ASRock DeskMini X600 Barebones Mini-PC (Ryzen 8600G)

[crazyeyesreaper]

The ASRock DeskMini X600 is a versatile barebones mini-PC that offers users the flexibility to build a custom system at an affordable price. Featuring AMD's AM5 socket, it supports Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series processors. With ample storage options through M.2 or SATA and the ability to add optional upgrades, it's a great choice for light gaming, office tasks, and general-purpose computing.

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[Chrispy_]

I just bought four Minisforum UM773 for the same sort of money as this X600 preconfigured with 7735HS (Zen3+ 8C/16T, 4.75GHz), 680M (12CU), 64GB DDR5 and 1TB NVMe drive.

It's barely a third the size of this frankly ugly, cheap looking steel box from Asrock, and it has a boatload more connectivity with dual HDMI, four USB 3.2, 40Gb/s USB4, and another 20Gb/s Type-C.

Don't get me wrong, the socketed barebones is useful if you're upgrading another AM5 PC and have a spare CPU to put in it, but the laptop-based Mini PCs are lower power and absolutely tiny by comparison. Surely if you're in the market for a mini-PC and sub-10L mITX boxes are too big for you, then size really does matter and this generic STX board in a mostly-empty case isn't a good fit. Realistically this is just Asrock finding the cheapest most boring stamped-steel metal box to put a Generic STX AM5 board into. Maybe I'm being cynical but I suspect they made this STX board for another customer and now just want to capitalise on the existing design by slapping the most barebones case around it they could find. How long has it been since you last saw a cheap steel box where they couldn't even be bothered to paint the inside?! (It has been about 10-12 years for me...)

Minisforum UM773:
128 x 128 x 48mm (W x D x H); Volume: 0.70 litres.

DeskMini X600:
155 x 155 x 80mm (W x D x H); Volume: 1.92 litres.

IMO it's too big and too ugly to have any kind of chance in the market alongside smaller, better-designed competition from all the other major motherboard brands (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte) as well as a ton of even better competition from Beelink, Minisforum, who specialise in these things and then also all the ultra SFF devices from corporate providers from Lenovo, Acer, Dell etc.

Honestly, this feels like a more fitting award:

 

[_roman_]

It seems the second RAM module is not properly locked in. (Just for information. I'm well aware of, that the system was only used for a short time period for a review most likely).

--

I like the concept. I dislike the external power brick which makes it bulky. I also expect a very low efficiency for the power brick. I would prefer a bigger form factor with a standard power supply unit with 80 gold certification with standard size desktop RAM modules. More space for a decent air cooler for the processor with 160mm height (assuming this is the standard heigth).

I do not want to see VGA or RS-232 (without checking the specs) in year 2025 on any desktop computer. There are plenty of alternatives with the legacy vga connector.

The external power brick is for any monitor or desktop computer or nas or any other device for me a big negative point.

 

[sLowEnd]

I just bought four Minisforum UM773 for the same sort of money as this X600 preconfigured with 7735HS (Zen3+ 8C/16T, 4.75GHz), 680M (12CU), 64GB DDR5 and 1TB NVMe drive.

It's barely a third the size of this frankly ugly, cheap looking steel box from Asrock. The 8C CPU is faster than the 2C+4c Zen4C combo whilst also pulling less power, and the 12CU IGP is somewhere between 2-3x more capable, primarily because it has quadruple the ROP count of the hopelessly-crippled 4CU IGP in the 8600G. Not even astronomical clockspeeds can put the 8600G's IGP even on the same playing field of what's essentially the GPU configuration of choice for gaming handhelds like the Ally and Steam Deck.

