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The AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 has been launched by the Chinese hardware manufacturer with a starting price of $149. Orders are expected to ship now. The machine features up to an an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU, DDR4 memory, and a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD all wrapped up in a nostalgic custom chassis.
The AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 has been successfully crowdfunded with over 30 days left on the Indigogo campaign. At the time of writing over $7,000 has been raised of the initial $6,669 funding goal, with several configurations able to be backed. The brand describes this new rig as the “pioneer of the Mini PC 2.0 Era”.
A base model unit of the AM01 comes equipped with an AMD 3200U CPU, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $150 with more powerful options available at slightly higher price points. Those wanting more grunt under then hood can opt for the same CPU paired with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD for $219, or upgrade the processor to the more recent 5700U starting at $220. Some variants will come with Windows 11 pre-installed.
The machine’s casing shares a similar design language of old-school computers from the 1990s with the plastic beige or off-white chassis and rainbow badge logo as you may remember from the old Macintosh computers from this time. Builds back then were this color in order to blend in with their environments and that’s the appeal of a compact computer like this; sitting underneath one of the best gaming monitors or best gaming TVs and able to be anything from a gaming device to aid a home streaming setup.
While the core of this micro build may be in its ability to play older and less-demanding titles, there’s an appeal to the variants running the AMD 7 5700U CPU here. The integrated Vega 8 graphics are more capable than you may think and can provide around 60fps or above in popular titles such as Valorant, Grand Theft Auto V, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Counter-Strike 2 in 1080p. Alternatively, scaling the resolution down to 720p can provide playable framerates in the likes of Forza Horizon 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and even Far Cry 6 at 30fps or above (via PC Support & Gaming Test on YouTube).
If you’ve been curious about what a mini PC can do then definitely check out this campaign if you’re interested. We’ll be getting one in for review shortly and will let you know if it’s worth your time after our extensive hands-on testing.
