Yeah. All these reviews of expensive things and weird crap is one of the reasons I've unfortunately lost interest in the channel and unsubscribed in favor of just checking back once in awhile. What I came from is nearly non-existent, but I can't fault ETA for that.
Just make your own Mini Media/Console PC, i also have done it, he is about as big as a Xbox Series X, but then he is laying flat, and and thinner, i have the CEMO 9001, and is fully Aluminum, i use a ASRock B85M-ITX with a Intel Xeon E3-1240L v3, and 8GB RAM, and MSI GeForce GTX 1650 4GT LP OC, and 256GB SSD, and a 1TB 2,5" HDD, this case can even fit a Micro-ATX MB.
@@AmigaWolf I was more concerned about the costs of them. I've already got two SFF PCs. One is an ASROCK Deskmini A300 with a Ryzen 2400G and other is an Inwin Chopin case with the same APU.
@@johnbonner2656 Aha ok, yeah i did not want a Mini PC like that, i made one that also could fit a Low Profile graphics card, and i have done that, put a MSI GeForce GTX 1650 4GT LP OC in it, with a Steam controller, and now i can play many games on it all on 1080P or 4K on medium/high settings, High for 1080P and low to Medium for 4k, but i play the most on my Mini Media/Console PC Platform games, like Alien Breed 1, 2 and 3, and BloodRayne Betrayal, and Broforce, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD, Double Dragon: Neon, and Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, and 3D games like Beyond Good and Evil, Darksiders Warmastered Edition and Darksiders II, and more.
I mean... not everything is defined in terms of Apple products? This is $250 USD cheaper than the cheapest Mac Mini, and Windows is preferable to many people rather than being locked in the Macintosh OS.
Reminds me of my Mac Mini, also 6" square, that I bought new about 20 years ago. I don't use it much, but it still works and was plug & play, not a kit, for about $600.
Meanwhile 5600u is expected to have 1 more vega gpu core(vega 7) and run 300MHz higher(1800). Theoretical increase of about 1.4x. who knows, a small overclock, and better memory might actually net you just about that.
@@the_retag Nope more Vega in the 5xxxU series and still 7nm. I guess we will have to wait till the 6xxxU series comes out for RDNA2 graphics and 5nm. Heck if you drill down some of the 5xxxU series are still Zen2 cores! I was completely underwhelmed by AMD's announcement on this front. A full Zen3 line up with RDNA2 graphics at 5nm would have been awesome.
@@jonathanbuzzard1376 Absolutely! Zen3+RDNA2 will definitely be a dream 1080P Gaming and High end Emulation setup for sure especially in a tiny form factor.The only thing holding back these APU'S are the graphical power,once RDNA2 in CPU and DDR5 Memory gets released we could possibly see 1080P entry level graphic cards being obsolete.
I have the version using the 4800U. I have 64GB of ram in mine and works fine. I'm a developer so this much ram is handy to have. For the size and power draw this is an excellent system. I love my little PN50.
Who would've thought you could run Doom Eternal without a big graphics card but with an embedded solution. Nice to see it works really well. Just needs to get cheaper
You can build a better config in a similar form factor. Asrock X300 + 4650G from Ali + 16GB RAM will cost you around $500 USD. The powerbrick will be bigger though.
Might not be a sector you focus on or have interest in, But I've always wanted to see someone put a vmware lab together with MINI PCs and see how well it could run. I currently have a mix of old HP/Lenovo workstations with XEON CPUs and while they are more than adequate, the power drain is substantial.
I used two T430 and a raspberry pi as storage with multiple servers as POC. If you have SSDs you can easely run 10 virtual machines or more. While still using for other things.
@@TomaszStachewicz Hard to buy? You mean unavailable. I've seen some companies saying that they will be available in 3-4 weeks, but they've been saying that for months. I've been able to buy a 4800U version when it came out, but want to buy another one for my business. That 4800U is more powerful then my six year old i7-5820K, running VMware on it without incident and it often uses 20-25W under normal usage. For anything outside of (heavy) PC gaming and content creation that needs something stronger then the integrated graphics, these will be my main PCs!
I just got used to these Ryzen 3000 APUs and now we are at 4000 and 5000. And I can't even tell, if they are comparable. So for me a comparison would be fine just to see what performance compared to a 2400, 2700 and 3700 (both with a lower range GPU like a RX 580/ 5600) is to expect. Since Ryzen 4500 is newer (and more advanced?) than 3600 it should be faster, shouldn't it? And 4800 should be faster than 3700 (X) or 5600 ... alone by its "8" in the name. But somehow I doubt that....
@Brian Babin True, it's easy to build something yourself that is faster. Most people have trouble changing light bulbs though, this is the best they can manage.
@Brian Babin True but how much power does your system use? I think people often forget the cost of electricity. This device is dirt cheap and if you're using it as a Plex server, you can earn back the cost of it after just a year or two just because of how it uses a quarter the electricity of a regular system on idle. I'm seriously considering moving Plex to a NUC-style PC for that reason.
