ZOTAC at CES 2018: AMD Raven Ridge APU in a ZBOX MA551 Mini-PC
by Anton Shilov on January 16, 2018 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CES 2018
- AMD
- ZOTAC
- ZBOX
- Trade Shows
- AM4
- Ryzen
- Raven Ridge
LAS VEGAS, NV — ZOTAC is preparing a small form-factor PC based on an AMD’s Ryzen processor with integrated Vega graphics. The ZOTAC ZBOX MA551 will be among the first compact computers powered by AMD’s code-named ‘Raven Ridge’ chips, and the system design should allow it support all AM4 APUs as well as a comprehensive set of connectivity features.
ZOTAC’s ZBOX MA551 will exist in at least two variants equipped with AMD’s quad-core Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G APUs with the Radeon Vega integrated graphics. The chips are rated to dissipate a maximum of 65 W of power (based on AMD’s TDP data) and ZOTAC outfits the APUs with a cooling system that features a large copper heatsink and a blower. The cooler looks like a GPU cooler, so its peak performance likely exceeds 65 W and enables ZOTAC to install APUs with a higher TDP or for better boost. So far AMD has announced only two Raven Ridge SoCs for desktops, so if the company rolls-out APUs with higher power and cooling requirements, the MA551 will be ready to house them.
ZOTAC’s ZBOX MA551 comes in a matte black metallic enclosure, with the internal architecture the mini-PC looking very simple, allowing the user to easily install key components as well as potentially upgrade them. The mini-PC can be equipped with up to 32 GB of DDR4-2400 memory using two SO-DIMMs, an M.2-2280 PCIe/SATA SSD, and a separate 2.5” storage device.
When it comes to connectivity, the ZBOX MA551 is outfitted with an 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2 module, a gigabit Ethernet connector, four USB 3.0 Type-A headers, a USB Type-C port, three display outputs (one DisplayPort 1.2, two HDMI 2.0) and an SD/microSD card reader.
| Preliminary Specifications of ZOTAC's Ryzen APU-Based SFF PC | |||
| MA551 | |||
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4C/4T 3.5 - 3.7 GHz 6 MB cache 65 W TDP |
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 4C/8T 3.6 - 3.9 GHz 6 MB cache 65 W TDP |
|
| iGPU | Radeon Vega 8 CUs 512 SPs Up to 1100 MHz |
Radeon Vega 11 CUs 704 SPs Up to 1250 MHz |
|
| Memory | 2 × DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM slots up to 32 GB of memory |
||
| Storage | M.2 | M.2 2280 slot for PCIe/SATA SSD- | |
| DFF | 1 × 2.5" SSD/HDD | ||
| Card Reader | SD/microSD | ||
| Wireless | 802.11ac Wi-Fi + BT 4.2 | ||
| Ethernet | 1 × Gigabit Ethernet with RJ45 connector | ||
| Display Outputs | 1 × DisplayPort 1.2 2 × HDMI 2.0 |
||
| Audio | 3.5 mm audio-in 3.5 mm audio-out |
||
| USB | 4×USB 3.0 Type-A 1×USB 3.? Type-C |
||
| PSU | External | ||
| OS | Microsoft Windows 10 or none | ||
ZOTAC plans to start selling its Raven Ridge-based ZBOX MA551 sometimes in the second quarter, after AMD makes such processors widely available. Pricing is yet unknown.
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MrSpadge - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - link
I can see that working with a 15 W i7 U model, but I expect 65 W to be borderline for silent."The whole point of these things is to be silent, as much as possible"
I disagree - in that case manufacturers would make them bigger. Confining heat sources on as small a case as possible is not aiming for silence. Obviously they do care about cooling though, as otherwise such machines would be unusable.
Valantar - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - link
Zboxes this size don't use mobile ULV CPUs, just like this version doesn't use Ryzen Mobile (but rather the 65W socketed desktop versions). As such, noise should be roughly equivalent (nongK i7s and i5a are 65W, i3s and down all drop off a bit down to 55-51W). Considering the size of the heatsink shroud and the fact that the fan looks like the Nvidia reference blower fan (makes sense, Zotac should have a ready supply from their GPU business, and they're cheap) this should be relatively quiet.Valantar - Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - link
This is highly interesting. Of course depending on price (needs to be not much more expensive than a DIY ITX setup) and GPU performance (approaching GTX 1030 level, pretty please?) of these parts, but interesting nonetheless.Also intriguing that there's no Ryzen 7 APU. Makes me wonder if AMD might be leaving that slot open for something with a bigger GPU?
neblogai - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - link
I think there will be no Ryzen 7 APU, but there may be Ryzen 7 mobile variants with 6-8 cores (not just energy efficient U-series). And for desktop- AMD slides show APUs being only at R3 and R5.jjj - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - link
Given AMD's aggressive pricing for these APUs, my bet is 300$ and up and that would be ok but not great- 99$ the 2200G and 200$ for tiny case+mobo+PSU so a bit much but somewhat acceptable if you need the form factor.sor - Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - link
Ah, disappointed that there is only one network interface. The ZBOX systems I’ve used in the past have been good for little router boxes because they’ve always had two NICs.0iron - Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - link
Can't you plug-in USB to GE? It has 4 USB 3.0, shouldn't be a problem.bill.rookard - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - link
Shouldn't be a problem. GbE is 1Gbit, USB3.0 is 5Gbit - however, depending on how the ports are set up there could be some minor issues. If the 4x USB3.0 is hung off a single controller then the max bandwidth shared is 5.0Gbit. So - hanging multiple dongles off the single USB3 headers could be problematic depending on what data is going where.True enough though - you could hang a Startech 2x GbE off a single USB3.0 port and make a nice little virtualized router.
Kaggy - Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - link
Looks like it could have been smaller.Would probably wait for the newer desktop APUs as it seems like the cooling is meant for a much higher TDP cpu.
haukionkannel - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - link
The good thing is that this version in quieter because cooling is ”too big”. So there is good points of having bigger.