Normally, I wouldn’t care what my mini PC appears to be like like. Why would I? It’s simply the field I stick subsequent to my monitor for on-the-go computing wants. It doesn’t want all of the flashing lights and LEDs of an final gaming rig, it simply must operate. At least, that’s how I initially felt about your common NUC. Then I unboxed Ayaneo’s Mini PC AM01 for the primary time, and I couldn’t assist however surprise why I believed different producers may get away with the identical outdated, usual for therefore lengthy.
You can already inform simply by the photographs that the AM01 appears to be like like an outdated Macintosh. No, there’s no in-built display screen (I think about modders are already champing on the bit to stay one in), however together with the same old slate of USB and HDMI ports that you simply’d discover on any outdated NUC, the field additionally comes stacked with an array of stickers meant to additional personalize the little, faux-Macintosh sitting in your desk. The tiny rainbow emblem is magnetized and you may swap it out for different icons that come within the field.
Ayaneo’s AM01 is a looker, however it could nonetheless stroll the stroll by way of its base specs (so lengthy as you go for a PC packing 16GB or extra reminiscence and a higher-end CPU). It’s mild and moveable sufficient so that you can slip into your backpack or baggage, so lengthy as you already know there’s a monitor, keyboard, and mouse setup ready for you when you get to wherever you’re going. It’s not the smallest, nor the biggest mannequin in the marketplace. It’s not packing the perfect specs, neither is it the most costly. But in my thoughts, it’s the cutest model of the NUC design I’ve seen but.
I haven’t put the Mini PC via its full paces, however with the Indiegogo for the AM01 winding down, I needed to share a number of of my ideas having taken the machine on the highway for the vacations. I hooked it as much as a random monitor, keyboard, and mouse I discovered in my father’s workplace and located myself proper at dwelling, although you shouldn’t anticipate the seamless efficiency of a devoted work laptop computer or the video energy of a full gaming PC—or perhaps a handheld console.
Ayaneo Mini PC AM01 Design and Specs
The Retro Design is the Mini PC’s Biggest Boon
I don’t normally smile at a chunk of tech sitting on my desk, however for some odd cause, I can’t assist myself wanting on the tan, plastic brick that’s the Ayaneo Mini PC AM01. I’ve to ask: why? The machine resembles the outdated 1984 Macintosh, although whenever you have a look at each side-by-side they’re not fairly the identical silhouette. It has a faux, black plastic display screen and a magnetically hooked up rainbow icon harking back to early Apple {hardware}. I used to be born a decade after Steve Jobs and his firm first put the Macintosh 128K in the marketplace. And but, each time I have a look at it, I can’t assist however assume “damn, that’s a cute, little PC.” I hold calling it my “Little Mac,” and I’m not about to cease any time quickly.
The 5-by-5-inch brick is a bit more than 2 inches tall, that means it wanted a good bit of devoted room in my baggage. It additionally weighs just a bit over 1 pound, so it’s not that massive of a haul when you ignore the way you’ll want to hold round your energy cable or another peripherals or chords. It’s nearly commonplace for this sort of design, and as far as I may inform the construct high quality is fairly spot on. I additionally respect how a lot of the ports are all situated on one aspect of the case. There’s an HDMI 2.0 enter, a DisplayPort 1.4, three USB-A 3.2 Gen2, and one USB-A 2.0. There’s your common ethernet port and energy connector along with a USB-C (used for information switch solely) and a 3.5mm headphone jack situated on the different finish. If you need your Mini PC to seem like an precise Macintosh standing vertically, you’ll miss out in your wired headphone connectivity.
The backside of the machine is the fan consumption, and the new air blows out the best vents. The fan can go fairly exhausting, particularly when you resolve to dive into your Steam library or run another intensive software program. I don’t have a lot drawback with the buzzing of the fan, however the sound might be distracting for some when you have it sitting straight in entrance of your monitor. If you wish to change up the fan, you’ll need to dive straight into the BIOS and mess with the fan controls. It would have been good when you may have managed a number of different {hardware} settings via AYASpace as an alternative. I by no means felt the machine rising too scorching to deal with even after working a number of benchmark assessments in succession.
