MINISFORUM GK41 Mini PC 8GB DDR4 RAM 128GB SSD Celeron J4125(up to 2.7GHz), HDMI&DP 4K@60Hz Outputs, 2X Gigabit Ethernet, 4X USB 3.0, Dual Band WiFi Mini Computer

I’ve really taken a liking to these new mini PCs and so I’ve bought three of them. They are so inexpensive and compact that you might as well get one for every TV in your home. This one in particular is a great balance of cost for performance, and I’ve been very happy with it. It’s running Windows 11 on a large 65-inch TV in my family room with a Logitech wireless combination mouse/trackpad and keyboard. Great for PC use, web browsing, and multimedia consumption.

I purchased this to replace my big desktop PC tower. Since i built my own gaming server using Proxmox/vgpu, I no longer needed the power-hungry tower; I needed a power-efficient PC to act as a thin client (of sorts). The thin client needed to support a smooth Parsec experience, run Linux (so I am not managing more Windows installs), and preferably have 2x 4K video out. This seemed to be a perfect fit on paper.In practice, it wasn't a great fit. I was able to install Linux Mint 19 (based on Ubuntu 18.04) without any big issue. Linux Mint detected the Intel graphics chip and installed the correct drivers automatically. Parsec worked without any additional parameters and the UI changes from Windows were easy enough for my tech-averse spouse to figure out.However, there was a problem with the audio - specifically, there wasn't any. Some Googling lead me to a post on MinisForum support site, where there was a recommendation to install the audio fix for the N40 model (since the audio hardware is the same). This sort-of worked. The audio out worked fine (albeit rather quiet), but the microphone port didn't. Additionally, the "fix" was to install a specially-compiled 5.12.6 kernel (packaged as .deb files only), presumably with the drivers/modules baked in. This means I wouldn't be able to use any kernel that was missing those modules, presumably supplied only from MinisForum. Non-debian based Linux variants are likely out as well. A better approach would be to supply the blobs themselves for people to install or, better yet, open source the drivers themselves.Not satisfied with the half-baked solution provided, I opted for a much easier (and future proof) way to solve this: buy a USB audio dongle (which is effectively a USB sound card) and use that instead. Thankfully, there are several of those readily available and are pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately, this means there is now a mandatory dongle attached to the PC. The HDMI audio port showed up as usable too, but I wasn't able to use/test it.Another downside to this device are the 4x USB 3 ports. Considering how many USB accessories there are out there, having only 4 ports is rather limiting. I have a USB keyboard, USB mouse, and the above-mentioned USB sound card connected, which only leaves me with one left. I would have liked to see 8 ports.Given all of that, I am rating this as 4 stars. Given the price, this is still a good value and would work just fine with the included Windows 10 Home install.

Bought this mini-PC, looks nice but- the guide does not explain how to configure this PC eg how to get into BIOS- nether of the recommended buttons work - F7, ESC, DEL etc- the PC will not boot from USB even if this is selected under WindowsFinally, I was trying to install an additional HDD, but one of the screws was stuck - could not unscrew it at all, very low quality.If you plan to use this for Linux, think twice - not sure its possible

I got this to move my Frigate server from Home Assistant to a dedicated NVR box running Alpine Linux as a Docker host and like most products these days, it sounds better on paper. The garbage m.2 SATA SSD (notably not NVMe) died after like a day (thankfully the very first thing I did was back up the stock Win11 OS) and I thought the box bricked because it wouldn't even POST to the BIOS. Then I swapped it out with an old 850 EVO and I got it working again (after failing to get my 970 Evo NVMe to work on it).WHY... in the freaking WORLD... would you put an NVMe option in the BIOS/Firmware when the socket DOESN'T EVEN SUPPORT IT? That level of mediocrity and negligence is just plain unacceptable! I'm so, SO tired of working around garbage firmware! Also, don't even bother trying the Display Port unless you have an "Active" cable. I didn't try the cable that came with it because it's so short, but seeing it fail to work with my DP>HDMI cord made me think the port was dead. Would've rather had 2 HDMI on it tbh, no one's trying to run GSync on this box... And at least put the HDMI on the outside! DP is useless on all but the newest TVs, and only newer/nicer monitors have it, not the kinds you have lying around to initially set up a headless server. I just taped over the port to avoid accidentally putting the HDMI in it because intuitive placement is lacking here.TL;DR If you just plan to use this as a Windows PC as-is and aren't try to run it headless I'm sure it'll work fine. Otherwise prepare for some challenges.

I needed two network RJ45 jacks for pfSense installation (software router). This PC fits the application in the sense that it has AES-NI encryption with the Celeron 4125 processor on board and thus works for this routing application. [I'm using two of these - see below]8 gig main memory and 128 gig N.2 drive round out the gear, along with built in video suitable for setup or interfacing with the PC. I am also using this same Mini PC for a TV monitor source useful for computer sources, or playing DVD.I have no experience with MinisForum support, but am familiar with online reviews by experts. This is a basic unit, but it may well be very useful for non-demanding applications like I'm using them for.

I have used this a handful of times and only 1 year later it won't show anything on screen when connected to HDMI