ASRock Industrial 4×4 BOX-8840U Power Consumption and Noise
The power supply for this is huge. It is a 120W AcbBel unit. Sometimes when we review mini-PCs folks zero in on the power supplies and their regulatory, safety, and compliance markings. This power supply has many of them because it is from a well-known vendor. That is part of what you are paying for.
Just for some notes on power consumption, we saw:
- Idle Package: 2.8W
- Idle System 6.5-9W
- Load Burst Package: 33-35W
- Load Burst Power 46-47W
- Sustained Package: 28-29W
- Sustained Power: 38-39W
For a sub-40W and sub-40dba machine (sustained), this is a good showing. One of the reasons we have such a large power supply is to be able to power USB4 devices.
Key Lessons Learned
First, in our key lessons learned, we should talk about labeling. Please ASRI, label these ports clearly. It makes life much easier in the future when these are clearly labeled.
The interesting thing about this box is really its power consumption. We tested this alongside the Beelink SER8 which uses a similar, but higher-power AMD APU. While the raw power consumption led to performance gains, this led in power consumption and connectivity. For a lot of folks, an 8-core system like this with 96GB of RAM is a really nice lab node. One can use the 1GbE port for management and the 2.5GbE port for storage/ VM/ container traffic and have a very portable setup. We tried this system with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Proxmox VE, and Windows 11 Pro.
Something some folks will question is the price. At $599 list, it does not come with RAM, a SSD, or a Windows license. If you do not run Windows, this might be preferred. Likewise, if you plan to use large SSDs and memory modules, then having smaller included versions may seem like a waste. Still, it is not going to be the cheapest route to a 32GB and 1TB Windows 11 Pro desktop.
Final Words
At this point, I have flown close to a million miles with mini PCs in my suitcases. There is something nice about having a compact and portable development system. I often travel with an Apple Macbook Pro, so being able to bring a Windows/ Linux machine in a form factor smaller than a notebook and without a big lithium battery is nice. For other folks, saving space by moving to a smaller system can be useful.
Overall, the big differentiators with this system were its small size, lower power consumption, and connectivity. This is a very crowded market with lots of options. Sometimes having a mini PC from a well-known vendor like ASRock Industrial is just easier than buying from a smaller brand.
Where to Buy
Here are a few affiliate links to the unit and some of the components we used:
- ASRock Industrial 4×4 BOX-8840U (Newegg Affiliate)
- Crucial 96GB DDR5-5600 2x 48GB SODIMM kit (Amazon Affiliate link)
- Crucial 48GB DDR5-5600 1x 48GB SODIMM (Amazon Affiliate link)
- Crucial T500 2TB NVMe SSD (Amazon Affiliate link)
- Fikwot 1TB 2242 NVMe SSD (Amazon Affiliate link)
Note we participate in a number of affiliate programs and may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links.
Why it still has one port at 1GbE ?
No remote console? No pointing getting it then any more than other mini pcs on ali.
Hey, Casulo!
What kind of stupid English language is that, really?
“No remote console? No pointing getting it then any more than other mini pcs on ali.”
Buy yourself a cheap Android phone and check your spelling and grammar before publishing a crazy thing like this.
@Pekka Astrom, Casulo is right. All these miniPC’s without out-of-band management will require a monitor/keyboard or a piKVM or something similar – which makes them less interesting for people who do not have space for an extra monitor or money for an piKVM.
At least with some of the mini PCs (NUC Pro) you’ll find vPro AMT / Enterprise which will allow you do remote control them.