BosGame Mini PC U32
Brutally cheap with what looks like a semi-decent CPU.
I acquired this mini pc for 180 CAD. It’s got a Ryzen 3200U, 8GB RAM, and a 256gb NVMe. Now, I am a realistic man. I don’t expect this cheap mini-pc to blow my mind. The bigger question here is the CPU, Ryzen 3200U because it sounds a little too good to be true. Well, we are about to find out.
It’s important to dig a bit into this CPU because AMD has quite a bit of messy CPU lineup in their hands. The 3200U is not a zen2 part. It is not even a zen+ part. This is the original zen (Ryzen 1xxx series). Theoretically, Ryzen 1xxx CPU was about on par with intel 7xxx series back in 2017. 3200U has 2 cores / 4 threads.
By looking at its passmark score, which is just shy of 4,000, this CPU should be just barely adequate enough for Windows 11. I looked around for an Intel counterpart, and it looks like i3-8130U has about the same score which is a promising sign.
Well, we will see. It was surreally cheap regardless.
The design of this mini-pc stands out a bit. I mean it’s got a unique shape. It even has a USB-C port. It’s due to the fact that, no matter how weak, it’s got a Ryzen chip inside. You generally don’t find a USB-C port on a budget mini-pc like this one.
Opening it up was a bit of an ordeal. It felt unnecessarily hard. Once I got the hang of it, it became easy. How to open should have been a written instruction. Otherwise, you risk damaging the fragile plastic case. Once inside, you are welcomed with the general shebang of a mini-pc. You’ve got a pair of laptop RAM slots, a NVMe slot, and wifi-card slot. There is also an unoccupied SATA cable where you can install a 2.5inch SATA drive. This is as generic as it gets for internals.
It’s got a noname brand RAM and NVMe, which was expected. I mean, let’s face the reality here. This thing cost me only 180 CAD. It is cheaper than ones with N5105 or N95 budget CPUs in it. Ryzen 3 is equivalent of Core i3.
It’s power consumption is 43 watt max with 25 being average. It’s on higher end of spectrum as far as power consumption goes. Additionally, it’s quite loud. It’s got only 2 cores, and those cores have to work pretty hard to keep up, resulting in its fan having to spin pretty high all the time. I’ve found that the fan rarely goes low RPM. The temp also hit 95c frequently.
Regardless, I’ve found 3200U to be surprisingly responsive. And, after running a simple CPU-Z benchmark, I’ve found the CPU to be on par with AMD 3000G CPU. What I am saying is that the 3200U has no issue running Windows 11. The initial update does take time due to its limited CPU prowess but, once that’s out of the way, it’s surprisingly responsive. It’s worthwhile to note that the included NVMe was also good enough. It’s on a slow side, but then again – Remember the price I paid. It’s good enough.
Youtube 4k was no problem, and everything I did in Windows 11 was pretty smooth. No complaints for general computing.
In conclusion, I find this mini-pc to be the best bang for the buck if you need a browsing or an office PC right now. The price cannot be beaten, and the performance is adequate. You might want to add another 8GB ram stick, but that’s entirely optional.
