The AYANEO AM01 is a tiny desktop computer designed to look like a classic Mac and positioned as a system for entry-level retro gaming. When it first launched in November through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign the little computer was available with a choice of AMD Ryzen 3 3200U or Ryzen 7 5700U processors… neither of which were great options for a gaming PC. But with prices starting as low as $150 it was hard to complain.
Still, it’s nice to see that AYANEO has just introduced a new processor option. Now the AYANEO AM01 can be configured with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor, which should bring a nice boost in CPU performance and a modest graphics bump for just a little more money.
Prices start at $270 for a barebones AM01 with a Ryzen 7 5800U processor and AYANEO says units should begin shipping in April. That’s just $30 more than the price of a barebones system with a Ryzen 7 5700U chip.
The computer supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory and has an M.2 2280 slot for PCIe 3.0 NVMe or SATA storage as well as room for a 2.5″ SATA SSD.
And if you’d prefer not to bring your own memory and storage, Indiegogo prices start at $360 for a model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor is a mobile chip designed to run at 10-25 watts, but which AYANEO says is configured to run at up to 35 watts in the AM01 mini PC. The chip features 8 AMD Zen 3 CPU cores, 16 threads, and 8-core Radeon Vega 3 graphics.
Here’s how that chip stacks up against the other processors available for this mini PC:
Name | Cores / Threads | Base freq | Boost Freq | Cache | Arch | GPU | Default DP |
Ryzen 7 5800U | 8 / 16 | 1.9 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 20MB | Zen 3 | Radeon Vega 8 @ 2 GHz | 10-25W |
Ryzen 7 5700U | 8 / 16 | 1.8 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 12MB | Zen 2 | Radeon Vega 8 @ 1.9 GHz | 10-25W |
Ryzen 3 3200U | 2 / 4 | 2.6 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 5MB | Zen | Radeon Vega 3 @ 1.2 GHz | 15W |
Again, none of these chips has the GPU performance you’d get from a newer processor with RDNA graphics like the custom AMD chips used in Valve’s Steam Deck or AMD’s Ryzen 6000U or later processors.
But the Radeon Vega integrated graphics should be decent enough to handle emulation of classic console games from the 80s, 90s… which would be in keeping with the retro look of the AM01.
The AM02’s measures 132 x 132 x 61mm (5.2″ x 5.2″ x 2.4″) and features a fan and four coper heat tubes for cooling, support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 (on models with Ryzen 5000 chips), or WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 on the Ryzen 3 3200U model), and a set of ports that includes:
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C
- 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 1 x USB 2.0 Type-A
- 1 x HDMI 2.0
- 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
- 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x DC power jack
AYANEO notes that it supports Windows and Linux-based operating systems including Ubuntu, Debian, and gaming-specific software like Batocera or Chimera OS.