Gem12 Pro Mini PC: Ryzen 7 8845HS, Mini Screen, and OCuLink eGPU

https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/mini-pcs/gem12-pro-mini-pc-uses-an-amped-up-ryzen-7-8845hs-apu-has-a-built-in-mini-screen-and-oculink-support

by transpute • 2 years ago

21 24 2 years ago

tomshardware.com

jwells895• 2 years ago

The AMD-based mini PCs like this that’ve been showing up recently are cool, but I’m guessing that they all get pretty hot and noisy when under load (similar to a compact laptop).

I think it’d make for a compelling product if one of these extended their vertical footprint a bit, making for a more cube-like shape and adding space for a 2-4x more heatsink and a big slow fan (maybe even a 200mm fan if making footprint slightly larger is permissible). It’d be a bit larger but cooler and much more quiet.

coffeebeqn• 2 years ago

I had one from Asrock and it just had one big noctua CPU fan and low profile heatsink that also blew straight out of the case since it was so small. It ran very cool and quiet

jwells895• 2 years ago

That’s cool that Asrock went with Noctua, not surprised it was quiet.

blueferret• 2 years ago

I use a Beelink mini-PC with a Ryzen 7 chip as my main PC. It handles everything I throw at it (not a gamer though). Worst it's been is making a little fan noise and warm to the touch. Never once overheated or made so much noise it bugged me. YMMV.

Demiurge• 2 years ago

I've also been using a Ryzen7 mini-pc, it spins up the fans when maxes out, but doesn't sound or behave any different than any laptop, except its a box. It's actually very quiet most of the time, until I have to process a photo in Lightroom or play a game.

jwells895• 2 years ago

…until I have to process a photo in Lightroom or play a game.

That’s pretty much what I was expecting. Would prefer a slightly larger machine (e.g. Mac Studio) that’s inaudible even at load.

FirmwareBurner3• 2 years ago

There's just so much pointless and wasted stuff with this device it hurts.

Why have a SFF desktop PC with a laptop APU and a niche and expensive OCuLink external GPU connector, when you can just build a Mini-ITX/SFF desktop system with a dedicated desktop APU/CPU, and a dedicated desktop GPU for cheaper and much more performance and might also be quieter?

This system is basically a non-portable laptop built from laptop parts but without a display and battery, which costs nearly as much as a laptop but that one comes with the advantage of portability thanks to the display and battery.

I get the cheap Chinese NUCs, but this device basically has the disadvantages of both a desktop PC and a laptop combined, with almost none of the upsides.

graphe• 2 years ago

I agree. I've never gotten the Intel NUCs either from your logic, it was an overpriced desktop that is only maybe suitable for Kowloon walled city or Singapore apartments.

jwells895• 2 years ago

I’ve seen some argue on the point of energy efficiency, which might make some sense. Mobile CPUs have lower power consumption caps and tend to consume less at idle and laptop PSUs tend to be more efficient at low power draw than desktop-style PSUs.

One might ask why not just use a laptop in that situation, but depending on how the device is used (e.g. always docked), the screen and battery could be seen as a waste.

That said, I think I’d opt for a custom build too, probably in something like the Streacom DB4[0] which allows low power systems to operate fanlessly by doubling as a heatsink.

[0] https://streacom.com/products/db4-fanless-mini-itx-case/

thworp2• 2 years ago

Yes sure, this is true-ush. But if you're so constrained on power draw that three or four extra watt idle is critical, why not just go for something really power-efficient like a Pi or similar? Also, you could undervolt one of the 65W TDP Ryzen CPUs and probably get similar results. Or if you're lucky you can get one of the "OEM Only" 45W Ryzens.

As for PSUs, an "80 platinum" rated one will have 90% efficiency at 10% power draw.

inhumantsar• 2 years ago

I've used a thunderbolt eGPU with a laptop before and it was good enough to put me off building a gaming rig for a few years. Most of my dev work these days has moved to a home server or codespaces, so I could see myself getting something like these. the GPU is typically the only thing I upgrade as tech evolves faster than my upgrade cycle (eg, I went straight from ddr3 to ddr5).

I could also see it being a good option for business deployments, similar to the absurdly popular Lenovo SFF PCs, especially where some but not all users might be pushing a GPU pretty hard.

