I bought it here (UK) amzn.to/3j3Y06w (Affiliate link) 00:00 - Intro 01:05 - Unboxing 02:02 - Build, ports and design 04:07 - RAM & SSD I'll use 04:35 - Installing the part required to get up and running 06:21 - Bios and useful settings 07:21 - Performance, benchmarks, 4k video playback, thermals and power consumption 13:19 - 4k video editing and export time (Adobe Premiere Pro) 16:09 - Gaming performance 17:52 - Linux support? 18:15 - Recap with Pros & Cons
And chance for a list of what you think the best mini pcs are for some light gaming and general purpose usage. Desktop is dying wanted to get a ryzen mini pc anyways and kinda want a pass over till I decide what to do for a new desktop.
A 2TB SSD M2 drive was installed in the review. And on the ASUS website it is indicated that the maximum supported size of the SSD M2 drive is only 512 MB. It's kind of weird.🤔
Thanks Chris! Ryzen Mini PCs are just YUM. it's a shame Asus doesn't release a companion monitor with an excellent 1080p webcam built in. (Of course with a Lenovo privacy shutter.) That monitor and this type of PC would be a slam dunk.
A friend of mine bought the PN50 with the 4700U and he loves it with one exception being the temperature as it gets a little warm. I am thinking of buying this one (4500u) as it's great value for money. Great review again Chris as always
I have a couple Intel NUCs that use to run warmer than I liked until I took them apart and used Liquid Metal for heat compound on the chips. It is the same stuff I use when delidding Intel desktop processors and lowers the temps by over 10 degrees celsius.
Hi, sorry to bother you here. Now I'm on a Athlon ii x4 630 2.8 GHz with 4 G Ram (not expandable). Need a PC to run IntelliJIdea Community Edition (for Scala), among else. Any idea about if it is worth to go for Ryzen 7 4800U instead of Ryzen 5 4500U? RAM 32 Gb enough? Many thanks.
@@voltydequa845 i have the 4500U with 16GB RAM and it runs intelli J Android Studio with the emulator very comfortably. I do use up to 12GB of ram but that is mostly the crappy Android emulator.
@TechTablets I bought the Ryzen 7 4700u for £360 and love it. I had an old monitor, mouse, keyboard and SSD lying around so only really needed to buy the RAM. So for about £400, all in, I've got a Ryzen 7 machine with 16gb RAM and 750gb storage. I think for that money it's excellent. Also gives flexibility to upgrade the monitor or add more RAM etc. Love it! Great review thank you.
@@justinpatterson5291 My friend had an AsRock A300 with a 3400G and saw the Asus PN50 as an upgrade. But when he tried to play World of Tanks and War Thunder, both games moaned about the low video memory. He tried the registry hack to increase the limit, but it didn't work. He also got in touch with Asus, to no avail. So he sold it and bought a mATX system instead.
These Ryzen Mini PCs might be faster than my 7th and 8th generation NUCs but the NUCS have Thunderbolt 3 so if I want to game I use my eGPU with a decent full size graphics card which works great. For normal stuff my NUCS just fly along. Thunderbolt licensing is free from Intel so Asus should have added Thunderbolt 3 as well for a few dollars more.
damn chris you made enjoying mini pc review like i used to enjoy mobile review to tell the truth i am enjoying mini pc review more lately because of you thanks alot huge fan
I along with many others who watch your very professional reviews really thank you for that.....Anyway I am in the market for a mini pc and this ASUS looks like it would fit my needs....I agree That it should be a little less money, but it IS by a major manufacture, that's always a plus.
It's really a solid Mini PC and hard to fault at all! You do get what you pay for Vs cheaper more unmown brands that might have worse fan noise etc. And then there is the warranty you get with this and ease of replacement.
Absolutely fantastic to see this review. I want to pick up one for testing if Ryzen mobile more. I have a G14. I'm the developer of Ryzen Mobile Tuning. I hope that a few people will start using the latest update to do in depth analysis of how power limits effect performance. You can also read memory bandwidth and utilization. My work has 2 of the Ryzen 3, 5, and 7 units each. They are all the non SMT units but they look really good.
I bought the Redmibook 16 (16gb/4500u) for $650/€555 tax free in Germany. Considering that you get a whole system including a screen, I think it's a better buy (if you find the coupon)
I just got the Zotac Zbox CA621 Nano a couple months ago because the AMD powered PN50 was nowhere to be found. It's still a good machine and passive cooling is a huge win for my application, but having 4800U power would be amazing.
If the bios allows it (it does on all ASUS mb i've encountered desktop&laptop) set memory for GPU(in APU units) to 2GB - it does help. I just bought the 4800U awaiting delivery since it was very hard to find even now. If you have the time try and do it and run some GPU benchmarks or even GTA 5 gameplay to see the difference. Maybe even post it as a comment. Subbed and Thanks!
Just what I was waiting for. Fantastic review again, real shame your other models were cancelled. Interested to see what the 4700u and 4800u models are like.
@@Techtablets Still a great unit! Love mini pcs and this is no exception. If I can get hold of the 4700u model will be nice addition to the collection.
Those little machines are very impressive. I have an older one with a celleron cpu that i use mostly for running discord and other tasks while im gaming. To be fair my game rig would handle back ground tasks just fine but I prefer not to do that. I mounted one of these little low powered options to the back of a second monitor and i use synology to share one mouse/keyboard across 2 machines. As low powered as my little minisforum is, its snappy for just web browsing and running discord.
They have their uses. I use mini PC's for lighter takes and my 8700K / GTX 1080 rig for video editing. It's a little outdated now especially for a tech channel 😂 But my desktop I might swap the MB and go with the 5900X, AMD, and maybe the new RTX 3080 or AMD GPU whatever is cheaper. Another plan is to also not upgrade and just go PS5/Xbox for gaming. 4k PC gaming is getting so expensive.
