MINIX NEO N42C, a small computer based on the Intel N4200

I’ve come across computers and TV boxes made by Minix in reviews many times, but this is the first time I’ve had one of the company’s computers on my desk. I’ve read quite a few good reviews of this manufacturer’s devices, but I’ve also had a fair number of computers from other brands pass through my hands, so I was doubly interested to see whether Minix really is any better.
Inspection, teardown, tests, summary table, conclusions.


I’ll start the usual way, with the technical specifications.
Operating system: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Pentium N4200, 1.1 GHz (2.5 GHz in Turbo mode)
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 505
Memory: 2 SO-DIMM slots, 1.5 V, 4 GB preinstalled
SATA — 1 x M.2
Flash storage — 32 GB eMMC
LAN — Gigabit LAN
Wi-Fi — 2.4/5 GHz
Video output: HDMI + mini DisplayPort
External interfaces: 3x USB 3.0, USB Type-C
Audio output — 3.5 mm jack, optical S/PDIF
Dimensions: 139 x 139 x 30
Weight: 410 g

Video output specifications.
HDMI 1.4 supports up to 4K at 30 Hz, Mini DP (DisplayPort) up to 4K at 60 Hz, and USB Type-C up to 4K at 60 Hz. It should be possible to connect up to three monitors.

The first thing you notice when it arrives is that the box is really quite large, although you wouldn’t guess that from the computer’s stated dimensions.


Every side of the packaging has some kind of information on it, both useful and purely promotional.


The TV box sits snugly in a soft tray, and there’s another tray inside holding all the other items. At first glance, it might look as if everything has just been tossed in together, but the apparent chaos is caused by the manuals lying haphazardly; everything else is neatly arranged in its own compartment.


The package contents are quite extensive:
1. Minix NEO N42C computer
2. Power supply
3. Interchangeable plugs for the power supply
4. VESA mount
5. HDMI cable
6. S/PDIF adapter
7. Four rubber feet
8. Four screws
9. Manual and promotional booklet.


1, 2. The manual is quite substantial and has a lot of information, but not much of it is easy to understand since it’s in English. There was also a small booklet listing all the models released over the past couple of years.
3. The HDMI cable is quite thick and moderately stiff.
4. VESA mount, with two mounting options: VESA 80 and 100.


1. The power supply is quite large and noticeably heavy. At one point I even suspected it had a conventional transformer inside :)
2. Rated specs: 12 V, 3 A, 36 W. That’s a huge amount of headroom for this computer; even with the computer fully loaded, the power supply barely gets warm. I’d say it could easily power not only the computer itself, but also several external hard drives, while charging a smartphone from the computer’s USB port at the same time.
3. Three interchangeable plugs are included, but two of them are no use to us, so we’ll stick with the European plug.
4. There’s also an adapter for connecting optical S/PDIF, which plugs into the headphone jack.
But the rest of the package surprised me more. I can understand including the bracket and screw, since they might come in handy when installing an SSD, but what are four identical screws and four rubber feet for...?


The computer’s case is made of plastic. It looks neat and understated, and is black with a matte finish. But it picks up fingerprints like crazy; they show up almost immediately.


All four sides of the case have something on them.
1. Front: an opening for the status LED.
2. Rear: power connector, Ethernet, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, USB Type-C, 3.5 mm audio + optical S/PDIF when the adapter is installed.
3. Left: three USB 3.0 ports and the power button
4. Right: ventilation openings and a reset button

The port layout and number of ports are fine, although one more USB port wouldn’t have hurt. But there is one small caveat about the power cable: the connector sits quite deep inside the case, so when plugging it in, make sure part of the plug's insulation goes inside as well.
I've read that this computer's USB Type-C port can also be used for video output, so in theory you could run three monitors.


The connectors' positions on each side of the case.



The bottom of the case has four rubber feet, a holographic Windows sticker, and stickers with the serial number and other information.


