We have already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC in the first part of the review, before testing the low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC with its 8GB RAM and 256GB SATA SSD running Windows 11 Pro in detail in the second part. We’ve now had time to test the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite with Ubuntu 24.04 in the third and final part of the review. We’ll test the features in Linux, run some benchmarks, evaluate storage and network performance, play some 4K and 8K videos in YouTube playback, perform a stress test to check its thermal design, and finally measure the mini PC’s fan noise and power consumption. We’ll also compare the results in Linux to the earlier GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC with the same CPU, but better specs and a higher price. A challenging Windows 11 / Ubuntu 24.04.1 dual boot installation […]
GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite review – A low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro
We’ve already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review. It is a low-cost mini PC based on an Intel Processor N100 CPU, coupled with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory, a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD, dual Display output through HDMI and DisplayPort connector, GbE, WiFi 6E, and a 9-pin expansion header port – as found in some NUC model – to access an external power button, reset button, and LEDs when housed in a cabinet or kiosk. You’ll find the full Mini Air 12 Lite specifications in our previous article about it. We’ve now had more time to test the mini PC, so we’ll report our experience with the Mini Air12 Lite running Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review. We’ll go through a software overview, test most of the features, run […]
GEEKOM GT1 Mega AI mini PC Review – Part 1: Specifications, unboxing, teardown, and first boot
GEEKOM GT1 Mega is an AI mini PC based on the latest Intel Core Ultra 5/7/9 Meteor Lake processor. We received a review sample from the company with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H SoC, 32GB DDR5 memory, and a 2TB NVMe SSD as well as an Intel BE200 WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 module. As usual, we’ll do a three-part review starting with an article with the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown followed by a thorough review with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro operating system, and finally with the latest Ubuntu 24.04.1 OS. GEEKOM GT1 Mega specifications GEEKOM provides the following specifications for the GT1 Mega mini PC and motherboard: Meteor Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 9 185H 16-core (6P+8E+2LPE) processor @ 2.5 / 3.8 / 5.1 GHz (Turbo) with 24MB cache, 8x Xe-cores Intel Arc graphics @ 2.35 GHz, Intel AI Boost NPU; […]
Portwell WEBS-21J0-ASL – A rugged embedded system with Intel Atom x7000RE Nano-ITX motherboard and Hailo-8 AI accelerator
Portwell’s WEBS-21J0-ASL is a fanless, rugged embedded system with a Nano-ITX motherboard powered by an Intel Atom x7000RE Series processor and optimized for industrial IoT applications. It features two 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, dual 4K display support (DP/HDMI), and a serial port as well as M.2 E and B Key sockets for wireless and storage expansion. Designed for harsh environments, the WEBS-21J0-ASL operates in temperatures ranging from -20°C to 60°C. The system is equipped with DDR4 SO-DIMM memory (up to 16GB and 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. It has passed vibration and shock tests for durability in rugged applications making it suitable for a wide range of industrial and automation systems. The WEBS-21J0-ASL also supports optional integration with the Hailo-8 AI acceleration module delivering up to 26 TOPS of AI performance for applications requiring advanced AI capabilities. This makes it an ideal solution for robotics, medical equipment, outdoor gateways, and […]
AAEON PICO-ASL4 industrial Pico-ITX SBC ships with Intel Atom x7000RE, up to 16GB DDR5, 2.5GbE LAN
AAEON PICO-ASL4 is a fanless, latency-sensitive Pico-ITX single board computer (SBC) built around the Intel Atom x7000RE-series “Amston Lake” SoCs and configurable with up to 16GB of DDR5 memory. The SBC supports dual display outputs via HDMI and LVDS/eDP and features four serial ports: two RS232/422/485 and two RS232. For networking, it provides dual Ethernet connectivity with Intel i226 2.5GbE and Realtek RTL8111H 1GbE controllers, both supporting TSN and TCN. Additionally, it offers a variety of expansion options, including a full-sized mSATA/mPCIe slot and an M.2 2230 E-Key socket for WiFi and Bluetooth. For further connectivity, there are four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, as well as GPIO and SMBus/I2C headers. AAEON PICO-ASL4 (Rev.B) specifications SoC – Intel Amston Lake (one or the other) Intel Atom x7433RE, 4 cores, 1.5GHz, 9W TDP Intel Atom x7835RE, 8 cores, 1.3GHz, 12W TDP System Memory – Up to 16GB DDR5 […]
ECS ADLN-IE1S – A 3.5-inch Alder Lake-N industrial motherboard with solid capacitors and 15µ gold contact
ECS Industrial Computer has recently launched the ECS ADLN-IE1S 3.5-inch industrial motherboard built around the Intel Alder Lake-N SoC family. Other than that, the motherboard supports DDR5 memory, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, and triple display capabilities via a dual HDMI port, and an LVDS port. It also features multiple expansion slots for SSDs and WiFi modules including various I/O options including USB 3.2, serial ports, GPIO, and more. The motherboard is designed for industrial applications, so it has a wide operating temperature range making it suitable for applications including automation, control systems, digital signage, and kiosks. Previously we have written about motherboards designed for industrial applications like the DFI RPS310, the ASRock NUC Ultra 100 motherboards, the Kontron K3931-N mITX, and many others. The main difference is that this new ESC ADLN-IE1S motherboard comes in a 3.5-inch form factor whereas the other comes in a MINI-ITX or MICRO-ATX form factor. ECS ADLN-IE1S […]
Radxa ROCK 5 ITX RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard review – Building an Arm PC and NAS with Debian KDE
In this review, I’ll show how I installed Debian on the ROCK 5 ITX mini-ITX motherboard powered by a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor, before building a computer/NAS with the Arm mini-ITX motherboard, testing various features and running benchmarks. In the first part of the review, we checked out the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX (Arm) and Jupiter (RISC-V) mini-ITX motherboards with specifications and unboxing, and the Auriga 6-Bay NAS mini-ITX chassis used in this review. I already built the computer with the Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard, so here I simply switched the RISC-V motherboard with the Radxa ROCK 5 ITX Arm motherboard and installed a few SATA drives. Radxa ROCK 5 ITX first boot – A tricky start… Radxa provides getting started instructions on the documentation website which I mostly follow to hopefully boot within a few minutes. I had to prepare the hardware first. So I installed a […]
DFI RPP051 Pico-ITX SBC features 13th Gen Intel Core embedded SoC from Processor U300E to Intel Core i7-1365UE
DFI RPP051 is a 2.5-inch Pico-ITX SBC built around 13th Gen Intel Core processors ranging from the dual-core Intel Processor U300E to the 10-core Intel Core i7-1365UE. It supports up to 32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and accommodates M.2 NVMe and SATA storage devices. Connectivity options include a 2.5GbE LAN port, DP++ and eDP display interfaces, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB 2.0 ports, RS-232/422/485 interfaces, along with I2C and GPIO for expansion. The DFI RPP051 first came to our attention while covering the AAEON PICO-RAP4 which is also an SBC with a Pico-ITX form factor, we have also written about many x86 and Arm Pico-ITX boards including AAEON PICO-MTU4, the AAEON RICO-3568, the GIGAIPC PICO-N97A and many other feel free to check them out if you are looking for compact and powerful SBCs. DFI RPP051 Pico-ITX SBC Specification 13th gen Raptor Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-1365UE 10C/12T […]