@@Techtablets Ha! Im with you sir, my main rig is r7 3700x, x570, 32gig, but my gpu is an rx590. I refuse to pay more than $300 for a gpu. After the smoke clears from these botched launches ill consider big navi, but the price point will be critical. Most likely after april 2021 ill end up with a 3070 if i have to(im a team red fan boy) or if the 5700xt falls into my price range, one of those. Love your content sir, thank you for bringing us these pearls!
I've been running this for the past several weeks as my main work pc driving a 38" 160hz display. I am extremely impressed with these Ryzen chips compared to the Intel competition. Pity the 4800u is so hard to get hold of atm!
Thanks for reviewing this mini PC. I am considering buying 4800U model when it becomes available. One thing, could you please add AV1 4K video playback as a test (just opening any 4K 60 fps youtube video would do). On my current miniPC H265 4K playback is flawless because it is GPU accelerated, but AV1 is not GPU accelerated and miniPC struggles.
Amd is getting there but really hope they crunch more and put something as good as rx470 in their next apu That would be a killer minipc,almost 5years now and it should be possible they tweak the tdp of something like rx5300
4700G with dual channel 4ghz ram speed has similar performance to rx 460, but to reach rx 470 is really hard, rx 470 has double CU than rx 460 At least what Apu needs is ddr5 first
Thank you very much for your review. I'm looking for a mini PC and this review was very useful. Finally, did you buy this pc in Amazon UK or Amazon Spain? I can't find it in Amazon Spain with a good price. I'm seeing that it's cheaper to buy it in Amazon UK with delivery to Spain. Regards from "confined" Madrid
I bought it 3 times on Amazon UK and always got messages about no stop and to cancel it. Later found it for 410 euros on Amazon Spain. Expensive and a bit of a hiked up price. Availability is terrible on these units. 4800U & 4700U units seem impossible to get hold of with ETA's of December and even Jan 2021!
@@Techtablets What a shame! Buying this Asus through Amazon UK its price is similar to an Intel NUC i5-10210U in Spain. And I think this Asus is better by far than the NUC i5. Thank you Chris.
I've been using the PN50 for a few months and my only complaint is it needs better cooling. I use it for music production not gaming but under sustained heavy loads doing video editing or performing full system backups tasks it runs hot 70*c nvme drive and 90*c cpu on hwinfo app.
wow, that's a crazy small workstation! up to 8 cores, 64gb ram and 2 ssd slots? insane. good install tutorial too. video capture quality is great too. what software did you use for it?
Those ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs are beasts! Just bought a legion 5 laptop with a 4800h and dual channel 3200mhz ram and it crushes cinebench r15. The highest i got was 1924cb with lenovo's performance mode enabled. The cpu draw up to 69W and it sustained a boost of 4.1 ghz all core during the test. At the beginning of the test, before the temps went up, the cpu boosted to 4.3 all core. That's insane performance for a laptop! It's a shame i only managed to buy this laptop with only a gtx1650. I wish manufacturers put more powerful gpus in ryzen powered laptops.
Chris, I have a request which may sound like a bit odd. Is it possible for you to extend the PCIe X4 M.2 Slot using an extender cable and then a PCIe X16 Raiser card to run an external GPU, like you did with one of your i7-8750H based mini PC? You can run the OS to a 2.5" Drive, say one 512GB 2.5" SSD. Nobody does these kind of tweaks in their reviews with the exception of TechTablets.
I'll see if I can the issue is my APD Link PCIE GPU external stand has a very short cable I should have ordered the longer cable. I'll see if I can run it. It should work and yes run the OS from a 2.5" SSD.
@@Techtablets Reason for asking this is that Renoir Processors are very power efficient and even the 15W version has 6 Cores and they'll not be a bottleneck, like Intel 4 Core U series Processors, to the Graphics card, when paired with a mid-range GPU like GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060.
Ive had one of these for about a month now and its awesome as a development box running ubuntu. I just wanted to make a quick note here that I did have to install a newer version of the linux kernel to get multiple displays working with it
I advise you to review asrock x300, the latest generation of asrock a300. Now available on alibaba/aliexpress. It has supported gen 2 renoir 7nm procie IGPU.
@J Fz gaming laptops with rtx 2080 max q are thinner if I'm not mistaking and about it being a niche product I doubt that. I proposed a gtx 1660 mobile instead of an rtx 2080 as it'll reduce the cost of a bare bone package but give it some better gaming capabilities. Thermal solutions is possible too.
@J Fz mobo, chasis and a gtx 1660 mobile if truly $100 for OEM's shouldn't make the total cost of my proposed bare bone no more than $550 without ram, storage and Windows license (this in particular isn't necessary at all). If you factor in profits and such we may be looking at $650 selling price. Everything mobile is costly I guess.
@Osaka2407 PC is multipurpose so I'd say for someone who needed mobility and portability for work eg. Video editing would benefit too. I mean these form factors already exist so why not make them to their full capacity.
One thing that comes to mind and more of value idea and not for size would old fx 8350 plus mirco atx motherboard with maybe a hd 7870 be a value due being run somwhat well even in these day, plus you could easyly run games form xp era plus some newer stuff still well for price point.
@Osaka2407 I would buy a SSF bare bone that came with a Ryzen 4500U and Geforce 1660 only. Add some ram and SSD and would sit right at tye bottom of my living room 65" TV for all my htpc needs including light gaming and emulation (very important for me and most likely a lot of others like-minded). You make it sound as if there aren't products on the market more expensive for their use cases than what I'm proposing. Gaming laptops never appealed to me because I seriously doubt I'd try gaming on a bus or plane using that plus they cost a fortune for what definitely ends up with a reduce battery life and inevitably a stationary mobile device lol
Thanks for the fantastic rewiew! I have a NUC generation 6 right now but am thinking of buying this one. You recommend memory 3200 mhz - how much performance do I lose by moving my memories of 2133 mhz from my NUC instead of buying 3200? I also plan to move the Samsung M.2 850 EVO 500GB that is in the NUC
I saw a top comment on another review that said this - Those aren't actually drive size limits. I have the pn61, says the same thing. But those are just the limits of the drives they can ship with. I have a 1tb sata and 2tb nvme m.2 in mine.
ummmm a quick question: who's running 4 x 4k monitors off a mini pc? I mean it's no good for serious gaming or video editing. Chris always mentions this and I always scratch my head.