The computer fits snugly into the VESA mount, but it's best to install it carefully, as the frame is quite rigid.


It wasn't until I took the computer apart that I realized why the box included four identical screws. The case is held together with exactly the same screws. The thing is, installing an SSD requires taking the computer apart, so the package includes four spare feet and four screws. That's unusual.
The case is easy to open: peel off the four feet, remove the four screws, and take off the bottom. There are no clips or other parts getting in the way.


The computer's board is held in place by the same screws that hold the two halves of the case together, so once it's open, you can lift the board right out.


The preinstalled memory module and Intel WiFi adapter are immediately visible inside. The clock battery is above them.


There are four expansion slots in all: two for RAM, one for the WiFi module (labeled), and one for an SSD. The SSD can be either 80 mm or 60 mm long, although the description only mentioned the 2280 size.
The board mounting hardware is already installed, so the one included in the package is also a spare.


There are two WiFi antennas, both small and stuck to the top of the case near the front panel. They're connected to the board with connectors, which are secured with sealant.


The memory module is a standard Samsung one. Judging by the manufacturing date on the sticker, it's new.


There's nothing else interesting on the bottom, so let's move on to the top side of the board. There are more components here, and the cooling system takes up a fairly large part of the board.


The design sends all the hot air straight out of the case. Though “hot” is a relative term here, since the air is more warm than hot.
Speaking of the cooling system, the fan speed control is very well thought out, and the fan itself is very quiet, even at full power. When you turn on the computer, the fan runs at full speed for a few seconds, then shuts off completely and only starts up again under a noticeable load. More precisely, it probably starts earlier, but at a very low speed.

The cnx-software website measured the noise level and compared it with the popular Voyo Vmac Mini.
Noise level (dBA)
Ambient noise (i.e. silence) 38.5 to 38.9
MINIX NEO N42C-4 idle 39.1 to 39.5
MINIX NEO N42C-4 stress test 39.7 to 40.4
Voyo Vmac Mini - idle 52.3
Voyo Vmac Mini - stress test 52.5 to 57.5


1. While taking it apart, I found that they installed no fewer than three power indicator LEDs: blue for normal operation and green for sleep mode. I never figured out what the third LED is for.
2. Audio output connector.


The power button, with an unidentified connector visible to its left.


On the opposite side of the board, diagonally across from it, is the second button, for restarting. There's also another connector here, this time with a more obvious purpose. At least its pin labels are clear.
To the left of the button is a four-pin fan connector, and farther left is a two-pin battery connector.


To remove the fan, I had to undo two screws and peel back part of the fabric tape. Cooling is handled by an AB6305HX-E0B fan, also used in HP ProBook 6360 and 6360B laptops, so finding a replacement shouldn't be a problem if needed.


Four more screws, and the entire cooling system comes off as one piece.


A small but very significant difference compared with almost all the Chinese computers I've come across before: thermal paste is used as the thermal interface, rather than a thermal pad. The paste is quite thick, though.
Just to mention, I'm taking it apart after the tests, so the results are more accurate.


Now we can get a good look at everything installed on the board.


The N4200 SoC is based on the Apollo Lake core. It's quite well known and has been around for about a year. For some reason, the computer manufacturer also stuck a couple of strips of double-sided tape along the edges.


I like the cooling system, but one thing worth pointing out is the proper protection on practically all external interfaces (the components marked ESD and FB). This is done properly; I rarely see this even in name-brand devices.


Voltage regulators and other electronics.


A quick look at the key components.
1. An unidentified MINI58ZDE microcontroller based on the Cortex-M0 core, located near the power button.
2. ANX7428 Analogix USB-C port controller
3. ALC662 audio chip.
4. RTL8111 gigabit Ethernet controller.


1. Samsung eMMC flash memory
2. NCT5569D chip, purpose unknown.
3. RT5074 multi-channel voltage regulator
4. Input power switch.


