INTRODUCTION

    The very first mini PCs I got my hands on around a decade ago were just that, roughly the size of a cigarette box which back then did take me by surprise (remember having 3 of them stacked together and they still were smaller than an 3.5" HDD). Unfortunately, their tiny size meant they didn't do very well in terms of performance and even though they were more than sufficient for internet browsing and basic office use that was just about the extent of it. Fast forward to today and things have changed drastically meaning that you can now use mini PCs for just about anything, including playing some of your favorite games. Yes, manufacturers had to make some compromises regarding size in order to boost performance across the board, but mini PCs are still very compact and one of the highest acclaimed lines in the market today is no other than the GEM 10 Professional Mini PC Series by AOOSTAR.

    AOOSTAR specializes in the full range of AMD/Intel chip-based products and GPU chip-based product technology development, research and development and production. AOOSTAR provides a full range of production services from SMT → DIP → test → assembly, and has a skilled R & D team, has been independently completed a number of computers and graphics card solutions: including, but not limited to AMD Razorback series of notebooks, AMD Razorback series of mini mainframe, AMD all-in-one, Intel all-in-one, AMD graphics cards, handhelds, pen drives, AMD/Intel Laptops and other products. We have cooperated with many famous brands in China.  AOOSTAR has more than ten years of experience in processing and sales of laptops, mini-hosts, customized tablets and other products, and has a well-established sales team. Previously, we mainly focus on domestic e-commerce sales and provide product sales for overseas e-commerce platform agents, and also have ODM, OEM and other B-channel sales.

    The GEM 10 professional mini PC by AOOSTAR is available in several different versions but today I'll be focusing on the one i have here which sports the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS (codename Phoenix / Zen 4 architecture / 8 cores, 16 threads / 4GHz base clock, 5.2GHz boost clock via precision boost 2.0 / 54W max TDP) with the Radeon 780M (12 graphics cores / 2800MHz / DX 12), 32GB LPDDR5 by SK Hynix (6400MHz / inlaid - fixed) and an 512GB PCIe 4.0 Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD (based on MaXio's DRAM-less MAP1602 12nm quad-channel NAND flash controller and 3D TLC NAND by YMTC - MAP1602A supports advanced wear leveling algorithms, Host Memory Buffer architecture, pseudo SLC cache, bad block management strategy, hardware error-correction, L1.2 ultra-low power state and sudden power-loss protection, TRIM, NCQ, hardware support for AES256/SM4 encryption and support for TCG OPAL2.0). The GEM 10 which i have here with me also sports an OCuLink port, dual 2.5G LAN ports, Wi-Fi 6/BT5.2 connectivity (Intel AX200), 4 USB 3.2 Gen2 ports (10Gbps), USB 4 Type-C port (40Gbps), 3.5mm audio out, built-in microphone, two HDMI v2.1 ports, 3 internal M.2 2280 PCie 4.0 slots (1 obviously taken) and two 50mm fans. So, let's see what AOOSTAR brings to the table with what seems to be one of their most powerful mini PCs to date.