The Greatest Fanless Mini PC Is Here! Minix Z100-0dB Review

In this video we check out the Mini Z100-0dB fanless mini PC featuring the Intel N100 CPU. This one outperforms the competition and can even match actively cooled minis. It comes highly recommended.

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💻 This unit was a free review sample

00:00 - Pure Silence
00:57 - Specs & Features
03:21 - Opening It Up
04:07 - Benchmarks
06:27 - Games & Other Uses
07:45 - Power, Temps & BIOS
10:02 - Conclusion

[Robtech]

Minix has informed me that the Z100-0dB will have C-States enabled in the future. Good to see a company listening to feedback.

[quad-z-moto]

Oh great.... Now I have another computer coming to my house. Thanks for a great review!

[MarkConstable]

Pretty good but I'd prefer a barebones option.

[riflesmcknight]

I nearly fell out of my chair at 2:54. I was not expecting that joke at all even though you set it up seconds earlier with how much you like your slots.

[alx]

Great mini for something like energy efficient home video / music / home assistant server.

[dave_r]

This is a neat little unit. I'm not bothered by most mini fans but that's probably because I don't push them very hard. But somehow I find myself wishing that this did come as a barebones unit as I'm tempted by it as a music server but would need more storage. I'm not wild about so many of the connections being on the side, but it's still a neat unit. I also like that while you mentioned the BIOS changes during the review, you put off showing exactly where until the end. That way they're all together and at the end it avoids those who want to make notes having stop the flow to make notes.

[jabonorte]

So, if C-state wasn't enabled on this mini, does that we should be looking for that option on every other N100?

[awksedgreep]

Someone please explain how a company can trademark Minix 30+ years after it was first used for an OS.

[zkent]

How does those n100 mini pc handle 4k 60 fps on YouTube ? I find some contradiction regarding this topic on different video and that kinda hinder me to buy one.

[generalytsubs]

No fanless mini has ddr5? 6:10 Look at the zotac ci343, planning on buying it with a 16gb ddr5, would like a review if possible

[kamertonaudiophileplayer]

It looks really good, especially because SD card slot is here. But 16Gb is not enough for most my use cases. Anyway, I wish to see more PC like this on the market.

[Chris.Brisson]

I want 3 video outputs. Bummer that the USB-C on this does not carry video.

[michaellewis]

Great info! I have been looking for a fanless mini PC that runs on 12v and has good WiFi to use as a dedicated astrophotography gear control computer, and this one seems to check all the boxes. I had been considering the Quieter 4C, but was worried that its WiFi might be weak with no external antennas, as My astro gear is of course outside. 2 questions - are there any performance penalties and/or heat issues if running the computer on 12v (more like 13.8 volts actually...)? Second question - could a person raise the power limit to something between the default 0 and 30 watts and still get a proportional benefit while not taking the temps as high? Say maybe like 20 watts or 25 watts instead of 30? Have you ever tested that?

[memyselfandi]

Another good review, thanks honey bunny 😘

[rvallee]

Hi Rob,

Love the machine so far. I've been waiting for a decent fanless low-end mini PC for years and this is it. Great price, too.

But I'm noticing that it doesn't boost. I even changed the PL1-2 settings and can see them reflected in HWiNFO64 but the CPU package power level never goes above 8W. Is there anything I'm overlooking here? The description says it can boost to 25W on default settings but it doesn't seems to boost at all.

I know that software report of power level isn't the same as testing with a plugged device, but I don't notice any difference in performance, no boosting, and have done the same change with a Quieter4C (which I returned, performance wasn't adequate) where I did see the power levels follow the PL1-2 overrides in the BIOS and the performance boost.

[neilquinn]

Thoughts on this vs. the Mele Quieter 4C w/ the N100? Similar price point. Also any recommended cheap options with at least 2 performance cores? (i3-1213u, i5-1235u)

[Noname-yuqw]

can you watch blue ray quality 4k movies ?

[neilquinn]

What is the default max power limit on these if you don't increase it to 30w on PL1? It looks like max turbo power limit was set to 4095 (4w ?!?) but PL1 to 6.0 and PL2 to 12.0. So I'm a little unclear what those are actually doing. What's confusing to me is the time window as well... shouldn't that be the PL2 time window since PL2 limits run first and then fall down to PL1? (did they get it backwards?)

[wshyangify]

How would this compare against the Maxtang?

[hk-rob]

Why do you prefer n97 over n100? I know you mentioned it before but I can't remember which video...