IT can swap out an eGPU in no time, but lose the silicon lottery with an iGPU or a laptop GPU and the entire unit needs to go back. Likewise, there's a reason no IT dept builds their own PCs. It's not that they can't, it's that a factory in China can do it faster, better, cheaper.

FirmwareBurner3• 2 years ago

I've used a thunderbolt eGPU with a laptop before and it was good enough to put me off building a gaming rig for a few years

Yeah, but this is not a laptop, it's a desktop PC. This make sense for a laptop since you take it places but don't need the eGPU everywhere, but this is a desktop PC, it's not going anywhere.

So why do you need an expensive eGPU on a desktop PC that doesn't go anywhere when you can just build a PC with a discrete GPU in it, saving you money and not loosing performance from the Thunderbolt bottleneck?

It makes no sense.

IT can swap out an eGPU in no time

Have you ever swapped the GPU in a profesional HP/Dell/Lenovo tower? It can also be done in no time. Even the water cooled ones. They're designed to be serviced quickly because time is money. They're not like your average gaming tower PC.

jauntywundrkind2• 2 years ago

Oculink is basically free: it's a connector exposing PCIe ports that are already exposed by the APU. It should be semi-standard for SFF, because why not?

Compare versus USB4, which is quite expensive. Alas neither Intel nor AMD offer on-package USB4 in their new line-up: both require a rather expensive & serious chip for USB4 (ASM4242 for AMD). It's a great capability but it has a real cost. Where-as Oculink requires so little.

As for desktop vs mobile: this is the same Phoenix chip that AMD just released as the 8700G APU. The HS part here is targeting a smaller 45W power budget than the desktop 65W part, but otherwise similarly capable & loaded out. And the case seems designed for either some mild overclocking with it's 75w ought, which if not used means it will remain nice & quiet at stock. I think there's many many people for whom stock will be more than adequate for their uses, and who wouldn't need a bigger hotter version. And they can just tell the chip to drink more power of they want a desktop equivalent, since the cooling is there.

These chips are also boast much higher efficiency (computer/watt) at lower power levels too, which is another boon for users, another reason to look here.

Bigger hotter more powerful has a lot going for it, and it seems like it's what you want. But don't make the mistake of assuming it's what everyone wants. The NUC form factor is pretty amazing, is really a delight with how flexibly it can fit into your environment. I ran a NUC velcroes to my monitor for 3 years; it'd be impossible or cumbersome even with a svelte mini-itx build. Let's just try not to have such a harsh negative reaction so strongly out of the game, yeah?

FirmwareBurner3• 2 years ago

Oculink is basically free:

Oculink GPUS are not. Far more expensive than PCIe ones.

chx3• 2 years ago

To save you some headache, here's the URL you can give superbuy or any other similar proxy (not affiliated, just a happy superbuy customer): https://item.jd.com/10097209811046.html

However, unless I am mistaken there's not much of an advantage over the Gem10 based on https://i.imgur.com/G9YNO6I.jpeg (who cares about that AI?) and that's already available at https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-gem10-amd-ryzen-7-7840h... and this one is LPDDR5 in case anyone cares about that.

One more interesting thing on this page is https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-t-box-intel-n100-metal-... which is even smaller than a usual NUC yet quite rich inports and has a very agreeable price.

fransje262• 2 years ago

https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-gem10-amd-ryzen-7-7840h...

Triple SSD support. Sweet! Do you have any experience with these systems? And if you do, would you know how good their Linux support is?

chx3• 2 years ago

I don't have experience, it's the first time I read about this. I just extracted the link which keeps redirecting.

I am possibly the worst possible person to ask about Linux experience with anything current. I have been posting since 2018 how untenable is running Linux as a daily driver which is when I stopped. I started using it as a daily driver in 2004. Overall I started in 1993 and still using it on command line (WSL) and routers and servers.

beoberha• 2 years ago

I was just looking into a “server” PC to start a homelab of sorts and these beefy Chinese mini PCs kept popping up. I assumed they were mostly junk, but the reviews were surprisingly pretty positive but ultimately I went cheaper and got a refurbished Optiplex micro off of eBay.

Gem12 Pro Mini PC: Ryzen 7 8845HS, Mini Screen, and OCuLink eGPU

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