You're thinking of the 8500G, not the 8600G

 

[HydrAxx]

You should have performed your tests with the latest official BIOS "4.03" because the "3.02" with which you performed your tests is clearly buggy (in addition to using a fairly old version of the AGESA AM5 firmware), because it limits CPU performance (because of the STAPM bug that throttles you) and iGPU, it is limited because of the STAPM bug too but there is also another problem that is added to this one and which was only corrected in the latest official BIOS "4.03". And frankly it's also a shame that you didn't exploit the potential of this little bomb (when it is well equipped and adjusted) by installing a more efficient heat sink than the one supplied originally (which is only present in the bundle to help you out if you don't have one) like a Thermalright AXP90-X47 (see the "full copper" model which dissipates up to 140 Watts of TDP officially) and in the "Performance Mode" (equivalent to "PBO On") in the BIOS to let your Ryzen 5 8600G express all its performances.

There is also an "unofficial" variant (but coming from the ASRock BIOS department) of the latest BIOS "4.03", the test BIOS "4.03.MEM01" which unlocks access to the DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM voltage settings, settings which will finally be "officially" available in the next final BIOSes that will be released for the DeskMini X600 (source: an email received personally from the ASRock BIOS department), this test BIOS is perfectly stable and has allowed me so far thanks to these accesses to the DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM voltage settings, to overclock my Kingston FURY Impact 6400MHz CL38 DDR5 SO-DIMM 32GB (2x16GB) kit up to a perfectly stable 8000MHz CL38, this allowing me to drastically increase the performance of my iGPU "Radeon 780M" of my Ryzen 7 8700G, by about 40-50% depending on the game thanks to the extra DDR5 RAM bandwidth.

The test BIOS in question can be downloaded here:

CPU - [20/08/2024]ASRock DeskMini X600 BIOS "4.03.MEM01" (with RAM voltage settings!!!) - AGESA ComboAM5Pi "1.2.0.0a"

Greetings to the users of the DIY MiniPC ASRock DeskMini X600, I am opening a thread here for those who wish to have the possibility of adjusting the voltages of their DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM kits (I know for a fact that you wish to do so) as well as the vSOC, so I am sharing with you a link to...

smallformfactor.net

 

[Chrispy_]

You're thinking of the 8500G, not the 8600G

Yeah, I was before I double-checked the 8600G, which is actually fine; still slower than the 12CU in the 680M, but not by enough that it's really an issue.
My issue with the X600 really isn't the graphics, since there's a socket so you can put in a CPU with better or worse iGPU depending on what your budget allows, the 680M in the Minisforum UM773 was just a single comparison since the same 32GB/1TB combo will set you back about $500 right now. I've edited my earlier post anyway.

it's more the fact that this is a (relatively) huge, ugly, cheap box in a sea of compact, attractive, premium offerings. If the X600 was actually a lot cheaper, then maybe it'd make more sense, but right now it's not even that cheap...

 

[thevoiceofreason]

I like the concept. I dislike the external power brick which makes it bulky.

I'd much rather have an external brick hidden away from view and not contributing to the thermal envelope of the case.

I also expect a very low efficiency for the power brick.

Why would you? Datasheet claims 88% efficiency

 

[Redwoodz]

Yeah, I was before I double-checked the 8600G, which is actually fine; still slower than the 12CU in the 680M, but not by enough that it's really an issue.
My issue with the X600 really isn't the graphics, since there's a socket so you can put in a CPU with better or worse iGPU depending on what your budget allows, the 680M in the Minisforum UM773 was just a single comparison since the same 32GB/1TB combo will set you back about $500 right now. I've edited my earlier post anyway.

it's more the fact that this is a (relatively) huge, ugly, cheap box in a sea of compact, attractive, premium offerings. If the X600 was actually a lot cheaper, then maybe it'd make more sense, but right now it's not even that cheap...

That's why there are different sizes. None of those smaller boxes have the same clearance for cpu cooling, which some people might prefer over making it as small as possible.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

You should have performed your tests with the latest official BIOS "4.03" because the "3.02" with which you performed your tests is clearly buggy (in addition to using a fairly old version of the AGESA AM5 firmware), because it limits CPU performance (because of the STAPM bug that throttles you) and iGPU, it is limited because of the STAPM bug too but there is also another problem that is added to this one and which was only corrected in the latest official BIOS "4.03". And frankly it's also a shame that you didn't exploit the potential of this little bomb (when it is well equipped and adjusted) by installing a more efficient heat sink than the one supplied originally (which is only present in the bundle to help you out if you don't have one) like a Thermalright AXP90-X47 (see the "full copper" model which dissipates up to 140 Watts of TDP officially) and in the "Performance Mode" (equivalent to "PBO On") in the BIOS to let your Ryzen 5 8600G express all its performances.

