5.0 out of 5 stars DVD Server

2026-03-05    -Lakemechanic

My wife made me get rid of my two huge 400 DVD Carousels & I still wanted to watch the DVDs, so I used MakeMKV to rip them to my Synology NAS & I got this to make a Video Server using ZenPoint DigitalCenter to play them on our 4k TV. I did a couple of upgrades, two Crucial 16GB SODIMM modules and a Samsung 2TB M.2 PCIe NVME GEN 3 SSD. OrigiMagic was nice & put a 16GB SODIMM module in, so I could have saved a few bucks just adding a second module, but I couldn't find the same brand they used & I like to have matching pairs, so I bought a matching pair. I had a 2TB GEN 4 stick and GEN 4 is supposed to work in GEN 3 slots, but it seemed to work & then crashed uglily. So I got the GEN 3 stick & it's working flawlessly. It was getting really hot tho & that has two problems 1) thermal throttling & 2) really short SSD life, so I got a heatsink. Still hot & throttling. So I tried a mess of heatsinks. ASIN B07KDDKDNN, wrong fin orientation, hot; B0D2677M5K, angled fins, better but still hot; B0DKBMVMS1 Graphite/copper top & B0DKBNFVX9 Graphite/copper bottom, better but still hot; & finally B0DKBLNM5K copper top & ‎B0BV2GCP3W copper bottom, best but still hot. There is no airflow thru the bottom of this thing & no heatsink is going to solve that. I found a really tiny really quiet fan, ASIN B0B1V3NZJD, that plugs into a USB port for power. Throttling happens about 75C & with the fan, the SSD runs in the low 40C range; problem solved! I was looking for low power, so I removed the WiFi module, and that got the power down to 22 Watts. The performance is definitely not in the supercomputer range, but it plays movies with no hiccups & that's all I want!Amazon sells a huge variety of these mini pc's & I'd have returned this one in a heartbeat & got one with a fan that cools the SSD, but I wasn't able to find one with a bottom fan. Lotta hours wasted searching...If you are willing to attach a bottom fan, highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars DVD Server

2026-01-19    -Lakemechanic

My wife made me get rid of my two huge 400 DVD Carousels & I still wanted to watch the DVDs, so I used MakeMKV to rip them to my Synology NAS & I got this to make a Video Server using ZenPoint DigitalCenter to play them on our 4k TV. I did a couple of upgrades, two Crucial 16GB SODIMM modules and a Samsung 2TB M.2 PCIe NVME GEN 3 SSD. OrigiMagic was nice & put a 16GB SODIMM module in, so I could have saved a few bucks just adding a second module, but I couldn't find the same brand they used & I like to have matching pairs, so I bought a matching pair. I had a 2TB GEN 4 stick and GEN 4 is supposed to work in GEN 3 slots, but it seemed to work & then crashed uglily. So I got the GEN 3 stick & it's working flawlessly. It was getting really hot tho & that has two problems 1) thermal throttling & 2) really short SSD life, so I got a heatsink. Still hot & throttling. So I tried a mess of heatsinks. ASIN B07KDDKDNN, wrong fin orientation, hot; B0D2677M5K, angled fins, better but still hot; B0DKBMVMS1 Graphite/copper top & B0DKBNFVX9 Graphite/copper bottom, better but still hot; & finally B0DKBLNM5K copper top & ‎B0BV2GCP3W copper bottom, best but still hot. There is no airflow thru the bottom of this thing & no heatsink is going to solve that. I found a really tiny really quiet fan, ASIN B0B1V3NZJD, that plugs into a USB port for power. Throttling happens about 75C & with the fan, the SSD runs in the low 40C range; problem solved! I was looking for low power, so I removed the WiFi module, and that got the power down to 22 Watts. The performance is definitely not in the supercomputer range, but it plays movies with no hiccups & that's all I want!Amazon sells a huge variety of these mini pc's & I'd have returned this one in a heartbeat & got one with a fan that cools the SSD, but I wasn't able to find one with a bottom fan. Lotta hours wasted searching...If you are willing to attach a bottom fan, highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, low cost minipc for linux fans

2026-02-11    -Tatiana Joslyn

It came in a simple white box with a thin pamphlet. The case is plastic but feels sturdy. It's a bit larger than portrayed in the photos. Win11 was pre-installed but I installed Ubuntu 25.10 linux. The OS install from a thumbdrive went without a hitch, including shrinking the Windows partition to allow room for Ubuntu. It took about 15 minutes overall. Once linux was installed, I paired it with our bluetooth mouse and keyboard. It found our 2.4 wireless network with no problem. It has a fan but is almost totally silent. At first I let it hang off the back of the tv on a USB cord, then realized it was hovering over the tv's cooling vent and drawing in warm air. But it didn't get hot, and the fans were quiet. It now resides on the back of our new lg SmartTv using a large piece of Velcro stickum. Honestly, it's the perfect little min-pc for internet surfing and media streaming. Bootup is very fast. It appears to stream movies no problem. I haven't tried games or any benchmarks, but it should run older, non-graphically intensive games. The Ryzen 5 3550H is generally rated at about 50% faster than the Intel N150.

