VORKE Switch (V1 Plus)

I wanted a PC to go on a kitchen countertop so that my wife can use in the day and the kids can do homework etc. I was going to build a miniITX based system. But once I started to spec the thing out the costs shot up.I've tried things like Raspberry PI and Android sticks in the past to run as PC's but they've always been too slow so I was a little skeptical of this PC.But I was pleased to find I was wrong with my expectations. It's a cool little box. It boots Windows10 (proper version) in just a few seconds. It runs web stuff and office apps easily. It multitasks nicely too. The wireless keyboard/mouse hooked straight in.The internal SSD is small but if all you want is to run this sort of stuff it's big enough.If you want to expand it there are options. If you take the base cover off you can add a 2.5" SSD drive. The memory is also user replaceable. It comes with 4G but you could take the SODIMM out and put in 8G if you want.The only negative would be the slight woosh from the fan when you start using it. It's a shame they didn't have a passive cooled offering.Also, I wish Amazon stocked the monitor mount VESA bracket. I had to mail order from a China supplier.It's a cool little computer!UPDATE: MARCH 2018A couple of months after we got this the power supply died. Fortunately I had a spare 12V 5A supply in my spares box which bough the thing back to life. I'm dropping a star for the poor power supply. I'm also dropping another as I contacted the supplier and they didn't even bother to reply to me.

I was replacing a 7 year old HP laptop, which was a good quality, good value computer, but seemed to bog down and suffer repeated glitches after "upgrading" to Windows 10. Since I already had a monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse, I thought I'd check out this very low budget replacement alternative, based on specs and good on line reviews. I've been very pleased.I have it hooked up to the usb keyboard, a 500 g Samsung external SSD, old VGA monitor, and occasionally headphones and/or an external DVD drive. Everything works fine. My uses are modest---web surfing, email, WORD document production using OFFICE, which downloaded and operates fine. This little guy, which is about the size of an old walkman cd player, handles everything smoothly. it's WAY faster than the old HP it replaced.I had some initial problems with windows 10 updates, and sleep/hibernate settings. They all turned out to be Windows setting issues, not problems with the Vorke. I got 4 gb ram, which might be a bit limiting. MS Edge really bogged things down til I disabled it in Task Manager. The fan does surge on and off if I'm doing tasks that use a lot of memory while also on Chrome (which works fine, but is a memory hog). I don't find the fan annoying, its less obtrusive than the old HP.Knocking off a star because I received no reply when I tried contacting Vorke support when I was first having Windows 10 update problems (which I solved on my own). Also, long term reliability is uncertain. But so far, for my modest needs, it works well, and seems a real value.

I needed a replacement computer to run my home security software (Sighthound). My old XPS 15z laptop with i7 dual core that I ran 24/7 to record my home IP cameras for the last 5 years stopped working. I didn't want to buy something super expensive because I keep this computer hidden away connected directly to my rounder recording my IP cameras. I and stumbled onto this. I am impressed. It runs my security camera software flawlessly where as my old XPS 15z struggled to record. I installed a 1TB HD to this to store my security videos and it works great! Since it's a quad core, it runs this software and records all my cameras with no issues.

The pictures currently posted in other reviews show a glossy finish. The ‘Plus’ model is actually a matte black and it looks very nice.As far as specifications go this machine has a lot going for it.The 64gb mSATA drive provides plenty of space for Windows updates, unlike many 32gb eMMC devices.It’s Celeron processor outperforms Cherry Trail based units and for most tasks it performs as well as full size desktops did just a few years ago.Connectivity is not lacking in any way: 4 USB ports along with hdmi, vga, SD, infrared and Ethernet, audio and Bluetooth.The fact that you can expand both RAM and SSD sets it apart and while that makes this unit slightly larger than its competitors it is not large by any means. Your cable modem or router is probably larger.I had seen mentions of the fan being loud but have not found that to be the case in my usage which includes working with large image files in design software.Assuming there are no reliability issues long term this seems like an exceptionally good buy.

The device works fine as a PC but as a streaming device it hasn't been that great. I'm running the device to a 4k LG TV and it does OK, the problem is I can't get either Netflix, Amazon Video or YouTube to fill the entire screen and it's only an issue when streaming video, as a PC its fine. I have updated the video drivers, re-installed Silverlight and tried changing resolutions but neither 4069 x 2160 or 3840 x 2160 provide a full screen (borders on the sides) and that's from both downloaded apps and from the browser, both Edge and Chrome. 4069 x 2160 fills more of the screen but the device stumbles at that resolution. I can run all 3 of the above mentioned apps that come pre-installed on my TV and they are flawless other than being a little slow to load. If I can resolve the issue I will come back in and edit my review but for now as something that's being pitched as a 4k a 60hz streamer its been a disappointment.