MINIX Z150-Aero Mini PC, Intel N150 (Upgraded N100), 16GB DDR4, 512GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD Micro Mini Computer, 4K Triple Display/1GB+2.5G Dual LAN/USB-C/WiFi 5/BT5.1/Vesa Mount/Auto Power On

My wife's Windows 10 pc crashed and despite having several backups, we're were unable to get it working again. I was concerned that we'd have to spend many hundreds of dollars to replace it. I came across mini pc's after searching Amazon. I researched several different brands and modelsI am VERY experienced with pc's and knew what I was looking for.1. A good / recent brand and model processor2. Has Windows 11 Pro pre-installed3. Decent memory and storage4. Decent video specifications5. Fast USB ports, wifi and Bluetooth6. Good priceThe Mini Z100 Aero fit the bill on all counts plus more. It has a silent fan to help keep the components cool, is super small and takes up a tiny footprint.Some reviews of other brands mentioned that they had a virus when they had just started using their new mini pc. I checked this pc thoroughly, using an industry leading virus scanner and it was completely clean. Nonetheless, I kept it on an isolated network for the first week, did a deep scan again and it was still completely clean.My wife loves this pc. It's fast, completely silent, has great storage and her favorite apps and browser run great.You may have different needs, but for us, this was perfect!

There are few reviews on the Minix Z100-0db yet so I thought I would write one. Short answer: I recommend it to anyone who wants something absolutely silent and with fast I/O.In the BIOS, the only change I made was to set the clock and enable C-States. Everything else I left default.The Z100 comes with Windows 11 Pro preinstalled. I installed HWiNFO64 and set an alert if the temperature reaches 60 degrees. It was rare that it went over 60 degrees though, it usually idled around bit less than 40 degrees. Running a web browser, it was usually in the 50s but would occasionally spike higher. Running a full virus scan would have the system go over 60 degrees but it never reached into the 70s. - You will have to excuse my simple tests as I know very little about Windows. I did not buy the Z100 to run Windows but I understand many people might.Eventually, I removed the 250GB SSD and installed a Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD. I read that the Windows license is in the BIOS, I tested that and found it was true. I installed Windows 11 Pro from the official Microsoft site onto the new 2TB SSD. Windows found every driver except for one (I assume a trivial one called ACPI \ NTC1057). It did not hamper the system in any way. The license showed as valid and active with the new install.Side note: From what I researched, the preinstalled Windows 11 Pro is perfectly fine. Minix has a good reputation. It was just a test to see what was possible before I deleted Windows and installed linux.As for performance, with Bitlocker off, the stock 250GB SSD was around 2,000 Read and 1,600 Write. With Bitlocker on, the Crucial P5Plus Crystal score came in around 3,200 Read and 3,300 Write.I used a heavy encryption program and created, read and wrote numerous 100GB data blocks without a single issue.I transferred a lot of information across the 2.5Gbe network without Windows complaining. Sound and video were fine. The USB 3.2 ports are definitely 10GB and did not have any issues at high speed.The outer case did get hot at times but it is the CPU temperature which matters. The case was certainly doing its job acting as a large heat sink to draw heat off the cpu and motherboard.

At first I was close to only giving this machine three stars, not four. However, it does have quite a few good features that just barely pushed it over the edge for my needs as an HTPC. It would be great for surfing the web, documents (word/excel etc...), light gaming and other more basic tasks. You will not be doing anything too processor hungry to be certain. With processor intensive applications, it can bog down a bit and feel somewhat sluggish while multitasking.PROS:- It has a heavy heavy duty aluminum casing/heatsink. This computer is small but extremely dense like a brick.- It has a higher speed WiFi 6 card in it than usual with large antennas that capture the signal quite well.- It has 2.5Gb Ethernet that I can get full speed out of without issue.- 512GB NVME (see last paragraph).- Comes with Windows 11 Pro.- Low power consumption, even lower in hibernation/sleep mode when not in use as an HTPC.- It is silent, there are no fans at all (this is good and bad depending IMO, see cons).- Includes an HDMI cable.- Includes a multi-country power plug adapter.- The feet where the screws are to open the case are open so you don't have to peel them off making it easier to get it open.CONS:- Price seems a bit high at the time of review maybe, this is not a powerhouse of a machine and others are less for close to the same specs.- It has an odd port/antenna layout, wish the antennas were at least on the side with the RJ45 jack.- The case, and especially the heatsink (also part of the case) on the top gets EXTREMELY hot. So hot in fact that there is a sticker on the machine that says the following, "Please avoid touching the unit with bare hands while operating." Yeah, this is a necessary warning label, this could literally burn a small kinds hands I would think. It is designed to run in this manner though to maintain complete silence. But still I put a USB powered fan over the top of it and it cooled it down some, maybe not as much as I might have liked.- The SSD comes partitioned into two drives which is kind of annoying. This was easily fixed in windows Disk Manager though.I performed a deep virus scan with Windows Defender fully updated as well as a freshly installed copy of the latest MalwareBytes software that both came up completely clean. The SSD is a brand called AirDisk which I have never heard of before. While using CrystalDiskInfo, everything looked good but it did not display the projected amount of TB's that could still be written. That being said, the drive did perform better than the listing stated/showed in the pictures and I got over 3400MB/s read and well over 3000MB/s write. It has a very basic BIOS which is not a bad thing. All in all, for my purposes as a streaming machine this will function great. You will just have to manage your expectations because as I stated in the beginning, this is not an overly powerful machine.