Anyone that uses their computer for WORK uses 4 screens. Damn, when a fucking inbred "gamer" starts asking questions about content creation and professional use of a machine
@@elvirredzepovic6898 I like you, you seem like a chill dude. Let me ask though, what kind of a cheap-ass loser can afford four 4k screens but buys a mini PC to run them? I'm guessing the kind of a pathetic wannabe "content creator" with 3 subscribers?
Hi. Thank you for the review. Always look forward to them. Quick question. For basic Premiere pro and games, on a budget, is it worth and will it make a big difference to spend extra for the 4800U instead of 4700U Processor ?
Desktop PC is very broad. There are some really cheap, poor quality desktops out there. However, this won't be better thermally than what can be done with a desktop. You could get watercooling on desktop if you wanted to.
@@Fina1Ragnarok tnx. btw, what is the average life span of a mini pc? considering that the consumer is a power user. Are they more error prone? is hardware failure more common in a mini pc?
@@ashrafulislammahim7335 They wouldn't be more error prone. It's lifespan should be fine. Provided there are no design flaws in a specific unit. The parts inside this(ryzen 4000 U series) are laptop/mobile parts. This mini pc has better cooling than a laptop would that has the same ryzen cpu.
Kinda sad AMD only released the Ryzen 4000 series with OEMs. But I guess they want to sell their Zen 3 CPUs more, the thing is most people would also need to upgrade their motherboards once those come out. Otherwise, this mini PC is awesome. So much power in such a small package. I'm a little bit worried about its temperature though.
3 года назад+1
I also have the same exact model. Excellent MiniPC! But there is already a BIOS update version 0416 available so you probably should update it...
3 года назад
By the way, are you able to run your DDR at a clock of 3200MHz? Could you confirm that? My Crucial Ballistix DDR 3200 seem to be running only at 2667MHz.
I have the new bios now and yes my RAM is running at 3200Mhz 100%. But my Crucial Ballistix shown in the thumbnail is 1.35v it will run at 2666Mhz only like yours. So get the HyperX 3200Mhz 1.2v 3200Mhz CL20 runs great. Or the cheaper Samsung DDR4 3200Mhz also worked fine at 3200Mhz for me but it's CL22 not that it really makes a difference.
@ same here... I bought a PN50 with 4700u and paired it with 2x8GB Crucial BallistiX 3200Mhz ram. On the PN50 support page it lists this ram as a 3200Mhz ram... Maybe I should have bought the HyperX...
Some tips: 1) Update de BIOS for better stability 2) Update the WiFi / Bluetooth drivers ASAP! Download them from Intel's website. The Windows default drivers really suck.
Looks very nice. Sry for the but, but aren't the clocks of the Vega6 a bit on the very low side? I thought they were suppose to be around 1400Mhz or something. Also some weeks ago, sry forgot to bookmark the thread, I saw a reddit post with a github project that could tweak (read increase) Renoir power limits. Esp on locked bioses where the pl cannot be adjusted and which limits iGPU clocks. Might be interesting te have a look into this.
About gaming, will Vega 7 be enough for running PES 2021 or FIFA 21? I'm not asking for anything too fancy. Because otherwise, for everyday use, I think that this little machine is prefect.
Great video! Thank you! Do you think it is possible to use WD Black SN750 SSD NVMe with heatsink on this mini pc? If yes, do you think it is good idea or not? Many thanks in advance!
HI just got my Pn50 4800, i took the ram and ssd and nvme , from my alienware alpha which died , but things have certainly moved, on my steam machine had a gtx960 lol
you can buy an inexpensive adapter with usb-pd trigger, to plug one side as asus barrel jack (asus usually has 4.0 x 1.3mm barrel jacks) and the other to usb-c cable.
@@mortifiedpinguin i get it. i just did it for both of my asus zenbook laptops, the adapter is really small, and now i can charge it with any usb-c charger capable of 20v :) i've been soldering my own adapters from usb-pd trigger and barreljack, but now there are ready-to-use products like this: www.aliexpress.com/item/4000459543361.html
@@TomaszStachewicz i use the usb co also for Displayport /HDMI and Data and if i use this adapter the port is blocked and cant be used for these purpose :-?
@@mortifiedpinguin well yes, the adapter takes one usbc cable/port. but if the computer had native usb-c charging you would need a separate usbc port for display anyway, right?
I'd love to buy one of these but I'm concerned about the fan longevity, especially when using it as a mini server. ASUS Australia WILL NOT allow me to buy a spare fan to put on the shelf for use after the warranty expires. I don't buy from Apple due to this sort of behaviour, I will no longer buy from ASUS.
@@RectanerTreadway From what I've seen it's a custom form factor. Generic fans may be able to be used, but you'd probably have to throw away the enclosure. The fan may be perfectly fine and outlast the solid state hardware, but this hasn't been my experience with custom fan/cooler packages in the past. Gigabyte have announced a Renoir based BRIX and they WILL sell me a fan, so when they hit the shelves I'll be buying one of those. You can source the ASUS fans from Europe, but I really don't want to give ASUS Australia any of my cash if they are going to behave in such an anti-consumer way.
@@ffsireallydontcare I'm in the US. Do you think it would be sensible to track down a spare fan from Asus, say in case something goes awry? It's interesting that you are focused on the fan specifically.
