ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-V1000M Ryzen Mini-PC Review: Finding Zen In The Small Things
by Ganesh T S on September 28, 2020 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- AMD
- NUC
- UCFF
- Ryzen
- Ryzen Embedded
- ASRock Industrial
HTPC Credentials - Display Outputs and Streaming Capabilities
The
ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-V1000M Display Outputs | ||
HDMI | 2x DisplayPort | |
Version | 2.0a | 1.2 |
Max. Video Output | 3840x2160 @ 60Hz | 4096x2160 @ 60Hz |
HDCP | Yes (2.2) | |
HDR | Yes | Yes |
HD Audio Bitstreaming | Yes |
Supporting the display of high-resolution protected video content is a requirement for even a casual HTPC user. In addition, HTPC enthusiasts also want their systems to support refresh rates that either match or be an integral multiple of the frame rate of the video being displayed. Most displays / AVRs are able to transmit the supported refresh rates to the PC using the EDID metadata. In some cases, the desired refresh rate might be missing in the list of supported modes.
Refresh Rates Support
Our evaluation of the
The gallery below presents screenshots from the other refresh rates that were tested. The system has no trouble maintaining a fairly accurate refresh rate throughout the duration of the video playback.
Streaming Services
Despite supporting HDCP 2.2, the absence of a supported secure enclave prevents UltraHD Blu-ray playback on the 4X4 BOX-V1000M. Additionally, PlayReady 3.0 was also not available at the time of review - this meant that 4K and HDR Netflix streams were unavailable, and the maximum quality was limited to 5.8 Mbps / 1080p.
The move to 4K, and the need to evaluate HDR support as part of our HTPC testing have made us choose Mystery Box's Peru 8K HDR 60FPS video as our YouTube test sample. On PCs running Windows, it is recommended that HDR streaming videos be viewed using the Microsoft Edge browser after putting the desktop in HDR mode.
The system has no trouble playing back the VP9 Profile 2 HDR video with hardware acceleration, as evident from the dropped frame statistics in the above screenshot.
Various metrics of interest such as GPU usage and at-wall power consumption were recorded for the first four minutes of the playback of the above video. The numbers are graphed below.
The GPU usage is around 70% and the at-wall power consumption is slightly south of 40W for the 4K HDR YouTube playback test.
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eastcoast_pete - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Forgot to ask: how noisy is it, and how whiny is the fan?nicolaim - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Article says it's noisy.jabber - Tuesday, September 29, 2020 - link
I bought masses of their quad core Atom/Nvidia GPU based ION boxes 10 years ago for folks and most of them are still working with later SSD/RAM upgrades. This looks like a decent replacement.ivanovitch_k - Tuesday, September 29, 2020 - link
lol at the included CD, larger than the unit itself :D !When will mfg. do away with those factory-to-trash cederoms... ?
philtroy - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
HiI am trying to find m.2 drives that will fit this and am having difficulty. I am wondering whether B + M M.2 drives will fit in M sockets (which is what I understand the 4X4 BOX-V1000M has). Interestingly, when I tried to find the drive discussed in the article, it appears also to be a B + M drive. (I am looking at the Transcend 256GB, M.2 2242 SSD, SATA3 B+M Key, TLC (TS256GMTS430S) which I found on amazon.ca for around CAD $70.00)
Also, any suggestions for ram. Obviously there ar a lot of choices. I wish to have 16gb, so presumably 2x8GB is what I am looking for. Does the brand matter or do I just look for one with four to 5 stars.
Thanks . . .
PhilTroy
philtroy - Thursday, August 12, 2021 - link
P.S. I am also wondering whether I can buy one 16GB memory device rather than two 8 gb devices, in case I decide to upgrade later.THANKS AGAIN!
PhilTroy