Acemagic returns... | F2A Mini PC feat. Intel Ultra 7 155H

Testing the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H-powered Acemagic F2A mini PC in gaming, 3D rendering & video editing
Thanks to Acemagic for supplying the review unit.
Link: www.acemagic.com/products/ace...
Use code ACELT for $300 off
Specs as provided:
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
Arc Xe 128EU graphics
32GB DDR5-4800 (2x16GB)
1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD
Music by Backing Track backingtrack.gg/
Track names: "Future Tomorrow", "Starstream Returns“, “Midnight Racer” & "Binary Sunrise”
and as always, Unicorn Heads "808 Doorbell Chime"
00:00 Acemagic returns
00:34 Malware controversy
01:57 F2A pricing & unboxing
03:15 Core Ultra 7 155H
05:27 Ports & Connectivity
06:56 Internals
07:56 Synthetic Benchmarks
11:25 Productivity Benchmarks
12:26 Gaming Benchmarks
16:23 Conclusions on the Ultra 7 155H & Acemagic F2A
17:50 Power Consumption
18:39 Is Acemagic forgiven?
A D S
The following links are affiliated. Everything costs the same to you, but I get a commission.
G E A R
Audio:
Behringer UM2 amzn.to/3aV17wq
Behringer XM8500 amzn.to/3nCt2WY
Generic microphone arm amzn.to/339yZRC
Video:
Fujifilm X-T3 Camera & 18-55mm lens kit: amzn.to/3nGapRY
Fujifilm 23mm f2 amzn.to/3udXvgn
FeiyuTech G6 Max Gimbal amzn.to/3nHndYs
Interfit LM8 Video LED amzn.to/2SkESJL
Neewer 120cm Softbox amzn.to/2RjlMDm
Raleno Rechargeable Bicolour Video LED Panel amzn.to/3f2l7hV
C O N T A C T
Twitter/Insta @IcebergTop10s
Email [e-mail]
#ryzen #miniPC #Acemagic

[@IcebergTech]

ERRATA 7:36 Should read Bluetooth 5.4, not 5.5. I copied it off the Acemagic official site, but it's my bad for not checking whether BT 5.5 actually exists... 🤦‍♂

[@GreatMossWater]

Can't blame yourself when the manufacturer goofed.

[@elitepauper7400]

Suprise suprise, they have a malware again

[@f0x4nn3]

You may want to check your system for malware/virus, Seem other youtuber (CyberCPU Tech) had malware on his. (it was in the software used by AceMagic to bypass the Microsoft account requirement)

[@steph_on_yt]

That thing's definitely being choked off by the atrocious 4800MT/s memory bandwidth. MTL needs LPDDR5-6400 to shine, which probably explains why this Ultra 7 was underperforming even against an Ultra 5. Hopefully you can get your hands on one of these with 6400MT/s memory, or even 7467MT/s.

[@lubossoltes321]

There are no 6400 or better ddr5 so-dimms, the faster memory is always soldered lpddr5 .... so the maximum possible herw is 5600

[@one_step_sideways]

Yet AMD does not need that. Skill issue

[@steph_on_yt]

@@one_step_sidewaysSame thing applies to AMD. iGPUs are notoriously bandwidth starved; there’s a reason why AMD’s Strix halo will require OEMs to use soldered quad channel (128-bit) LPDDR5. But ppl like you always have to bring brand fanboyism into here, huh.

[@GewelReal]

​@@steph_on_ytisn't quad channel 256-bit?

[@steph_on_yt]

@@GewelRealthanks for correcting; I was thinking in terms of GDDR modules. Strix Halo will have 40 CUs (RDNA 3.5) fed by a 256-bit memory interface running at LPDDR5X-8000 for anyone curious.

[@herr-a5460]

Tbh, this thing could be the best mini pc in the market and I still wouldn't buy it. There is no coming back from the preinstalled malware scandal. And buying a $1200 pc from a shady company? No thanks. There are waaay better and cheaper alternatives in the market.

[@S己G]

Plus, a laptop that cost $1200 would comfortably beat this while still (for the most part) saving a lot of power comparably to a desktop. (I assume that's one of the main reasons people get miniPCs) And if someone didn't really care about power draw, it'd just be insane to consider this up against a $1200 regular PC that would at least in games, wipe the floor with it.

