Acemagic Unveils V1 Mini PC with Compact 0.33-Liter Chassis

[GGforever]

There is no shortage of mini PC enthusiasts who simply do not require excessive computing horsepower. For such people with modest performance demands, the Acemagic V1 mini PC will likely be an excellent choice. Measuring just 3.9 x 3.9x 1.18 inches, the V1 mini PC is truly compact indeed.

However, as indicated previously, the V1 mini PC sports extremely humble internals. The system is powered by the Intel N150 processor, which boasts 4 cores and 4 threads with a paltry 6 watt TDP. While by no means performant enough for hefty workloads, the N150 should likely be more than enough to power through e-mails, web browsing, content consumption and the like. Interestingly, the V1 does feature active cooling, which is surely welcome, but it may disappoint those expecting the V1 to be a fanless system.




The Acemagic V1 sports a decent array of ports as well, including dual USB 2.0, dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, a 1GbE LAN port, DisplayPort 1.4, and an HDMI 2.0 port. Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 take care of wireless requirements. The system can accommodate up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 memory thanks to its single SODIMM slot, and an M.2 2280 slot is present for SSD storage. The device is expected to be available for purchase on Amazon soon, where the device has already been listed, but there is no confirmation on pricing yet.

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[Nin]

Whenever I see a cool mini PC, I always do a quick check on where the manufacturer is from. Looks like Acemagic is Chinese. Beelink, Minisforum and Lenovo are Chinese too. Frankly, these Chinese manufacturers are making some great-looking mini PCs, but... other than HP, are there any mini PC manufacturers outside China?

 

[Wirko]

Whenever I see a cool mini PC, I always do a quick check on where the manufacturer is from. Looks like Acemagic is Chinese. Beelink, Minisforum and Lenovo are Chinese too. Frankly, these Chinese manufacturers are making some great-looking mini PCs, but... other than HP, are there any mini PC manufacturers outside China?

Asus is Taiwanese and it now makes the original NUC series. AAEON is part of Asus and it makes the most beautiful industrial mini PCs which make other mini PCs look like generic black boxes.

 

[bonehead123]

I know it's not meant to be a powerhouse rig, but with the limited & somewhat outdated cpu & specs, it betta be real cheap, like <<$150 cheap, or it'll be DOA, at least here in the US

 

[Nin]

Asus is Taiwanese and it now makes the original NUC series. AAEON is part of Asus and it makes the most beautiful industrial mini PCs which make other mini PCs look like generic black boxes.

Thanks! Hadn't heard of AAEON yet, and I'm very happy to know them now. Good to have some more options.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

I haven't used one of these literally lowest tier Intel CPUs in a few years, but from what I remember, they even struggled with web browsing, like if you loaded the comments section to an article and multiple users just happened to post multiple embedded YouTube videos in the comments, the thing would bog down....anybody use one of these N series procrssors lately?

Wish they'd make $150 or less AMD versions, but instead of brand new low tier CPUs they'd use old 4800HS's or something

 

[dj-electric]

I googled Acemagic and you should too.

 

[IntelNick]

Just noticed that GMKtec has their G3Plus with the N150 on Aliexpress for $98 for the barebones model. Might be worth a look at sub $100 prices.

 

[Hecate91]

I googled Acemagic and you should too.

I know what you mean, and I'd rather buy a mini pc from Minisforum or Beelink. Der8auer has a video on a laptop from Acemagic.

 

[unruheherd]

Acemagic(ian) has had some problems with preinstalled Malware in the past. From my research, some other mini pc manufacturers have had the same problem. Others like GMKtec fail to identify the processors in CPU-Z because they are pre production lines which are sold as funcitoning units in these tiny machines.

From what I know, the N100 and likes are easily fast enough for everyday browsing and office work. I would go with ddr5 versions, though, because memory bandwidth is limiting, expecially for the ddr4 variants of N100 pcs.

I have put in some research because I got new machines for my small company a few days ago. I went with refurbished HP Elitedesk 800 G5 machines with dual channel ddr4 and Intel 9500 for a comparable price. I suppose they use a little more energy, but I feel safer with a HP corporate machine for my business. There are firmware bug fixes released even though those machines are 4 years old. Moreover, the 9500 is still considerably faster in many tasks, even though its less energy efficient. Because we're talking about low power machines, the difference between 15 W for the pc with the N100 machines or 20 W for the used HP machines is less noticeable. I am still intrigued to get my hands on some of these new mini machines for testing purposes, but not for my office.

 

[roberto888]

I haven't used one of these literally lowest tier Intel CPUs in a few years, but from what I remember, they even struggled with web browsing, like if you loaded the comments section to an article and multiple users just happened to post multiple embedded YouTube videos in the comments, the thing would bog down....anybody use one of these N series procrssors lately?

Wish they'd make $150 or less AMD versions, but instead of brand new low tier CPUs they'd use old 4800HS's or something

The 4800H is still a pretty good CPU, scales well with power, has a strong iGPU, and is more versatile. If it's sold for a similar price, I'd definitely pick that over Intel.