@Brian Babin You're missing the point here.. These tiny PCs have a place and purpose and the money-to-performance ratio is not what they're going for. For example - I need a tiny (yes, smaller than that PSU-sized A300) & power-efficient (65W on that 3400G alone?) stationary PC that can handle 2-3 monitors for a camper van and Asus' PN50 or Gigabyte's Brix series are the perfect choice for that. If you don't care about the power usage and mainly use it at home? Sure, an A300 would make way more sense. Or a straightup ITX build for that matter~
@@8lacKhawKtheRIPPER Nobody said you got to use the 3400g. The A300 will also work fine with a 2200g. You can really build the A300 for half the price of this thing. Sure its a bit larger but not that much and can fit 2 NVMEs and 2 2,5 inch Sata drives.
I decide to not reply to a specific comment. I got one equipped with 4700u, they are really hard to catch indeed, mine was the only one in the biggest regional IT retailer. I am using it with 64G RAM (3200) and 4 QHD monitors. BTW all SKUs support 64GB RAM. Watching a number of reviews, including ETA's I am starting to realize that the 4500u model is probably the best balanced one. Mine overheats and having 4 monitors at once greatly contributes to the problem - supporting so big video surface on the shared memory is a strain and if you think about it the SODIMMs are big plates that , if hot enough, will warm up the insides quite easily. All the ASUS specs are met, but one thing they probably should consider is that the compartment on the other side of the CPU has no fans or other means to move the air and depends on convection alone. When you stuff the mini-pc to the max like me this is causing problems. The good thing is the problems need relatively heavy usage in order to start showing up and very little is needed to cure the problem, the bad thing is - you will have to come up with a solution yourself. I bought a 92mm noctua 5V fan and I put the PN50 over it. There are enough holes on the bottom (even with 2.5 inch SSD) to allow airflow and this cools the thing quite well, much more than it really needs, but it is the simplest solution without heavy modding. Well, the conclusion from my troubles is probably that lately we neglect the strain we cause to the video adapters and video memory with multiple monitors and while gaming requires a lot from the GPU, attaching many monitors puts the burden mostly on the RAM, but the effects are pronounced even more in a small form factor pc like this one, probably because the RAMs relative physical size.
I have the 4800u variant and have been pretty happy with it, running pihole via docker and plex. Temps are a little high at idle for my liking, even with the performance fan curve applied.
I see you discussed the fan noise situation. I've been burnt too many times by UA-cam reviewers saying one thing but the reality is different. The Beelink GTR. Beelink GK55. Minisforum UM300. Minisforum DMAF5. All different levels of NOISY. GTR and DMAF5 unacceptably so. I've been trying to replace my 3.5 year old Asus VivoMini... which too has been noisy. (I had it controlled with Speedfan for a while but that broke somehow. And yes I clean the fan.) ETA. If you could do a fellow MiniPCManiac a favor. In all future reviews of minis -- 1. Put the system thru something strenous (It's amazing how upset any PC gets if you run a FULL SCAN of Windows Defender) 2. Stick a mic right up to the unit with no talking or no sound coming from the PC.
Asus is truly one of the best if not, thee best PCs around. You get what you paid for as Asus not cheap and worth the cost you spend. Never could afford one as I was using Dells, HP, as most of their products are in the masses of being sub par quality and find them annoying to find great ones out of so many models and do get you losted in buying one that do not fit your needs as in a very very good PC overall. I only came across having one out of PURE LUCK of someone leaving their Asus Desktop as a free pick up from curbside. Not sure why someone would throw away other then assuming that person got another model of the latest model line. The Asus I picked up had the system ratings of 7.6 out of the scale of 1 to 7.9. Even using standard VGA plug Im viewing videos in 1080p and when I use the HDMI , the videos give out the 4k ultra at 1400k resolution. For that type of quality I went ahead and bought a 43 inch 4k HD TV to use for Monitor as the Asus is 10x better then using the cable tv viewing. Very blessed to own one for free, very blessed to get this lucky of owning ASUS....
I bought the 4500u version and spent hours installing Windows on an NVME but the USB ports were very unreliable, tried to get a replacement but the rest of their stock had the same issue, had to swap it for a i5 10th gen NUC So sad, I still regret not waiting for a replacement PN50, so much better
This is the wee beastie I own. It's great. Just wish the fan curves were a little more steady. Unless you adjust the power settings, it revs up and down too much.
Hey you finally got one! I got my 4700u model back in October and it's been my daily driver for work at my desk since. Pro tip - you can use Ryzen Controller to play with boost levels and wattage. I repasted mine to drop a couple degrees and use Ryzen Controller profiles depending on what I'm doing. Also, make sure you update the firmware, as they fixed some issues with the boosting/voltage curve/fan profiles. Enjoy! Edit: Not sure where you got yours, but I got my 4700u model from Amazon for 410$. Maybe prices have jumped in 4 months, but that's a significant difference between your 476$ for 4500u.
I wanted to get 2 & run Kubernetes. - glad it doesn't make a lot of noise. - I heard there are variations where you can swap out the Display Port? - 2.5gb eth would be nice.
Can't wait for these to play games at 4k in a couple of years. If you travel a lot like I do, these are just perfect. Also, if you're just a casual gamer just sitting in the living room, this is really great. Love IR. More phones needs to bring back IR blaster.
Been interested in this little machine, I dont do a lot of heavy gaming, mostly just play Emulated Games and Indie Titles that run on even Intel HD Graphics like a champ, and with it being Zen 2, it already has a pretty solid Core Performance for the work apps I also use. Nice to see some actual numbers, it was kind of hard to see anyone talk about this, and I look forward to the eventual Emulation Testing, hoping to see how this faces heavier emulators.