@@RectanerTreadway Hard to say. If you are just using the system as a desktop for 8 hours a day you may find the fan will be sufficient for its realistic performance lifespan, I intend to use it as a 24x7 server. I have an original ASUS EeeBox where the fan was fine under desktop conditions, but failed short of the solid state life when used 24x7. Service is also a bit difficult here. While the warranty period is excellent there is no service centre near me. As they insist on installing replacement fans only at their service partners I need to package up my device and send it to another city, meanwhile I lose the use of the device for weeks. ASUS US may operate in a completely different way. But keep in mind that to replace the fan yourself in the warranty period you will invalidate the warranty.
Hey Chris, you made also another video regarding an external GPU using an AliExpress adapter through the m.2 NVMe port. Have you tried such a solution on this Asus PN50?? I would be very interested to know if it works!
Hi, I saw that you have LatencyMon installed. How does the PN50 performs in that regard? Also, would you say it's quieter than the average laptop under sustained load?
Thanks very much for the review ! Have you testet an Display at the USB-C Ports under Linux ? I have three Monitors here and i like to use them all :-) But still cant find the aswer if this will work..... Update: i use DP->DVI and an USB-C->DVI adapter along with the HDMI it is NO problem at all using this with Linux and 3 Monitors. But the Fan keeps me going creasy, it is not too loud but steps up and down too fast. Sounds if its windy outside :-) Fancontrol is Not working with linux.
hi @TechTablets I got my PN50 from amazon UK too and got a new portable touch monitor ViewSonic TD1655 but I cannot get display signal from USB-C. I was sure it supports one cable usb-c connection for display, data and power because the manual also says that. Can you test this funcionality and help me please? According to situation I will contact Asus or ViewSonic support. BTW. so great review indeed.
question : How does one get ordering one of these with the optional extra ethernet port out the back?? All I see online are DP or HDMI or VGA ports in that slot... so confusing
I've had to return my 4800u as it had issues with hdmi showing no signal and I couldn't get it to load windows properly, kept crashing to main Asus screen, not impressed at all, I've ordered the beelink gt-r 🤞
Would this machine be suitable for music production? I'm looking for something portable to work with at the studio and at home. From what I see, with 1to of storage, 32gb of ram and a quite processor, it should be perfect for the job. Right? And it only costs about 550€.
It looks interesting... expensive, but interesting. Can't help but wonder why it's using a U CPU instead of an H though, it'll never be on turbo for very long kneecapped at 25W, it'll peter out at its base clocks of 1.8GHz most of the time.
I bought it here (UK) amzn.to/3j3Y06w (Affiliate link)
00:00 - Intro
01:05 - Unboxing
02:02 - Build, ports and design
04:07 - RAM & SSD I'll use
04:35 - Installing the part required to get up and running
06:21 - Bios and useful settings
07:21 - Performance, benchmarks, 4k video playback, thermals and power consumption
13:19 - 4k video editing and export time (Adobe Premiere Pro)
16:09 - Gaming performance
17:52 - Linux support?
18:15 - Recap with Pros & Cons
Why is it out of stock everywhere? is it in such a high demand?
@TechTablets Does the PN50 support ECC Memory in ECC Mode?
And chance for a list of what you think the best mini pcs are for some light gaming and general purpose usage. Desktop is dying wanted to get a ryzen mini pc anyways and kinda want a pass over till I decide what to do for a new desktop.
ryzen 4500u or intel 1135G7 ?
A 2TB SSD M2 drive was installed in the review. And on the ASUS website it is indicated that the maximum supported size of the SSD M2 drive is only 512 MB. It's kind of weird.🤔
lol, I love how GTAV is now "casual gaming" on an iGPU. Granted it's 7 years old now... Great review Chris, I want one!
One of the greatest reviewers!
Why?
He showed us the IR port and instantly forgot about it. What does it do?
saw pn50 ryzen...i've never click so fast lol
Finally AMD 4000 series mini PCs!
Thanks, you literally covered all my questions about this in your video, from linux to video editing to basic games. new sub here
Thanks Chris! Ryzen Mini PCs are just YUM. it's a shame Asus doesn't release a companion monitor with an excellent 1080p webcam built in. (Of course with a Lenovo privacy shutter.) That monitor and this type of PC would be a slam dunk.
A friend of mine bought the PN50 with the 4700U and he loves it with one exception being the temperature as it gets a little warm. I am thinking of buying this one (4500u) as it's great value for money.
Great review again Chris as always
I have a couple Intel NUCs that use to run warmer than I liked until I took them apart and used Liquid Metal for heat compound on the chips. It is the same stuff I use when delidding Intel desktop processors and lowers the temps by over 10 degrees celsius.
I just asked my grandma to install the ram sticks for me.
(Giggle)
How did it go?
@Jedi Knight wtf
@Jedi Knight Like a muppet to control eh?
hilarious
Simply NUC based in Texas, now offers the PN50.
This is my new dev pc. Works great
Hi, sorry to bother you here. Now I'm on a Athlon ii x4 630 2.8 GHz with 4 G Ram (not expandable). Need a PC to run IntelliJIdea Community Edition (for Scala), among else. Any idea about if it is worth to go for Ryzen 7 4800U instead of Ryzen 5 4500U? RAM 32 Gb enough? Many thanks.
@@voltydequa845 i have the 4500U with 16GB RAM and it runs intelli J Android Studio with the emulator very comfortably. I do use up to 12GB of ram but that is mostly the crappy Android emulator.
@TechTablets I bought the Ryzen 7 4700u for £360 and love it. I had an old monitor, mouse, keyboard and SSD lying around so only really needed to buy the RAM. So for about £400, all in, I've got a Ryzen 7 machine with 16gb RAM and 750gb storage. I think for that money it's excellent. Also gives flexibility to upgrade the monitor or add more RAM etc. Love it! Great review thank you.
Nice shame I couldn't get it as I wanted that one or the 4800U but such limited stock and supply issues.
