AMD Ryzen-Powered Mini-PC Has The Potential To Be The NUC Killer

[harlan4096]

Let's get ready to rumble.

The NUC market is about to get a new competitor as Minisforum is making the necessary preparations to bring a new mini-PC to the fight. The DeskMini DMAF5 will be the company's first AMD Ryzen-powered device to venture into the mini-PC market.

The dimensions of the DeskMini DMAF5 are unknown at this point, but Minisforum's marketing material shows the mini-PC sitting comfortably on the palm of your hand. The case, which appears to be made of aluminium, features a matte silver and black theme and has air vents all over its body. The top panel employs a pop-up mechanism that allows you to get right into the system's internals without the help of a screwdriver. The case also comes with a VESA mount to attach itself behind your display.
 
The DeskMini DMAF5 employs AMD's mobile Ryzen 5 3550H (codename Picasso) APU. Although the quad-core, eight-thread chip is a pretty solid performer, we would have love to see one of AMD's more powerful 7nm Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) APUs in the DeskMini DMAF5. In regards to clock speeds, the
Ryzen 5 3550H is a Zen+ part that runs with a 2.1 GHz base clock and 3.7 GHz boost clock.

Minisforum keeps the Ryzen 5 3550H's operating temperature under control with a cooling system that's that suitable for a processor with a TDP (thermal design power) that exceeds 45W. For reference, the Ryzen 5 3550H is a 35W part. The manufacturer doesn't explain the system in detail, but it appears to dissipate heat with a thick copper heat pipe and a high-speed cooling fan. Minisforum claims that the fan's noise level is under 30 dB, and the cooling system can keep the processor from throttling during long durations of usage.

The motherboard comes with two SO-DIMM DDR4 slots to hold up to 32GB of DDR4-2400 memory and one M.2 2280 slot for SATA SSDs. There is enough room in the case to accommodate one normal 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD too. For internet connectivity, the DeskMini DMAF5 gives you the option of two Gigabit Ethernet ports or an Intel Wi-Fi AX200 and Bluetooth 5.0 combo. As for USB ports, the mini-PC has nothing less than four USB 3.1 Type-A ports.

The DeskMini DMAF5 provides three distinct outputs for displays. You get a HDMI 2.0 port, a DisplayPort 1.2 output and a USB 3.1 Type-C port, all three of which can handle 4K resolutions up to 60 Hz. The Ryzen 5 3550H arrives with three eight Vega Compute Units (CUs) clocked at 1,200 MHz so it's more than capable of addressing heavy graphical workloads. You can allocate up to 2GB of your system's memory to the APU.

Minisforum hasn't disclosed the pricing of the DeskMini DMAF5. The company expects to launch the Indiegogo campaign soon though. If you sign up for the newsletter, you receive a 25% discount of the retail price once the DeskMini DMAF5 launches.
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