[@Typhon888]

TBF Win11 is malware.

[@andrewmutavi590]

Beelink and Minisforum are my go toos

[@randomgamingin144p]

i mean i always reinstalled windows i just dont really care about mini pcs tho

[@f0x4nn3]

CyberCPU Tech seem to have got a same unit and it indeed came with malware installed on it. It's in the software they use to bypass the Microsoft account requirements.

[@TrusteftTech]

Best Aaaahhh/eeehhhh in years. I like this a lot. For the connectivity and performance, I would love to buy it for up to 500 euros. If I had the money I mean.

[@quaz1moto241]

These Mini PC reviews are surprisingly interesting. I kind of want to get a low end one to mess around with.

[@darkerm76]

Same but They are not cheap

[@minerva474]

Not when the channel has made 5 reviews in the last month. The story is pretty much always the same: "good connectivity, throttles under heavy load, decent gaming". I would enjoy it if they branched out into other component categories such as motherboard or case reviews

[@Quast]

An Intel N processor with Xe graphics in the future would be interesting, but I think those two wouldn't mix well. xD

[@cairnex4473]

@@minerva474 Agree with this 100% mini PC's are all very samey.

[@one_step_sideways]

​@@minerva474The thing is, such similarity between all mini PCs in the same price/processor category creates competition that brings the prices of those mini PCs down further. For better or for worse. The more established companies like Beelink and Minisforum can't afford to lose clients by making mini PCs with cheapest components and high failure rates, so the only way to stay competitive for them is to produce them in bulk to get better wholesale pricing for components. The customer wins in the end. They get the PCs that push against the limitations of the form factor, packing great I/O and power to build your own homelab server for dirt cheap and with least space needed and with no accompanied fan noise of 1U and 2U servers. Hence the throttling under heavy load. And there are various mini PCs for all possible usecases. Want the cheapest usable mini PC for office and home use? Beelink Mini S12 with Intel N95. Want a more polished experience with two 2.5GbE ports and various QoL improvements for running Proxmox or having fast storage? Beelink EQ12 with Intel N100. Want the cheapest cores in a Mini PC to self-host your pet projects with a little less uptime and potential hardware problems? Get yourself a Ryzen 5 5625U barebones mini PC, they are ridiculously cheap but can have up to 64GB RAM and their Zen 3 cores are plenty for everyone. And repaste all mini PCs with Honeywell PTM7950 or at least the Cooler Master Mastergel Maker paste.

[@zombonio3279]

I'd think the reason for the lackluster gaming performance in comparison to the i5 is the slow ram. It seems like Meteor Lake gains and loses quite a lot of gaming performance from RAM speed. I also don't get why manufacturers don't ship it either with somewhat fast ddr5 (6000Mhz) or just with saughtered on LPDDR5X 7xxx Mhz since that's the highest supported speed and it shouldn't be that hard to offer 32gb which should be enough for most people. Regarding the mini pc, no usb4 is a real bummer. Even though I don't have anything that uses more than 10gb of speed, it still feels weird getting the newest cpu and losing out on usb4 and more usb c ports as a whole. I'd prefer it the way apple does, give the user 2-3 really fast usb ports and let them use a dongle if they need more. Great Showcase, I hope you'll be able to get an i9 with at least 5600mhz ram in the future to review

[@0Synergy]

Not only that but they have to waste space for an NPU

[@kouhaiii3182]

i've never seen someone slaughter the word "soldered" as good as you did

[@Quast]

Why is my pc making strange noises? Ahhh, that's just our paddock of trojan horsies. :)

[@Jmeshok]

Bet the cpu package hits the power limit when both igpu and cpu are active in gaming. That's the reason you get the same (or even lower) performance than 155H, there's just not enough power for the cpu and 128 eu gpu together. Most probably can be fixed with setting "Max performance" power setting in intel graphics command center or windows power settings and unlocking the power limit. Would love to see the retest with all the limits off in the future, if still possible.

