ASUS PN50 mini-PC Review: A Zen 2 Business NUC

Closing Thoughts

Wrapping things up, it's clear from the get-go that the ASUS PN50 has a SMB / SME focus. This is evident from the range of configurable options, as well as the bundled keyboard / mouse for ease of deployment. It brings out all the important features of AMD's Renoir APUs while maintaining a low system cost.

None the less, that doesn't mean the PN50 is no-frills. The system offers four display outputs (including two Type-C, and one HDMI and DisplayPort each), support for up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 SO-DIMMs, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C ports, and three USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports with well-balanced bandwidth distribution. Digital microphones in the front ensure painless usage of voice assistants like Cortana, while the HDMI CEC header / IR receiver can also enable some business use-cases such as digital signage in retail scenarios.

Further underscoring the business focus for the PN50, the system is part of ASUS's corporate stable model (CSM) program that ensures a 36-month stable supply guarantee. ASUS also subjects PN50 to a rigorous QA process involving vibration testing, drop testing, extreme temperatures / humidity operation testing, and line voltage / frequency variation testing. These are bound to increase the confidence of IT departments while deploying these systems. The presence of a hardware TPM 2.0 chip and DASH support for remote management using the Realtek NIC expands the target market for the PN50 even further.

On the technical front, ASUS's use of AMD's Renoir processor is likely to raise a couple of eyebrows, as the chips are coming up on two years old. But as we mentioned earlier in the review, this is ASUS making the best of the hand they've been given. Supply chain issues have meant that only the notebook market is receiving AMD's latest generation of processors. For the AMD mini-PC market, Renoir continues to be the go-to SoC for those machines – inside and outside of ASUS.

To that end, the PN50 is able to provide better performance compared to other Renoir-equipped mini-PCs. This is mainly due to operation of the SoC in 25W TDP mode for as long a time as possible. The thermal solution itself can sustain only a 20W TDP, though. The supplied review configuration was handicapped a bit on the storage side with the QLC SSD, making its performance for disk-intensive workloads less than ideal. However, those types of workloads are also uncommon in the business scenarios being targeted by the PN50.

With all of that said, actually getting some of these ASUS mini-PCs is proving easier said than done. The challenges in the electronics supply chain have meant that outlets selling these PCs at ASUS's suggested prices are significantly backordered Third-party sellers abound on various e-tailers do have stock, but they are charging a hefty premium - even for the lower-end models in the series (example: $550 for the R5-4500U model, while the first-party listing for the same model is $430, but out of stock).

The lowest price we have seen for the barebones version of the 4800U model is $630 on special order. The ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U is available for $593. For the extra cost, the ASUS PN50 provides a microSDXC UHS-I slot at USB 2.0 speeds, and higher TDP support for better sustained performance. It's also worth noting that the PN50 model sold in the US retail channel doesn't have a 2.5 Gbps port that comes default with the 4X4 BOX-4800U.

It must also be noted that ASUS has a PN51 series based on the Ryzen 5000U series processors - these models use the Zen 2-based Lucienne SKUs - the 5300U, 5500U, and 5700U. The features of the PN51 are exactly the same as the PN50 otherwise - fulfilling AMD's promise of allowing their partners to reuse the board and system designs while retaining same ballpark performance. That said, the updates in Lucienne should result in better power efficiency and also show slightly better graphics performance for workloads that are not memory bound. The PN51 also seems to have addressed the SSD temperature issue with an additional heatsink.

Overall, the ASUS PN50 has some unique features that make the system stand out of the crowd in the Renoir mini-PC market. The feature set makes it very attractive for deployment in SMBs and SMEs, as well as scenarios like digital signage. The competition in the mini-PC market is good news for consumers, but the supply chain issues need to get resolved for the cost benefits to be realized by the end-users.