1, 2. A transistor array, CSD87381P, was also found on the board, in an interesting package.
3. A closer look at the protection components.
4. They're even installed on the Ethernet connector lines.


The computer's BIOS.
There are quite a lot of settings, and as always, I should warn you that changing some of them could accidentally "brick" the device. Disconnecting the battery won't reset these settings, so be very careful if you decide to change anything.
There's an unusual setting with two options for the 3.5 mm jack pinout for analog audio: Apple and Nokia/Samsung. These standards assign the jack contacts somewhat differently.
I was also pleased to see an option to start the computer automatically when power is connected.


There's a fairly advanced temperature monitoring system, as well as three fan control modes. The "quiet" mode is enabled by default, and I see no reason to change it since everything works great.


When powered on, the manufacturer's name appears on the screen, followed by the standard first-run setup: choosing a language, connecting to a network, and so on.
One strange thing: when choosing a region, I saw Ukraine but not Russia. Still, Russian can be set up normally after installation by adding it as a language; there were no problems.


The desktop is almost empty out of the box. The operating system is nearly "clean"; the only extra software is Office 365.


The computer has 32 GB of eMMC flash memory. In my opinion, that's a drawback, even with the option to install an M.2 drive. What would have stopped them from installing 64 GB? That would have been plenty for most uses.
Out of the box, almost 16 GB is free, which seems pretty good at first glance.


But then Windows decided to perform a major upgrade. By that I don't mean just downloading another update, but a genuinely major upgrade to the OS itself.
The result was that only about 5.3 GB of free space remained, which is very little. The upgrade created a Windows.old folder that took up about 10 GB on the drive.
Naturally, I wasn't happy with that, so I started the cleanup process. Afterward, 12 GB was available—more than 5.3 GB, but clearly less than the original 16 GB.


Windows 10 Pro is preinstalled and activated automatically as soon as the computer connects to the internet.


There is no point in reviewing the preinstalled software, since it is standard for this operating system, so I'll move on to the tests and checks.
As usual, CPU-Z comes first. It was immediately noticeable that the test results were about 10% higher than those of similar computers with the same processor.


Testing the speed of the built-in flash memory. What can I say? Not just good, but excellent. At least, this is the first mini PC I've tested whose flash memory read speed exceeded 300 MB/s. Write speed was only 81 MB/s, but I'd say that's pretty good too.


As usual, here are the comparative results for all the mini PCs I've tested.
First, the results for the one under review. The comparison uses the previous version of the program.


Results for the other computers.
Since there are a lot of computers, I have to split them into two groups.
1. ACEPC
2. Beelink BT 3 Pro
3. Beelink MI


Voyo Vbook V2
Beelink AP42
Voyo V1 (eMMC)
CHUWI HiBox
Beelink BT7
Pipo X10
Pipo X9
Pipo X7
Pipo X7S
MeeGoPad T02
Pocket P1
Vensmile W10
Teclast X98 Pro
MeeGoPad T03
Wintel Pro CX-W8


AS SSD also produced a pretty good result, at least for eMMC, falling just short of 300 MB/s read speed.


Cinebench also produced a slightly higher result than similar devices based on the same processor.


In PassMark, the result is higher than for the N4200 and the Celeron J3455. However, PassMark is a comprehensive benchmark, so even with a decent-performing processor, the overall score can be lower—for example, because of a slow storage drive.


More or less the same picture emerged in the 3DMark test, in both versions.
For example, the Beelink AP42 (with the same N4200) scored 3461 in version 2006, compared with 3542 for the one under review.


In the newer version, it scored 329, compared with 361 for the Minix.


The Geekbench test is fully in agreement with the previous “colleagues.” Compared with the Celeron J3455, the Minix scores slightly higher in math (1490/4424 versus 1555/4454) and noticeably higher in graphics (9126 versus 11271).


The WinRAR test was run simply as an extra check. It also lasted over an hour, during which I checked that performance didn't drop.