For my use case, I just want something that can run a DAW with high quality VST's, internet stuffs with quite a few extensions running, and Photoshop (Potentially other software in the future). Gaming is a bonus, it's good that it runs these pretty well, pretty much sold on this APU.
@@Mario_Fields It was a neat little device. Unfortunately my unit has had multiple issues. I had to send it in for repairs just * one month * after buying it. It worked fine for a few years after that. Then in late 2020 it just randomly won't boot anymore, stuck on on the Alienware splash screen. I've tried all the suggested fixes, replacing the battery, cycling the power, doing some kind of reset with the pins on the motherboard, swapping out the ssd, changing the ram... and nothing worked. It was great when it worked, but it definitely has / had problems.
for a few months I had looked into getting a mini PC. Ideally with an AMD APU. I found a couple with really promising specs. but I ended up finding out that a laptop is almost always cheaper. and the laptop comes included with a screen, "mouse", keyboard, power supply, and battery. I ended up getting an Acer Aspire 5. nearly the same specs as this, ryzen 4500u, 16gb RAM, 128gb SSD (added 2.5" SSD). its MSRP is $550. but I got 2 huge discounts, $150 off for being approved for amazon credit card. and $100 off in my other credit card rewards points. Very hard deal to pass up and the performance is very nice.
Was ready to pull the trigger on that Minisforum X400 but this is the better deal IMHO. No difference between the 4500U in this and the 4650U in the X400 except SMP, which shouldn't make much difference for gaming and emulation. Plus this has an m.2 slot that supports NVMe. Newegg has this unit for $430 and you can spec this box out comparable to an X400 with your own choice of RAM and storage and easily save $100.
These SFF machines are spectacular for in home streaming as well. I've had great luck using Linux and moonlight with NVidia @ 1080 and 60FPS. Basically all your desktop oomf streamed to your TV. It's great if you want to chill on your couch with a controller.
Not sure the faster cpu would have helped in games as the Vega 6 is more than likely the limiting factor and vega 8 is a minor bump and still the limiting factor.
@@boratsagdiyev1586 the GPU was at like 35% in one of the games so definetly could squieze more out of it and vega 6 to vega 8 is 33% more power so probably 20% more performance
@@LiLBitsDK That's not because the cpu is slow, WoW is just a terribly optimized game, see how low the cpu-load was? Probably DX9 Engine. Apart from that, the IPC is actually really great, the difference compared to the best desktop cpu's is only because of lower clock speeds. Plus, the automatic core voltage is always way wayyyyy too high. I bet if you put on that same voltage manually you could get 400/500 mhz for free without even coming closer to the TDP. Then it's only like 20% under a 10500K in most single threaded instructions. Ps, if you're not fully utilizing the gpu, you can also just raise the graphical fidelity of instructions that are processed by the gpu, for example use higher quality textures, or better AA, for example shadows and reflections are a cpu hog in gta5. I remember i had a 1080ti with a fx8350 and it ran perfectly because i played it at 4K, giving the GPU all the load it can take. Now i have a high refresh rate monitor, so that became a bottleneck and had to upgrade to a better cpu.
@@boratsagdiyev1586 pretty sure WoW can use DX11 or so (they got 2 different versions unless they removed that graphics option) lets just say it's been a while since I tried it
The 4700U and 4800U versions each have more GPU cores and are thus (a little) more powerful. The 4800U integrated graphics impressed me quite a bit. Not even close to a GTX970, but still more power then I expected from an IG solution.
You should check out the lenovo m75q gen 2. Runs the amd pro 500chipset instead of the a300 on these. Can be had with a 4750ge. Just got one because of your lenovo it reviews. It's also milspec rated
They have crazy sales on them. I did a custom build nothing but the air filter stand and tool less. No mouse and keyboard. Saved $600 using a discount code. I think they may be too new for ebay so far. But worth a look if you can snag one!
Dell makes a laptop with upgradable RAM, a 2nd m.2 drive slot(no mounting brackets though you can order them if you search hard enough), and a 4700u all in one of their cheaper models. It's the Inspiron 15 5505. I got one for my GF for like 700. Only problem is the display is pretty dim but I'm sure the touchscreen one might be better, who knows lol.
Asus and ryzen are really in the lead when it comes to easy to use, long term use and high performance. i can't personally see what else you would want as a customer.
I bought a ThinkPad with a 4500U in 2020. Didn't buy it for gaming, but it's fast and AMD's variable clock speed/power management makes it perfect for a laptop. I've thought about it as a mini pc, but it just comes down to a video/emulation machine. My laptop was $650 with everything included... this? Seems a waste of a perfectly nice ASUS mini case.
I am looking for a best bang fir the buck mini PC and I am willing to sacrifice a bit form factor. What exact models were you recommending in your final thoughts? I want a home 4k media pc that also does backup and it is future proof.
Statecraft 2. I'm a huge fan of the game and it's about all I play, more of a curiosity as to the settings and quality you get out of playing on that system
I wanted a Tower PC for my Office, Web development and Zoom stuff but getting a good prebuild system is hard and I struggle to find the time to build my own tower from the ground up. This PN50 with the Ryzen 4800U seems more than capable enough for anything except heavy gaming. What do you think?
Can you show how to setup one of these as an emulation system, perhaps using Linux? I mimic'd your raspberry pi mini gaming cabinet and I think this might be a huge upgrade.
