Fanless N100 Mini PCs Are Here! Neosmay AC8-N Review

[@edalder2000]

Have been waiting a fanless N100 minipc review! I was not surprised that performance was not as much as actively cooled N100s But the higher power limit running makes this mini-impressive. 16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD for about $239 is amazing.

[@Robtech]

Yep, a great entry point to experiencing the world of silent computing 👌

[@edalder2000]

It's a good bet that The VGA port is for digital signage or a Point of Sale system.

[@craigprocter1232]

still has DDR4 RAM, which would be slowing it down compared to the DDR5 RAM models.

[@jacobnunya808]

@@craigprocter1232 Probably not making much difference. The integrated graphics are slow so it won't be ram bottlenecked. If graphics are important spend a bit more on a ryzen mini pc.

[@craigprocter1232]

@@jacobnunya808yeah I've got both.. bought a chuwi larkbox x 2023 and using it right now, it's replaced my gaming PC for nightly web and youtube browsing (and torrent downloading), I bought an Asrock deskmini x300w and put in an AMD 5600G for mini PC gaming / retro batocera and love both of them. Only fire up my big box desktop for AAA 1440p gaming now.

[@nazirtarraf8398]

Just wanted to thank you on helping me picking a mini pc. Choose HX80G over NUC11 and I’m very happy with the decision. Thanks man!

[@Robtech]

Glad to hear it!

[@namyun2743]

Thanks for the review! The Newsmay AC-8 series Feels like an unfinished design prototype or a basic design model you work from to design a finished product. The previous gen AC-8 with the Pentium silver n6005 had a SATA port and a power header but no space in the case for a 2.5" drive. It even had a power header on the other side of the board for fan power. Considering the issues these machines have with thermals, power, and expansion space, you're better off just getting the Beelink EQ12 which can be had for less, performs better (DDR5), has space for the 2.5" drive and comes with 2- 2.5GBE connectors.

[@TheCelticbeast]

My experience with rubberized cases or equipment is that they are dust Collectors and with time they have decomposed into a black goo.

[@Chris.Brisson]

We need a standard benchmark suite (CPU/GPU/NVMe) for "office" PCs that does not focus on gaming nor video encoding, perhaps something like PCMark 10. I don't have a feel for what benchmark scores represent the minimal "good user experience" baseline. I'm currently using an Intel Celeron J4125 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD on Windows 10 Pro, and I find the performance meets my standard for minimal good user experience. I'm thinking a fanless N100 might have a superior user experience but with even lower power consumption. Being fanless, I would expect the PC to last for at least 8 years (unlike a mini with a fan that might die after 3 years due to dust ingestion). I do desire, however, faster USB for external drives and faster networking for NAS. Will we see a fanless N200?

[@Robtech]

Compare the CB23 score with yours for an office PC and you're done. CPU is most important for that usage case. The iGPUs in the latest gen hold up fine for the user interfaces in office applications. Single core most important for snappiness and multicore for dealing with multiple tasks concurrently or apps that support it (video encoding). N100 should be far ahead. I've been told the N200 model is scheduled to release within a month.

[@sunspot42]

I’m always leery of that rubberized plastic. Everything I’ve ever bought that was wrapped in that stuff has eventually turned to gummy glue and/or sloughed off.

[@Robtech]

Yeah, poor quality batches can deteriorate. If it starts to melt, you can wipe it with a mix of bi-carb soda and water until its back to normal. That fixes it for a long while.

[@sunspot42]

@@Robtech interesting. Didn’t know that. I had it happen to an expensive pair of RayBan sunglasses. Pissed me off!

[@TheCeleryGod]

Always dig the noiseless options! Thanks!

[@AgentZeroNine1]

Waiting for a fanless N305 that also features fully functional USB-C ports. Still, this is pretty cool for a personal media server and light weight office work.

[@Robtech]

At double the power draw, it's going to need a much larger heatsink and case.

