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AMD-based Ultra-Compact Form Factor (UCFF) systems are gaining more and more acceptance in the market, with the Zen architecture slowly catching up with Intel in performance and power consumption. AMD’s latest and greatest has been reserved for the high-end desktop market, with parts for low-power / compact systems appearing a few quarters later. Zen 3-based desktop processors have been introduced recently. However, parts based on Zen 2 with TDP 12-25W (Renoir APU) only started appearing in compact desktop systems recently. ASRock Industrial launched the 4X4 BOX-4000 series based on Ryzen 4000U in September. The review below takes a look at the flagship model – the 4X4 BOX-4800U – and how it compares to Intel’s Comet Lake-U-based Frost Canyon NUC equivalent.
introduction
The PC market has grown in recent years, largely due to Ultra-Compact Form Factor and Gaming Systems (UCFF). Intel’s NUC line dominated the roost in the old category. Given AMD’s focus on multithreaded performance and number of cores with the first generation Zen microarchitecture, the Ryzen APUs based on Zen and Zen + did not have sufficient power efficiency and performance per watt to make a breach in Intel’s success in the NUC space. ASRock Industrial has released UCFF systems based on the AMD Ryzen line of integrated processors (we reviewed one such system – the 4X4 BOX-V1000M). While GPU prowess and multithreaded performance turned out to be nice aspects, single-threaded performance, power efficiency, and driver issues made it a tough sell compared to competing Intel-based NUCs. The introduction of Zen 2 (Renoir) based APUs manufactured in TSMC’s 7nm process changed the equation by addressing all of the aforementioned weak points.
AMD prioritized the delivery of Renoir APUs to the laptop market, followed by mini-PCs soon after. ASRock Industrial was once again at the forefront. With Asus’ PN50, they were one of the first to launch systems based on these parts. The 4X4 BOX-4000 series includes three different SKUs with a processor core count of 4 (Ryzen 3 4300U), 6 (Ryzen 5 4500U) and 8 (Ryzen 7 4800U) each. The last is the flagship, and it’s the one we’re reviewing today.
The 4X4 BOX-4800U has a 104mm x 102mm motherboard housed in a 110mm x 117.5mm x 47.85mm plastic chassis. The system matches Intel NUCs in the footprint department. The board comes with a soldered-in processor – the Ryzen 7 4800U belonging to the AMD Renoir APU series. It is an octa-core processor with SMT enabled (8C / 16T). It can work with a configurable TDP between 12W and 25W.
ASRock Industrial has sampled us a barebones version of the system. In partnership with Patriot Memory, they have also provided us with recommended storage (Patriot P300 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD) and memory (Patriot Signature Line 2x32GB DDR4-3200 SODIMM) for use with the PC.
The specifications of our ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U review setup are summarized in the table below.
| ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U specifications | |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 4800U Zen 2 (Renoir) 8C / 16T, 1.8 to 4.2 GHz TSMC 7nm, 8MB L3, 10 to 25W (15W) |
| Memory | Patriot Memory PSD432G32002S DDR4 SODIMM 22-22-22-52 at 3200 MHz 2×32 GB |
| Graphic | AMD Radeon Graphics (Renoir) – Integrated GPU with 8 CPUs |
| HDDs) | Patriot P300 (512 GB; M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4; Kioxia 96L 3D TLC) (Silicon Motion SM2263XT Controller) |
| Networking | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2×2 802.11ax – 2400 Mbps) 1x Realtek RTL8111G Gigabit Ethernet Controller 1x Realtek RTL8125 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Controller |
| audio | 3.5mm headphone jack Capable of 5.1 / 7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI) |
| Miscellaneous I / O ports | 2 USB 2.0 ports 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port |
| Operating system | The retail unit is simple, but we installed Windows 10 Enterprise x64 |
| Price (as configured) | $ 600 (bare bones) $ 878 (as configured) |
| Full specifications | Specifications ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-4800U |
ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-4800U kit does not come with any pre-installed operating system, but comes with a CD containing the drivers. Either way, we ended up installing the latest drivers downloaded from the product support page. In addition to the main unit, other components in the package include a 90W adapter (19V @ 4.74A), US power cord, VESA bracket (with necessary screws), drivers, a user manual and a – Getting started guide. Installing storage and RAM is simple – just remove four screws under the chassis and mount the components in the appropriate location.
The gallery above shows the components of the package as well as the chassis design and internal components. The system also includes support for installing a 2.5 “drive, with a very flexible SATA power / data cable already in place.
In the table below we have an overview of the different systems with which we compare the ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U. Note that they may not belong to the same market segment. Relevant machine configuration details are provided so that readers will understand why some benchmarks are biased for or against the ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U when we discuss these sections.
| Comparative PC Configurations | ||
| Aspect | ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U | |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 4800U | AMD Ryzen 7 4800U |
| GPU | AMD Renoir (Radeon RX Vega 8 / GCN5) | AMD Renoir (Radeon RX Vega 8 / GCN5) |
| RAM | Patriot Memory PSD432G32002S DDR4 SODIMM 22-22-22-52 at 3200 MHz 2×32 GB |
Patriot Memory PSD432G32002S DDR4 SODIMM 22-22-22-52 at 3200 MHz 2×32 GB |
| Storage room | Patriot P300 (512 GB; M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4; Kioxia 96L 3D TLC) (Silicon Motion SM2263XT Controller) |
Patriot P300 (512 GB; M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4; Kioxia 96L 3D TLC) (Silicon Motion SM2263XT Controller) |
| Wireless | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2×2 802.11ax – 2400 Mbps) |
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2×2 802.11ax – 2400 Mbps) |
| Price (in USD, once built) | $ 600 (bare bones) $ 878 (as configured) |
$ 600 (bare bones) $ 878 (as configured) |
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