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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Beelink ME Pro 2-bay hybrid NAS gets Wildcat Lake treatment, gains 10GbE and Thunderbolt 4, loses a few M.2 slots

Beelink ME Pro 2-bay hybrid NAS gets Wildcat Lake treatment, gains 10GbE and Thunderbolt 4, loses a few M.2 slots

Beelink ME Pro 2-Bay AI NAS Mini PC Intel Wildcat Lake 304

Beelink “ME Pro 2-Bay AI NAS Mini PC Intel Wildcat Lake 304” offers two SATA bays and one M.2 PCIe Gen4 socket, and is equipped with 16GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM memory and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage. It’s an upgrade to the Beelink ME Pro Intel N95/N150 NAS and mini PC introduced last February. Besides the faster processor, the NAS trades its 5GbE port for a faster 10GbE port, and gains two Thunderbolt 4 ports. One downside, due to the lower number of PCIe lanes in Wildcat Lake processors, is that it now features one M.2 PCIe Gen4 socket, instead of three M.2 PCIe Gen3 sockets, which is somewhat mitigated by the built-in UFS storage. Beelink ME Pro specifications: SoC – Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake” 5-core CPU – 1x P-cores @ 1.5/4.3 GHz (Turbo) + 4x LPE-cores @ 1.4/3.3 GHz (Turbo) Cache – 6MB L3 cache GPU – 1-core Intel […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Beelink EQi review – Part 2: An Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on TerraMaster F4-425 Pro 4+3 Hybrid NAS gets Intel Core 3 N350 or Core i3-N305 octa-core CPU

TerraMaster F4-425 Pro 4+3 Hybrid NAS gets Intel Core 3 N350 or Core i3-N305 octa-core CPU

TerraMaster F4-425 Pro Intel Core i3-N305 Core 3 N350

TerraMaster F4-425 Pro 4+3 Hybrid NAS  is an update of the F4-425 Plus Intel N150 NAS with a more powerful Intel Core 3 N350 “Twin Lake” octa-core processor or Core i3-N305 octa-core “Alder Lake-N” processor. Apart from the new processors, the new Pro model basically offers the same features with four SATA bays and three M.2 NVMe SSD sockets for storage (hence the 4+3 hybrid moniker), and dual 5GbE networking. It’s equipped with 8GB or 16GB DDR5 memory, and also adds four USB 3.2 ports for peripheral expansion, and an HDMI port for terminal access. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32U Intel HD graphics @ 1,250 MHz; TDP: 15W Intel Core 3 N350 octa-core Twin Lake processor @ up to 3.9 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32U Intel HD graphics […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition Review – Part 2: AMD Ryzen 5 7545U Mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition (AMD Ryzen 5 7545U) mini PC review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM A7 2026 Edition (AMD Ryzen 5 7545U) mini PC review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM A7 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 5 7545U review

GEEKOM sent us a review sample of the A7 2026 Edition mini PC powered by a 4.9 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 7545U hexa-core/12-thread processor, paired with 16GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and a 500 GB NVMe SSD. It comes with two HDMI 2.0 ports and two USB4 with DisplayPort Alt mode to enable four-monitor setups, 2.5GbE, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, an SD card reader, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a few USB-A ports. As its name implies, it’s a variant of the GEEKOM A7 (Ryzen 9 7940HS) mini PC we reviewed in 2024 with Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, and we’ll keep that in mind to compare the more affordable 2026 Edition to its older sibling in our three-part review. In this article, we will cover the full specifications, unbox the device, go through a teardown to check the hardware design, and boot it to the pre-installed Windows […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Radxa’s 2026 Qualcomm hardware: Dragon Q8B and Q5E SBCs, DragonStation and DragonBay NAS systems

Radxa’s 2026 Qualcomm hardware: Dragon Q8B and Q5E SBCs, DragonStation and DragonBay NAS systems

Radxa Dragon Q8B

Radxa started its partnership with Qualcomm last with the Dragon Q6A SBC, but it turns out it was just the start, and the company showcased more Qualcomm SBCs and NAS systems at a Radxa + Qualcomm developer day on May 30, 2026. The Radxa Q8B SBC will be based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 octa-core SoC and the Q5E SBC on a Dragonwing QCS6690 octa-core Kryo SoC. The company also teased DragonStation and DragonBay NAS systems, and a 2026 roadmap features a total of 22 Qualcomm systems made by Radxa. Radxa Dragon Q8B Dragon Q8B specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform Octa-core CPU – 4x 3.0 GHz Kryo Prime cores, 4x 2.4 GHz Kryo Efficiency Cores GPU – Adreno 690 GPU with DirectX 12 (DX12) API support DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon Processor, Qualcomm Sensing Hub AI – Qualcomm Neural Processing Engine SDK support for AI […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments on ODROID-H5 Review – Part 2: A dual 10GbE mini PC tested with Ubuntu 26.04

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments on ODROID-H5 – A $250 Intel Core i3-N300 SBC with 10GbE networking, four M.2 PCIe slots

ODROID-H5 – A $250 Intel Core i3-N300 SBC with 10GbE networking, four M.2 PCIe slots

ODROID H5

Hardkernel ODROID-H5 is an affordable Intel Core i3-N300 octa-core Alder Lake-N SBC providing a 10GbE RJ45 networking jack, and four M.2 PCIe slots for storage, wired/wireless networking, or AI accelerator expansion. It relies on the same SoC as in the earlier ODROID-H4 Ultra SBC, but trades a single PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 slot and four SATA ports for four M.2 slots, and upgrades from dual 2.5GbE  to single 10GbE. It still features four USB ports, but only one USB 3.0 port, and three USB 2.0 ports. ODROID-H5 specifications: SoC-  Intel Core i3-N300 CPU – Octa-core “Alder Lake-N” processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo single-core) or 2.3 GHz (Turbo multi-core) with 6MB cache GPU – 32EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 1.25 GHz TDP: 7W System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR5 4800 MHz SO-DIMM memory Storage Up to 4x 2280 NVMe SSDs via M.2 slots (See Expansion section) eMMC flash […]

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