ASRock Industrial's 4x4-BOX UCFF PC Series Goes Premium with Ryzen 4000U Renoir APUs
by Ganesh T S on September 8, 2020 2:55 PM EST- Posted in
- Desktop
- Systems
- AMD
- ASRock
- UCFF
- Mini-PC
- Ryzen Mobile
- Renoir
- ASRock Industrial
ASRock Industrial has been at the forefront of AMD-based UCFF PCs, being one of the first to bring out systems based on the Ryzen Embedded APUs in mid-2019. In fact, their boards have been adopted by vendors such as OnLogic in their ML100G-40 systems. These 4x4 BOX systems definitely got the footprint right, matching the Intel NUCs in that department. However, the performance of the Embedded R-Series made them a better fit for embedded systems with single-purpose use-cases. On the general purpose computing front, they could not match up against the large variety of Intel-based NUCs with different performance profiles. Today, this aspect is being rectified with the launch of three new SKUs in the 4x4 BOX-4000 series. These systems use the latest AMD Ryzen 4000U series APUs with TDPs ranging from 10W to 25W. In addition to the markets served by the first-generation 4x4 BOX systems (digital signage, kiosks, thin clients, and other embedded applications), the 4x4 BOX-4000 series will also make its presence felt in the general-purpose small form-factor computing space.
The second-generation systems have a slightly smaller foot-print, coming in at 110mm x 117.5mm x 47.85mm. The system is slightly heavier by around 300g, coming in at 1kg. The specifications of the three SKUs are reproduced in the table below. The move to Ryzen 4000U brings premium features to the UCFF PC space - in fact, surpassing the features offered by Intel NUCs in the same form-factor - these include support for NBASE-T with a 2.5 Gbps LAN port (backed by the Realtek RTL8125BG controller), native support for DDR4-3200 without overclocking, and support for four simultaneous 4Kp60 display (including two via the front-panel USB Type-C ports) outputs. Intel's AX200 module brings in Wi-Fi 6 support. Another welcome upgrade is the support for M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSDs (the first-generation SKUs only supported 2242 and 2260)
In addition to usage as a UCFF desktop PC, the 4x4 BOX-4000 series also targets embedded applications. As a result, it is equipped with a watchdog timer and is rated to run at temperatures of up to 40ºC. It also comes with a TPM module.
ASRock Industrial's 4X4 BOX-4000 PCs | ||||
Model | 4X4 BOX-4800U | 4X4 BOX-4500U | 4X4 BOX-4300U | |
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 4800U 8C/16T 1.8 - 4.2 GHz 10 - 25 W (15W) |
AMD Ryzen 5 4500U 6C/6T 2.3 - 4.0 GHz 10 - 25 W (15W) |
AMD Ryzen 3 4300U 4C/4T 2.7 - 3.7 GHz 10 - 25 W (15W) |
|
GPU | AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 Graphics @ 1.75 GHz | AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 Graphics @ 1.5 GHz | AMD Radeon RX Vega 5 Graphics @ 1.4 GHz | |
DRAM | Two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots Up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 in dual-channel mode |
|||
Motherboard | Proprietary | |||
Storage | SSD | M.2-2280 (PCIe x4 or SATA) | ||
DFF | 1 × 2.5-inch/7.5-mm SATA 6 Gbps | |||
Wireless | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module |
|||
Ethernet | 1 × GbE port (Realtek RTL8111FPV) 1 × 2.5 GbE port (Realtek RTL8125BG) |
|||
USB | Front | 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 2 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C |
||
Rear | 2 × USB 2.0 Type-A | |||
Display Outputs | 1 × DisplayPort 1.2a 1 × HDMI 2.0a 2 × DisplayPort 1.2a (using Type-C) |
|||
Audio | 1 × 3.5mm audio jack (Realtek ALC233) | |||
PSU | External (90W) | |||
Warranty | Typical, varies by country | |||
Dimensions | Length: 117.5 mm Width: 110 mm Height: 47.85 mm |
|||
MSRP | ? | ? | ? |
The 4x4 BOX-4000 series UCFF PCs are not the first to use the AMD Ryzen 4000U APUs in this form-factor. The Asus PN50 was introduced a few weeks back, though its availability in the North American market has not been confirmed. Given that the first-generation 4x4 BOX series has been available for purchase at many US e-tailers, it does look like the 4x4 BOX-4000 SKUs from ASRock Industrial are going to be the first set of AMD Ryzen 4000U-series based UCFF PCs on this side of the pond. In addition, the premium features of the 4x4 BOX-4000 series is sure to invoke keen interest in the SFF computing community.
Source: ASRock Industrial
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Der Keyser - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
A noise level review of these units would be really nice. If they are capable of staying fairly quiet under medium load they could very well be on my christmas wish list :-)Some noise @ full load I can live with. But noisy fans at medium “average” load disqualifies way to many small and very attractive units.
heffeque - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - link
If configuring the TDP is an option (which would be a wonderful idea), setting it to 10W should probably lead to virtually fanless operation.Lezmaka - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
So Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5GbE but not DisplayPort 1.4?ingwe - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
I noticed the lack of DP 1.4 as well. A bit disappointing.snakyjake - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
I assume this is Zen 2 architecture....Isn't the Zen 3 architecture not too far away...so why launch a Zen 2 product?ArcadeEngineer - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
Zen 3 APUs are probably a year away or so, the desktop Zen 2 APUs haven't even properly been released yet. AMD has had the APUs about a generation behind.since the initial zen launch.snakyjake - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
I need something like this (or Intel NUC) for HTPC (YouTube, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, ripped movies, HEVC, etc). Not sure what to get.brucethemoose - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
I mean, an Android box can do all that for a fraction of the cost?Ideally, you'd want something with AV1 hardware decoding. I think thats just Tiger Lake, the recently announced Mediatek SoCs, and Ampere atm.
heffeque - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - link
Jasper Lake should also have AV1 HW decoding.Alistair - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
Nice! Been waiting for this!