I think DBZ Fighterz would run smoother than Street Fighter 5 on these mini-PC's, thanks for the WOW test thou. Nice review as usual complete and detailed.
Brilliant video and it got me hooked, to be honest, so I have purchased an ASUS Mini PC PN62-BB5004MD 0.6L Sized PC Intel Core I5-10210U, No RAM, No HDD, can tell me which is the best and biggest drive for it and the maximum memory I can get for the slots provided, it will be with me within 4 days, once I have built it up I will download the windows 10 pro, hope you don't mind, I guess if you don't reply you do lol. Much Respect.
The ultimate mod for this would be an exact same sized box to sit and attach to this above it and will function as the water reservoir for water cooling.
I have the 4800, it is a bit noisey, The blower fan should be replaced with a full sized fan and the box increased in size by 7 mm, it would fix an otherwise perfect design.
Amazon has an Asrock mini-atx board+cpu j4105m $85, has pcie 2.0x16 slot, add an Nvidia 1650 GPU then see how it compares to i5 optiplex with 1050 card. Just an idea....
j4105 is an anemic celeron chip sorta based on the ATOM cores if I recall right and you are wanting to compare a whole bunch of stuff instead of one thing at a time... the 1650 beats the 1050 big time (and beats the 1050ti as well) so if you have the same cpu for both, the 1650 wins... so get an optiplex and stick in a 1650 tadaaa... no need to "downgrade" to a j4105
Just curious, where did you get that red screwdriver you’ve been using in the past couple vids? I checked out the toolkit you have linked in the video description but the screwdriver in those kits look different.
have you done a emulation retro guide for the 1650? while these small form computers are great, with all the dropping prices on used making a super cheap emulation game machine is great
you can run emulation on older and weaker gpus... so do you think you can run it on the newer 1650? buy a machine, plop it in, ya don't need a guide for that
Had to do a quick edit due to issues in the first upload.
All good!
UA-cam sucks
@@Shvmadogg YES!!
oh alr
Emulations?
This is gonna be so cool when I get my hands on one in 4 years
Yes, and in 4 years you can get one for $10 at a thrift store. 😁
Every one of these mini PC reviews makes me think "maybe I could use another PC in my life" and then I look at the price.
Yeah. All these reviews of expensive things and weird crap is one of the reasons I've unfortunately lost interest in the channel and unsubscribed in favor of just checking back once in awhile. What I came from is nearly non-existent, but I can't fault ETA for that.
Same
Just make your own Mini Media/Console PC, i also have done it, he is about as big as a Xbox Series X, but then he is laying flat, and and thinner, i have the CEMO 9001, and is fully Aluminum, i use a ASRock B85M-ITX with a Intel Xeon E3-1240L v3, and 8GB RAM, and MSI GeForce GTX 1650 4GT LP OC, and 256GB SSD, and a 1TB 2,5" HDD, this case can even fit a Micro-ATX MB.
@@AmigaWolf I was more concerned about the costs of them. I've already got two SFF PCs. One is an ASROCK Deskmini A300 with a Ryzen 2400G and other is an Inwin Chopin case with the same APU.
@@johnbonner2656 Aha ok, yeah i did not want a Mini PC like that, i made one that also could fit a Low Profile graphics card, and i have done that, put a MSI GeForce GTX 1650 4GT LP OC in it, with a Steam controller, and now i can play many games on it all on 1080P or 4K on medium/high settings, High for 1080P and low to Medium for 4k, but i play the most on my Mini Media/Console PC Platform games, like Alien Breed 1, 2 and 3, and BloodRayne Betrayal, and Broforce, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD, Double Dragon: Neon, and Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, and 3D games like Beyond Good and Evil, Darksiders Warmastered Edition and Darksiders II, and more.
I really look forward to these when AMD finally releases APUs with RDNA graphics.
I can't wait to see a pn51 ryzen 5000 review
thanks for testing SFV with these small systems, thats one of my top games and its great to see how the performance is
Eagerly awaiting the emulation testing on this baby!
Same
Its really nice for someone who wishes for a windows type mac mini
I mean... not everything is defined in terms of Apple products? This is $250 USD cheaper than the cheapest Mac Mini, and Windows is preferable to many people rather than being locked in the Macintosh OS.
Except with a great selection of ports and an OS that's good for gaming and tinkering.
@@BenKlassen1 yea
@@dandiaz19934 that's true like u can install linux and stuff it's great
@@dandiaz19934 locked ? It’s a Linux core you know ? And you can install à crapy bloated Windows on it if you realy wan it
Reminds me of my Mac Mini, also 6" square, that I bought new about 20 years ago. I don't use it much, but it still works and was plug & play, not a kit, for about $600.
I can't wait to see mini pc powered by Zen3 cores.
More importantly rdna2 graphics that are supposed to arrive sometime this year in apus
Meanwhile 5600u is expected to have 1 more vega gpu core(vega 7) and run 300MHz higher(1800). Theoretical increase of about 1.4x. who knows, a small overclock, and better memory might actually net you just about that.
@@the_retag Nope more Vega in the 5xxxU series and still 7nm. I guess we will have to wait till the 6xxxU series comes out for RDNA2 graphics and 5nm. Heck if you drill down some of the 5xxxU series are still Zen2 cores! I was completely underwhelmed by AMD's announcement on this front. A full Zen3 line up with RDNA2 graphics at 5nm would have been awesome.