[@alderlake12th]

Nice, we got a new 1st CPU performance on ranking

[@OneTwoWolf]

I think the reason its so bad in the iGPU tests is the DDR5 4800, I think the Ultra 5 PC had DDR5 5600, which is probably significantly lower latency too? iGPUs tend to be memory bandwidth bottlenecked more often than dedicated GPUs.

[@one_step_sideways]

And why did they cheap out on the DDR5-5600 RAM like so? On a $1200 mini PC no less? It's a pass

[@nadtz]

A couple months isn't long enough for me to think about trusting a company that shipped machines with malware on them. That aside this seems priced way too high to come with 4800MT memory, I'd be interested to see how much benchmarks change with faster memory.

[@slojcabronas858]

300$ discout codes if really good indicator as to just how overpriced it is

[@petertrex]

manufactures always pack unnecessary stuff.... Whether that's malware or bloatware, its good idea to do clean install after completely wiping the disc, just for the sake of my mind

[@yarost12]

Ultra 5 vs ultra 7 is probably due to ram and power limits. That's why Steam Deck can run games faster than 7840/8840 handhelds in a lot of situations (when tdp limited)

[@joshsadowski8869]

Great video as always

[@godhalo8582]

The noise problem can be resoloved with a bigger fan,but they like put in the smaller

[@gtech66]

I wouldn't touch Ace Magic ever. They installed Windows with a cracked patch to bypass the activation process. Most of these Chinese makers are not reliable, and you will have issues within a year or less. Instead, look at major brands like Lenovo, Dell, HP, and Asus that all make compact pcs that are designed to last and have good support. Not just an email in China.

[@lubossoltes321]

Minipcs in this class are only made by asrock I think for industrial usage. All other either don't make units this small or they are priced higher than equivalent laptops which makes no sense.

[@thorium9190]

Even installing a fresh copy of windows can sometimes not be enough, some motherboards can actually download software like you see with some gigabyte motherboards that ask to download APP Centre, that is a bios option. But I can see it being a hidden part of the bios in some computers

[@Quast]

7:36 Wait what? Could you tell me what WiFi network device is used in this device? Even the current BE200 Intel moduls only have Bluetooth 5.4 advertised! o.O

[@IcebergTech]

It is indeed a BE200 according to Device Manager. I referred to the specs from the Acemagic product page without double checking.

[@Quast]

@@IcebergTech And here I was hoping we would have a way out of the not working LC3 (LE Audio) that Intel still advertises in hteir PDF... >.

[@dark_taco]

The Forza tests were really eye opening I wonder how this cpu will fair in a year w/ more driver support 🤔

[@shiftctrlhack]

Keep these reviews coming. I’m always on the lookout for a mini pc but it needs to meet my speed / IO requirements. AMD has really been ahead of crowd with their mobile chips making some headway. Hopefully we can get near desktop 3 year old gpu performance down the road. It would be awesome to get RTX 3060 performance. Maybe we will start seeing more ARM chips pumped out for Windows. Apple really crushes with battery performance on the M chips.

[@denvera1g1]

For $520 i got 7940HS, 2 NVMe slots, 2 RAM slots, 2 USB-4 ports(IIRC the rear one can supply power), and 2.5G networking. For the discounted price of the F2A, i have 48GB of 5600, and a 4TB NVMe, though that was back before they started cutting back producting to boost ASP and you could get a 4TB gen 4 NVMe for ~$160 and DDR5 for ~$120 If it were bare-bones and round the same $520(which this unit apparently is still hovering around) i'd consider the 155H, but at $800 Only if it had 2x4TB high end drives and 64GB of DDR5?

[@FreemanBgTV]

13:28 finally Battlebit Remastered Bench Test.

[@LKNear]

Bro how do you ship a PC with malware?

[@cze7470]

You install Maleware on Windows, then ship it

[@joshsadowski8869]

Some dude plugs his phone into the work computer. It's been happening for decades.

[@reeveho1384]

Which do you think is better? Ryzen 7 8845h or this?

[@IcebergTech]

For gaming, definitely the Ryzen. For everything else, take your pick.

[@reeveho1384]

​@@IcebergTech I'm picking the ryzen then

[@BonusCrook]

These CPUs are great coming from intel, with more ARC driver work I can see them really shaking things up in the market.

