These miniPCs are getting ridiculously good at cost/performance. They are getting to the point where they should become the main thing OEMs should sell. AIO, and proprietary mATX-but-not-exactly desktops should go extinct and be fully replaced with these.
For checking email, sure this would work. But webbrowsers will happily eat 1GB of RAM per-webpage. I've said this for years. No one believed me until one day I happened to be using only 2 tabs and got a good screen shot of it in effect.
So, for anything even somewhat serious, these mini-PCs will not do.
You would be so out of touch with reality if you think a 5800H with 32GB of RAM cannot handle more than email. Like this would handle massive excel spreadsheets and >4 youtube videos all at once.
Both pros and cons to this setup is size. as it's now, 64GB of ram is the limit, and usually you cannot get over 32GB from the shop, so you need to open it to get 64GB. It seems plenty for now, but as with small laptops, once you need more, you have no option. single drive have same problem as well, as going bigger, usually costs more than double. this is a resonable small pc for anyone who dont play AAA. we are at place where 16GB is to small, but 32GB is still to pricy for normies.
Depends on the processor. I have an mini pc with the 4800h cpu 32gb memory and 1tb of storage and it can easily watch 8 youtube videos without issues. I also have another mini pc with an intel n100 cpu which severly limits performance compared to amd.
back in times, when they had atom cpu's they were horrible. right now when they run true laptop chips, they are just like mid-low tier laptops. chip mentioned is top tier last year laptop. if that is not enough then I have bad news, you need a $5000 threadripper, as desktop chips are about 130% of what this can to, tops. cpu wise, they are 100% enough, gpu wise.... lets say new ones might be much better soon.
Meanwhile the average age on an office PC in the United States is 4 years and everyone seems to get along fine browsing the web on their 4-core Intel 10th gen's with 8GB RAM...
This is just a bizarre comment. These systems have a near top end CPU from the previous generation and can have up to 64GB of RAM. The vast majority of PC's sold are around 16GB of RAM and nobody complains about that (and this mini PC has twice that). Yes, web browsers can eat up a lot of memory, but regardless regular people and even many power users who aren't gamers are well served by these.
As much as I love my overbuilt ITX system the fact is that I could get by on one of these things fine for everything but gaming, and I usually have 3 browsers open with dozens of tabs in each (guess what? Browsers hibernate tabs not in use), I do photo editing via Capture One and run a ton of messaging apps, some work applications and a desktop AI solution and my Ryzen 5700G handles it without breaking a sweat. I have 64GB of memory, which these mini PC's can handle as well, and my memory usage is rarely more than 35-50%.
I don't know what you believe a regular user does that requires so much more than what they offer but you may need a reality check.
still, 16GB of RAM is enough for running 20 tabs or more. Well, except, like they said, you watch dual 8k vr. BTW, I'm now with 32 firefox tab, 11GB RAM usage.
No AV1 decoding in hardware. Small chance it could be an issue in a few of years, though the rise of AV1 to prominence has been slow.
Not sure this configuration could brute force 4K AV1 playback without dropping frames. At any rate, I don't think the highest quality streaming content will be found as AV1 for another 4 years at minimum.
The comparison with different setups shows this to be the best for value. I was surprised that Intel setups seemed so inferior to the AMD setups. Looked closely at the lower cost, lower performances of the other AMD units. This seems to be the best. My previous experiences were with a Celeron 8GB memory unit. The lack of hardware ports was treated with external plugin ports.
An ASRock X300 Desk Mini with an STX/AM4 MB and Ryzen 5700G can be had for a little over $320 and the X300 Desk Mini comes with 2, M.2 x4 PCIe link slots and space for 2 SATA internal SSDs. And one of the M.2 slots can be fitted with an M.2 to OCuLink adapter and there's plenty of Knockouts on the X300 Desk Mini's case to rout the OCuLink cable out of the case easily sans any need to open the case afterwards. So with Knockouts on the case for an optional OEM 2 USB port kit or other knockout some OCuLink port could be retrofitted is one gets creative!
As an owner of a MiniITX board with a 5700G I regret to inform you that external PCIe lanes only run at x3 with that CPU, even for storage. So while on paper that X300 looks better than this mini box, in practice it's got the same limitation. The 5700G is overall not quite as powerful as this mini box at equivalent wattages, although thanks to being an ITX sysem I run mine at 65W which likely outperforms this box substantially.
