Beelink SER3 & SEi8 mini PCs review – Part 2: Ubuntu 22.04

Previously, I reviewed Beelink’s new SEi8 and SER3 mini PCs running Windows 11, so in this part, I will cover Ubuntu 22.04. Hardware Recap The SEi8 is an actively cooled Intel mini PC that physically consists of a 124 x 113 x 41 (4.88 x 4.45 x 1.61 inches) square metal case with a plastic top and uses Intel’s 14++ nm Coffee Lake Refresh Core i3-8109U processor from 2018 which is a dual-core 4-thread 3.00 GHz mobile processor boosting to 3.60 GHz with Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 655. In comparison, the SER3 is an AMD mini PC and is physically very similar, consisting of a 126 x 113 x 40mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.57 inches) square metal case. It is also actively cooled and uses AMD’s 14 nm Zen Ryzen 3 3200U Picasso processor from 2019 which is a dual-core 4-thread 2.6 GHz mobile processor boosting to 3.5 GHz […]

PICO-V2K4 – A Pico-ITX board with AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processor

AAEON PICO-V2K4

AAEON PICO-V2K4 is a Pico-ITX board powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processor with up to 8 cores, AMD Radeon graphics, which should make it the world’s smallest Ryzen V2000 SBC on the market. The board comes with up to 32GB soldered-on memory and a 64GB NVMe flash, supports for SATA and M.2 NVMe storage, dual Gigabit Ethernet, up to four 4K display interfaces, four serial ports, and more. Use cases range from medical imaging (x-ray and MRI scan analysis) to casino gaming machines, and industrial automation. AAEON PICO-V2K4 specifications: AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processor (one or the other) Ryzen V2718 octa-core/16-thread processor @ up to 1.7-4.15 GHz (Turbo) with Radeon RX Vega 7 GPU; TDP: 10-25W Ryzen V2516 hexa-core/12-thread processor @ up to 2.1-3.95 GHz (Turbo) with Radeon RX Vega 6 GPU; TDP: 10-25W System Memory – Up to 32GB LPDDR4x 3733 MHz Storage Up to 64GB on-board […]

Linux 5.18 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.18 release arm risc-v mips

Linux 5.18 is out! Linus Torvalds has just announced the release on lkml: No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule. That obviously means that the merge window for 5.19 will open tomorrow, and I already have a few pull requests pending. Thank you everybody. I’d still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for the merge window. The full shortlog for the last week is below, and nothing really odd stands out. The diffstat looks a bit funny – unusually we have parsic architecture patches being a big part of it due to some last-minute cache flushing fixes, but that is probably more indicative of everything else being pretty small. So outside of the parisc fixes, there’s random driver updates (mellanox mlx5 stands out, […]

DeskMini UM350 Manjaro Edition is a Linux mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H SoC

AMD Ryzen Manjaro Linux Mini PC

Most mini PCs are offered with Windows 10 or 11 operating systems, but MinisForum DeskMini UM350 Manjaro Edition mini PC ships with Manjaro Linux, making it one of the rare mini PCs pre-loaded with a Linux distribution. The mini PC hardware is pretty standard with a 35W AMD Ryzen 5 3550H quad-core processor, support for up 64GB RAM, 2.5-inch SATA and M.2 2280 SSD storage, and the only real highlights are Linux support, and relatively affordable pricing.   DeskMini U350 Manjaro Edition specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen 5 3550H 4 Cores/8 Threads processor @ 2.1 GHz / 3.7 GHz (Turbo) with Radeon Vega 8 Graphics @  up to 1200MHz System Memory – 2x SO-DIMM slots for DDR4 RAM up to 64GB Storage 256GB or 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe/NVMe SSD 2.5-inch SATA III bay Video Outpu HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 DisplayPort up to 4Kp60 USB-C port up to 4Kp60 Audio […]

AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series processors target Chrome OS devices for work

AMD Ryzen 5000-C Series

AMD has just introduced the 15W Ryzen 5000 C-Series “Zen 3” processors for premium Chrome OS devices designed for work and collaboration. The processors can with up to eight cores and sixteen threads and are said to offer all-day battery life. AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series processors for Chrome OS are expected to offer up to 67% faster responsiveness and up to 85% better graphics performance when comparing a Chromebook based on AMD Ryzen 7 5825C against an earlier model based on AMD Ryzen 7 3700C introduced in 2020 using respectively WebXPRT 3 and Motion Mark 1.2 benchmarks. Multitasking performance comparison using Geekbench 5 shows a 107% improvement that is probably mostly due to the doubling of the number of cores. The AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series “”Barcelo” family is currently comprised of four parts. We can look at the Ryzen 7 5825C other features for more details: Cache –  512KB L1 […]

Morefine S500+ Review – An AMD Ryzen 7 5700U mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04

MOREFINE S500+ review

Morefine has recently released their S500+ series of mini PC series which features models with either a Zen 2 or Zen 3 AMD mobile processor. Morefine kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Morefine S500+ Hardware Overview The S500+ physically consists of a 149 x 145 x 40mm (5.87 x 5.71 x 1.57 inches) square metal case with a plastic top. As an actively cooled mini PC, it is available with either an AMD Zen 2 or Zen 3 mobile processor. The review model came with AMD’s 7 nm Zen 2 Ryzen 7 5700U Lucienne processor which is an eight-core 16-thread 1.8 GHz mobile processor boosting to 4.3 GHz with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has a power button, a light to indicate power, two USB 3.1 ports, and a Type-C USB 3.1 port with Alternate Mode. The rear panel includes a […]

ASRock 4X4 BOX-5000 Series mini PC features AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 U-Series processor

ASRock 4X4 BOX 5000U-series

ASRock Industrial has announced the 4X4 BOX-5000 Series Mini PCs powered by AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 U-Series with three models, namely 4X4 BOX-5800U, 4X4 BOX-5600U, and 4X4 BOX-5400U, based on respectively Ryzen 7 5800U, Ryzen 5 5600U, and Ryzen 3 5400U processors. The mini PCs support up to four 4K display outputs, come with up to two Ethernet (2.5GbE + GbE) ports, Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, offers M.2 Key M SSD and SATA 3.0 storage, as well as five USB 3.2/2.0 ports for peripherals. ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-5000 Series specifications: SoC (one of the other) 4X4 BOX-5400U – AMD Ryzen 3 5400U quad-core/8-thread processor @ up to 2.6GHz / 4.0GHz (Turbo) with AMD Radeon Graphics; 15W TDP 4X4 BOX-5600U – AMD Ryzen 5 5600U hexa-core/12-thread processor @ up to 2.3GHz / 4.2GHz (Turbo) with AMD Radeon Graphics; 15W TDP 4X4 BOX-5800U – AMD Ryzen 7 5800U octa-core/16-thread processor @ up […]

Beelink SER4 Review – Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04, and “overclocking” AMD Ryzen 7 4800U SoC

Beelink SER4 review

Beelink has released the SER4 which is the latest in their ‘SER’ mini PC series and it features a Zen 2 AMD mobile processor. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu and dabbled with ‘overclocking’. Beelink SER4 Hardware Overview The Beelink SER4 physically consists of a 126 x 113 x 40mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.57 inches) square metal case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses AMD’s 7 nm Zen 2 Ryzen 7 4800U Renoir processor which is an eight-core 16-thread 1.8 GHz mobile processor boosting to 4.2 GHz with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C USB 3.1 port with Alternate Mode, dual USB 3.1 ports, and a reset pin-hole ‘CLR CMOS’.  The rear panel includes a gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 3.1 port and a USB 2.0 port, […]