Tiny mini PC with powerful 16-core CPU and 32 GB RAM arrives with plenty of ports

AceMagic is a pretty well-known name in the realm of mini PCs. We have reviewed several of their offerings and have found them mostly quite appealing. The brand's latest version of the F2A mini PC now comes equipped with a powerful Intel Panther Lake CPU.

To be more specific, the AceMagic F2A mini PC now features the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H Panther Lake CPU with a 16-core, 16-thread setup and a peak clock speed of 4.8 GHz. The mini PC comes equipped with 32 GB of LPDDR5X non-upgradable RAM and a terabyte of solid-state NVMe storage.

The Core Ultra X7 is undoubtedly a very impressive chip, keeping up with the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 Strix Halo APU in multi-core synthetic benchmarks. That said, folks who care a lot about raw performance will likely be quite disappointed by the very marginal 4-5% improvements over its predecessor, the Core Ultra 7 255H.

Where the high-end Intel Panther Lake chips truly shine, is iGPU performance. The mini PC's Core Ultra X7 chip features the full-fat Arc B390 iGPU featuring 12 Xe3 cores, allowing the iGPU to keep up with an RTX 2070 Max-Q Laptop dGPU in synthetic benchmarks.

That said, the Arc B390 is still no match for modern high-end dGPU such as the Apple M5 Pro, or even the Radeon 8050S found in much pricier Strix Halo-equipped systems, such as the Asus ROG Flow Z13, currently available for $1,700 on Amazon. 

For most moderately intensive workloads, casual gaming, and lightweight editing, the Arc B390 should be more than enough for the majority of average consumers. 

The F2A Mini PC features a healthy array of ports, which have been detailed below:

• HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1
• USB4, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (DisplayPort 1.4, 100-watt power delivery)
• Four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• Dual 2.5 GB LAN
• 3.5 mm audio jack

As mentioned earlier, the RAM is not user upgradable. However, the storage can easily be upgraded by end users courtesy of dual M.2 2280 NVMe slots (PCIe 4.0, PCIe 5.0). The AceMagic F2 mini PC is relatively compact, coming in at just 128 by 128 by 37 mm or roughly 5 by 5 by 1.4 inches.

The mini PC is already available for pre-order on AceMagic's official online store. The base variant comes equipped with the Core Ultra X7 358H CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and 1 TB SSD, and is priced at just under $1,100. Shipping is expected to commence on the 31st of August.