[@firebodybuilder]

there are RECENT reviews that report this brand still ships their product with malware. so better check carefully

[@ItsDeeno69]

16:10 actually it is a power management issue if you look at the benchmarks from laptop to laptop you will find a huge delta with the best performing laptop lenovo yoga pro 7i and the worst is zenbook 14 oled

[@daveyepdave4366]

Review r5 5500

[@KomradeMikhail]

I realize that taking all these mini-PC sponsorships pays the bills... But come on now... My channels feed is filled with nothing but mini-PC lately.

[@unionofslavstanrepublics2317]

Impressive CPU and GPU performance in productivity tasks.

[@SuperStareGry]

Absolutely no reason to pay premium for this.

[@andrewmutavi590]

Ultra chips seem to be pretty impressive

[@jonas000111]

I know its easy for me to criticize you for this since I am not the guy that would have to spend $1200 to do it right but you would have to try to source the minipc anonymously for you to see if they really fixed it or gave you a "ringer".

[@cakedon]

I think Geekom or Minisforum mini PCs are way better, with a better price, and great IO. But it's cool to see intel chips being good again

[@user-hh2zj1sn8y]

How is gaming on a mini pc? As far as I know, their cooling is like a laptop thus they easily overheat. I live on a hot country

[@EVOTech1]

what an insane price for the performance. it's a shame intel mini PCs still carry such a premium. there is a lot to get excited about when it comes to the Core Ultra series but the prices are just not attractive VS AMD offerings. when 7840hs systems are in the 500 usd price range, this at 1200 is an absolute joke. It really seems like the usual case an interest intel product that wont become price competitive until a new gen is out to bring down prices. took way too long for 12th gen and 13th gen mini pcs to be competitive.

[@Beany2007FTW]

Hey, it's EVOTech, fancy seeing you here!

[@IcebergTech]

I don't know what Acemagic is thinking tbh, in the wake of the whole malware thing they should want more good press, and trying to get $1200 (or even $900) for this isn't the way. The Asus Nuc Pro that ETA reviewed yesterday offers the same CPU for less, and - while they're not exactly uncontroversial either - at least with Asus you don't have to worry about trojans...

[@clara-raxxa]

Keep up the great work! I'm not in the Mini PC market at all myself, but i still find these videos super entertaining and interesting! Don't listen to all the others, I'd hate to see your Mini PC videos go. I really hope to see Arc iGPUs and their GPUs in general improve in the coming years, I'd love to see Intel put out some desktop APUs or something of the like. If we could get a modern version of rhe Ryzen 2200g or 3200g but with Intel + Arc, that'd be just amazing for low end gamers.

[@cairnex4473]

Please don't turn into a Mini PC channel...

[@reeveho1384]

Fr tho

[@springbonnie6407]

Ah yes making some other kind of content because theres isint a lot of stuff to talk of right now = making this a mini pc video

[@RobloxianX]

Let’s be honest, what else is there to review?

[@cairnex4473]

@@RobloxianX Old stuff... kind of what the channel was built on.

[@slimjim2321]

Does this really need to happen every video? He's already responded saying he's not going to be a mini pc channel. He's not etaprime nor does he ever intend to be based on his responses I've seen.

[@srvuk]

Even at $£€900 it's an impossible sell to me.

[@michaelmcconnell7302]

meteor lake is strange

[@Azureskies01]

So get intel if you plan on playing Cinebench full time, got it.

[@one_step_sideways]

Just make sure not to run Cinebench for 10 minutes, yes

[@BonusCrook]

For $450 with better sodimms, this would've been great! For $900.... ouch...

[@letsstartriding125]

I will just buy a Laptop eith RTX 4060 and Intel i5 13500HX

[@InternationalLiaison]

Mini PC's are definitely a niche. Like why? Laptops even1 or 2 generations back are more power full than this and will still offer a 1080P monitor and all the portability you need with a lithium battery. What you should do is the mini PC gaming laptop challenge within $1000 budget and see what comes out on top. I mean lets talk facts. I bought an HP Omen laptop in 2019 with an i7 and a GTX 1650 mobile, and it does better than this mini and I paid $1090 in 2019.

