Where possible I review using Windows 11 version 21H2 and Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS and test with a selection of commonly used Windows benchmarks and/or equivalents for Linux together with Thomas Kaiser’s ‘sbc-bench’ which is a small set of different CPU performance tests focusing on server performance when run on Ubuntu.
When reviewing mini PCs, I typically look at their performance under both Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) and compare them against some of the more recently released mini PCs. Noticeably absent is a VESA mounting bracket and the device itself does not have any mounting screw holes. In the box, you get a power adapter with a cord, an HDMI cable, and a multilingual user manual. 10 Gbit/s):Īnd only the first of the side USB ports was 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1×1 i.e.
Internally there is soldered-on 8GB DDR4 2933MHz memory operating in dual-channel:Īnd a soldered-on Intel Wireless-AC 3165 chip together with an M.2 2242 SATA drive (the review model included a 256GB Netac drive complete with Windows 10 Pro installed) and is accessed by removing the front and rear panels and then sliding out the motherboard from the aluminum case:Īnd lists the three USB ports as 3.0 so I tested them using a Samsung 980 PRO PCle 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD housed in an ‘USB to M.2 NVMe adapter’ (ORICO M2PAC3-G20 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure) which showed that the rear and second of the side USB ports were actually 3.1 (USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 i.e. Finally, the right side includes a full-sized SD card slot which is underneath a hot air exhaust vent, a USB 3.0 port, a further USB 3.1 port, and the power button. The left side includes a VGA port and an air intake vent. The rear panel includes the power jack, a USB 3.1 port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a reset CMOS pinhole. The front panel is bereft of anything save a pinhole which is illuminated blue when the device is powered on. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s 10 nm Jasper Lake N5105 processor which is a quad-core 4-thread 2.00 GHz Celeron processor boosting to 2.90 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics. The Aero 2 Pro physically consists of a 120 x 120 x 23mm (4.72 x 4.72 x 0.91 inches) rectangular metal case with inset front and back plastic panels. Aerofara kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu.
Aerofara’s Aero 2 Pro is an Intel Jasper Lake mini PC and one of the very few new mini PCs to include a VGA port.