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32 Karma

Review on πŸ’» Mini PC NUC Box S (New Version) Intel J4125 2.7Ghz 8GB DDR4/256GB SSD, GMK Mini Computer HDMI 4K@30Hz, 2.4/5G Wi-Fi, BT 5.1 by Dean Ledet

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Cool but with a weird Achilles heel

This is a great little PC that really carves a niche like no other product on the market. It's great to have a powerful PC in my bag (or bag or whatever) and I can run it in a window on my MacBook (using an HDMI to USB-C converter like Genki ShadowCast) what offers me a utility of two computers in size - basically - one. However. At first I thought mine wouldn't work, but it turned out that it would only work with the included power adapter since it doesn't support USB-PD; Instead, 12V must be delivered over USB-C without negotiation, which no traditional USB-C power adapter can deliver. So it almost rules out using this with existing power supplies, forcing you to carry two around with you (for the same reason you can't use them for anything else - it'll burn anything you plug it into). There's a variant I'm looking at ("USB-C PD triggers") that you can plug between a real USB-C power adapter and this thing and use it to tell your power adapter to output 12V intended) which will be a bit messy and a bit "enthusiast-level" / hackish, but it should work. I now carry two power adapters with me and choose carefully which one to use.

Pros
  • Done
Cons
  • Compatibility