Compulab MintBox (Mini Pro)

Very easy to set up right out of the box with plenty of ports for all your peripherals. Definitely runs hot (~60 C) especially when you boost up the processor speed but that doesn't really pose a problem. Boots in about 25 - 30 seconds, though it's a bit laggy when multitasking. Still recommended for a great, power-sipping mini-pc.

First impressions - the MintBox is really small, and in a very sturdy case. I had it up and running in no time, Linux Mint interface was very easy to use. It booted but I had trouble with WiFi - was not available - some WPA_Supplicant error?? I opened the browser and quickly found a help page on Mint & WiFi, opened command line and putzed but couldn't get the interface up, so I rebooted and it came up perfectly on second boot. In all that I was very impressed with how easy to find stuff - wireless settings, command line, browser, office app, screenshot so I could keep a record of what I tried, including the command line text history, and saved it to the hard drive. I could not find an option to save the office doc on the network, so I opened two file browsers and copied it that way. Opened a video file from my NAS over the network, played half the movie in VLC. Playback was good with occasional negative colors or dropout of video, I think that is my network, though I have MIntBox on a wired connection, will investigate further.It did get pretty warm, but that was no surprise.Pros: Small (WOW!), sturdy, lots of interfaces, easy to use.Cons: Labels for the interfaces are hard to read - black blimps on the metal case black background - is the only "Cons" I could come up with so far.

I was really looking forward to using this product but it did not work out of the box. I could not get video out. I tried several different monitors and different cables that worked with other computers but no luck. The owners manual was extremely limited. The web site was no help and the customer service number did not work. Amazon was great about taking it back. Pleased with Amazon, not so much with CompuLab.

I have been playing with this for a couple of weeks and it is a very nice little system. A few things.1. Mine only has 4 USB ports, not the 6 as mentioned on the description screen. This doesn't bother me.2. Depending on how you are using it, it can get fairly warm. This is by design, as it uses its own case as a heat sink for passive cooling.3. It is dead quiet. No fan, no spinning drive, nothing. I'm so used to computers that make noise, it is taking a bit for me to get used to it.When I got it connected, I turned it on and it took me through a quick Linux Mint setup screen. A few minutes later, I'm up and running with it. I guess, being a Linux-loaded hardware item, IT. JUST. WORKS. A few minutes to get connected, configured and attached to my network and I was up and running.Performance is good, I'm only using a single monitor it, for now, but I'll likely get a second one for it in the not-too-distant future. I haven't had any problems, it is quick and it is quiet (did I already say that?).If you are looking for an inexpensive yet powerful Linux system, this is a great buy.

I'm a new (Dec 2016) Linux user; I started with Ubuntu, quickly moved to Mint w/MATE desktop and then discovered this miniature pc and could not hold back from getting it, though my oversized tower runs like a dream, especially after I replaced Win10 (detest it, it's what got me looking into Linux).I have this wee pc on my desk, hooked to ethernet and it is FAST. I tweaked some things but it was running fast aforehand.It is SILENT! This feels very odd for those of us used to hearing fans roaring. So neat to work without fan noise.My behemoth tower shall likely become a doorstop; I am such a minimalist and this is simply form following function in the best of ways.(I'm not loving Cinnamon though and shall have to get MATE instead).Much love and gratitude to both the Mint team and CompuLab (who gives a percentage of the sales of MintBox to the Mint dev team) THANK YOU guys. You are all heroes in my book, saving the masses from Microsoft.

This thing is AMAZING! I needed a small computer that sipped very little power to act as a licensing server at home. What I was more impressed by was how well it performed. At just 10.5 watts, it actually performed more responsive than the BootCamped Mac Mini with Windows 10 using Chrome! I don't understand why this thing isn't more popular?!

Great machine