5.0 out of 5 stars origimagic C4 Ryzen 5 Mini PC - Compact Power, Wipe and Install Clean

2026-02-23    -Reviewer

Solid little machine for office or light tasks—Ryzen 5 3550H handles multitasking smoothly with dual LAN and triple display support. Came with a sketchy Windows install, so I wiped it and loaded Linux—no issues since. Quiet and capable for a small footprint. Sips power. With current RAM prices, it is a steal. Definitely recommend after a fresh OS.

5.0 out of 5 stars A very capable Mini-PC

2026-02-02    -JimC

I got this after I ordered an N95 mini-PC, which I found slow and flaky, which didn't have a VESA mount which I needed, and which I returned. This computer is MUCH faster and so far has been working flawlessly. I use Novabench to measure performance: the N95 scored 613, this one scored 985. The perceived performance is a lot better that that score difference would suggest. [Download Novabench (it's free) and run it on computers you know, to get scores you can compare these with.] Overall I'm very happy with this computer and feel that it will be fine for general use (no demanding games, extensive video editing, etc.). And you can't beat the price. My only complaint is that there aren't a lot of USB ports (1xUSB2, 3xUSB3), but USB hubs are cheap if you need more. My customer is retired and will use this mostly for web browsing, email, and simple games; I think she'll be thrilled with it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Defective and no customer support.

2025-12-24    -ow

This computer will not reliably connect to wifi. The TV it is connected to will usually download around 100 Mbps. The computer, 12 inches away, will not even reliably stream. I have done everything I could think of with no success. I wanted to give the seller a chance to fix it, but their website is circuitous and when you click on "contact us" it takes you right back to the main menu. It will probably go back. And I hate returning stuff.Edit: I bumbled around in the settings and it appears I solved the problem. Also, Origimagic reached out and offered a full refund (which I declined because it's working now) and product support if needed. They did indeed stand by their product.

4.0 out of 5 stars Defective and no customer support.

2026-02-07    -ow

This computer will not reliably connect to wifi. The TV it is connected to will usually download around 100 Mbps. The computer, 12 inches away, will not even reliably stream. I have done everything I could think of with no success. I wanted to give the seller a chance to fix it, but their website is circuitous and when you click on "contact us" it takes you right back to the main menu. It will probably go back. And I hate returning stuff.Edit: I bumbled around in the settings and it appears I solved the problem. Also, Origimagic reached out and offered a full refund (which I declined because it's working now) and product support if needed. They did indeed stand by their product.

5.0 out of 5 stars origimagic C4 Ryzen 5 Mini PC - Compact Power, Wipe and Install Clean

2026-02-10    -Reviewer

Solid little machine for office or light tasks—Ryzen 5 3550H handles multitasking smoothly with dual LAN and triple display support. Came with a sketchy Windows install, so I wiped it and loaded Linux—no issues since. Quiet and capable for a small footprint. Sips power. With current RAM prices, it is a steal. Definitely recommend after a fresh OS.

5.0 out of 5 stars A very capable Mini-PC

2026-02-15    -JimC

I got this after I ordered an N95 mini-PC, which I found slow and flaky, which didn't have a VESA mount which I needed, and which I returned. This computer is MUCH faster and so far has been working flawlessly. I use Novabench to measure performance: the N95 scored 613, this one scored 985. The perceived performance is a lot better that that score difference would suggest. [Download Novabench (it's free) and run it on computers you know, to get scores you can compare these with.] Overall I'm very happy with this computer and feel that it will be fine for general use (no demanding games, extensive video editing, etc.). And you can't beat the price. My only complaint is that there aren't a lot of USB ports (1xUSB2, 3xUSB3), but USB hubs are cheap if you need more. My customer is retired and will use this mostly for web browsing, email, and simple games; I think she'll be thrilled with it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, low cost minipc for linux fans

2026-03-03    -Tatiana Joslyn

It came in a simple white box with a thin pamphlet. The case is plastic but feels sturdy. It's a bit larger than portrayed in the photos. Win11 was pre-installed but I installed Ubuntu 25.10 linux. The OS install from a thumbdrive went without a hitch, including shrinking the Windows partition to allow room for Ubuntu. It took about 15 minutes overall. Once linux was installed, I paired it with our bluetooth mouse and keyboard. It found our 2.4 wireless network with no problem. It has a fan but is almost totally silent. At first I let it hang off the back of the tv on a USB cord, then realized it was hovering over the tv's cooling vent and drawing in warm air. But it didn't get hot, and the fans were quiet. It now resides on the back of our new lg SmartTv using a large piece of Velcro stickum. Honestly, it's the perfect little min-pc for internet surfing and media streaming. Bootup is very fast. It appears to stream movies no problem. I haven't tried games or any benchmarks, but it should run older, non-graphically intensive games. The Ryzen 5 3550H is generally rated at about 50% faster than the Intel N150.