There’s part of me that wished the faux disc drive on the entrance of the AM01 accepted SD playing cards as a nod to the outdated days of bodily media, however we are able to solely want for a lot out of a five-inch PC. An M2-powered Mac Mini, for example, is about 2 inches wider and longer, although it’s a good bit extra squat. Ayaneo’s model additionally weighs greater than a pound lower than Apple’s high-powered mini PC. You can discover different NUCs which are barely smaller than Ayaneos, however none have the identical pizazz as this “Little Mac.”
Ayaneo Mini PC AM01 Performance
Power Enough for Your Base Tasks, With Upgradable Options
When you first boot up the AM01, it takes you to Ayaneo’s AYASpace interface. This is not more than a method of shortly accessing video games and a naked few machine controls. You don’t want it at startup, and after the preliminary replace, it’s pretty straightforward to show off so that you’re simply left with a PC working Windows 11 Home, at the least for many who decide for the standard moderately than a naked system. The default Windows wallpaper is harking back to Apple’s unique desktop, and I appreciated it sufficient that I didn’t even hassle to alter it.
It’s additionally necessary to notice what you get for the totally different specs. I obtained an AM01 full of an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, 1 TB SSD, and 32 GB of RAM, which helps WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The much less highly effective model working a 3200U solely goes as much as WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2. Either means, the Mini PC ought to assist displays at 60Hz at 4K decision.
If you’ve had any expertise with AMD’s cell CPUs, then you definitely’ll have a reasonably good impression of what sort of efficiency you’ll get from the AM01. The Ayaneo Mini PC comes with both an AMD Ryzen 3 3200U or a Ryzen 7 5700U, with RAM choices between 8, 16 GB, and 32 GB on the dearer version.
Putting it via a number of benchmarks, it’s clear the Mini PC is sort of succesful for its measurement and value, nevertheless it’s nothing particular both. The 5700U is an 8-core, 16-thread processor with a max 4.3Ghz frequency. It helps the Vega 8 built-in graphics, which all collectively is sweet sufficient on your common laptop duties. It scored reasonably effectively on Cinebench for graphics rendering, however you’re not going to do any actual heavy-duty video rendering on the AM01.
As far as gaming goes, the AM01 is greater than sufficient for emulation or some extra mainstream gaming. It’ll deal with indie titles like Hades with no points, however 3D video games will nonetheless wrestle to run at increased resolutions and refresh charges. I needed to work exhausting to get Halo: Infinite working at 30 FPS with a 27-inch 60 Hz monitor, however there have been nonetheless dips, particularly in bigger arenas. Cyberpunk: 2077 wouldn’t break previous 20 FPS on low or mobile-optimized “Steam Deck” settings. You’ll wrestle to play some fashionable multiplayer video games like The Finals on the bottom settings and even some video games like Fortnite at their highest.
My evaluate model was priced at about $461 MSRP (although it’s at present sitting at a decreased value on Indiegogo). At that value, it’s very akin to different current-gen Intel NUCs working a Core i5-1135G7 (although you would possibly get barely higher efficiency out of the Core i5 than Ryzen 7). If you had been solely in search of a gaming machine, you possibly can nab one of many non-OLED Steam Decks for that very same value. The AM01 would possibly present higher benchmark scores than the Deck, however low-power, mobile-focused CPUs can have a more durable time sustaining framerates on bigger displays at increased resolutions than they’d on small 8-inch screens of your ordinary handheld console or perhaps a smartphone. At slightly below $700 you possibly can go for an Asus ROG Ally working an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme that handily beats the 5700U on virtually all benchmarks.
Along along with your Mini PC, you additionally get a number of odds and ends that may make upgrading the internals a good bit simpler down the highway. They embrace a bracket for increasing right into a 2.5-inch exhausting drive. Plus, there’s at all times an choice of upgrading reminiscence as much as 64 GB (that is restricted to 32 GB on the cheaper Ryzen 3 3200 model). With a number of upgrades, you would possibly have the ability to eke out a number of extra frames on some newer graphically intensive titles. But in the long run, you’re not shopping for Ayaneo’s Mini PC to play Cyberpunk at excessive settings.
A NUC doesn’t want a lot to face out so lengthy as it meets energy and efficiency expectations. It could also be why Intel appears to be on the best way out of the NUC enterprise altogether. The AM01 depends closely on the aesthetics of the retro design philosophy with out making any actual improvements to the Mini PC, nevertheless it’s unattainable to assert it’s not a fun-looking machine that’s choice when you’re all too uninterested in each different black brick NUC on the market.