ArticleManagerMini PC is obviously very good to use, but it has always been in a marginal position in the entire computer industry, even HTPC, which was a rise in that year, did not get rid of the fate of being eventually marginalized, and even completely withdrew from the historical stage after a short outbreak. The reason is that consumers have the perception that the size of the fuselage restricts the performance of the hardware and does not match the price of the product.
However, this cognitive situation may be about to be subverted, because in recent years, the two major PC giants Intel and Asus have made strong efforts in the Mini computer, with the 8K small steel gun Intel Cheetah Canyon NUC11 that embarrassed the desktop, and the only Asus Mini PC PN50 on the market equipped with Renoir CPU. Both of these break through the limitation of the performance of the body volume, and also solve the shortcomings of poor expansion of the mini host, and the price problem that everyone is most concerned about has also been decentralized, not in the sky.
In time for the 618 sales season, I also bought an Asus Mini PC PN50 to see if it could replace the desktop as the official advertisement, become a new productivity tool and free up our desktop space.
Unboxing and drying: Not big yet
Mini computer, as the name suggests, is small in size, so how small is the Asus Mini PC PN50? Only 0.6L, and the general ATX chassis volume is 35L, maybe everyone has no exact concept of these two numbers, in other words, the size of the Asus Mini PC PN50 is not as large as our palm. This can be seen from the box, which is only a little larger than our smartphone box.
The Asus Mini PC PN50 uses a family-style silver-brown color in the packaging style, remember if you are right, ASUS high-end routing, mini computers and notebooks are all such styles. The front side is a pure English product name and product rendering, which is simple and mysterious.
On the back of the package are some basic parameters and energy efficiency labels, where you can get an overview of the core configuration of this computer, such as the latest AMD Ryzen Ryzen™ 4000 series Renoir notebook CPU and Radeon™ Vega7 graphics card, 512G hard disk, 16G DDR4 memory, WiFi 6 network card and Chinese version of 64-bit Windows 10 operating system.
By the way, the Asus Mini PC PN50 packaging box is sealed with disposable tape, and the pattern on the tape is destroyed once it is opened, which can effectively prevent the taker.
I thought that the box was small enough, but after opening the package, I found that the original interior was divided into two, the left side is the accessory box, and the right side is the PN50. Let’s put the console aside first and take a look at the accessories first. The first thing you see is a variety of paper materials, specially counted, there are 5 in total, please skip it directly, have not used Mini PC has not used a computer.
Next is three bags of screw packs, why three packs, listen to me one by one. The left side is the screw that fixes the VESA hanger, the middle is the hook screw at the bottom of the host, and the right side is the screw that fixes the 2.5-inch SATA hard disk.
With VESA hanger screws, then naturally VESA brackets are indispensable. We can mount the PN50 on the back of the monitor with the included VESA bracket to further save space.
The ideal is beautiful, but the proportion of VESA brackets used in real life is small, and the monitors on the market that support VESA brackets are not common, so the presence of VESA brackets is weaker. However, there is no birth, less does not mean nothing, when some users really need the VESA bracket is omitted additional purchase.
Finally on the accessory is the power adapter, model PA-1900-92, rated output of 19V/4.74A, rated power of 90w. DC interface (outer diameter 5.5mm, inner diameter 2.5mm). The Asus Mini PC PN50 power adapter itself is small in size, which is easy to carry on the go. Although it is not as good as the current gallium nitride charger, but think of the big pimple of the laptop is instantly relieved, and I want to say a conscience in my heart.
The first time I saw the Asus Mini PC PN50, my heart still set off a wave, the regular cuboid shape, but the dimensions are only 115 mm x 115 mm x 49 mm, I specially compared it with my palm, I believe everyone has a specific concept in their minds after reading it. The weight is only 700g, which is more than one pound, and there is no pressure to put it in the backpack.
In order to weaken everyone’s inherent perception that “the size of the MiNi host determines performance”, the Asus Mini PC PN50 has made some special designs in the appearance, so that the compact body looks very fierce. The top and front of the Asus Mini PC PN50 use a brushed aluminum finish with a modern design texture, and the shape is angular, with the black color scheme throughout, like the image of a small steel cannon.
Small size, but also to take care of the expansion performance of the host, ASUS distributed the I/O interfaces on the front and back of the fuselage. Above the front waist line is the Asus Logo and a long strip of power button (white LED light after booting); Below the waistline, there is a 3.5mm headset jack, USB 3.2 Gen.2 TYPE-C, USB 3.2 Gen.1 TYPE-A, IR sensor (IR remote control), TF card reader, and two small round holes are array microphones. There is also a Windows sticker in the lower left corner, which visually affects the overall aesthetics a bit.
The back interface has HDMI interface, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, RJ45 network port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, power interface and DP interface. It should be noted that the last DP1.4 interface is actually an “optional” port, and you can choose between DP1.4 / COM / VGA / LAN four interfaces according to your own needs.
From the perspective of interface distribution, the playability of ASUS PN50 is still very high. In terms of connection, there are 3 USB 3.2 Gen 1, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports, microSD card reader; In terms of video output, there are two Type-C DP1.4, one HDMI 2.0 and one DP1.4 interface, supporting 4-screen output.
The sides of the fuselage are symmetrical, but there is an anti-theft buckle on the right tail.
In order to design the internal air duct of the fuselage to ensure sufficient heat dissipation capacity, there are large areas of breathable grilles on both sides of the fuselage, back and bottom, and the official introduction of full load noise is only 34.7 decibels, reaching the library-level quiet (subsequent measurement).
