Introduction
Hey guys, meet MINIX NEO G41V-4 Fanless Mini PC. Silent yet performing that great for digital signage, POS, office and home. Thanks to Intel Celeron N4100 CPU (Gemini Lake) and Intel UHD Graphics 600. Comes with licensed Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) pre-installed, loaded with 4GB DDR4 memory and 64GB eMMC 5.1 internal storage. Support triple-display (HDMI, DisplayPort & VGA) up to 4K @ 60Hz. And it is expandable with extra 2280 M.2 slot. Does it perform well? Read on to find out…
Special Thanks
This review is possible thanks to below companies. Be sure to check them out too…
- MINIX for this MINIX NEO G41V-4 and NEO Z83-4 Pro Mini PC
Package Content
NEO G41V-4 comes in standard MINIX package – well-protected. You have the usual stuff like product brochure, multi-language user guide, 3A power adaptor with changeable plug (US, UK & EU), HDMI cable, S/PDIF digital optical audio adapter, several screws as spare and 2 VESA mount screws.
Build Quality & Design
Excellent build quality as expected thanks to sturdy plastic housing with metal bottom cover. The heaviest among all the mini PC that I have tested due to the large heat sink inside. Still ultra-compact in size though. As for design, there is a multicolour LED status light indicator in front. Dust prevention mesh filter incorporated into the chassis with a lot of ventilation holes on top. 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, microphone & headphone jack (combined) with S/PDIF support, micro SD slot and power button on the right. And Kensington lock on the left. At back, there are VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet and DC input. Finally, 4 round anti-skid pads, reset button and easy-access 2280 M.2 slot at the bottom. And the useful VESA mount to attach it to your monitor. As usual, do refer to below photos for details.
Hardware
NEO G41V-4 is the one that replaced NEO Z83-4 Pro as MINIX latest most powerful fanless mini PC yet. Using faster Intel Celeron N4100 than previous Intel Atom X5-Z8350. Low power consumption at 6W TDP only. Do refer to below Hardware Info (HWiNFO) to get more idea about this mini PC. It is powered by Intel HD Graphics 600 GPU. Loaded with 4GB soldered DDR4 RAM. Supports 802.11ac dual band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5.0GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 and Gigabit Ethernet.
Yup, just open the SSD cover and add additional 2280 M.2 SSD.
And here is the motherboard. You can see the Intel 3168NGW wireless card and those 2 chips should be 4GB DDR4 RAM.
Turn it around. The is a large heat sink that cool down Intel Celeron N4100 passively without any fan. Yes, 100% solid-state components with no moving parts.
Software
Yes, genuine Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64bit is pre-installed. You will be greeted by Cortana, the personal assistant for Windows 10 to get Windows setup for the very first time. It comes with Windows 10 version 1809. You can upgrade to version 1903 easily thanks to large 64GB internal storage. MINIX also provides multiple OS images at their forum. Use that if you have a lot of machines to deploy. NEO G41V-4 with Windows 10 Pro is great for business as a thin client solution. A lot of advantages compared to normal Home edition.
Benchmark
In short, NEO G41V-4 knockouts NEO Z83-4 Pro easily. Just refer to below synthetic benchmark results and you will know what I meant.
Almost double PCMark 10 scores thanks to faster CPU.
3D performance almost the same. But a huge improvement in physics test with compare to Intel HD Graphics 400.
Much better internal storage performance thanks to newly added 64GB SanDisk eMMC. Yes, it performs almost like SSD.
Better micro SD slot performance too. As usual, micro SD slot performance depends on your card – fast card == better performance in both write and read. Note – writing speed does limited by micro SD slot.
Again. Much better results in iPerf3 for both LAN and wireless connections. It is getting 942 Mbit/s on LAN test in iPerf3. Up to 355 Mbit/s on 5GHz connection. Great wireless range as well. Same apply to Bluetooth.
Performance Result
NEO G41V-4 continues to perform well as multi-purpose fanless mini PC for both home and office. VGA port output does comes in handy for industrial customers. And Windows 10 Pro for enterprise users as they can take advantages of Pro features such as Remote Desktop. Don’t forget the triple display outputs that surely increase productivity. Yes, it is perfect for industrial application, digital signage, POS and thin client solution no doubt.
As for power consumption, it uses around 3.3W only during idle. And up to 14.5W when fully loaded on heavy processing stuff. Warmer than NEO Z83-4 Pro due to higher TDP. In return, you are getting better and faster performance. Don’t forget this is what you get from fanless passive cooling design. Totally silent operation, no moving part and 100% solid-state components to provide longer product life.
NEO G41V-4 performs very well as a home theater PC (HTPC) too. You can play 4K Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 H265 60fps smoothly with Kodi media player. 10Bit HEVC, VP9 video formats are supported. Up to 4K 60p. As expected,it does not support HDR output (playable though). You need Intel UHD Graphics 620 or better in order to do so. As for streaming, Moonlight (NVIDIA GameStream) has virtually no latency at all. Yes, you can play PC games on the bigger TV screen.
Advantages
- Great overall performer
- Fanless with 100% solid-state components
- Licensed Windows 10 Pro included
- Expandable storage
- Outstanding wireless range & Ethernet performance
- Triple display outputs with VESA mount
- Perfect performance on GameStream
- Excellent build quality
Limitations
- Limited to 4GB of RAM (not upgradable)
Conclusion
MINIX NEO G41V-4 is a performing yet silent fanless mini PC. Loaded with a lot of useful features like Windows 10 Pro, VESA mount, VGA output that great for business and industrial users. It’s also a well-performed entertainment device for home usage too. Interested? Get yours at Amazon now.
