Like every year since 2014, I’ll list a few international deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, as many CNX Software readers cannot benefit from promotions on Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, which will take place from November 20 to December 1. I’ve gathered various deals, discount coupon codes, and events from relevant manufacturers of single board computers, MCU development boards, mini PCs, Smart Home devices, and DIY products, as well as popular online stores, including AliExpress, Banggood, and others. AliExpress Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 event AliExpress sales event for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 has just started and will last until December 3, 2025 (although I can see until November 29 and December 4 in some places). You can use some of the coupons on the screenshot above, or some alternative coupon codes for the US and some other countries (excluding DE, RU, […]
GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on an Intel Core i7-1280P mini PC
We’ve already checked out GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC’s hardware with an unboxing and a teardown, and tested the Intel Core i7-1280P mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in detail in the second part of the review. We’ve now had time to test the Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC with Ubuntu 24.04, so we’ll report our experience with Linux in the third part of the review. We’ll specifically go through system information, test key features, benchmark the system and compare it against the earlier Mini IT12 “2023 Edition” powered by an Intel Core i7-12650H processor, because checking out storage and USB performance, WiFi 6 and 2.5GbE network performance, stress testing the mini PC, and finally measuring fan noise and power consumption. Ubuntu 24.04 installation We decided to install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS alongside Windows 11 in a dual-boot configuration, so we resized the Windows 11 partition by about […]
GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro features testing, benchmarks, power consumption
We have already checked out the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review. The new model still relies on a 12th Intel processor, and simply replaced the 10-core Intel Core i7-12650H by a more powerful 14-core Intel Core i7-1280P processor still coupled with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB M.2 SSD, although the brands and models of the RAM, storage, and wireless modules have changed. In the second part of the review, we will be testing the GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro in detail, notably testing most features and running benchmarks before comparing it to the (2023 Edition) Mini IT12 mini PC with an Intel Core i7-12650H processor. We’ll also test 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 networking, cooling performance, and finally measure fan noise and power […]
GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition Review – Part 1: Intel Core i7-1280P mini PC specifications, unboxing, and teardown
GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition is a mini PC with three 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake CPU options: Core i5-12450H, Core i7-1280P, and Core i9-12900HK. It supports up to 64GB of RAM, up to 2TB NVMe SSD, offers various ports such as HDMI 2.0, USB4, and 2.5GbE, and comes with WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. GEEKOM sent us a review sample of the Mini IT12 with an Intel Core i7-1280P processor, 32GB DDR4, and a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because we previously reviewed the Mini IT12 with an Intel Core i7-12650H in December 2023/January 2024 with the same name but a different processor, and a few other changes, as we’ll see below. In the first part of the review, we will look at the specifications of the GEEKOM IT12 2025 Edition mini PC, go through an unboxing, perform a teardown to check out […]
GEEKOM A6 Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC
We’ve already checked out the hardware of the GEEKOM A6 mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review, and thoroughly tested the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC in Windows 11 Pro in the second part, so it’s now time to report our experience with Ubuntu 24.04 Linux on the mid-range mini PC. We’ve gone through features testing, system benchmarks, storage (SSD and USB) performance tests, 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 network evaluation, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, a stress test to check out the cooling ability of the mini PC, and finally fan noise and power consumption measurements. Ubuntu 24.04 installation and system information Since we wanted to install Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS alongside Windows 11 Pro, we resized the partition by roughly half. But since the C: drive was “BitLocker Encrypted”, we knew Ubuntu installation wouldn’t be successful that way, so we went to […]
GEEKOM A6 Review – Part 2: A sub-$500 mid-range AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro (Sponsored)
In the first part of the review, we’ve already checked out the specs, gone through an unboxing and a teardown of the GEEKOM A6 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU with up to 32GB DDR5 and a 1TB SSD, before quickly booting the preinstalled Windows 11 Pro. We’ve now had time to test the GEEKOM A6 in detail, so we’ll report our experience with the Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC with Windows 11 Pro. We’ve tested the features, ran benchmarks, evaluated storage and networking performance, stress-tested the device to see how it performs under load, and measured fan noise and power consumption. We’ll also compare it to the previous GEEKOM A5 and A7 mini PCs. [Update: The sponsored tag was added temporarily, as GEEKOM paid for the review to be pinned at the top of the website for one week] Software Overview and Feature Testing Going […]
GEEKOM A6 Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, and teardown
GEEKOM A6 is a mid-range mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H octa-core/sixteen thread processor with AMD Radeon Graphics 680M, up to 64GB dual-channel DDR5, up to 2TB NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x4) SSD storage, 2.5Gbos Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. It also features several USB4, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0 ports, supports up to four separate 4K monitors via HDMI 2.0 ports and USB Type-C ports, and comes with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. GEEKOM sent us a sample of the A6 mini PC for review, and we’ll start with a look at the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown in the first part of the review, before testing Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04 in more detail in the next parts. As its name implies, it should offer a middle ground between the Ryzen 7 5800H-powered GEEKOM A5 and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS-based GEEKOM A7 mini PCs […]
GEEKOM GT1 Mega review with Ubuntu 24.10 – Part 3: Linux on an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H “Meteor Lake” mini PC
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 […]