The M.2 PCIe Lanes on processor side of the Board is listed as PCIe 3.0 X4 lanes while the M.2 on back side of the MB limited to what's listed so not according to ASrock's specifications page for the X300 Desk Mini:
- 2 x SATA 6Gb 2.5-inch 7mm/9.5mm Hard Drive (RAID 0/1) - 1 x Ultra M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD Slot - 1 x Ultra M.2 (2280) Slot - PCIe Gen3 x4 (Renoir, Picasso and Raven Ridge APU) - PCIe Gen3 x2 (Athlon 2xxGE series APU)
And what Gen3 that not enough for you that you have to use Gen4? As for USB4, I agree. And you can get it if you buy mini-pc with ryzen 6800u/h or 7735H.
Depending on your USB controller as part of the lone source of power is an anti-feature in my opinion. With laptops it's different because there's a battery, but USB-C desktop power is a "no thanks."
It's a standard, and really cheap, 19V laptop power brick. Finding a cheap USB-C charger than can output >120W over a single port is a challenge, unfortunately. Most of them top out at 100W per port.
200W and 240W PD cables have been available for at least 6 months, but no such charger has shown up yet.
If they don't care how portable the power brick is, why do they care how small the desktop is? It puzzles me why product combinations like this even exist.
At least they could have given the brick and the desktop the same footprint so you could stack them neatly or something.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
35 Comments
Back to Article
meacupla - Friday, December 8, 2023 - link
These miniPCs are getting ridiculously good at cost/performance.They are getting to the point where they should become the main thing OEMs should sell.
AIO, and proprietary mATX-but-not-exactly desktops should go extinct and be fully replaced with these.
ballsystemlord - Friday, December 8, 2023 - link
For checking email, sure this would work. But webbrowsers will happily eat 1GB of RAM per-webpage. I've said this for years. No one believed me until one day I happened to be using only 2 tabs and got a good screen shot of it in effect.So, for anything even somewhat serious, these mini-PCs will not do.
meacupla - Friday, December 8, 2023 - link
You would be so out of touch with reality if you think a 5800H with 32GB of RAM cannot handle more than email.Like this would handle massive excel spreadsheets and >4 youtube videos all at once.
ballsystemlord - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
Erm, the tested model was 16GB... No wait, it's 2x 16GB. I take that back.deil - Thursday, January 4, 2024 - link
Both pros and cons to this setup is size. as it's now, 64GB of ram is the limit, and usually you cannot get over 32GB from the shop, so you need to open it to get 64GB.It seems plenty for now, but as with small laptops, once you need more, you have no option.
single drive have same problem as well, as going bigger, usually costs more than double.
this is a resonable small pc for anyone who dont play AAA.
we are at place where 16GB is to small, but 32GB is still to pricy for normies.
pugster - Friday, December 8, 2023 - link
Depends on the processor. I have an mini pc with the 4800h cpu 32gb memory and 1tb of storage and it can easily watch 8 youtube videos without issues. I also have another mini pc with an intel n100 cpu which severly limits performance compared to amd.deil - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
back in times, when they had atom cpu's they were horrible.right now when they run true laptop chips, they are just like mid-low tier laptops.
chip mentioned is top tier last year laptop.
if that is not enough then I have bad news, you need a $5000 threadripper, as desktop chips are about 130% of what this can to, tops.
cpu wise, they are 100% enough, gpu wise....
lets say new ones might be much better soon.
Samus - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
Meanwhile the average age on an office PC in the United States is 4 years and everyone seems to get along fine browsing the web on their 4-core Intel 10th gen's with 8GB RAM...iphonebestgamephone - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
I guess the browser pages you were on were some dual 8k vr porn or something.ballsystemlord - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
Actually, I don't watch porn... it was either a news site, tech site, or aliexpress.Reflex - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
This is just a bizarre comment. These systems have a near top end CPU from the previous generation and can have up to 64GB of RAM. The vast majority of PC's sold are around 16GB of RAM and nobody complains about that (and this mini PC has twice that). Yes, web browsers can eat up a lot of memory, but regardless regular people and even many power users who aren't gamers are well served by these.As much as I love my overbuilt ITX system the fact is that I could get by on one of these things fine for everything but gaming, and I usually have 3 browsers open with dozens of tabs in each (guess what? Browsers hibernate tabs not in use), I do photo editing via Capture One and run a ton of messaging apps, some work applications and a desktop AI solution and my Ryzen 5700G handles it without breaking a sweat. I have 64GB of memory, which these mini PC's can handle as well, and my memory usage is rarely more than 35-50%.
I don't know what you believe a regular user does that requires so much more than what they offer but you may need a reality check.
ballsystemlord - Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - link
As I said to another reply, I mistakenly thought the mini-PC was equipped with 16GB of RAM.t.s - Friday, December 15, 2023 - link
still, 16GB of RAM is enough for running 20 tabs or more. Well, except, like they said, you watch dual 8k vr. BTW, I'm now with 32 firefox tab, 11GB RAM usage.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, December 13, 2023 - link
Depends on the browser and what is going on.Some browsers are known to aggressively cache data into RAM.
