Chinese mini PC maker Newsmay’s latest computer is a compact, fanless desktop computer powered by a 6-watt Intel Processor N100 chip. The system also features two Gigabit Ethernet ports, support for up to three displays, and a reasonably low starting price.
You can pick up a Newsmay AC8-N mini PC with 8GB of RAM and 256GB from Amazon for $229 or pay $30 more for a 16GB/512GB model.
If the design of the little computer looks familiar, that’s because Newsmay has been copying the honeycomb-style ventilation system from Zotac’s Zbox C line of fanless computers for a few years.
As FanlessTech notes, this new model is sort of a clone of the recently-announced Zotac ZBOX CI337 Nano. But while Zotac’s version has one DisplayPort and two HDMI ports, the Newsmay system has one HDMI 2.0 port, one VGA port, and one DisplayPort 1.2 connector.
The Newmsay AC8-N also has no USB-C port, but puts four USB 3.0 Type-A ports on the front of the computer, along with a microSD card reader and mic input and audio output jacks.
One advantage to this system over the ZBOX CI337 Nano? You can actually buy it. Zotac’s fanless PC with an Intel N100 chip has yet to hit store shelves.
Newsmay’s little computer also comes with a wireless card that supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, and according to the product description it supports Wake on LAN, PXE Boot, RTC wake, and Auto Power On. Combined with the fanless design that should enable 24/7 operation, those capabilities could let you use the PC as a server. The computer ships with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed, but should support GNU/Linux distributions.
The AC8-N mini PC measures 4.8″ x 4.8″ x 1.7″, and under the hood there’s an M.2 2280 slot with support for up to 2TB of PCIe NVMe solid state storage and a single SODIMM slot for up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory.
This is really outstanding product. It support twice as more memory as N100 CPU alone can handle. Amazing piece of Chinese tech!
I know you’re being sarcastic, but I suspect this thing really does support that much memory. PC makers have been shipping systems that exceed the “maximum” amount of RAM listed on Intel’s website for its low-end chips for years, and they usually work just fine.
I am wondering what do mean by “supports” here. Stable work with arbitrary DDR4-3200 module(s)? And who exactly guarantees that? Some Chinese garage? There are multiple reports of software crashing on Intel CPUs when used with unsupported memory configurations. Your “work just fine” is simply misleading.
Suihui
You need a bit of a IT history lesson. For all of the ’80, ’90s and half the ’00s, a computer relied on a MCC (memory controller) on a motherboard to act as an interface between CPU and RAM. For about 20 years now, most major brand CPUs have an IMC (memory controller) built into the CPU to act as the interface between CPU and RAM. The average computer manufacturer will use the IMC not because it’s necessary, but because it is convenient. (Why pay for a component that’s already paid for?) However, MCC chips still exist and can easily be added to any computer, adding only a dollar or two to the cost of manufacturing each PC. There are benefits to using the MCC chips such as bypassing maximum memory limitations or improving memory compatibility. If you buy a PC that supports RAM not supported by the CPU itself, then that PC will likely be as stable as any other PC. The PC manufacturer is just handling RAM the “old school” way. They do have decades of experience in doing that.