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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nagi603 - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
I wish those were intel NICs instead of Realtek, but you can't win all.webdoctors - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Love the title, haha.I like the TDP specs of this as I built a low power home nas machine for storing surveillance videos and home automation scripts. But the pricing on this is TERRIBLE. I built a tiny SFF machine for ~$130! It was like $60 for the mobo+CPU, $50 case+PS, $20 RAM etc.
What niche is this thing trying to fulfill?
eastcoast_pete - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Thanks for the review, although I would have really liked to see a review of that unit with the 4800u Renoir chip. The long-term support of this unit is, of course, interesting if one deploys them in actual "industrial" settings. However, I strongly assume that most readers here would use a small format PC like this as HTPC at home, and would gladly trade the superior performance of an 8 core Renoir for the "long-term support". So, any chance of seeing that review here?GreenReaper - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Why doesn't it use the 10GbE provided by the CPU, even at 1Gbps? Is it a question of power usage? Cost of transceivers? Reliability?eastcoast_pete - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
10 GbE requires additional hardware (e.g. from Aquantia, or others); the situation is similar for many Intel-based systems. A number of current CPUs are capable of supporting 10 GbE, but all need the additional hardware. In contrast, 2.5 GbE can be implemented w/o adding much to the BOM, so more systems now ship with 2.5 GbE instead of just 1 GbE.GreenReaper - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Also, AMD is playing silly buggers with links to its specifications; the one in the article on the model number just leads to a menu page for me. This link has a V1000-series product brief:https://www.amd.com/en/media/42701/download
nicolaim - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
No USB-C ports on something that's supposed to last up to ten years?PyroHoltz - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Good point. Maybe asrock knows something that we don't and usb-c is going to be replaced in the next 5?Lord of the Bored - Wednesday, September 30, 2020 - link
I doubt the target market is going to be plugging any USB-C... whatevers. I think the only things that actually ship with a USB-C connectors are laptop "docks" and USB-grownup-connector adapters.There's literally no benefit to USB-C in this segment.
PeterEvans - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Well I guess this is one way to get rid of the three year old laptop parts. Just put them together into a shoebox and call it "innovative". I am surprised it doesn't come with Windows XP.