@@jonathanbuzzard1376 Absolutely! Zen3+RDNA2 will definitely be a dream 1080P Gaming and High end Emulation setup for sure especially in a tiny form factor.The only thing holding back these APU'S are the graphical power,once RDNA2 in CPU and DDR5 Memory gets released we could possibly see 1080P entry level graphic cards being obsolete.
I have the version using the 4800U. I have 64GB of ram in mine and works fine. I'm a developer so this much ram is handy to have. For the size and power draw this is an excellent system. I love my little PN50.
I'm interested to get one of these for programming as Jr. and carry it around anywhere. Would it hold all the workload?
Congrats on 600k Subscribers :D
Thank you!!
I love watching reviews on these mini machines. I don't plan on picking one up or anything, I just enjoy seeing how these do. Maybe one day.
awesome machine. having a laptop with 4700u for a few weeks now i'm still astonished at performance the mobile cpus are having nowadays.
Who would've thought you could run Doom Eternal without a big graphics card but with an embedded solution. Nice to see it works really well. Just needs to get cheaper
You can build a better config in a similar form factor. Asrock X300 + 4650G from Ali + 16GB RAM will cost you around $500 USD. The powerbrick will be bigger though.
@@vaddimka Interesting. Good to know
Might not be a sector you focus on or have interest in, But I've always wanted to see someone put a vmware lab together with MINI PCs and see how well it could run. I currently have a mix of old HP/Lenovo workstations with XEON CPUs and while they are more than adequate, the power drain is substantial.
I used two T430 and a raspberry pi as storage with multiple servers as POC.
If you have SSDs you can easely run 10 virtual machines or more. While still using for other things.
It sounds like an awesome device. Can't wait when my NUC will stop working.
Silicon Power SSDs and NVME drives have become my go to! The quality and speed are both good, and you can't beat their prices!
Hey, ETA..congrats on reaching 600K!
I wonder fi PS2 will run on this unit.
it will for sure, maybe wii u at 30fps
I'd like to see a test with the 4800u variant.
they're hard to buy (in europe), even 4700u variant is pretty scarce
But one problem is that the ctdp gets to 13 watts after heavy usage
@@TomaszStachewicz Hard to buy? You mean unavailable. I've seen some companies saying that they will be available in 3-4 weeks, but they've been saying that for months. I've been able to buy a 4800U version when it came out, but want to buy another one for my business. That 4800U is more powerful then my six year old i7-5820K, running VMware on it without incident and it often uses 20-25W under normal usage. For anything outside of (heavy) PC gaming and content creation that needs something stronger then the integrated graphics, these will be my main PCs!
I just got used to these Ryzen 3000 APUs and now we are at 4000 and 5000. And I can't even tell, if they are comparable.
So for me a comparison would be fine just to see what performance compared to a 2400, 2700 and 3700 (both with a lower range GPU like a RX 580/ 5600) is to expect.
Since Ryzen 4500 is newer (and more advanced?) than 3600 it should be faster, shouldn't it? And 4800 should be faster than 3700 (X) or 5600 ... alone by its "8" in the name. But somehow I doubt that....
@@Cergorach wow, you're right. the store that i remember had them - now has 4700u pn50 listed as "withdrawn from offering".
$459 is quite alot for a small apu with only 8gb of ram. I wouldn't pay more than $350 for one of these.
@Brian Babin True, it's easy to build something yourself that is faster. Most people have trouble changing light bulbs though, this is the best they can manage.
@Brian Babin True but how much power does your system use? I think people often forget the cost of electricity. This device is dirt cheap and if you're using it as a Plex server, you can earn back the cost of it after just a year or two just because of how it uses a quarter the electricity of a regular system on idle. I'm seriously considering moving Plex to a NUC-style PC for that reason.
@Brian Babin You're missing the point here.. These tiny PCs have a place and purpose and the money-to-performance ratio is not what they're going for. For example - I need a tiny (yes, smaller than that PSU-sized A300) & power-efficient (65W on that 3400G alone?) stationary PC that can handle 2-3 monitors for a camper van and Asus' PN50 or Gigabyte's Brix series are the perfect choice for that. If you don't care about the power usage and mainly use it at home? Sure, an A300 would make way more sense. Or a straightup ITX build for that matter~
@@8lacKhawKtheRIPPER Nobody said you got to use the 3400g. The A300 will also work fine with a 2200g. You can really build the A300 for half the price of this thing. Sure its a bit larger but not that much and can fit 2 NVMEs and 2 2,5 inch Sata drives.
Indeed. But there are other solutions out there other than asus's
I decide to not reply to a specific comment. I got one equipped with 4700u, they are really hard to catch indeed, mine was the only one in the biggest regional IT retailer. I am using it with 64G RAM (3200) and 4 QHD monitors. BTW all SKUs support 64GB RAM. Watching a number of reviews, including ETA's I am starting to realize that the 4500u model is probably the best balanced one. Mine overheats and having 4 monitors at once greatly contributes to the problem - supporting so big video surface on the shared memory is a strain and if you think about it the SODIMMs are big plates that , if hot enough, will warm up the insides quite easily. All the ASUS specs are met, but one thing they probably should consider is that the compartment on the other side of the CPU has no fans or other means to move the air and depends on convection alone. When you stuff the mini-pc to the max like me this is causing problems. The good thing is the problems need relatively heavy usage in order to start showing up and very little is needed to cure the problem, the bad thing is - you will have to come up with a solution yourself. I bought a 92mm noctua 5V fan and I put the PN50 over it. There are enough holes on the bottom (even with 2.5 inch SSD) to allow airflow and this cools the thing quite well, much more than it really needs, but it is the simplest solution without heavy modding. Well, the conclusion from my troubles is probably that lately we neglect the strain we cause to the video adapters and video memory with multiple monitors and while gaming requires a lot from the GPU, attaching many monitors puts the burden mostly on the RAM, but the effects are pronounced even more in a small form factor pc like this one, probably because the RAMs relative physical size.
