AceMagician Tiny Windows Mini PC Review - T8Plus

Buy one on Amazon: lon.tv/ivst4 (compensated affiliate link) - AceMagician's tiny Intel N95 based Windows 11 PC performs adequately for its price point. It can work well as a basic desktop but also perhaps as a small server. See more MiniPCs : lon.tv/minipc and subscribe ! lon.tv/s
VIDEO INDEX:
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - Price
01:08 - Processor, RAM, Storage and WiFi
02:02 - Ports
03:23 - Basic Performance
06:23 - Gaming: Crysis, Half Life 2, No Mans Sky
07:47 - Emulation
08:17 - Game Streaming
09:18 - 3DMark TimeSpy Benchmark
09:37 - Cooling and 3DMark Stress Test
09:54 - Stress Test
10:17 - Linux
11:04 - Conclusion
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[@daveschmarder-1950]

I enjoyed the review, Lon. I'm going to get one of these type PCs to replace my old clunker. I'll probably buy one of those Beelink computers like you had reviewed earlier.

[@Paul.Reviews]

They're Realtek adapters, not MediaTek. They apparently work with Pfsense too - several people report it works and is stable.

[@Yasso9]

Amazing video with all the information needed. Big thanks !

[@lobsterwhisperer7932]

Back in the day i had to connect my laptop to TV to play all my mame & pinmame games, now I use one of these mini pc's, its excellent.

[@anthony007]

I bought the AceMagicianAM06 Pro after your last review and I love this little thing!... I got it for $329 after the $90 amazon coupon, and frankly I'm astounded at the price with a genuine copy of Windows 11 pro. I installed a 2TB SSD easy enough and have it on 2 - 27" monitors at 1080p. On the vesa mount behind one of the monitors it genuinely looks like I have a floating dual screen "all-in-one". I don't game or video render so I can't speak to extreme performance, but in a work from home use case with usually 2 browser windows, outlook, excel and zoom open simultaneously I have yet to have a hiccup with this little beast. Thanks Lon for the recommendation, I was sure to use your link ;)

[@netstreamer]

I bought the same one. It was a decent machine and played many games decently and had great performance for everyday tasks. Got it for 240 but returned it because it randomly rebooted. Was definitely a hardware issue as it was happening on Linux too. Replaced with beelink SER 5 with 5800H which cost about $40 more but was much better for gaming performance.

[@fabricionaweb]

is it really nvme? Because I saw another one saying that is m2 but sata

[@MitchellJBridges]

We are getting to the point that powerful computers are no longer needed for simple tasks. I love this era of computing where my PC for running FREEBSD is smaller than my router. It's perfect for me as I can run lightweight software on the command line which uses an insanely low amount of cpu and ram. I have the Firebat T8 with the N5095 CPU.

[@MitchellJBridges]

@@fabricionaweb your correct. It's not an nvme at all. I found out the hard way. I bought a 1tb nvme drive that didn't work because it only supported sata drives at the smallest size. It may be possible to run a nvme externally though.

[@MitchellJBridges]

@@fabricionaweb I own a similar one called the Firebat T8 pro. It has a sata m.2. I learned that the hard way, when I bought a m.2 drive just to learn that it actually had a sata m.2.

[@weslindsey]

Do you run any kind of antivirus on these? If so does it affect performance?

[@dturk964]

How do you think this would work as an NDi decoder running NewTeks Studio Monitor for 1 , 2 or even 3 attached HDMI screens?

[@DarinBuss]

I use streamyard for live streaming will this work to fo that also can you do any editing on here ty for reading

[@bploan8464]

Anyone know if this would be good for a plex server for daily 24 hours use? And emulating up to pa2

[@MohammadMustafaBaghaei]

Hi, do you have the press the power button twice to turn it on like my one ? Or is that just on my one that i have to do that ?

[@abdurrahmansarker7652]

What is the boot menu key for installing os?

[@MitchellJBridges]

I have a similar Firebat T8. Exact same specs. It ran freebsd like a dream. It's perfect for command line apps, and open source software. I use this machine as my daily driver, highly recommend it for the price of $135 CAD.

[@theflyingjapman5771]

hi, is your firebat t8 able to be installed with pfsense or openwrt? is the network chipset realtek or intel? I plan to buy a similar one by NiPoGi T8

[@MitchellJBridges]

@@theflyingjapman5771 It's a realtek as far as I know on mine. Because it worked perfect with freebsd.

[@chronicgaming8973]

Would this pc be able to run obs studios so I can stream from it al be playing on a ps5

[@chrisxp5629]

Can the bios be opened and have it increase the mhz to 4800?

[@mokisan]

Thanks for the great video as usual lon

[@kbubuntu6048]

can you install chrome os on it ?

[@ebgb1777]

Mine doesn't recognize my 2 4 terabyte external hard drives

[@geekrated1775]

Don't know about USA but in my cou try dell and hp mini pc of 7th gen i5 avaibake for just 150$ with 256 /8 Confiq. And of course nothing can beat that

[@chrisxp5629]

Can this emulate ps2 and or psp without hiccups?

[@davidboling6791]

Great video! Would it work as a plex server for limited use? I'm thinking just to have stuff available if needed, not daily use by any means.

[@LonSeidman]

Yeah it should do fine for that and support hardware transcode.

[@davidboling6791]

That's what I was thinking. I'll probably end up with a synology, but I'm waiting to see if a DS223/4+ comes out.

