2 IPC-D2x2-C3337NL-H500-WB-XLM-FM4U-BMint Desktop

It works, looks good and looks like it's hardly working.This is not my first foray into the compact fanless computing market. I purchased an Intel NUC which was very disappointing.After putting the Mintbox 2 through the paces, the inescapable conclusion is, this thing rocks!I must admit I was a bit reluctant to make this purchase for a rather obscure reason. All of the net spying seems to involve Israeli companies installing and even monitoring the technology. But after reading about this company my mind was set at ease. As an added measure of comfort, I wiped the installed hard disk, installed an SSD with a new operating system and BAM! This thing screams!.In my opinion, these guys could not have timed a Linux solution like this any better. People seem to want to get away from the big desktops and away from operating systems and companies that see our private data as a commodity. Linux and the Mintbox 2 seemed to fit the bill.What I like about this product:Gave me back my desktop: It's about the size of half a sheet of paper and fits right under the monitor (ASUS 27 inch) within its foot print freeing up my desk and giving it an uncluttered look and feel.Quiet: Totally noiseless with the SSD. I really didn't realize how loud my old desktop was.USB connectivity galore: Four on the front and four on the back including two USB 3.0 sockets.Duel Ethernet ports make this a great server.Built like a tank from what appears to be cast aluminum. Durable yet still very stylish. The finish appears to be textured black powder coating.Upgrading the RAM was easy.Upgrading the hard drive to an SSD was easy.5 year warranty.Everything is super fast!It just works!Works great with a USB powered external DVD burner (Samsung).One minor drawback is that the sticker with the serial number on it fell right off of the textured black finish. You will most likely need this for any warranty service. Compulab could solve this issue by increasing the adhesive on the sticker or mounting it in several places like inside the access panel as well.

Product was defective. 4 USB ports were not functional.

The Good:It's VERY quiet.It comes with Linux Mint pre-installed. All your hardware should just work right out of the box with no tinkering.It is built with ease of use in mind. For example, if you want to change out the hard drive and/or the memory it's one philips head screw to unscrew. Very convenient design.It's small and doesn't take up a lot of room like your standard desktop pc.The Bad:It runs a tad warm, but nothing to worry about.It's a little bit expensive for what you're getting.The ram is on the low side at 4GB. I would suggest upgrading the memory to 16GB instead of the 4 that come with it. That will run you another 80 to 90 bucks.Could not get the wireless network card to work properly on Mint 18.1. It would work after reboot, but after an hour or so the network would disconnect and I could not get it to connect again. I re-installed Mint 17.3, which I believe comes pre-installed out of the box, and the network works fine.Overall, I'm very glad I bought this unit. It's built very well and is very quiet. Just be sure to keep Mint 17.3 installed on it.

I am giving a 2 star because the concept is good, and the unit did work. But I am no longer using this computer for two reasons.1. The eithernet connection communicates with the Internet when the computer is off. I never learned who it talked to or what it was communicating, but it doesn't matter. I wasn't doing it, and it was supposed to be off! 2. The computer nearly distroyed a 3 TB hard drive. I connected a second drive to backup my primary data drive. The drive started an extreme level of activity. I unmounted the drive, wiped it, and reformatted it. When I remounted it the activity started again. After about 10 minutes the drive became extremely hot (I use external USB 3 drives). I put a small fan on the drive and let it run. An hour later I decided enough is enough.I have gone back to my old power hungry 6 core computer.

...Right now I'm frustrated by the learning curve. I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling better about buying this new computer when I become more comfortable with the Linux based operating system. The biggest problem I'm having now is getting the all-in-one Epson WF 7520 printer-scanner-fax to work the way I want it to with this new OS and installing the blue tooth mouse and keyboard. Any suggestions?