AWOW Mini PC Intel J4125, 8GB LPDDR4 128GB M.2 SSD Mini Desktop Computer Windows 11 Pro, Support 4K Triple Display/Dual WiFi/HDMIx 2/Gigabit Ethernet/BT 4.2, Mini Computer for Business/Home/Office

I was looking for a computer that would be able to handle Stepmania (Dance Dance Revolution) my older laptop was clunky and a messy setup wire setup in the livingroom. I looked up my laptops specs then set out to find something either equal or better. This computers processor is 6 times faster than my old one and the graphics is 8 times faster. So my simple game runs very smooth. After all the updates the computer runs beautifully at this price point. All the usb inputs are great. The SSD is easy to access and upgrade. The unit runs pretty cool and is very quiet. Almost silent really. This is the perfect office computer or media center computer. It also includes a mounting bracket for the back of your screen. All in all this is worth every penny. YouTube 4K videos playback perfectly. There are 2 HDMI ports on the rear and a usb-c on the front.This is not a gaming PC. Don’t expect it to be able to handle games that are graphically intense. The built in graphics card is Intel UHD600

This replaced an ancient HTPC running Windows 7 MCE. Most things are better--it is silent, faster and has hardware encoding and decoding for transcoding video streams. The 1080p picture I see is great, but I haven't tried running it at 4K.The AWOW works well with Emby (like Plex but cooler), my HD HomeRun Prime (TV Receiver) and movies, and for watching Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc in a browser. The only thing that isn't as great is that Windows 10 dropped MCE support and so I mostly use a Logitech K400 keyboard with built in trackpad instead of a remote. But that's on M$.Where the AWOW really shines is in its ports. Storage options are great: fast NVME m.2 slot, a second m.2 mSATA slot, AND a regular 2.5" SATA port for a SSD. There are plenty of USB 2/3 ports and one USBC port. The CPU seems fast enough for everyday web browsing and light MS Office work, but probably won't do serious multitasking. We use it to watch TV and movies, sometimes on multiple screens around the house, and have no problem transcoding in the background.You can easily spend double on another cube that isn't as good as this one. IMO the only reason to spend more for an HTPC is maybe if you need support for newer video and audio codecs and you are into 4K or 8K screens with high refresh rates.

I've been using a convertible tiny HP Windows laptop as my media PC for going on 4 years now. The original intent was to use its touchscreen display in conjunction with MediaMonkey to play files and playlists from my large music library, but that never really worked out so well. MediaMonkey isn't particularly optimized for touchscreens, and with the laptop wired into the receiver I didn't particularly care for having to get up and walk across the room to utilize it.I ended up using Chrome Remote Desktop to control the laptop 99% of the time from the comfort of my desk. I eventually moved the music library back onto my desktop PC as well, and just used DLNA to turn the laptop into a streaming destination. This worked most of the time but occasionally glitched out.About a year ago I got sick of trying to use the sluggish interface of my aging "smart" Samsung TV and the buggy "smart" features of my Sony Blu-ray player and decided to start using the little HP laptop for video streaming as well. Surprisingly for a small, somewhat elderly Atom-powered device this worked OK, at least with 1080p video using VLC as the player or major streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. But for streaming music services, especially Amazon HD whose client software is the worst-written, most needlessly resource-intensive garbage I've ever run on a computer, the little laptop just couldn't keep up anymore and started overheating. I needed a new media server solution, and had been eyeing a mini-PC for years as a possible answer (even before I bought the laptop). But I could never quite justify the $300 or more a decent-performing device would cost.In particular, I was looking for a host of modern features like USB-C, so the gadget would be reasonably future-proof, gigabit Ethernet, a fast SSD drive of at least 128GB, so there'd be plenty of room for Windows, applications and swapfiles, and at least 8GB of RAM, so Windows would have enough space to run in decently. I'm not interested in gaming on the device, but a well-supported graphics chipset with some video decoding abilities was definitely a requirement. The CPU didn't need to be cutting edge - indeed, I didn't want anything with too much power, as I want the machine to be largely silent - but it needed to outmuscle the tablet-class Intel Atom chip in my sad little laptop. And I didn't want to fiddle much with setting a new PC up, so having Windows pre-installed was on the list of must-haves.When I saw this little AWOW on sale from Amazon for well under 2 Benjamins (thanks to a coupon) I pounced. It even sports dual HDMI ports and a pair of USB 3 ports - I'm using the one on the front for a wireless Microsoft keyboard with integrated trackpad.The setup couldn't have been easier and I was up and running in about an hour. A few settings needed to be tweaked, and some drivers needed to be updated manually using Intel's driver utility prior to using Windows Update to bring the rest of the system up to date. There's apparently a bug in the Intel graphics drivers out on Windows Update right now, so if you used those you'd lock up the machine, hence getting the drivers off Intel's site first.I've only run into a few issues so far. First, the short little HDMI cable included with the machine appears to have crapped out already. I lost connectivity with the receiver earlier this evening and had to swap it out with a cable I had lying around. The cable wasn't under any kind of strain - it just failed. Not a huge issue since I didn't notice when I bought it that there was supposed to be a pack-in cable, anyhow.Second, benchmark results for this machine are unimpressive. The graphics are meh at best - worse than my old HP laptop, which is saying something - and the CPU appears to be slightly slower, which is a surprise. Real world performance doesn't appear to be any slower than the old laptop, and it hasn't overheated yet which is a plus, but I'm wondering if the BIOS needs to be tweaked or if there's some issue with the cooling that's leading the CPU throttling, because on paper this chip should be a bit faster than the laptop's. Hopefully updates going forward will resolve this issue.Finally, the blue LED on the power button on the front is INSANELY bright. And it unfortunately shone right in my face at night in bed. Fortunately, I already had some little grey-tinted plastic decals designed to stick on overenthusiastic LED lights and tone them down, so I was able to solve that problem without any difficult.All said though, so far this looks like a pretty good, low-stress, easy to use basic PC, especially for the price I paid. I'll come back with an update if I run into any dealbreaker issues going forward.

I bought this AWOW in December 2020 to be used as a media server. I added an internal 2 TB drive for music, video and photos. Two years on, I've been very happy with the unit and its performance. I use VNC to control it through my laptop, and have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse when I use the 48inch TV as a monitor. Works very well in this role and has been reliable and stable. Video quality is very good through an HDMI hookup to TV. I have needed minimal support but receive prompt replies when I email. Would like the AWOW support site to have better documentation available if that was possible. I haven't used it as an office PC for work, but wouldn't hesitate to go regular MS Office work on it and would buy another if I decided to move away from a laptop. As a media server, my only wish is I had bought a larger drive as collection of movies, tv shows and music continue to grow. With the SSD primary drive, boots fast and well. Overall, after two years, a solid value and reliable workhorse. Will buy AWOW again when I decide to upgrade.