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June 10, 2024June 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

How to repair/replace a WiFi antenna in a mini PC

In this short tutorial, we’ll show how to repair/replace a WiFi antenna in a mini PC. We’ll use GEEKOM A8 Mini PC as a test device because one of its WiFi antennas is attached to the top plastic cover, and it may potentially get damaged when the user opens the case to change or upgrade the SSD or memory sticks. This happened to us during the teardown of the GEEKOM A8 mini PC as shown in the image below. While WiFi still works with one antenna, the performance is quite better when two antennas are connected so we decided to repair the mini PC. We asked a few local shops, but they would only sell WiFi modules with antennas and none would just sell the antennas themselves. But luckily, such WiFi antennas can easily be purchased online in pairs. The first time, we purchased a WiFi antenna pair from Shopee […]

June 6, 2024June 11, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

GEEKOM A8 Review – Part 2: An AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

In the first part of the review, we’ve already gone through a teardown and an unboxing of the GEEKOM A8 AI mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS processor with AMD Radeon 780M Graphics, 32GB RAM (upgradeable up to 64GB) and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD. We’ve now had more time to play with the GEEKOM A8, so we will report our experience with the Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review testing features, running benchmarks, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. Software overview and features testing The System->About window in the Settings confirms we have an A8 Mini PC powered by a 4.0 GHz (base frequency) AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS processor with Radeon 780M Graphics and 32GB of RAM running Windows 11 Pro 23H2 build 22631.3593. HWiNFO64 provides more details […]

May 28, 2024May 31, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

GEEKOM A5 mini PC is now even better value with a $70/£50 coupon code (Sponsored)

The GEEKOM A5 is one of the mini PCs with the best performance/price ratio we’ve reviewed, with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H mini PC performing great in Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 (with a recent Linux kernel) and selling at a significantly lower price point than other systems delivering only marginal performance gains. The good news is that the GEEKOM A5 is now even better value with the company providing the CNXA5 coupon code for a $70 discount on GEEKOM US and a £50 discount on GEEKOM UK for the model with 32GB RAM and 512 NVMe SSDH bringing the price down to $329 and £329 respectively. The CNXA5 coupon code also works on GEEKOM Australia. Here are GEEKOM A5 specifications as a reminder: SoC – AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 8-core/16-thread processor up to 3.2 GHz / 4.4 GHz (Turbo) with 16MB cache, AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics; TDP: […]

May 22, 2024May 25, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

GEEKOM Mini IT13 Core i9-13900H mini PC is now $150/£150 cheaper (Sponsored)

150 dollars discount GEEKOM Mini IT13 Core i9 mini PC

GEEKOM has launched another mini PC promotion, this time for the MINI IT13 equipped with a powerful Intel Core i9-13900H 14-core/20-thread processor coupled with 32GB DDR5 and an ultra-fast 2TB NVMe SSD. You can now get the Core i9 mini PC for $679 or £619, or in other words, at a $150 or £150 discount on GEEKOM US or GEEKOM UK respectively, and the company also told us the promotion is active on GEEKOM Canada and Australia websites. The mini PC can drive up to four 4K displays through HDMI 2.0 and USB4 connectors, supports 2.5GbE and WIFi 6E networking, and offers plenty of expansion options with six USB ports from USB 2.0 to USB4, an additional M.2 2242 SATA SSD socket, and a 2.5-inch SATA slot. GEEKOM Mini IT13 specifications: SoC – Intel Core i9-13900H 13th Gen Raptor Lake processor with 14 cores, 20 threads up to 5.40 GHz, […]

May 15, 2024June 11, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

GEEKOM A8 (AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS) AI mini PC review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM A8 is an AI mini PC based on the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS (or Ryzen 7 8845HS) AI processor with AMD Radeon 780M Graphics, up to 64GB DDR5 memory, up to 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD support for up to four display up to 8K resolution, and comes preloaded with Windows 11 Pro operating system. The mini PC is equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, two USB-C ports with DisplayPort Alt mode, 4x USB 3.2 Type-A ports, 2.5GbE, a WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 module, and a stereo headset jack. GEEKOM sent us a sample of the A8 Mini PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS 8-core/16-thread processor, 32GB DDR5, and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD with Windows 11 Pro for review this time. We’ll start by listing some specifications, doing an unboxing, going through a teardown, and booting Windows 11. In the second and third parts of the […]

May 4, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Intel Processor N95 vs N97 vs N100 vs Core i3-N305 benchmarks comparison

Intel N95 vs N97 vs N100 vs Core i3 N305 benchmarks

Intel Alder Lake-N processors have been pretty popular in mini PCs and to a lesser extent in single board computers in the last year or so, thanks to their excellent performance/price and features/price ratios. All processors have more or less the same features, but performance differences do exist and do not always match the increasing part number. Since we’ve reviewed a bunch of Alder Lake mini PCs, I’ve decided to compare the performance of the Processor N95, Processor N97, Processor N100, and Core i3-N305 CPUs to have a better understanding of the differences between each part. For this purpose, we’ll rely on five mini PCs: Blackview MP80 (Processor N95), Blackview MP80 (Processor N97), the Intel N100-powered MINIX Z100-0dB and GEEKOM Mini Air12, and the Weibu N10 with a Core i3-N305 CPU. A summary of the specifications is listed in the table below. Some important remarks: Prices are taken from Amazon […]

May 1, 2024May 1, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

GEEKOM XT12 Pro review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on an Intel Core i9-12900H mini PC

We’ve already looked at GEEKOM XT12 Pro specifications and hardware design in the first part of the review and followed up by reviewing the Intel Core i9-12900 mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in the second part. We’ve now had time to review the GEEKOM XT12 Pro mini PC with the just-released Ubuntu 24.04 operating system to evaluate the compatibility and performance in Linux. In this third and final part of the review, we’ll test features in detail, evaluate performance with benchmarks, test storage and network capabilities, check YouTube video playback at 4K and 8K resolution, perform a stress test to check the cooling solution and provide numbers for fan noise and power consumption of the GEEKOM XT12 Pro mini PC. Ubuntu 24.04 installation and system information We’ve resized the Windows 11 by half in order to install Ubuntu 24.04 in dual boot configuration. After that, we inserted a USB […]

April 29, 2024April 30, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 mini PC comparison – Features, Benchmarks, and Price

The Raspberry Pi 5 Arm SBC is now powerful enough to challenge some Intel systems in terms of performance, while Intel has made the Intel Alder Lake-N family, notably the Intel Processor N100, inexpensive and efficient enough to challenge Arm systems when it comes to price, form factor, and power consumption. So we’ll try to match the Raspberry Pi 5 to typical Intel processor N100 mini PCs with a comparison of features/specifications, performance (benchmarks), and pricing with different use cases. That’s something I’ve been wanting to look into for a while but I was busy with reviews and other obligations (Hello, Mr. Taxman!), and this weekend I had some spare time to carry on the comparison. Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 mini PC specifications I’ll start by comparing the specifications of a Raspberry Pi 5 against the ones for typical Intel Processor N100-based mini PCs also mentioning optional features […]