AMD Ryzen 5 5500U mini PC goes for $177 with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD

Among all the inexpensive Intel Alder Lake-N mini PCs, ZXIPC is selling a no-name AMD Ryzen 5 5500 mini PC for $177 with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, or $143.03 as a barebone system.

This weekend, I compared the benchmarks of various Intel Alder Lake-N processors using results from our mini PC reviews, and one user asked me whether I could do the same for AMD systems:

It would be interesting to compare the performance on these to similarly priced AMD offerings. I’m specifically thinking here of Mini PCs based on the Ryzen 5560U and the Ryzen 5800U/H

Since we haven’t reviewed this type of mini PC, I won’t be able to do such a comparison, but I was still intrigued, as most AMD mini PCs I had seen sold for at least $300. So I went to Aliexpress and found a few AMD Ryzen 5/7 mini PCs for $250 or so, mostly barebone, but ZXIPC sells some x86 hardware for a much lower price, even some older Intel systems for about $75, so let’s have a look.

Specifications:

• SoC – AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 6-core/12-thread processor up to 2.10 GHz / 4.00 GHz (Turbo) with 7-core AMD Radeon graphics @ 1800 MHz; TDP: 15W (Not shown on AMD Ryzen product page, but the drivers page shows the 7nm processor was released in 2021)
• System Memory – 2x DDR4-3200 DO-SIMM memory sockets up to 32GB
• Storage
  • M.2 NVMe SSD (PCIe 3.0 x4)
  • 2.5-inch SATA slot
  • MicroSD card slot
• Video Output – 2x HDMI up to 4K, 2x DisplayPort up to 8K (TBC, it might be only one DP for the Ryzen 5 5500U)
• Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, digital audio via HDMI or DisplayPort
• Networking
  • 2x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports
  • WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 (optional, not installed on barebone model)
• USB – 3x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 Type-C port
• Misc – Power button, Kensington lock slot
• Power Supply – Via DC jack
• Dimensions – 130 x 130 x 53 mm

We aren’t told much about OS support, but systems with storage and RAM are said to ship with an activated version of Windows. The title mentions Windows 11 Pro, so I guess that’s the version used here. The list of accessories is not provided either, but one can hope the power adapter ships with the mini PC and maybe an HDMI cable. People wanting to install a 2.5-inch SATA drive are told to ask for a SATA cable at the time of order… That’s an FPC to SATA cable as shown in the teardown video below (in Chinese).

Besides the AMD Ryzen 5 model, there are also variants based on the Ryzen 7 5700U or Ryzen 7 4800H 8-core/16-core  processor for a few dollars more on the same Aliexpress link. Pricing for the Ryzen 5 5500U mini PC ranges from $143 (barebone) up to $283.15 with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD, and the Ryzen 7 4800H mini PC goes from $148 to $273. The Ryzen 7 5700U vairants are out of stock at the time of wiring and prices are not available.

This AMD Ryzen 5 5500U mini PC is really inexpensive, and I find the other prices on ZXIPC suspect as well since they are so low, plus the shop only opened in March 2024. But there are already some user reviews (that don’t look fake), and AliExpress’s buyer protection can always be used if the item is not as expected or delivery is really late.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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