Wonderful review as usual! 👏👏👏👏
Imagine having that inside the Optical Drive bay. So two pcs in one. Turn on the big PC only when you need that power. :D
buy external. cheap.
A friend bought one with a 4700u. It has a serious limitation in that the 512mb video memory cannot be changed in the bios.
Ouch. Thats similar to how my friend's old all in one operates. 512mb limitation
@@justinpatterson5291 My friend had an AsRock A300 with a 3400G and saw the Asus PN50 as an upgrade. But when he tried to play World of Tanks and War Thunder, both games moaned about the low video memory. He tried the registry hack to increase the limit, but it didn't work. He also got in touch with Asus, to no avail. So he sold it and bought a mATX system instead.
@@tur80t0ny honestly reading that, has killed any interest I had.
These Ryzen Mini PCs might be faster than my 7th and 8th generation NUCs but the NUCS have Thunderbolt 3 so if I want to game I use my eGPU with a decent full size graphics card which works great. For normal stuff my NUCS just fly along. Thunderbolt licensing is free from Intel so Asus should have added Thunderbolt 3 as well for a few dollars more.
damn chris you made enjoying mini pc review like i used to enjoy mobile review
to tell the truth i am enjoying mini pc review more lately because of you
thanks alot
huge fan
I along with many others who watch your very professional reviews really thank you for that.....Anyway I am in the market for a mini pc and this ASUS looks like it would fit my needs....I agree That it should be a little less money, but it IS by a major manufacture, that's always a plus.
It's really a solid Mini PC and hard to fault at all! You do get what you pay for Vs cheaper more unmown brands that might have worse fan noise etc. And then there is the warranty you get with this and ease of replacement.
well heres too the 4th video YT recomened after just ctrl c/ving the system name into the search bar good job with these vids you earned a sub
You give my grandmother too much credit, Chris.
Gamer Chris putting it down, great review!
You know it! 😂
Love the mini PC reviews!
WOW I've been saying this for years...!!!
LOVE IT !!!
Absolutely fantastic to see this review. I want to pick up one for testing if Ryzen mobile more. I have a G14. I'm the developer of Ryzen Mobile Tuning. I hope that a few people will start using the latest update to do in depth analysis of how power limits effect performance. You can also read memory bandwidth and utilization. My work has 2 of the Ryzen 3, 5, and 7 units each. They are all the non SMT units but they look really good.
manufacturer need to stop supplying driver at cd, 8gb flashdisk is cheap nowdays isnt🤦♂️
100% Yes, why not a simple 8GB USB drive they are dirt cheap
It's harder to mass transfer data to fd instead cd
8GB USB doesn't cost 50cent yet, and mass data transfer to optical media at the factory is cheaper as well, they want to save every cent if possible
It's even cheaper and easier to just host the files and provide a link
I can see these mini PC's becoming very popular. Great review 👍
I bought the Redmibook 16 (16gb/4500u) for $650/€555 tax free in Germany. Considering that you get a whole system including a screen, I think it's a better buy (if you find the coupon)
Recently, Asrock also had came out with their NUC-like 4x4 box mini pc, with AMD 4000 U-series as well. Looking forward for your test on it 👍
Impossible to get one of those! I tried, they are not selling to private customers, just companies... it’s mind boggling
@@rikpt Too bad! I actually quite like their NUC design 😔
@@finalkamen I was eager to get that 2.5 Gbe interface... had to use usb ones
Can't wait to buy this in 7 years as my next living room retro gaming console.
You'll be able to buy this performance for even cheaper and probably the size of an SD card within 7 years.
Awesome Chris thanks 👍
Appreciate the review mate as you said you would
I just got the Zotac Zbox CA621 Nano a couple months ago because the AMD powered PN50 was nowhere to be found. It's still a good machine and passive cooling is a huge win for my application, but having 4800U power would be amazing.
Thanks for the review :) it was very extensive :)
I love this mini pc devices, nice review
If the bios allows it (it does on all ASUS mb i've encountered desktop&laptop) set memory for GPU(in APU units) to 2GB - it does help. I just bought the 4800U awaiting delivery since it was very hard to find even now. If you have the time try and do it and run some GPU benchmarks or even GTA 5 gameplay to see the difference. Maybe even post it as a comment. Subbed and Thanks!
very helpful..thanks chris.
You're welcome!
Just what I was waiting for. Fantastic review again, real shame your other models were cancelled. Interested to see what the 4700u and 4800u models are like.
No stock and I waited for months on them and advised to cancel. Shame I really wanted the 4800U or 4700U nevermind at least I got hold of this unit.
@@Techtablets Still a great unit! Love mini pcs and this is no exception. If I can get hold of the 4700u model will be nice addition to the collection.
@@Techtablets I got one PN50 with 4800U from proshop but they had only 5 pcs and all disappeared same day the showed up.
Those little machines are very impressive. I have an older one with a celleron cpu that i use mostly for running discord and other tasks while im gaming. To be fair my game rig would handle back ground tasks just fine but I prefer not to do that. I mounted one of these little low powered options to the back of a second monitor and i use synology to share one mouse/keyboard across 2 machines. As low powered as my little minisforum is, its snappy for just web browsing and running discord.
They have their uses. I use mini PC's for lighter takes and my 8700K / GTX 1080 rig for video editing. It's a little outdated now especially for a tech channel 😂 But my desktop I might swap the MB and go with the 5900X, AMD, and maybe the new RTX 3080 or AMD GPU whatever is cheaper. Another plan is to also not upgrade and just go PS5/Xbox for gaming. 4k PC gaming is getting so expensive.
@@Techtablets Ha! Im with you sir, my main rig is r7 3700x, x570, 32gig, but my gpu is an rx590. I refuse to pay more than $300 for a gpu. After the smoke clears from these botched launches ill consider big navi, but the price point will be critical. Most likely after april 2021 ill end up with a 3070 if i have to(im a team red fan boy) or if the 5700xt falls into my price range, one of those. Love your content sir, thank you for bringing us these pearls!
