compliant advanced interrupt architecture (AIA), WorldGuard security, and a second-generation RISC-V standard-compliant IOMMU to build a complete SoC with up to 16x P570 Gen 3 cores. Performance P570 Gen3 specifications: Support for all mandatory RVA23 profile extensions for compatibility with modern operating systems such as Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Red Hat Enterprise Adds extensions for enhanced security and performance, including Smepmp, Zvkng, Zvksg, Zicfilp, Zicfiss, Zfbfmin, Zvfbfmin, Zvfbfwma, and Zvdot4a8i Third-generation out-of-order core building on earlier P550 Gen1 and P470 Gen2 cores 3-wide, 13-stage fully out–of order execution superscalar pipeline Single 128-bit vector pipeline with dot product extensions Supports multicore coherence […]