[@bookabooka]

Thank you for this review!. Just curious, will you also be reviewing the ASUS PN42 n100 fanless mini pc? I wonder how they compare

[@Robtech]

Hoping to if it ever arrives here. There's no mention of it at any Aussie store yet.

[@michaeljarcher]

I wouln't expect much more, the performance is at the bottom level, to be expected, but you get Asus quality.

[@LittleJoePeep]

Great review, thanks!

[@tautona]

2.5 inches, poor you... PS: loved the drumroll. Cheers!

[@Robtech]

My shame now public to the whole world!

[@darknessblades]

could you test something out for me. Run Home-assistant on it, with a dozen plugins enabled, to measure its power-consumption. [Just install and enable every addon in the store, even if you don't use it, it should serve as a simple test] Would love to see if its more efficient than a raspberry PI.

[@canadianwildlifeservice8883]

I did buy this exact model. Be careful, if you enable CSM in the BIOS you must keep GPU in UEFI mode. I made the mistake of setting the GPU to legacy mode when enabling CSM, and got a black screen at boot, and had to tear the unit apart just to remove the CMOS button battery to reset the BIOS back to factory defaults. Apparently the newer Alder Lake CPU integrated graphics doesn't support legacy mode.

[@Robtech]

Yeah, legacy mode will be slowly phased out with newer chips

[@canadianwildlifeservice8883]

@@Robtech That's what I heard too. The big attraction to these dual NIC PCs is the ability to use them as a firewall. I might return mine and look into one of the others that has 2.5Gb Intel i226 NICs. But I heard there's a flaw in those NICs that causes the internet to drop out for a few seconds at a time.

[@Ubya_]

sorry about the offtopic, but since you disassembled it, did you see any free fan headers? i know it is a fanless system, but maybe the same board is used in other systems (with a fan). i can't find any pictures of this model disassebled online, so before i buy it i might as well ask around

[@canadianwildlifeservice8883]

@@Ubya_ I don't remember if it had fan headers or not.

[@_Platinum-]

@@Ubya_ Hey I was wondering the same question , did you find out if there is a fan connector on the motherboard ?

[@albundy7718]

I might be wrong but i heard the N100 Cores are basically the Alderlake Little Cores.

[@Robtech]

That's correct

[@_Platinum-]

Thanks a lot for the review ! Any owner of this Mini PC could tell me if there is any CPU fan connector on the motherboard please ? 🙏 Sadly I can't find teardown of this model anywhere.

[@cirozorro]

Awesome review :D anychance you might be reviewing the "T9 Plus Mini PC Intel Alder Lake N100", that is the one I was interested in picking up for price (Super cheap on aliexpress and comes with embedded ddr5). Disappointed to see a GPU regression, comparing specs to the N6005 it makes sense (32EU down to 24EU on the N100) so 25% less ouch. Thanks for all the work you do!

[@Robtech]

Yep, that looks to be the same unit as the GMKtek G2 I've unboxed already (with a different coat of paint). That review should go up in a couple of days. I'm also waiting for an N200 to see how the N6005 holds up gen on gen.

[@cirozorro]

@@Robtech weird, the G2 comes with 12GB ram(Only ones I could find) while the t9 Plus option is either 8 or 16GB. Otherwise they are completely identical. Doesn't matter I guess as its single channel either way. I'll wait for your review on it. also curious to see how these atom only processors work out. Thanks again for all the work & knowledge you are sharing here. Much appreciated

[@Robtech]

I got sent another unit that's a clone of this one 😅, so now I'll have to review it twice.

[@EffectualPoet]

I bought this and returned it. It occasionally emitted a strange crinkling sound. Also, I decided it was a bit too slow, and that I'd rather just invest in something faster. This is my second bad experience with a fanless PC, and it will be my last.

[@ExtaTer]

It's some coil. All fanless PCs do that but you have to be 1 foot away in a really quiet room to hear it.

[@srvuk]

If purchasing an N100 box, I would only go for the DDR5 4800 models like the EQ12 myself.