I've been running this for the past several weeks as my main work pc driving a 38" 160hz display. I am extremely impressed with these Ryzen chips compared to the Intel competition. Pity the 4800u is so hard to get hold of atm!
It is. I really wanted the 4800U but the ones I found were only on eBay with stupid prices. Impressive mini PCs
is it worth going for the 4700 over the 4500 for 50gbp extra? the 4800 seems to be a bit pricy for me
@@xenios I personally would. I'm running a number of 6 and 8 core Ryzen laptops and would go for the 8 for longevity
Brilliant review. Thanks
What about the linux drivers ? Everything works ok? LAN, Video, USB3? Thanks?
Thanks for reviewing this mini PC. I am considering buying 4800U model when it becomes available. One thing, could you please add AV1 4K video playback as a test (just opening any 4K 60 fps youtube video would do). On my current miniPC H265 4K playback is flawless because it is GPU accelerated, but AV1 is not GPU accelerated and miniPC struggles.
Amd is getting there but really hope they crunch more and put something as good as rx470 in their next apu
That would be a killer minipc,almost 5years now and it should be possible they tweak the tdp of something like rx5300
4700G with dual channel 4ghz ram speed has similar performance to rx 460, but to reach rx 470 is really hard, rx 470 has double CU than rx 460
At least what Apu needs is ddr5 first
The memory is the limiting for gpu speed! Even ddr5 is too slow doe 470 speed!
Asus really makes great PC love this
Useful review, thank you
Thanks for watching!
Thank you very much for your review. I'm looking for a mini PC and this review was very useful. Finally, did you buy this pc in Amazon UK or Amazon Spain? I can't find it in Amazon Spain with a good price. I'm seeing that it's cheaper to buy it in Amazon UK with delivery to Spain. Regards from "confined" Madrid
I bought it 3 times on Amazon UK and always got messages about no stop and to cancel it. Later found it for 410 euros on Amazon Spain. Expensive and a bit of a hiked up price. Availability is terrible on these units. 4800U & 4700U units seem impossible to get hold of with ETA's of December and even Jan 2021!
@@Techtablets What a shame! Buying this Asus through Amazon UK its price is similar to an Intel NUC i5-10210U in Spain. And I think this Asus is better by far than the NUC i5. Thank you Chris.
This is fire 🔥
Still waiting for it to become available. Newegg had them for a short bit, but missed out. Looking forwarding to picking one up eventually.
I've been using the PN50 for a few months and my only complaint is it needs better cooling. I use it for music production not gaming but under sustained heavy loads doing video editing or performing full system backups tasks it runs hot 70*c nvme drive and 90*c cpu on hwinfo app.
Thanx! Great review!
wow, that's a crazy small workstation! up to 8 cores, 64gb ram and 2 ssd slots? insane.
good install tutorial too.
video capture quality is great too. what software did you use for it?
Those ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs are beasts! Just bought a legion 5 laptop with a 4800h and dual channel 3200mhz ram and it crushes cinebench r15. The highest i got was 1924cb with lenovo's performance mode enabled. The cpu draw up to 69W and it sustained a boost of 4.1 ghz all core during the test. At the beginning of the test, before the temps went up, the cpu boosted to 4.3 all core. That's insane performance for a laptop! It's a shame i only managed to buy this laptop with only a gtx1650. I wish manufacturers put more powerful gpus in ryzen powered laptops.
Chris, I have a request which may sound like a bit odd. Is it possible for you to extend the PCIe X4 M.2 Slot using an extender cable and then a PCIe X16 Raiser card to run an external GPU, like you did with one of your i7-8750H based mini PC? You can run the OS to a 2.5" Drive, say one 512GB 2.5" SSD. Nobody does these kind of tweaks in their reviews with the exception of TechTablets.
I'll see if I can the issue is my APD Link PCIE GPU external stand has a very short cable I should have ordered the longer cable. I'll see if I can run it. It should work and yes run the OS from a 2.5" SSD.
@@Techtablets Reason for asking this is that Renoir Processors are very power efficient and even the 15W version has 6 Cores and they'll not be a bottleneck, like Intel 4 Core U series Processors, to the Graphics card, when paired with a mid-range GPU like GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060.
i love you channel it's my favorite, is the cpu heatsink copper
4 4k!!! It could be my next options trading comp
Ive had one of these for about a month now and its awesome as a development box running ubuntu. I just wanted to make a quick note here that I did have to install a newer version of the linux kernel to get multiple displays working with it
Big works office dream buy !!!
Wow this mini pc is cool
I cant wait to see how it compares to the new NUC 11 with performance, etc.
NUC 11 will have Thunderbolt 3 like prior versions which allows use of eGPU for much better gaming.
Zen3+RDNA APU should be insane. I would buy one if it can run OW and other games at low with Close to 60 fps
Yes the future is looking very good it's only going to get better as AMD pushes ahead like this.
By the time this 6nm APU is coming out (2022), we might already have Zen 5 3nm desktop chips
why do companies still give out cdroms, when no has one, and easier to give out a usb
I advise you to review asrock x300, the latest generation of asrock a300. Now available on alibaba/aliexpress. It has supported gen 2 renoir 7nm procie IGPU.
I always wondered what is stopping these OEM from slapping something like a laptop grade GTX 1660 in addition to something like this mini PC.
@J Fz gaming laptops with rtx 2080 max q are thinner if I'm not mistaking and about it being a niche product I doubt that. I proposed a gtx 1660 mobile instead of an rtx 2080 as it'll reduce the cost of a bare bone package but give it some better gaming capabilities. Thermal solutions is possible too.
@J Fz mobo, chasis and a gtx 1660 mobile if truly $100 for OEM's shouldn't make the total cost of my proposed bare bone no more than $550 without ram, storage and Windows license (this in particular isn't necessary at all). If you factor in profits and such we may be looking at $650 selling price. Everything mobile is costly I guess.
