PC nerd alert! Two articles for the price of one! (Both came across my screen today.)
Small-form-factor is cool. Intel invented the 4" x 4" size with its NUC series, but when the Chinese arrived, Intel gave up.
I bought a 4" x 4" mini PC a year ago. I'm not a gamer, so I don't need top-of-the-line.
It has a mid-range AMD Ryzen chip, and RAM and disks from the previous machine.
I run both Windows and Linux on it.
These are similarly sized machines. The GMKtec is the latest and greatest. It has an "APU", combing a CPU and a GPU. The AceMagic machines have entry-level Intel chips, perfectly apt for office work, but not speedy enough for gaming.
The prices run from $200 for AceMagic to $700 for GMKtec. Ya gets wat ya pays for...
For those who can't open YouTube, there's an article at https://www.tweaktown.com/news/96040/gkmtec-k8-mini-pc-features-amd-hawk-point-apu-up-to-32gb-ram-1tb-storage-with-ar-glasses/index.html
AceMagic S1 is now available with choice of Intel N95, N97, or N100 chips (mini PC with an LED status display)
The ACEMAGIC S1 is a small desktop computer with a few unusual features including a small display on the front of the case that can display system information including CPU power consumption and temperature, fan speed, or memory usage. There’s also an RGB light strip on the front of the case for some reason.
In some ways… not much. They’re all 4-core, 4-thread processors based on Intel’s Alder Lake-N architecture , which means they have the same Efficiency cores as other 12th-gen chips based on Intel’s Alder Lake-U architecture, but lack any Performance processors.
| Chip | Cores | Threads | Base / Boost freq | L3 Cache | GPU | Power |
| Intel Processor N100 | 4 | 4 | Up to 3.4 GHz | 6MB | Intel UHD (24EU / up to 750 MHz) |
6W |
| Intel Processor N97 | 4 | 4 | Up to 3.6 GHz | 6MB | Intel UHD (24EU / up to 1.2 GHz |
12W |
| Intel Processor N95 | 4 | 4 | Up to 3.4 GHz | 6MB | Intel UHD (16EU / up to 1.2 GHz |
15W |
But the Intel N100 processor is a more energy-efficient chip with a 6 watt processor base power, while the N97 chip is a 12 watt processor and the N95 is a 15-watt chip.
In synthetic benchmark tests , the Intel N100 tends to come out a few percentage points ahead of the others in most CPU performance tests. But things get more complicated if you look at graphics performance.
That’s because all four chips feature Intel UHD integrated graphics, but the Intel N95 and N97 graphics processors support speeds up to 1.2 GHz, while the Intel N100 tops out at 750 MHz. But things are a little more complicated because the N97 and N100 have 24 GPU execution units, while the N95 has just 16.
Long story short? The Intel N100 is the best of the three when it comes to CPU performance… but the worst when it comes to graphics. The N97 is probably your best bet for graphics, but keep in mind that none of these processors is really designed for gaming. They’re low-cost, low-power chips designed for inexpensive computers.
Fortunately, the ACEMAGIC S1 fits the bill. Prices at Amazon start below $200 for models with Intel N95 processors , 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Versions with N97 chips don’t cost much more . And the new N100 variant is available from the ACEMAGIC website for $299 .
An identical computer called the Chatreey S1 is available from AliExpress for even less, with prices starting as low as $169 for an Intel N95/8GB/128GB configuration or $173 for an N100/8GB/128GB version and topping out at $241 for a model with an N100 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.
Aside from the low-power processor, the ACEMAGIC and Chatreey S1 feature two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two HDMI ports, four USB ports (two USB 3.0 Type-A and two USB 2.0 Type-A), support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, a fan for active cooling, and easy upgrades thanks to a magnetic side panel that can be removed to access the computer’s single DDR4 SODIMM slot and dual M.2 2280 slots.
Nota from Outis : This configuration is interesting. Single-channel memory is (relatively) slow... but there are slots for two NVME drives that could hold FOUR TERABYTES of data. That' a lot more than I've pirated... 
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The next year or so is going to be fascinating. Qualcomm is bringing out a chip specifically for Windows, the Elite X. Since it's a low-power (laptop) chip, I'm guessing it will rapidly be integrated into this same small-form-factor. It supposedly is more powerful that Apple's top-of-the-line consumer chip, the M3.
Also... Google will eventually square away the "Desktop Mode" in Android. The phones we carry are quite as powerful as the Intel chips in the AceMagic PCs above. I want to just plug my phone into a dock with screen / keyboard / mouse, and have all my stuff. It's not a question of 'if"....
Outis, in the future please speak and write in English. Being older than dirt and just barely out of the smoke signal era, turning my computer on and off requires instructions.
Thanks in advance.
But... but... but... this is FUN!
It's not nice to make fun of old farts...
LOL.
Since I, like kavika, spell I. T. I. D. I. O. T. , I was wondering if you could give me some input on a used computer I recently purchased. It has a Lions head Penn State style, or Saber Tooth Tiger, and it says I buy Power, so hoping it wasn't a Trump style computer...it has transparent glass on one side and the internals are visible. I'll try and read some of it and post
Euhhhhh........
is that good or bad
That's "I really can't say much on the basis of the given information".
msi GEFORCE RTX
.
WD BLUE ITB 3D NAND
SATA SSD
Are you a gamer?
No, but the former owner was and he built it. He is in the Cyber branch of the military, and for a $100, I know it had to be worth that much. I just met the guy, but was doing an electrical service for his father in law, heck, i've yet to use it, buy it lights up and looks cool, and thats all i need to know.
But yea, believe he was a gamer and it is realy high tech, 4 years ago, which means it's light years past my abilities, just thought i'd inquire as have neverseen you on here , so thanx for the input.
Very good deal. Since hard-core gamers can never have enough performance, they're constantly building newer and better. Ane so some lucky people pick up their still-excellent cast-offs for pocket change.