There is also an "unofficial" variant (but coming from the ASRock BIOS department) of the latest BIOS "4.03", the test BIOS "4.03.MEM01" which unlocks access to the DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM voltage settings, settings which will finally be "officially" available in the next final BIOSes that will be released for the DeskMini X600 (source: an email received personally from the ASRock BIOS department), this test BIOS is perfectly stable and has allowed me so far thanks to these accesses to the DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM voltage settings, to overclock my Kingston FURY Impact 6400MHz CL38 DDR5 SO-DIMM 32GB (2x16GB) kit up to a perfectly stable 8000MHz CL38, this allowing me to drastically increase the performance of my iGPU "Radeon 780M" of my Ryzen 7 8700G, by about 40-50% depending on the game thanks to the extra DDR5 RAM bandwidth.

The test BIOS in question can be downloaded here:

CPU - [20/08/2024]ASRock DeskMini X600 BIOS "4.03.MEM01" (with RAM voltage settings!!!) - AGESA ComboAM5Pi "1.2.0.0a"

Greetings to the users of the DIY MiniPC ASRock DeskMini X600, I am opening a thread here for those who wish to have the possibility of adjusting the voltages of their DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM kits (I know for a fact that you wish to do so) as well as the vSOC, so I am sharing with you a link to...

smallformfactor.net

Good to know! on the BIOS front but the review process was already underway. I ended up with delays due to some benchmarks not wanting to cooperate (not bios-related those benchmarks have been dropped going forward due to issues encountered on multiple systems) but for shits and grins ill take a look and grab the newest bios and run a couple of tests see if there are any noticeable performance changes.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I just bought four Minisforum UM773 for the same sort of money as this X600 preconfigured with 7735HS (Zen3+ 8C/16T, 4.75GHz), 680M (12CU), 64GB DDR5 and 1TB NVMe drive.

It's barely a third the size of this frankly ugly, cheap looking steel box from Asrock, and it has a boatload more connectivity with dual HDMI, four USB 3.2, 40Gb/s USB4, and another 20Gb/s Type-C.

Don't get me wrong, the socketed barebones is useful if you're upgrading another AM5 PC and have a spare CPU to put in it, but the laptop-based Mini PCs are lower power and absolutely tiny by comparison. Surely if you're in the market for a mini-PC and sub-10L mITX boxes are too big for you, then size really does matter and this generic STX board in a mostly-empty case isn't a good fit. Realistically this is just Asrock finding the cheapest most boring stamped-steel metal box to put a Generic STX AM5 board into. Maybe I'm being cynical but I suspect they made this STX board for another customer and now just want to capitalise on the existing design by slapping the most barebones case around it they could find. How long has it been since you last saw a cheap steel box where they couldn't even be bothered to paint the inside?! (It has been about 10-12 years for me...)

Minisforum UM773:
128 x 128 x 48mm (W x D x H); Volume: 0.70 litres.

DeskMini X600:
155 x 155 x 80mm (W x D x H); Volume: 1.92 litres.

IMO it's too big and too ugly to have any kind of chance in the market alongside smaller, better-designed competition from all the other major motherboard brands (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte) as well as a ton of even better competition from Beelink, Minisforum, who specialise in these things and then also all the ultra SFF devices from corporate providers from Lenovo, Acer, Dell etc.

Honestly, this feels like a more fitting award:

View attachment 367858

One reason I might prefer X600 over Minisforum is UEFI/BIOS update support. After having a Minisforum HM80 it got zero UEFI/BIOS updates.

That's why there are different sizes. None of those smaller boxes have the same clearance for cpu cooling, which some people might prefer over making it as small as possible.

In the X300 you could fit the wraith stealth which was a perfect fit once you remove the cooler shroud.