@Osaka2407 PC is multipurpose so I'd say for someone who needed mobility and portability for work eg. Video editing would benefit too. I mean these form factors already exist so why not make them to their full capacity.
One thing that comes to mind and more of value idea and not for size would old fx 8350 plus mirco atx motherboard with maybe a hd 7870 be a value due being run somwhat well even in these day, plus you could easyly run games form xp era plus some newer stuff still well for price point.
@Osaka2407 I would buy a SSF bare bone that came with a Ryzen 4500U and Geforce 1660 only. Add some ram and SSD and would sit right at tye bottom of my living room 65" TV for all my htpc needs including light gaming and emulation (very important for me and most likely a lot of others like-minded). You make it sound as if there aren't products on the market more expensive for their use cases than what I'm proposing. Gaming laptops never appealed to me because I seriously doubt I'd try gaming on a bus or plane using that plus they cost a fortune for what definitely ends up with a reduce battery life and inevitably a stationary mobile device lol
I'm actually against supplying unnecessary cables with every device. Most monitors come with a cable. This thing has plenty of monitor port options.
This is so cool :o
Even grandma can DIY 😆
Lol
Thanks for the fantastic rewiew! I have a NUC generation 6 right now but am thinking of buying this one. You recommend memory 3200 mhz - how much performance do I lose by moving my memories of 2133 mhz from my NUC instead of buying 3200? I also plan to move the Samsung M.2 850 EVO 500GB that is in the NUC
Great review. According to Asus specs, the M.2 SSD only supports up to 512GB, is that Sabrent 2T working fine?
I have the same question
I saw a top comment on another review that said this -
Those aren't actually drive size limits. I have the pn61, says the same thing. But those are just the limits of the drives they can ship with. I have a 1tb sata and 2tb nvme m.2 in mine.
ummmm a quick question: who's running 4 x 4k monitors off a mini pc? I mean it's no good for serious gaming or video editing. Chris always mentions this and I always scratch my head.
You could set up multiple displays in your store for advertisement. Switching slides or simple animations is not really a problem even for this PC.
@@twinshadow1357 Fair play. TechTablets showing what it means to be inclusive, including shop owners
Anyone that uses their computer for WORK uses 4 screens. Damn, when a fucking inbred "gamer" starts asking questions about content creation and professional use of a machine
@@elvirredzepovic6898 I like you, you seem like a chill dude.
Let me ask though, what kind of a cheap-ass loser can afford four 4k screens but buys a mini PC to run them? I'm guessing the kind of a pathetic wannabe "content creator" with 3 subscribers?
@@eccentricbeliever7 monitoring such as trading or stock market 👍🏻
I was thinking all throughout if it was a real plant on the frame..
Hi dude , so you bought the ram and the ssd yourself or is in the package already? cheers
Bought it myself
Hi. Thank you for the review. Always look forward to them. Quick question. For basic Premiere pro and games, on a budget, is it worth and will it make a big difference to spend extra for the 4800U instead of 4700U Processor
?
NO for that use I don't think it is.
how is the longevity and thermal performance of a mini pc? are they better than a traditional desktop pc?
Desktop PC is very broad. There are some really cheap, poor quality desktops out there. However, this won't be better thermally than what can be done with a desktop. You could get watercooling on desktop if you wanted to.
@@Fina1Ragnarok tnx.
btw, what is the average life span of a mini pc? considering that the consumer is a power user. Are they more error prone? is hardware failure more common in a mini pc?
@@ashrafulislammahim7335 They wouldn't be more error prone. It's lifespan should be fine. Provided there are no design flaws in a specific unit.
The parts inside this(ryzen 4000 U series) are laptop/mobile parts. This mini pc has better cooling than a laptop would that has the same ryzen cpu.
@@Fina1Ragnarok is it okay if I run Intel NUC for whole month?
Kinda sad AMD only released the Ryzen 4000 series with OEMs. But I guess they want to sell their Zen 3 CPUs more, the thing is most people would also need to upgrade their motherboards once those come out. Otherwise, this mini PC is awesome. So much power in such a small package. I'm a little bit worried about its temperature though.
I also have the same exact model. Excellent MiniPC! But there is already a BIOS update version 0416 available so you probably should update it...
By the way, are you able to run your DDR at a clock of 3200MHz? Could you confirm that? My Crucial Ballistix DDR 3200 seem to be running only at 2667MHz.
I have the new bios now and yes my RAM is running at 3200Mhz 100%. But my Crucial Ballistix shown in the thumbnail is 1.35v it will run at 2666Mhz only like yours. So get the HyperX 3200Mhz 1.2v 3200Mhz CL20 runs great. Or the cheaper Samsung DDR4 3200Mhz also worked fine at 3200Mhz for me but it's CL22 not that it really makes a difference.
how can I upgrade the new bios version? Ho preso 2x16 Crucial Ballistix CL16 3200 Mhz ...
@ same here... I bought a PN50 with 4700u and paired it with 2x8GB Crucial BallistiX 3200Mhz ram. On the PN50 support page it lists this ram as a 3200Mhz ram... Maybe I should have bought the HyperX...
Some tips:
1) Update de BIOS for better stability
2) Update the WiFi / Bluetooth drivers ASAP! Download them from Intel's website. The Windows default drivers really suck.
Good points. I got the wifi driver from Intel and the AMD lot from AMD.com. Best this way
Good stuff.
Why does it have crappy HDMI 2.0 instead of 2.1???? 2.1 has been out for 3 YEARS
Looks very nice. Sry for the but, but aren't the clocks of the Vega6 a bit on the very low side? I thought they were suppose to be around 1400Mhz or something.
Also some weeks ago, sry forgot to bookmark the thread, I saw a reddit post with a github project that could tweak (read increase) Renoir power limits. Esp on locked bioses where the pl cannot be adjusted and which limits iGPU clocks. Might be interesting te have a look into this.