[@Magna00]

Thanks for the Video 😊

[@johnjendzurski3242]

Just FYI, I bought one of these last week, and while it did have Windows 11 installed, it was not activated, and there is no product code supplied. I am currently trying to resolve this through Amazon and the vendor.

[@johnjendzurski3242]

Update: Ace Magic emailed me the product code to activate Windows. Problem solved!

[@andyknapp]

I finally got the PC. Thanks for the note :)

[@LonSeidman]

Wow it took that long ?!?

[@andyknapp]

@@LonSeidman I was in the process of moving so I didn't have an address so I sent it to a family member. I drove 8 hours there and 8 back to get it lol (I did other stuff too)

[@LonSeidman]

@@andyknapp ahh we were having some slow shipping issues from the usps so I was hoping it wasnt because of that! Hope your new place is great !

[@headerahelix]

In the EU I'm not seeing home theatre boxes, it seems to be a dead market. Was looking at a mini PC for home theatre purposes but if it's no good I'll have to figure out what to do instead.

[@LonSeidman]

Nvidia Shield is still the best choice.

[@TheArchitect101]

Warning this brand have been caught out for having a pre installed virus on these machines. Best to do a fresh install!

[@LonSeidman]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZXYoYp5rbiMhrM

[@CraigLong]

The cables are bigger than the PC. So putting the PC on the back of the monitor would be nice.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

I suppose if you're talking about stacking a few of them, they could amount to that.

[@mattsanchez4893]

Nice review Lon, not clear to me how they make any money on these little guys.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Good, I'm glad that the SSD is removable so you can upgrade the capacity. Too bad the RAM isn't that way, with little mini sticks for that purpose, though. That and the WiFi card render this computer as not an SBC.

[@MitchellJBridges]

It's too small for sodimms. Lpddr4 is superior than dimms anyways. Because it burns less power.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@MitchellJBridges: I meant that it's too bad that they didn't make it big enough for the RAM to be easily removable as well.

[@MitchellJBridges]

@@HelloKittyFanMan It would have been nice to have dimms for easier upgrades. But you paid much less for this, so you get what you paid for.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@MitchellJBridges: "So you get what you paid for." But (assuming honesty on both sides) that would be the case even if it were the other way.

[@MitchellJBridges]

@@HelloKittyFanMan Well. I don't mind this as I personally have no reason to upgrade from 8g ram. I run FreeBSD with i3 tiling window manager so it hardly uses the processor to begin with. It only supports 16 max ram anyways. Let's be honest, that chip is better suited for 8g of ram anyways. It's a low power chip so It doesn't need that much ram.

[@ManuelPinner]

These are Perfect for My Ham Radio Station, can be Use with My Software Define Radios like My SDR Play RSP DX and My Adalm Pluto SDR with SDR Angel Software for DATV Reception! I also use SDR trunk for Digital Trunk Government System,

[@cordlesswire]

wth why is my comment getting deleted? just got the 16gb version for 160$ with a 100$ voucher. dont even need one, so if wifey complains, its on you. hahaha. cheers. keep up the good work.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

"But you're not going to run any current games on this." Wow, seriously, the minute you try opening one on it, you'll just get an error message?

[@kromhout27]

I think there is no NVME there but M2 SSD.

[@BurnLikeAFlame]

Correct. NVMe would have heat issues in this box. The lower speed option is not only cheaper but requires less cooling, which is an absolute necessity in something this small.

[@nataclar]

I would love to use something like this but I just don’t know how much I trust these off brands I have never heard of. They could have anything in the firmware.

[@ziofascistssuck]

These use very basic American Megatrends BIOS chips -- there's nothing malicious there. If these PCs were running UEFI, I would definitely agree on your point.

[@idan678]

@@ziofascistssuck can you please explain, is it relate to the bios/uefi option on the bios? is that mean that if i run leagacy mode itll be safer than uefi?

[@ziofascistssuck]

@@idan678 no - what I meant was this PC runs an off-the-shelf stock BIOS from American Megatrends, so there’s no possibility for the sellers to tamper with it from what I can tell. It doesn’t run some custom unrecognisable UEFI written by some random Chinese company, so an infected BIOS shouldn’t be a concern.

[@idan678]

@@ziofascistssuck thabk you I ordered one mini pc from aliexpress and I'm looking all over the internet to make sure I can protect myself in terms of pre installed malwares

[@ziofascistssuck]

@@idan678 no worries. A few things I would recommend you do as soon as you get your mini PC is to wipe it & clean install Windows 11 (to wipe out any potential chances of pre installed malware) then run a Windows Memory Diagnostic extended memory test (to check for any problems with the RAM, as it is soldered -- you won't be able to replace it later) and then a sector scan of the SSD (to make sure the SSD drive is healthy). I am using this mini PC right now and am very happy with it, so just ordered another exact same one for a family member.

[@jjones2582]

"Cables all over the place" - That is one thing I wish they would fix on the Raspberry Pi devices.

[@VinylRescue]

This sounds like it would be a good replacement for my 17-year-old Dell laptop that I'm using for my Plex server.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Until Microsoft gets a clue and adds back the features to Windows 11 that we like from Windows 10, or until Windows 12 comes out, we should "down"grade this computer to Windows 10.

[@IraQNid]

I'd get rid of the crappy little SSD. When it dies prematurely (as they all tend to do) it will take all your data with it. Instead attach an external USB 3.x powered WD MyPassport HDD to it to use for your local storage.