Fanless AMD Ryzen 5 8500G mini PC available for pre-orders in Japan, Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 7 8700G options also listed

AMD’s G-series desktop CPUs based on mobile SKUs with integrated graphics are back after a 2-year hiatus. The latest Ryzen 8000G models are the desktop equivalent of the acclaimed Phoenix processors that combine Zen4 CPU cores with RDNA3 iGPU cores. Thanks to the improved power efficiency of the Zen 4 cores, some lower-end models like the Ryzen 5 8500G can easily be tuned to run without an active cooling solution, but, in this case, they require a more robust fanless chassis. Japanese retailer Oliospec is already selling a pre-configured Ryzen 5 8500G system with a fanless Streacom FC8 case measuring 240 x 250 x 100 mm, so it is considerably bigger than the usual 4 x 4 design.

Oliospec mentions the Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 7 8700G with integrated NPU for AI tasks, but these are not yet pre-orderable from the Japanese retailer. The Ryzen 5 8500G does not feature an NPU and the Radeon 740M iGPU only comes with 4 cores, essentially halving the performance of a 780M variant. Even though the more powerful processors have the same 45-65 W configurable TDP, it is unclear if the Streacom FC8 case with 4 heatpipes and external fin array can properly handle the generated heat. Apparently, the Ryzen 5 8500G does not exceed 75°C under load, therefore leaving enough leeway before hitting 95°C Tjmax for the more powerful models.

The ASRock B650i Lightning WiFi motherboard included with the Oliospec system offers enough room for upgrades. If the provided Crucial Pro 32 GB DDR5-6000 RAM is not enough, users can expand the capacity to 96 GB. Similarly, the 1 TB Crucial T500 SSD included by default with this configuration can be replaced with a 2 TB solution if need be and users could add two more SATA3 SSDs plus another M.2 NVMe SSD. There is even a PCIe 4.0 16X slot for a graphics card, although there is no way to fit it inside the case. Port selection features 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 4x USB 2.0, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI 2.1 TMDS video output, 2.5 GbE jack and HD audio jacks. Oliospec also provides a Wi-Fi 6E + BT card for wireless connections and a 108 W Mini-Box picoPSU-160-XT.

Prices are a bit spicy given the Japanese taxes and the relatively expansive case that alone retails for ~$200. Without shipping, the Ryzen 5 8500G model can be pre-ordered for ~$1,012, while the Ryzen 7 8700G is estimated to cost ~$1,200.