Disassemble: Reserve space for upgrades
The Asus Mini PC PN50 is very easy to disassemble, after unscrewing the four screws on the bottom, it can be pushed and opened, and the slide design is also used. It seems that ASUS PM has long reserved enough room for users to upgrade.
After disassembling the machine, an empty SATA hard disk data interface and power supply interface were found on the side of the fuselage, it is obvious that a 2.5-inch hard disk can be added here, and then look back at the disassembled cover does have a 2.5-inch hard disk installation position, now think about the screw fixing the 2.5-inch SATA hard disk in the unbox, is it right.
In terms of memory, it provides dual DDR4-3200MHz SO-DIMM memory slots, supports up to dual-channel 32GBx2 (64GB) memory expansion, and has been fully inserted into two 8G memories.
The two DDR4 memories are Hynix 8G memory, the memory frequency is 3200, and if you want to upgrade the memory in the future, you can only use 16 or 32G on a single memory.
The hard disk that comes with it is an Intel 660P with M.2 interface, 512GB.
You can also see that the Asus Mini PC PN50 uses an Intel WiFi 6 network card, the specific model is AX200NGW, which is directly expanded through the M.2 interface, providing conditions for subsequent network card upgrades.
Hardware configuration: The only Renoir CPU MiNi PC on the market
The Asus Mini PC PN50 offers 4 different hardware configurations as a whole, and the one I have is a high-end version. Equipped with AMD’s new generation Ryzen 7 4700U (8C/16T, silent 2.0GHz/can be accelerated to 4.1GHz) processor and Radeon™ Vega7 graphics card, the GPU performance is also 2.5 times or more than that of common minicomputers. In terms of memory, it is a 16G DDR4-3200 and 512G M.2 interface hard disk.
First use Entertainment Master to run down the score and make yourself happy, with a total score of 681352, a CPU score of 374775, a graphics card score of 90084, a memory score of 113518, and a hard disk score of 102975.
CPU test: Ryzen 7 4700U, eight-core eight-thread
1、CPU-Z
In the CPU-Z test, the single-core performance score was 495.0, and the multi-core performance score was 3238.6.
2、CineBench R15
In R15, the single-core score was 168cb, and the multicore score was 967cb.
3、CineBench R20
In R20, a single-core score of 430cb and a multicore score of 2476cb.
4、CineBench R23
In R23, the single-core score is 1140cb, and the multicore score is 5756cb.
5、wPrime
It took 8.12 seconds to run 32M data for single-core and 260.327 seconds for 1024M data for multi-core.
6. Chess
The chess score is 17033, and the relative performance multiple is 35.49.
Judging by the above test results, even if there is no overclocking
The Ryzen 7 4700U can also be compared to the 8th generation Core i7-8750H and Core i7-9750H chips, so whether it is daily office or light gaming entertainment.
Graphics card test:
In tests with 3DMark Time Spy,
Ryzen 7 4700U
The physics score is 1076, and the graphics score for the kernel is 950.
Memory & Hard Disk Test:
ASUS Mini PC PN50 is equipped with hynix 16G (3200MHz) dual-channel memory, the timing is 22-22-22-52, using AIDA64 for memory cache test, the measured read, write, copy bandwidth is 44874MB/s, 44268MB/s, 36864MB/s, latency is 106.7ns, from the performance point of view obviously the dual-channel configuration is successful.
In the CrystalDiskMark test, the sequential read and write speed of the hard disk reached 1648.0MB/s and 970.3MB/s respectively, and the performance of the hard disk is still at a medium level, and there is still room for improvement.
Copy machine test
1. Single roast FPU
(5 minutes before single baking)
(After 10 minutes of single baking)
The Asus Mini PC PN50 single-baked FPU CPU can be maintained around 25W for the first five minutes, when the CPU temperature fluctuates at 91°C; Between 5 and 10 minutes of single baking, as the temperature rises further, the CPU begins to reduce the frequency frequently, and the power consumption fluctuates rapidly between 6-35w; After 10 minutes of single baking, the CPU remained fluctuating around 20W, and the temperature dropped to 83°C, but at this time the CPU was fully core 2.5GHz.
2. Double roasting test
The Asus Mini PC PN50 takes a steady and steady route when it is double-baked, and the CPU power consumption is stable at about 25w in the first 5 minutes, and the temperature is around 90°C; The power consumption of the graphics card has been around 20W, and the temperature is 82°C; After 5 minutes, the CPU dropped from 2.5GHz to 2.2GHz with full core, the power consumption dropped to 20W, and the temperature dropped back to 83°C.
Summary: Small size/strong performance/high expansion The perfect home mini-machine
Whether it is in a home environment or an office environment, the Asus Mini PC PN50 can be said to be a competent desktop Mini PC, because whether it is volume, appearance or performance, whether it is expandability or audio, it has almost no shortcomings and is a veritable small steel cannon.
The inherent size advantage of the Mini PC, coupled with the appearance design of the Asus PN50, allows it to stay in any corner of the desktop without being obtrusive. It can also be naturally integrated into our desktop environment and become an integral part of our desktop culture if needed. When we need to go out and carry it, unplug it and put it in the backpack, ready to go.
In terms of performance, with AMD’s new generation Ryzen 7 4700U processor + Radeon™ Vega7 graphics card, the golden combination can easily cope with our daily office entertainment, and light games are not lost in leisure time; In terms of expansion, it can be said that they are all powerful, even if they encounter a 4-screen stock speculation god, they will not be disappointed.