[@slimjim2321]

I wouldn't buy this particular one but they have their place for areas where a laptop would be too big, or in businesses that can't buy old hardware from the used market. My work uses mini pcs to replace previously giant workstations to perform the same tasks (which needs bare metal x86). Using a laptop for that would create a very tempting target to be stolen in a high traffic area vs a mini pc attached to the back of the monitor that most people won't even know is there. I have one as an emulation machine hooked up to a TV in my living room that also acts as a file server. A Raspberry pi or similar device could do the same thing but I like having windows. A laptop could do the same job but would take up way more space. Some mini pcs that have 2 ethernet ports get used as overpowered diy firewalls/routers (pfsense). It's niche of a niche for sure. I have no idea how they've gotten seemingly so popular to where we have dozens of mini pc companies competing.

[@InternationalLiaison]

@@slimjim2321 the mini pc competitors is what baffles me personally. Sales aren’t that strong and when people talk “mini”. That consumer base considers buying once its fallen below a sub $600 price tag. The intel mobile cpus are about 1/3 less than the desktop counter parts. Yet the pre built manufacturers are charging like its a desktop premium. I guess some people fall for the gimicks while some people do not.

[@ora2j251]

Tbh, i'm kinda getting tired of mini PC reviews. They're cool and all, but it's a bit too much IMO + With the bang for the buck aspect of your channel, they dont really fit.

[@lanwish]

So dont watch it. You dont need to watch every video, believe it or not

[@johneralddayrit7833]

The Fan got that VTech from Honda.

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

Once again why is this mini PC using DDR5 4800 ? It should be using LPDDR5X 7467 otherwise the iGPU will never reach it's peak potential.

[@FluffyPuppyKasey]

Tell me you don't know the difference between DDR5 and LPDDR5X without telling me you don't know the difference. I'll give you a hint: You can't upgrade one.

[@Hi_Im_o2]

Another mini pc better than my pc ._.

[@ranjitmandal1612]

The price is ridiculous

[@awesomecomputers7076]

Be careful with these no-name mini pcs. If I recall acemagic was the brand that had viruses preinstalled with windows. These machines are good deals for the hardware you are getting but it's always a good idea to reinstall windows on these machines out of an abundance of caution.

[@shodan6401]

Yeah. The Minisforum with the AMD iGPU and port availability, plus the actual build quality simply destroy this thing. And it will probably be the flexibility created by port offerings on the Minisforum that will crush this product. People and businesses don't buy these for gaming.

[@Slech54]

Hey, apparently some of these are preinstalled with malware so i hope you didn't use the default windows install. Also this isn't the first time Acemagic computers are preinstalled with malware ...

[@wikwayer]

Any none amd mini pc are automatically worse 😔

[@c1nqbl7]

*0:24* lmao

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

Ramping fans up and down is so annoying. I’d even rather have a constant high noise than a constantly changing noise.

[@MisterKrakens]

With this being worse so many times than the Ultra 5 and the fact that it's an IGPU, it must be a matter of ram speed. Still miles away from AMD anyway

[@jasonaltman7164]

$1200? No. I’m already over the trend of overcharging for new, mediocre Intel products.

[@jeremyleemartens801]

Welcome to Iceberg Tech, your favourite Mini PC advertisement channel

[@Sketchfellow]

Bro did you even watch the video the ending conclusion isn't particularly positive

[@one_step_sideways]

Bait comment

[@1988Demien]

Intel and half functioning products nothing new. Arc is failure and will stay as one long as they don't get more serious about it

[@Razzbow]

Meteor lake is awful though

[@Ducky_Lord]

iceberg turning into mini pc berg

[@danielkrupski3443]

Build your own computer…

[@Trappy-C]

Hi eta prime

[@houdini329]

Wow. You review stuff from shady companies like Acemagic now? And its mini PCs again. At least it is a new CPU with some... interesting results? But I'm not really loving this tbh. The direction of the channel takes a turn that i don't really like.

[@PHANTOM-tb6tt]

make this the top comment

[@atoo7yt490]

no

[@kyperactive]

Nah, stop begging for likes.

[@reeveho1384]

Nah

[@ranjitmandal1612]

Nope

[@hermiandroid3672]

Wow even with Intels newest node this cores cant even keep up with older AMD chips and hit 90+ dagrees with more energy used and less graphis power ⚠️🫢