[@Robtech]

Morefine M9 is DDR4 and has similar benchmark results. DDR5 doesn't make much difference at this low end. Maybe with the N200 that has more EUs.

[@Crustenscharbap]

Hello. I have a question: Its a great PC. But does this APU supoorts a 120Hz Display at 2560x1440?

[@Robtech]

Yes

[@greekpiece]

Nice videos! I searched around for this PC and i found instead of it, an almost identical PC with the brand name SZBOX. Same code AC8-N. Do you know if it is the same PC and if they share drivers? Thanks in advance! Or perhaps it is a copy?

[@Robtech]

Same unit different branding.

[@greekpiece]

@Robtech Thank you! Hmm, it seems from today (4th of August), there is available a N200 version too! A site with cpu benchmarks doesn't show the N200 to be any better than the N100, but perhaps they don't have a benchmark result yet from actual PCs and they use a formula instead. I guess N200 will be nearly 33% better in its GPU (32EUs-256Shaders). We will see.

[@Robtech]

Hoping to review the N200 soon

[@greekpiece]

@@Robtech 👍Thanks for the response! I liked the site i mentioned earlier because of its environment, but it seems there are better sites for cpu comparisons. In these, the N200 seems to perform slightly better in single core benchmarks, but gets 0.74TFLOPS with its GPU, while the N100 gets 0.3TFLOPS! But the N200 does this using 45W(?) vs the 10W of the N100. They are both 6W.. do the GPUs draw their own power separately? In this case, perhaps the N200 will have heating problems. It will be interesting to see..

[@MorganEdgy]

The amount of sex jokes in your videos never ceases to amaze me or amuse me, m8

[@dave_r]

Interesting unit, and the temps are reasonable at 30W given the fanless design. I'd worry about warmer weather but most of the time this sort of unit probably won't be stressing it's CPU that much, so it may not matter. I don't like the port locations but as someone said for $240 with 16/512 it sounds like a good deal. I'm surprised that despite the beefy heat sink that it cools as well as it does with the plastic/rubbery case, but so be it.

[@Robtech]

Yeah, depending on usage case, it's unlikely going to be under load for half an hour straight.

[@richardremmele8685]

I ran an AC8 using Playon recording and it runs about 80% of the CPU and 60-70% of the GPU and a slim upright fan that I use anyway in my Living Room keeps it completely cool under the heavy load. I even ran it with the addition of the Chrome browser on sites with active ads and it stayed cool at 100% constant, but some of my recordings failed. I sold it to a neighbor and ordered one with an N200 Pentium.

[@craigprocter1232]

errr... DDR4 memory.. not a selling point and only 8GB. I do worry about the fanless system overheating during the Aussie hot summer. My Chuwi n100 box was running 100% CPU for about 20 minutes installing Windows 11 updates and it was quite warm, with the fan going very fast but I didn't think it was noisy (couldn't hear it in the office where I was showing it to work colleagues).

[@Robtech]

DDR4 to 5 doesn't make much difference with the N95 or N100s. The Morefine M9 uses DDR4 and had very similar benchmark results as the DDR5 units. Yeah, Windows updates push the CPU, but it's unlikely to overheat. These CPUs can handle 110C. Most have thermal throttling kicking in at 90C which cuts clock speed and power. If it gets hot enough, it'll start performing like the default speed even with the higher power limit.

[@davedriscoll7750]

Seen n200 on ebay 105 in lots of 5

[@bco1981]

The microsdcard slot on the old AC8 (N6005) can take a 1TB card, i have that right now. mounted as a extension and symlinking some folders to it for mostly read only data as pictures, videos and roms.

[@Robtech]

Yep, a possible storage option depending on the application.

[@gregamania1327]

I briefly dated pro wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow in 1987 when he was with WWF. Really nice guy.

[@Robtech]

That's one hell of a story. Thanks for sharing 😉

[@Wojtek-J]

Nice story Greg ;)

[@ChefEarthenware]

Nice review, but I could have done without the childish sexual references. Surely you can find another way to make your reviews interesting?