Need a new PC? Slimbook have a pretty fancy and sleek looking compact mini-PC called the Slimbook One powered by an AMD RYZEN 7 4800H and AMD Radeon Graphics Vega 7. Since it's coming from Slimbook, you can expect full Linux support and you can buy it with Linux pre-installed.
Maybe this is the One for you?
Coming in at €599 EUR for the base model, for such a compact unit sporting a good AMD processor the price is actually pretty reasonable. Looking around, there's models out there that are more expensive with a weaker processor, so they seem to have a good price-point on it.
On the front it sports two USB 2.0 ports, along with the Power LED plus a Power Button. On the back you're getting 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet, audio out and microphone input, USB-C, HDMI, DC Power, DisplayPort and a Wireless Antenna. For a tiny box, it stacks together quite a bit.
Tech Specs:
CPU |
AMD Ryzen 7 4800H |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RAM |
2 SODIMM slots for up to 64GB DDR4@3200Mhz |
|||||
Storage |
SSD M.2 NVMe 250GB, 500GB, 1TB or 2TB |
|||||
Graphics |
AMD Radeon™ Graphics Vega 7 |
|||||
USB |
2 x USB 3.0 |
|||||
Video Ports |
1 x HDMI |
|||||
OS |
Linux, Windows or Dual Boot |
|||||
Exterior Material |
Aluminum |
|||||
Wireless LAN |
WIFI 6: Intel AX200 |
|||||
Bluetooth |
Bluetooth 5.0 |
|||||
Red RJ45 |
10/100/1000 Mb |
|||||
Audio |
3.5mm output and input jacks |
|||||
Size |
19.7cm x 19.7cm x 5cm |
You can pick between Ubuntu (and derivates like Kubuntu and Ubuntu MATE), Linux Mint, Manjaro, KDE neon, Fedora and there's options for a dual-boot with Windows 10 to if that is an essential for you.
Check out the One on the Slimbook website.
Question: How good is that "AMD Radeon™ Graphics Vega 7" compared to let's say an 8 year old, at that time middle-low tier nvidia card?
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/Radeon-Ryzen-7-4800H-vs-GeForce-GTX-760/4348vs2561
So we could plug a GPU enclosure to it.
Last edited by Spyker on 26 May 2021 at 1:33 pm UTC
As for their website it claims that the AMD RYZEN 7 4800H is 57% faster than the new Apple M1 ..
When clicking on the source of the claim that website the comparison is between an Intel CPU vs AMD.
When Linux gets good on the M1 or even in future on the M2, i would choose one of those over an X86 for a small form factor system as your not going to be AAA gaming or VR gaming on them anyway and the power usage is so much lower.
Im hoping that the next Raspberry Pi or Rockchip boards are enough of a boost to run a full PC desktop, they are close right now just a little bit more performance and then i can use a dedicated machine/console/streaming just for gaming.
Why do they insist on putting USB 2 ports on computers? It’s so annoying, I never know if I am plugging into a USB 2 or 3 port. Is USB 3 so much more expensive?
Of course USB 3 is more expensive. USB 3 is blue, unless your hardware manufacturer is too cool for blue on their computers.
Also, USB3 is a overkill for, dare I say, the majority of USB peripherals out there. The greater bandwidth is most useful for storage and video (but not all) peripherals. Most of the rest, like keyboards, mice, soundcards, gaming peripherals in general, will work fine even squeezed in a 10 port USB2 HUB, like the one I use here.
So USB2 have its place. Otherwise manufactures would had ditched it long ago.
So you both have no idea what you are talking about. Great.Don't be like that. They were clearly trying to help.
It's extremely common practice for USB 3 ports to be partially blue. Just do an image search for "USB 3 port" and you'll see what they mean. Some hardware designs prefer symbols instead, something like the SS (SuperSpeed) symbol, or maybe even a number like on the front panel of my wife's Fractal Design tower case. My own older FD case has blue USB 3 ports and black USB 2 ports, as do the couple of laptops in the house.
It's also true that many peripherals do not benefit from USB 3 speeds (or higher electric current), and that USB 3 components are a bit more expensive.
So you both have no idea what you are talking about. Great.
Then better you explain what you're mumbling about.
I opted in particular for a unit with both 2 and 3 versions of USB, as there are USB2 devices that dislike being on USB3 shared with other USB3 devices.
Even worst than that - he has no idea what he is talking about. The amount of USB ports is limited by the Chipset. If they use a A320 chip only one 3.2 Gen 1 and two Gen 2 are possible without an additional USB-PCIe-bridge (i doubt a USB-PCI-PCIe bridge is possible with USB3). Because this is a 4800H it is not unreasonable that they even use a chipset without a single USB3.2 like X300. It is not documented but I would expect Slimbook uses a 560 chipset.
See:
https://www.amd.com/de/products/chipsets-am4
Why do they insist on putting USB 2 ports on computers? It’s so annoying, I never know if I am plugging into a USB 2 or 3 port. Is USB 3 so much more expensive?
Some peripherals will not work well on a USB 3 port ; especially, some, older, USB 1 peripherals, that will not be detected on USB 3 ports most of the time.
The M1 likely won't be available outside of Apple devices, so I don't see them getting into generic small form factor system. Likely another company might have to take up the slack.
True, i was more thinking about buying one and running Linux on it. Well more likely an M2 that is. Ubuntu already can run on the M1 afaik.
Raspberry Pi4 hardware is strong enough for quite a lot of things, but for anything other than light gaming they would need some more serious GPU hardware. Then there's the matter of finding games for arm platforms, but that will depend on which games you'd like to run. Streaming is already fine - or would be, if the software took proper advantage of the existing hardware.
Also true, which is why I alluded to running a dedicated machine just for gaming/streaming and a separate ultra-low power 'box' for all other desktop stuff. Which for me is just the typical browsing,music,retro gaming stuff. id just make sure my next monitor has a built in KVM to swap between the two.
(although, it will be interesting to see if AMD bring a big/little core design in future where by for the casual stuff two low power cores are used. this might mean i would not use the Pi for that purpose)
Last edited by Lofty on 27 May 2021 at 4:27 pm UTC
One thing about this though with Slimbook's One, it comes with Linux which is pretty cool to see alongside such a price tag.
I've been eyeing up the M75q gen 2 for a while but not really needing it, but if I were to buy either I'd probably pick Lenovo, just because of the colour and familiarity with the type of chassis it uses.
However if it was going to be a main PC (4800H is quite capable in games, but less so for modern titles depending on if you care about high graphic settings), then Slimbook's One would be a VERY solid choice for the price tag. Heck, I almost want that now having typed all this...
See more from me