mini pc News - Page 33 of 138 - CNX Software

February 4, 2022 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 5 Comments

Beelink GTi11 modding – PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 slot, tweaking power limits, and eGPU

Previously I reviewed Beelink’s new GTi11 Intel Tiger Lake mini PC running Windows 11 and Ubuntu 20.04, so in this final part of the review, I’ll cover in more detail some of the features only briefly highlighted before. Specifically, I’m going to look at the PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 slot, dabble in ‘overclocking’ and explore eGPU options. Hardware Recap The GTi11 is a 168 x 120 x 39mm (6.61 x 4.72 x 1.54 inches) actively cooled mini PC and the review model has an i5-1135G7 Intel Tiger Lake quad-core 8-thread 2.50 GHz Core processor boosting to 4.20 GHz with Intel’s Xe Graphics. The review model also included a 500GB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 SSD drive with Windows 10 Pro installed, two sticks of 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz memory, a soldered WiFi 6 (or 802.11ax) Intel AX201 chip, and dual 2.5Gb Ethernet ports. Interestingly there are another two key […]

January 23, 2022March 14, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

MOREFINE M6 – An ultra-thin Jasper Lake mini PC (Crowdfunding)

We’ve seen a fair amount of Jasper Lake mini PCs, and even reviewed one with Beelink U59. MOREFINE M6 stands out due to its size and thickness, being about the size of two smartphones stacked together. The features are also promising with an Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core processor coupled with up to 16 GB RAM, up to 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, as well as dual 4K video output through HDMI and USB-C ports, a 2.5GbE ports WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and three USB 3.1 ports. MOREFINE M6 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 605; 10W TDP System Memory – 8GB or 16GB LPDDR4 Storage – 512GB or 1TB M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD, or 256GB M.2 SATA SSD Video Output 1x HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 1x DisplayPort Alt Mode via USB-C port up to […]

January 16, 2022January 16, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Intel launches NUC 11 Essential mini PC, Kits, and SBC with Jasper Lake SoC

Details about the Intel NUC 11 Essential “Atlas Canyon” mini PCs with Jasper Lake processor were leaked in May 2021, but Intel has now made it official with the “launch” of five NUC 11 Essential SKUs with one Windows 11 mini PC with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, three kits (bare mini PC), and one bare board all listed on Ark Intel. I put “launch” between quotes because it’s only “launched” as stated on Ark Intel, but it does not look like it’s available for sale just yet, but now at least we get confirmation about the specs from the leak that was fairly accurate, except Intel did not launch 10W Jasper Lake J-Series processors, and both 6W and 10W Jasper Lake processors are part of the N-Series. Intel NUC 11 Essential specifications: SoC/memory/storage NUC11ATKC2 Mini PC SoC – Intel Celeron N4505 dual-core processor clocked at 2.0 GHz / 2.9 […]

January 14, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

OnLogic unveils Karbon 800 Series Alder Lake-S embedded computers

OnLogic Karbon 800 Alder Lake-S embedded computer

We’ve already seen the newly announced Intel Alder Lake-S desktop IoT processors in some COM Express and COM HPC modules, and quickly mentioned Vecow ECX-3000 rugged computer, and now, OnLogic has just announced the Karbon 800 Series, a family of Alder Lake-S embedded computers. There will be four Karbon 800 models at launch, equipped with up to an Intel Core i9 16-core processor, 64 GB of DDR4 ECC or non-ECC memory, as well as single and dual PCIe Gen 4 slots, and optional “ModBay” hot-swappable bays to add connectivity and storage option up to a six 2.5-inch SSD RAID array or 14 Ethernet ports. All four Karbon 800 embedded computer supports the same processor and memory options, and mostly differ in their storage and expansion options: Karbon 801 Storage – Support for NVME Storage Expansion – 4G Cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Karbon 802 Storage – 2x 2.5-inch SSD with optional Hot […]

January 13, 2022July 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

LIVA Q3 Plus pocket-sized AMD Ryzen Embedded mini PC sells for $242 and up

ECS LIVA Q3 Plus is another one of those pocket-sized mini PC’s we’ve seen in the past like the ECS LIVA Q2, Chuwi Larkbox, GMK NucBox, and others. Most of those mini PCs are based on Intel Apollo Lake or Gemini Lake mini PC, but LIVA Q3 Plus comes with a twist as it is powered by a 15W AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B or R1505G processor making it, according to the Taiwanese company, the world’s smallest 15W AMD mini PC. ECS LIVA Q3 Plus specifications: SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B quad-core processor @ 2.0GHz up to 3.6GHz; TDP: 15W AMD Ryzen Embedded R1505G dual-core processor @ 2.4GHz up to 3.3GHz; TDP: 15W System Memory – 4GB or 8GB DDR4 2400 MT/s Storage – 64GB or 128GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output 1x HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60Hz with CEC function 1x mini DisplayPort […]

January 13, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Raspberry Pi CM4 Nano industrial mini PC supports wide temperature range, 12-18V DC input

If you ever wanted a mini PC similar to Raspberry Pi 4 but working within a wider temperature range and supply voltage, as well as a few extra features, the Raspberry Pi CM4 Nano industrial mini PC with a metal enclosure might be worth looking at. Based on the EDATEC CM4 Nano carrier board, the mini PC supports Raspberry Pi CM4 with up to 8GB RAM, 32GB storage, optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, and offers one HDMI port, a flat cable HDMI + Touchscreen connector, Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 3.0 ports and more. It works in settings with -25 to +60°C ambient temperature and offers a 12-18V DC input. EDATEC (Raspberry Pi) CM4 Nano specifications compared to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC: The company uses the Raspberry Pi OS image for the board plus a Board Support Package (BSP) specific to CM4 Nano to support extra features like the RTC: […]

January 4, 2022June 30, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Palm-sized Celeron N5105 mini PC ships with 8GB DDR4, two HDMI ports

In the last couple of years, we’ve seen several palm-sized 2.4-inch mini PCs based on Gemini Lake processors with the likes of CHUWI LarkBox, GMK NucBox, or LIVA Q2. ZX01 mini PC is a slightly larger 2.8-inch mini PC based on a more recent and powerful Celeron N5105 Jasper Lake processor with 8GB of DDD4 RAM, and a 128GB to 1TB M.2 SSD. The tiny computer also offers two 4K capable HDMI outputs, a Gigabit Ethernet port, three USB 3.0 ports, and an audio jack. ZX01 mini PC specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 605; 10W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4x or DDR4 (TBC) Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB M.2 2242 SSD MicroSD card slot Video Output – 2x HDMI ports Audio – 3.5 audio jack, digital audio via HDMI Networking Gigabit Ethernet via Intel […]

December 29, 2021December 31, 2021 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 22 Comments

OS and Memory Impact on Mini PC Gaming Performance

This article looks at what the effect of running a different operating system or having more memory has on similarly spec’d Intel and AMD mini PCs when gaming. Note: This article has been updated and corrected as a result of reader feedback and additional testing. It was inspired by having built and tested a pseudo ‘Steamdeck’ running Manjaro on an AMD-based mini PC with 16GB of memory, which made me wonder what the performance would be like using Windows 11. Initial results were surprising because Windows appeared much slower. As I’d previously heard of performance improvements when using 64GB of memory I swapped out the currently installed 16GB memory and immediately saw improved results. As I’d never observed such a dramatic performance increase on Intel mini PCs just through increasing the memory I decided to explore further by testing gaming performance on similar Intel and AMD mini PCs when using […]