UA-cam: How many mini PCs are you going to review, ETA?
ETA: *yes*
You are like a Database, even in Bangladesh, where everything isn't available, whatever is available though you have covered all of it.
thank you.
I have the 4800u variant and have been pretty happy with it, running pihole via docker and plex. Temps are a little high at idle for my liking, even with the performance fan curve applied.
I see you discussed the fan noise situation. I've been burnt too many times by UA-cam reviewers saying one thing but the reality is different.
The Beelink GTR. Beelink GK55. Minisforum UM300. Minisforum DMAF5. All different levels of NOISY. GTR and DMAF5 unacceptably so. I've been trying to replace my 3.5 year old Asus VivoMini... which too has been noisy. (I had it controlled with Speedfan for a while but that broke somehow. And yes I clean the fan.)
ETA. If you could do a fellow MiniPCManiac a favor. In all future reviews of minis --
1. Put the system thru something strenous (It's amazing how upset any PC gets if you run a FULL SCAN of Windows Defender)
2. Stick a mic right up to the unit with no talking or no sound coming from the PC.
Asus is truly one of the best if not, thee best PCs around. You get what you paid for as Asus not cheap and worth the cost you spend. Never could afford one as I was using Dells, HP, as most of their products are in the masses of being sub par quality and find them annoying to find great ones out of so many models and do get you losted in buying one that do not fit your needs as in a very very good PC overall. I only came across having one out of PURE LUCK of someone leaving their Asus Desktop as a free pick up from curbside. Not sure why someone would throw away other then assuming that person got another model of the latest model line. The Asus I picked up had the system ratings of 7.6 out of the scale of 1 to 7.9. Even using standard VGA plug Im viewing videos in 1080p and when I use the HDMI , the videos give out the 4k ultra at 1400k resolution. For that type of quality I went ahead and bought a 43 inch 4k HD TV to use for Monitor as the Asus is 10x better then using the cable tv viewing. Very blessed to own one for free, very blessed to get this lucky of owning ASUS....
I bought the 4500u version and spent hours installing Windows on an NVME but the USB ports were very unreliable, tried to get a replacement but the rest of their stock had the same issue, had to swap it for a i5 10th gen NUC
So sad, I still regret not waiting for a replacement PN50, so much better
This is the wee beastie I own. It's great. Just wish the fan curves were a little more steady. Unless you adjust the power settings, it revs up and down too much.
What if you disconnect the fan, does the APU get too hot? What if you replace the fan with a heat sink, or just leave the box open?
Hey you finally got one! I got my 4700u model back in October and it's been my daily driver for work at my desk since.
Pro tip - you can use Ryzen Controller to play with boost levels and wattage. I repasted mine to drop a couple degrees and use Ryzen Controller profiles depending on what I'm doing. Also, make sure you update the firmware, as they fixed some issues with the boosting/voltage curve/fan profiles. Enjoy!
Edit: Not sure where you got yours, but I got my 4700u model from Amazon for 410$. Maybe prices have jumped in 4 months, but that's a significant difference between your 476$ for 4500u.
Bought one! Couldn't be happier, amazing device to use as a low powered homeserver.
I wanted to get 2 & run Kubernetes. - glad it doesn't make a lot of noise. - I heard there are variations where you can swap out the Display Port? - 2.5gb eth would be nice.
Does it get noisy under load?
@@viacheslavspitsyn2995 not at all!
Can't wait for these to play games at 4k in a couple of years. If you travel a lot like I do, these are just perfect. Also, if you're just a casual gamer just sitting in the living room, this is really great. Love IR. More phones needs to bring back IR blaster.
Nicely done, thank you for the effort and subsequent info.
Been interested in this little machine, I dont do a lot of heavy gaming, mostly just play Emulated Games and Indie Titles that run on even Intel HD Graphics like a champ, and with it being Zen 2, it already has a pretty solid Core Performance for the work apps I also use.
Nice to see some actual numbers, it was kind of hard to see anyone talk about this, and I look forward to the eventual Emulation Testing, hoping to see how this faces heavier emulators.
Those jazz guys lift my heart, they are really good at what they do and are kind of cool.
Hi it is a really nice mini PC , Picked up the PN50 4800U, as a backup to my Ryzen 3900x Gaming PC /, Great Video thanks
never have a chance to see BIOS walkthrough on this channel.
For my use case, I just want something that can run a DAW with high quality VST's, internet stuffs with quite a few extensions running, and Photoshop (Potentially other software in the future). Gaming is a bonus, it's good that it runs these pretty well, pretty much sold on this APU.
Out of the gate, pretty good utilization. I like the specs.
That thing is well designed. I don't think I've ever seen a mini pc I would consider buying... until now.
