Aoostar GEM12 Max mini-PC brings 70 W AMD Ryzen APU and OCuLink eGPU expansion for $339

Aoostar has seemingly updated its GEM12 series of mini-PCs with a new option called the GEM12 Max. Building on earlier models, the GEM12 Max features a CNC design with enough cooling to provide a 70 W TDP to its AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS APU. Not only that, but the GEM12 Max features an OCuLink port that does not occupy a second M.2 slot like on many similar mini-PCs.

Unfortunately, Aoostar has positioned the OCuLink port on the GEM12 Max's front panel, which is also adorned with 3.5 mm jack, USB4 and twin USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connections. Meanwhile, the back of the device features another USB4 port, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports and a DC input for providing power. On top of that, Aoostar has included twin 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet connections and two dedicated video outputs by way of DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports.

While OCuLink is on hand to offer eGPU expansion, the machine's Radeon 780M iGPU should be powerful enough for many tasks, including some light gaming. The GEM12 Max also contains two SODIMM slots for adding up to 64 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and a pair of M.2 2280 slots PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs. Currently, the GEM12 Max can be picked up on Amazon for $339 as a barebones unit when applying a $50 coupon. Alternatively, the mini-PC can be configured with up to 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD for a $110 surcharge.