However 8GB of Ram+Windows+Firefox I can happily run a dozen or more tabs with a decent SSD with music streaming in the background.
garblah - Friday, December 8, 2023 - link
No AV1 decoding in hardware. Small chance it could be an issue in a few of years, though the rise of AV1 to prominence has been slow.Not sure this configuration could brute force 4K AV1 playback without dropping frames. At any rate, I don't think the highest quality streaming content will be found as AV1 for another 4 years at minimum.
garblah - Friday, December 8, 2023 - link
*I see 8K 60p AV1 was tested for CPU usage. Why 8K 60p only... hmm.Samus - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
Is this OS license actually legit?meacupla - Sunday, December 10, 2023 - link
Win11 pro keys cost $36 for the end user. They probably cost like $10 for geekom, who get volume discountsSamus - Wednesday, December 13, 2023 - link
Sure, except this is equipped with Windows Enterprise...that's normally reserved for corporate and site-licensing, not end-user\resale applications.Very strange.
gz-0 - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
The comparison with different setups shows this to be the best for value. I was surprised that Intel setups seemed so inferior to the AMD setups.Looked closely at the lower cost, lower performances of the other AMD units. This seems to be the best. My previous experiences were with a Celeron 8GB memory unit. The lack of hardware ports was treated with external plugin ports.
t.s - Friday, December 15, 2023 - link
Yes. Inferior, yet pricier than AMD counterpart.[email protected] - Saturday, December 9, 2023 - link
All I see here is outdated hardware. Gen3 and not Gen4 or better. No USB 4. Etc. Great unit if you are placing it in a Mall display.FWhitTrampoline - Sunday, December 10, 2023 - link
An ASRock X300 Desk Mini with an STX/AM4 MB and Ryzen 5700G can be had for a little over $320 and the X300 Desk Mini comes with 2, M.2 x4 PCIe link slots and space for 2 SATA internal SSDs. And one of the M.2 slots can be fitted with an M.2 to OCuLink adapter and there's plenty of Knockouts on the X300 Desk Mini's case to rout the OCuLink cable out of the case easily sans any need to open the case afterwards. So with Knockouts on the case for an optional OEM 2 USB port kit or other knockout some OCuLink port could be retrofitted is one gets creative!Reflex - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
As an owner of a MiniITX board with a 5700G I regret to inform you that external PCIe lanes only run at x3 with that CPU, even for storage. So while on paper that X300 looks better than this mini box, in practice it's got the same limitation. The 5700G is overall not quite as powerful as this mini box at equivalent wattages, although thanks to being an ITX sysem I run mine at 65W which likely outperforms this box substantially.FWhitTrampoline - Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - link
The M.2 PCIe Lanes on processor side of the Board is listed as PCIe 3.0 X4 lanes while the M.2 on back side of the MB limited to what's listed so not according to ASrock's specifications page for the X300 Desk Mini:- 2 x SATA 6Gb 2.5-inch 7mm/9.5mm Hard Drive (RAID 0/1)
- 1 x Ultra M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD Slot
- 1 x Ultra M.2 (2280) Slot
- PCIe Gen3 x4 (Renoir, Picasso and Raven Ridge APU)
- PCIe Gen3 x2 (Athlon 2xxGE series APU)
t.s - Friday, December 15, 2023 - link
And what Gen3 that not enough for you that you have to use Gen4? As for USB4, I agree. And you can get it if you buy mini-pc with ryzen 6800u/h or 7735H.Schugy - Sunday, December 10, 2023 - link
That non-USB-C PSU brick must be a joke.lmcd - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
Depending on your USB controller as part of the lone source of power is an anti-feature in my opinion. With laptops it's different because there's a battery, but USB-C desktop power is a "no thanks."meacupla - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
It's a standard, and really cheap, 19V laptop power brick.Finding a cheap USB-C charger than can output >120W over a single port is a challenge, unfortunately. Most of them top out at 100W per port.
200W and 240W PD cables have been available for at least 6 months, but no such charger has shown up yet.
stephenbrooks - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
The brick is nearly as large as the PC.meacupla - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
It's a mini desktop PC. I think the assumption is 99% of end users won't care how portable it the power brick is.If it was a laptop, then yeah, I would prefer a >100W GaN3 USB-C PD power brick.
stephenbrooks - Thursday, December 14, 2023 - link
If they don't care how portable the power brick is, why do they care how small the desktop is? It puzzles me why product combinations like this even exist.At least they could have given the brick and the desktop the same footprint so you could stack them neatly or something.
hMunster - Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - link
Does Linux run well on it?t.s - Friday, December 15, 2023 - link
yes.trisct - Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - link
Yeah, a Phoenix chip version of one of these would definitely be nice. Even as a backup/second PC