About gaming, will Vega 7 be enough for running PES 2021 or FIFA 21? I'm not asking for anything too fancy. Because otherwise, for everyday use, I think that this little machine is prefect.
Great video! Thank you! Do you think it is possible to use WD Black SN750 SSD NVMe with heatsink on this mini pc? If yes, do you think it is good idea or not? Many thanks in advance!
I have no use for it
but want it
is that normal
No, it's compulsive buying. You probably have some type of depression there going on.
HI just got my Pn50 4800, i took the ram and ssd and nvme , from my alienware alpha which died , but things have certainly moved, on my steam machine had a gtx960 lol
Can i power these pc via the usb c Port? Power Delivery for 65 Watts should be in the spec
you can buy an inexpensive adapter with usb-pd trigger, to plug one side as asus barrel jack (asus usually has 4.0 x 1.3mm barrel jacks) and the other to usb-c cable.
thx but i want to use an one cable solution from an Dell USB C Dock that otherwise power my Laptop :)
@@mortifiedpinguin i get it. i just did it for both of my asus zenbook laptops, the adapter is really small, and now i can charge it with any usb-c charger capable of 20v :) i've been soldering my own adapters from usb-pd trigger and barreljack, but now there are ready-to-use products like this:
www.aliexpress.com/item/4000459543361.html
@@TomaszStachewicz i use the usb co also for Displayport /HDMI and Data and if i use this adapter the port is blocked and cant be used for these purpose :-?
@@mortifiedpinguin well yes, the adapter takes one usbc cable/port. but if the computer had native usb-c charging you would need a separate usbc port for display anyway, right?
Does this come with an external power supply, or is it internal?
External one
imagine if they added a small dedicated GPU, like a laptop GPU but by AMD and sell it for $500-600. Basically as a windows console alternative
Hi, you said you bought it from Spain, Is it because you couldn't get stock on Amazon UK?
I'd love to buy one of these but I'm concerned about the fan longevity, especially when using it as a mini server. ASUS Australia WILL NOT allow me to buy a spare fan to put on the shelf for use after the warranty expires. I don't buy from Apple due to this sort of behaviour, I will no longer buy from ASUS.
Fan longevity - what exactly are your concerns? Do you think it's too difficult to install a non-asus new fan?
@@RectanerTreadway From what I've seen it's a custom form factor. Generic fans may be able to be used, but you'd probably have to throw away the enclosure.
The fan may be perfectly fine and outlast the solid state hardware, but this hasn't been my experience with custom fan/cooler packages in the past.
Gigabyte have announced a Renoir based BRIX and they WILL sell me a fan, so when they hit the shelves I'll be buying one of those.
You can source the ASUS fans from Europe, but I really don't want to give ASUS Australia any of my cash if they are going to behave in such an anti-consumer way.
@@ffsireallydontcare I'm in the US. Do you think it would be sensible to track down a spare fan from Asus, say in case something goes awry? It's interesting that you are focused on the fan specifically.
@@RectanerTreadway Hard to say. If you are just using the system as a desktop for 8 hours a day you may find the fan will be sufficient for its realistic performance lifespan, I intend to use it as a 24x7 server. I have an original ASUS EeeBox where the fan was fine under desktop conditions, but failed short of the solid state life when used 24x7.
Service is also a bit difficult here. While the warranty period is excellent there is no service centre near me. As they insist on installing replacement fans only at their service partners I need to package up my device and send it to another city, meanwhile I lose the use of the device for weeks. ASUS US may operate in a completely different way. But keep in mind that to replace the fan yourself in the warranty period you will invalidate the warranty.
Hey Chris, you made also another video regarding an external GPU using an AliExpress adapter through the m.2 NVMe port. Have you tried such a solution on this Asus PN50?? I would be very interested to know if it works!
Hi, I saw that you have LatencyMon installed. How does the PN50 performs in that regard? Also, would you say it's quieter than the average laptop under sustained load?
Pls review any mini pc having ryzen 4600/4700/4800 h processors with build in nvedia 1660 graphics or higher.
Wait for usb PD model
Tight video
Thanks very much for the review ! Have you testet an Display at the USB-C Ports under Linux ? I have three Monitors here and i like to use them all :-) But still cant find the aswer if this will work.....
Update: i use DP->DVI and an USB-C->DVI adapter along with the HDMI it is NO problem at all using this with Linux and 3 Monitors. But the Fan keeps me going creasy, it is not too loud but steps up and down too fast. Sounds if its windy outside :-) Fancontrol is Not working with linux.
Take my money Asus 🤑
hi @TechTablets
I got my PN50 from amazon UK too and got a new portable touch monitor ViewSonic TD1655 but I cannot get display signal from USB-C. I was sure it supports one cable usb-c connection for display, data and power because the manual also says that. Can you test this funcionality and help me please? According to situation I will contact Asus or ViewSonic support. BTW. so great review indeed.
0:54 and 1:14 🍺🦴model 🤣🤣🤣
oh, this one is nice...does it support egpu?
question : How does one get ordering one of these with the optional extra ethernet port out the back?? All I see online are DP or HDMI or VGA ports in that slot... so confusing
I've had to return my 4800u as it had issues with hdmi showing no signal and I couldn't get it to load windows properly, kept crashing to main Asus screen, not impressed at all, I've ordered the beelink gt-r 🤞
Would this machine be suitable for music production?
I'm looking for something portable to work with at the studio and at home. From what I see, with 1to of storage, 32gb of ram and a quite processor, it should be perfect for the job. Right? And it only costs about 550€.
It looks interesting... expensive, but interesting. Can't help but wonder why it's using a U CPU instead of an H though, it'll never be on turbo for very long kneecapped at 25W, it'll peter out at its base clocks of 1.8GHz most of the time.