ASRock has announced its Mars Mini-PC series which it claims is the world’s thinnest AMD-powered Mini PC, features the AMD Ryzen 4000U Renoir APUs in SFF or small form factor design. The Mars 4000U series Mini-PC come in a super-compact case meant for general office, home theatre use, and even gaming. While Intel’s NUC lineup has usually dominated this niche for quite some time, new rivals such as the Apple M1-powered Mac mini and this AMD-powered offering certainly adds more competition to the small form factor space.
ASRock Mars 4000U specs and design
The main selling point of the ASRock Mars 4000U Mini-PCs is that they are using AMD’s Ryzen 4000U ‘Renoir’ APUs. These APUs are originally designed for the laptop market, but ASRock decided to bring them over to the desktop PC market with its new compact Mini PC series. The MARS Mini PC comes with support for up to 8 core and 16 thread Ryzen 4000U APUs. You can choose any of the following APUs when getting your Mars 4000U
- AMD Ryzen 7 4800U (8C16T, Turbo 4.2GHz)
- AMD Ryzen 7 4700U (8C8T, Turbo 4.1GHz)
- AMD Ryzen 5 4600U (6C12T, Turbo 4.0GHz)
- AMD Ryzen 5 4500U (6C6T, Turbo 4.0GHz)
- AMD Ryzen 3 4300U (4C4T, Turbo 3.7GHz)
Coming to the memory options, you have a dual RAM slot, and can house a maximum of 64GB dual channel DDR4 at 3200MHz. You also have the option to add a m.2 NVME SSD along with a 2.5 inch drive bay for a SATA SSD/HDD
The entire chassis uses a 0.7-liter design and the thickness is just 26mm. The I/O ports on the front panel includes a USB-C 3.2 Gen1 Type-C port, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, and 2 x USB 2.0 ports next to the power button. On the rear, you can see a Kensington lock, a couple of audio jacks, power input for the 65W/19V adapter, an Ethernet port to go with the WLAN m.2 expansion slot inside (Intel Wi-Fi 6), two more USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, an HDMI port (4K@60Hz) and a D-Sub port. You can use a dual monitor setup with the D-Sub and HDMI ports available at the back.
Last but not the least, the CPU is cooled by an active cooling solution which features a single fan that blows air through an aluminium fin based heat-sink that carries the air out through the exhaust vents. ASRock also ships a VESA mount with the Mars for easy installation in business and office environments. The pricing and availability for ASRock’s Mars 4000U Mini-PC have not been announced yet, but it should be expected soon!