Now I've reached the test that reveals the “sticking point” for Chinese TV boxes and computers: overheating.
In almost every review, I complain about inadequate cooling systems. The vast majority of computers start throttling when this test is run. Some sooner, some later; only a handful can boast that they don't overheat.
But in this case, the result really surprised me. After a test lasting almost an hour, the temperature stayed below 56 degrees for one pair of cores and 52–53 for the other. The computer behaved well, too: the fan didn't howl, and all you could hear was a slight rush of air.



Knowing that some processors can run hotter during the OCCT CPU test, I ran that one too.
The same maximum temperatures: 56 degrees for the first pair of cores and 52–53 for the second. An excellent result.



I was a little surprised that the temperature stayed at exactly the same maximum throughout the OCCT tests, so I suspected that thermal protection was kicking in. It usually holds the temperature at a fixed level, so I ran the more illustrative LinX test, where a drop in performance can show whether the system is overheating.
The result was excellent here too. Performance was lower up to step 11, but that was due to Windows software—in particular, the antimalware protection process was using 20% of the CPU, so I had to disable it. From step 12 onward, performance only increased, which indicates that there was no overheating at all.


As we saw during disassembly, the computer has an Intel Wi-Fi module and a gigabit network chip from Realtek. This configuration has become quite common lately, and personally, I think it's pretty good.
There are quite a lot of settings, but most of them are only useful to a very small group of users.


As usual, Wi-Fi sensitivity isn't very high. This is partly a "problem" with Intel adapters; at least, I've seen this result specifically with adapters from this manufacturer. The antennas used here are also fairly small, which makes things a little worse.


Measuring actual data transfer speeds.
The bottom three graphs are for 2.4 GHz: the far corner of a large room (15–20 Mbps), and 1 and 2 m from the router (about 45–50 Mbps).
The top two graphs are for 5 GHz, 2–3 m from the router, with speeds of 70–80 Mbps.


Since the wired connection is noticeably faster, here's a separate screenshot: the top two graphs show speeds of up to 900 Mbps.


I don't usually test games on mini PCs, but here's an example with SeriousSam HD, run on a computer with comparable specs (about 20% slower). In short, it's perfectly capable of playing older games (the video shows an updated version of the game).


Video playback was also tested. For example, the file h265-2160-30p-100mbps.mp4


And the equally well-known "ducks" — Ducks.Take.Off.2160p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD, with a bitrate of 240 Mbps.
As an additional test, both files were played from a flash card.



Summary table of test results. I have to say, the results were a pleasant surprise: in every test, this mini PC was clearly faster than comparable models from other manufacturers. I wouldn't call the difference huge, but it's definitely there.


Now, perhaps, we come to one of the hardest parts: the verdict. On the one hand, you don't always want to criticize a product, but on the other, various shortcomings cancel out all its advantages.

So, let's start with the positives. The computer has an excellent cooling system, even if it is active, high build quality, quality components, fast flash storage, protection on the external ports, and the option to increase the RAM, replace the Wi-Fi module, and install an SSD. It can connect two (possibly three) monitors (HDMI and miniDP), and has three USB 3.0 ports and one USB Type-C port. The power supply has plenty of headroom.
The package includes not only a VESA mount, but also an adapter for optical S/PDIF and spare mounting hardware. It also comes with a licensed copy of Windows 10 Pro preinstalled.

Now for the downsides. First, the price: although the store provided a coupon for the review that brings it down to $280, it's still quite expensive. I was also disappointed by the small amount of flash storage. Of course, you can install an SSD, but an extra 32 GB of flash storage would make life so much easier—and I don't think it would have made a significant difference to the price.

It would also have been nice to use a less fingerprint-prone case material and add the option to install a 2.5-inch hard drive. The power supply has more than enough capacity, and a slight increase in the case size wouldn't have hurt its appearance.

In short: well made, but not cheap.

Coupon GBCNA brings the price down to $279.71.