The build on this mini Ryzen PC is great. It would definitely run game streaming services smoothly. I have an Asus Chromebox and it runs just fine.
Don't forget to test Golden Eye N64 on this ;)
If my $50 Moto G6 throwaway phone will run 007, I'm sure this box would.
@@moviemania1137 I would love to get the FPS numbers on that, because even my 2070 cant get 60
Kinda crazy that this basically performs as good if not better than the Alienware Alpha I bought in 2016 for more than double the price.
The Alpha was a crazy good value especially considering it forum factor. I was able to get the gen I, 4th gen i3 version for $400 back in 2015
@@Mario_Fields It was a neat little device. Unfortunately my unit has had multiple issues. I had to send it in for repairs just * one month * after buying it. It worked fine for a few years after that. Then in late 2020 it just randomly won't boot anymore, stuck on on the Alienware splash screen.
I've tried all the suggested fixes, replacing the battery, cycling the power, doing some kind of reset with the pins on the motherboard, swapping out the ssd, changing the ram... and nothing worked.
It was great when it worked, but it definitely has / had problems.
for a few months I had looked into getting a mini PC. Ideally with an AMD APU. I found a couple with really promising specs. but I ended up finding out that a laptop is almost always cheaper. and the laptop comes included with a screen, "mouse", keyboard, power supply, and battery. I ended up getting an Acer Aspire 5. nearly the same specs as this, ryzen 4500u, 16gb RAM, 128gb SSD (added 2.5" SSD). its MSRP is $550. but I got 2 huge discounts, $150 off for being approved for amazon credit card. and $100 off in my other credit card rewards points. Very hard deal to pass up and the performance is very nice.
If you crack open an Seagate 5tb 2.5" external drive you can use that too, they are SATA internally.
Was ready to pull the trigger on that Minisforum X400 but this is the better deal IMHO. No difference between the 4500U in this and the 4650U in the X400 except SMP, which shouldn't make much difference for gaming and emulation. Plus this has an m.2 slot that supports NVMe. Newegg has this unit for $430 and you can spec this box out comparable to an X400 with your own choice of RAM and storage and easily save $100.
I'd love to see how this does in emulation
These SFF machines are spectacular for in home streaming as well. I've had great luck using Linux and moonlight with NVidia @ 1080 and 60FPS. Basically all your desktop oomf streamed to your TV. It's great if you want to chill on your couch with a controller.
Would you recomend this for editing 4k 10 bit videos?
Not sure the faster cpu would have helped in games as the Vega 6 is more than likely the limiting factor and vega 8 is a minor bump and still the limiting factor.
yeah lol kinda weird for him to say that. The cpu is basically idling ingame.
@@boratsagdiyev1586 the GPU was at like 35% in one of the games so definetly could squieze more out of it and vega 6 to vega 8 is 33% more power so probably 20% more performance
@@LiLBitsDK That's not because the cpu is slow, WoW is just a terribly optimized game, see how low the cpu-load was? Probably DX9 Engine.
Apart from that, the IPC is actually really great, the difference compared to the best desktop cpu's is only because of lower clock speeds.
Plus, the automatic core voltage is always way wayyyyy too high. I bet if you put on that same voltage manually you could get 400/500 mhz for free without even coming closer to the TDP. Then it's only like 20% under a 10500K in most single threaded instructions.
Ps, if you're not fully utilizing the gpu, you can also just raise the graphical fidelity of instructions that are processed by the gpu,
for example use higher quality textures, or better AA, for example shadows and reflections are a cpu hog in gta5.
I remember i had a 1080ti with a fx8350 and it ran perfectly because i played it at 4K, giving the GPU all the load it can take.
Now i have a high refresh rate monitor, so that became a bottleneck and had to upgrade to a better cpu.
@@boratsagdiyev1586 pretty sure WoW can use DX11 or so (they got 2 different versions unless they removed that graphics option) lets just say it's been a while since I tried it
The 4700U and 4800U versions each have more GPU cores and are thus (a little) more powerful. The 4800U integrated graphics impressed me quite a bit. Not even close to a GTX970, but still more power then I expected from an IG solution.
So what would this be used for? Is it to replace regular Desktop computers? Is it to replace a Server?
What contoler do you use? I'm on market for PC game controller like that, wireless one that does not break a bank.
I personally always use an Xbox one controller, just swapped over to the Xbox series s controller
@@ETAPRIME Is One much worse? Is Series S better choice?
@@TenSapphires I personally like the one controller better but I have big hands
@@TenSapphires they're very similar but the newer ones are slightly better imo
if you had to pick the ultimate gaming mini pc that runs on windows, what would you pick?
Hey what do you do with those after reviewing.
Do you sell them?
Gives them to me
You should check out the lenovo m75q gen 2. Runs the amd pro 500chipset instead of the a300 on these. Can be had with a 4750ge. Just got one because of your lenovo it reviews. It's also milspec rated
I’ve been trying to find one on eBay.
They have crazy sales on them. I did a custom build nothing but the air filter stand and tool less. No mouse and keyboard. Saved $600 using a discount code. I think they may be too new for ebay so far. But worth a look if you can snag one!
Dell makes a laptop with upgradable RAM, a 2nd m.2 drive slot(no mounting brackets though you can order them if you search hard enough), and a 4700u all in one of their cheaper models. It's the Inspiron 15 5505. I got one for my GF for like 700. Only problem is the display is pretty dim but I'm sure the touchscreen one might be better, who knows lol.
