Asus PN50 AMD Ryzen Mini PC Review

This would be great for inside a custom arcade cabinet. Would emulate everything and could play most modern pc fighting games, too.

That configurable port is interesting. If you go for the second ethernet plug it could make for a great (opnsense/pfsense) router.

I have DS 220+ but it turns out that is doesn’t support “subtitle burning” in plex, is there any relatively cheap device that can do that? (Using the DS as storage)

The Ryzen 4700g is good enough for plex. I suspect this would be fine.

I like your review Im curious small utility on left hand corner of screen shows information video streaming.When can I download App.
Thx

Too much CPU grunt compared to the GPU. Mini PCs are great at low prices, but once you cross a certain price point it's better to look at larger hardware.

What's with these ultra-thin series of processors, there isn't much TDP to work with in terms of performance. Now what I'm really interested in knowing is how these mini-pcs compare to laptops when it comes to termals and thus overall performance. Who is the winner here?

Thanks for the video, can you please recommend on a mini pc , maybe NUC that will be great for Plex Server? I'm looking for one that will stream two movies at the same time with no lag, I have 500 mega internet speed at home and currently sometimes I have lag running at home one movie.
Maybe a good CPU that you can recommend will be very helpfull.
thanks for the help

Starts are $450, but how much was the one they configured for you? I was looking at something like this, but thinking it might be better to get an M1 Mac Mini instead? Seems like they would be similarly priced.

Ok all things aside, who buys this? For what is this for?

nice review.

I don't know why, but these reviews seem very 'entry level' made to me. There is one mini PC now with an IR interface and sure enough Lon didn't get that to work. No additional info about that functionality either. Disappointing.

Thank you for adding the power consumption. Its very helpful and I have referred to your videos a number of times before purchases

Lon thanks for the great videos. One question. In this configuration will the PN50 run three monitors?

This is faar better than new M1 macs

I might be wrong but I think Kodi supports HDMI CEC. Otherwise there's a library you can program your own commands with, which I've done, but most software other than Kodi doesn't support CEC.

AMD VCN does support HW transcoding even if Plex does not actually support AMD HW.

Excellent video as always
But will this work as a lite audio pc

For local media playback without using Plex this little machine should do just fine. Especially when reading media off a 14+ TB My Book. You only showed the drive cage for a brief moment but you didn't mention what type of drive it can handle. Was it HDD or sized just for smaller SSDs? It'd be wonderful if it could hold a 6+ TB HDD inside it as a media drive.

Aaah, good old Lon Seidman. It's been a very long time since I haven't watched any of his videos, since I got my laptop and finally transitioned fully out of Apple products. Glad to see he's still doing excellent reviews.

2/1/2021: No PN50 4800u for sale yet, only found on Amazon through Simply NUC seller: Ryzen R7 4700u upgradable to 64GB RAM, M.2 compatible barebones (no RAM, nor memory, or OS) for $677

Would this ideal for streaming twitch via OBS and a Avermedia capture card??

Is there any mini PC with 2 or more Ethernet jacks?

Why I see windows logo..

As somebody who managed to buy one (not easy to find any of these with more than 4300u) with 4700U I can share some long term (about couple of months) experience in heavy usage as work pc with 4 QHD monitors setup. My problems surely affect 4800u, but should be less pronounced or even completely missing with the less powerful CPU models. In word - it overheats and it is not only the CPU. Yes, I put two SSD drives into the PN50 and one of them being 2.5 inch one, it certainly has some effect on the ventilation, but if you look at the bottom plate carefully you will see that ASUS thought about that and the drive does not cover the ventilation holes completely and there is gap between the drive and the plate. So, there is a way to get air inside from the bottom side, but lacking any fan on that side (the only one is on the other side of the motherboard) it is not very efficient. I put a 5V noctua fan under the PC (powering it from the PC itself ;) ) and this helps (in push mode a bit more than in a pull mode), but even this will not solve the overheating problem completely. What happens when it overheats? Well, one monitor turns off or goes to a lower resolution, sometimes the 4-th monitor cannot be detected until the PC cools a little, the wired network suddenly reports "cable unplugged" which usually is quickly cured by disabling/enablng the adapter and a good cable makes some difference, but whatever I did, it still happens from time to time (one can live with that, but would prefer not to). Despite all the airflow from a 9cm fan I noticed that the temperature of the M.2 drive stays higher compared to the other probes and the wired adapter is also in that area. I suppose that without a SATA SSD the life will be easier, but I could not find the time to use it that way for long enough, if I do, I'll write back my impressions, but I cannot promise. If I have to summarize - the more powerful versions are like laptops that need cooling pads, perhaps the 4300/4500 versions are balanced better and possibly they are even "just right" - I don't know, but considering the frequency of my problems and the temperatures at which they happen I can say that it is very likely that they will be the better choice for PN50-s.

i have an ASUS PN50 mini with Ryzen 3 4300U and while the performance is impressive for my general use any notion that it is whisper quiet, based on my experience, is a serious example of false advertising, the noise varies from something i can live with to this horrible high pitch fan noise that is extremely irritating...

When might we see this with the new Ryzen 7 5800U?

25 fps on lowest setting playable? That is what we call terrible performance. A better defenition is 60 fps = playable, 30fps absolute minimum for strategy games.

I want to put 2x16GB RAM. What would you choose between 2666MHz CL15 or 3000MHz CL16 or 3200MHz CL22?

Nice you commented about Plex. I had been thinking replacing my i3 Plex server with this but I guess I won't then :)

Has anyone bought this? If so where?

Hi there from Hong Kong. Just found this model of PN51: Ryzen7 5700U, 16G DDR4 3200hz RAM, 512G NVME M.2, 2xUSB-C with display function (1 each at front and back panel), 1xHDMI, 1xDP, (can hook up to 4 monitors at 4k, theoretically), bundled with wifi 6 and BT 5 wireless, 64bit Windows 10 home, wired keyboard and mouse, power supply, and VESA mount. The whole package sells at US$830 (HK$6,480)including 3yr warranty with to-the-door maintenance services. (Model no.: PN51 R78G512S.)


There is another model with the same configuration other than the CPU being R5 5500U. It sells at US$750 (HK$5,850).

Apparently, every thing included and ready to start by just switching on . Expansion can be done with a space provided for an additional SATA 2.5” HHD or SSD.

Which one do you think this is a better bargain? Does the difference of US$80 justify for the higher CPU? Any better alternatives compared to these two?

Asrock x300 a bit better and more configurable

Can it run dawn of man?

WHAT ABOUT HDR VIDEO CONTENT ?

It does support eGPU via the M.2 NVMe port

dont buy this. Its giving me blue screen almost 5 times a day.

2 points for the Blockbuster VHS tape/housing on your shelf.

Would you be able to use this (or any) mini pc as a plex server?

Arrived sounding like a hairdryer - DO NOT BUY

Too expensive for bare bones.

the answer is Raspberry pi

Shame its so ugly!

I Really like the Nostalgic OCs in your background

Any chance of commenting on Asus PN41 with Celeron N5100 as good comparison?

So what about IR?

i have a I9 13900k, 4090ti, AIO, 10 fans, 3 nvme drives for gaming. Realized, makes no sense to keep it on for anything other than gaming. I bought the Mini PC PN50-E1(Barebone) today and it is awesome. Great for internet, home theater, 2d applications. It is ideal for a lower power pc.