Congrats for 600k! 😀
Asus and ryzen are really in the lead when it comes to easy to use, long term use and high performance.
i can't personally see what else you would want as a customer.
The USB C ports front and rear just shat themselves on my PN50. From doing a little searching I'm not alone.
Interested to see a mac mini comparison on total cost and performance
Bought the imac.
I bought a ThinkPad with a 4500U in 2020. Didn't buy it for gaming, but it's fast and AMD's variable clock speed/power management makes it perfect for a laptop. I've thought about it as a mini pc, but it just comes down to a video/emulation machine. My laptop was $650 with everything included... this? Seems a waste of a perfectly nice ASUS mini case.
I am looking for a best bang fir the buck mini PC and I am willing to sacrifice a bit form factor. What exact models were you recommending in your final thoughts? I want a home 4k media pc that also does backup and it is future proof.
These are very nifty. It will be interesting to see if the update these for Zen 3 parts!
Hey man love your videos. Just one question : can I put an external gpu on this unit via the m.2?
Any chance you might have done some out of the box Linux testing and could share your experience?
noise level? fun size? fun speed?
Those power draw figures this would make an awesome small server
Statecraft 2.
I'm a huge fan of the game and it's about all I play, more of a curiosity as to the settings and quality you get out of playing on that system
I would like to see the same tests with an external gpu.
I really like your videos!
I wanted a Tower PC for my Office, Web development and Zoom stuff but getting a good prebuild system is hard and I struggle to find the time to build my own tower from the ground up. This PN50 with the Ryzen 4800U seems more than capable enough for anything except heavy gaming. What do you think?
Congrats for 600K subs!
Can you show how to setup one of these as an emulation system, perhaps using Linux? I mimic'd your raspberry pi mini gaming cabinet and I think this might be a huge upgrade.
Is this the best bang for the buck for a mini PC build nowadays?
I wonder how many rooms can he fill with those
*MINI PC* He has.....
none he gives them away
Maybe one mini room
He could probably build a room with them all if he kept them, little bricks...
Good work. Love my 8 core AMD FX, but I'll think about it when it crashes. It's been up for 7 years.
I think DBZ Fighterz would run smoother than Street Fighter 5 on these mini-PC's, thanks for the WOW test thou. Nice review as usual complete and detailed.
Brilliant video and it got me hooked, to be honest, so I have purchased an ASUS Mini PC PN62-BB5004MD 0.6L Sized PC Intel Core I5-10210U, No RAM, No HDD, can tell me which is the best and biggest drive for it and the maximum memory I can get for the slots provided, it will be with me within 4 days, once I have built it up I will download the windows 10 pro, hope you don't mind, I guess if you don't reply you do lol. Much Respect.
I'm getting this mini Asus PC it looks awesome 👍
I can't wait for you to get your hands on an AYA NEO handheld which has a 4500u in it.
Bro, nice video as usual...Congrats for reaching 600k followers, proud of you...I see 1 mill in your near future
what is the app/software are you using to monitor your FPS/gpu usage? the one on the top left pf your screen..TIA
The ultimate mod for this would be an exact same sized box to sit and attach to this above it and will function as the water reservoir for water cooling.
I have the 4800, it is a bit noisey, The blower fan should be replaced with a full sized fan and the box increased in size by 7 mm, it would fix an otherwise perfect design.
Amazon has an Asrock mini-atx board+cpu j4105m $85, has pcie 2.0x16 slot, add an Nvidia 1650 GPU then see how it compares to i5 optiplex with 1050 card. Just an idea....
j4105 is an anemic celeron chip sorta based on the ATOM cores if I recall right and you are wanting to compare a whole bunch of stuff instead of one thing at a time... the 1650 beats the 1050 big time (and beats the 1050ti as well) so if you have the same cpu for both, the 1650 wins... so get an optiplex and stick in a 1650 tadaaa... no need to "downgrade" to a j4105
Great video as always ETA. What portable monitor do you use? I'm looking into doing a setup for on the go.
In the market for a small pc, better check with O.P. first. Thanks mang!
Would you recommend this pc for embedded use for controlling several pieces of industrial equipment at once? Thabks
Just curious, where did you get that red screwdriver you’ve been using in the past couple vids? I checked out the toolkit you have linked in the video description but the screwdriver in those kits look different.
ETA Prime, I want to know... #1 what kind of PC (Specs) I would need to run Madden 12 on PCSX2? #2 Can any of these mini PC's handle it? Thanks.
By now you ARE the mini PC Guru!!! So plz enlighten..this Asus (4500U) or the
have you done a emulation retro guide for the 1650? while these small form computers are great, with all the dropping prices on used making a super cheap emulation game machine is great
you can run emulation on older and weaker gpus... so do you think you can run it on the newer 1650? buy a machine, plop it in, ya don't need a guide for that
how is the SSD ?
is this a good brand ?
nice review ETA!!!!!
I'd like to have you compare it to the apple m1
Whoa! Nice pc game selections!
There are larger capacity drives out there. Is there a hardware or BIOS limit for them?
Can I just ask what software your using to monitor the stats?
Finally one that isn't 4core or dual core!
Looking forward to the emulation video.
Finally something that's cheaper here in Denmark $733 for the 4800U version :D