The AMD Zen 4 APUs along with the 600-series motherboards and 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake processors with 700-series motherboards have already launched in the markets. These new chips are expected to make their way to mini PCs soon, as brands are expected to unveil new models equipped with these processors at CES next month.
It appears that Asus might be one of the first OEMs to introduce a mini PC with the latest-gen hardware, as Twitter user Harukaze5719 has spotted new listings in the EEC database that indicates the brand is planning to launch DeskMini and DeskMeet variants with support for AMD’s Zen 4 chips, as well as Intel’s Gen 13 processors.
The AMD models have the suffix X600, while the Intel models have the suffix B760. B/BB most likely refers to barebones systems with no RAM or storage, whereas BOX refers to fully-featured systems.
It is evident from the B760 mention that the models will incorporate mini-ITX motherboards with the B760 chipset, which will debut in early January. There are rumors that this will have 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes and 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes. However, there is some ambiguity regarding AMD’s X600 motherboards. The name implies the presence of an X670 chipset, which offers 4 PCIe 5.0 lanes for NVMe storage solutions but no PCI 5.0 lanes for a discrete GPU.
DeskMini and DeskMeet models from ASRock have previously only been available with 65 W TDP processors. The most recent desktop-grade processors from AMD and Intel would be too powerful if ASRock is to maintain this limit on the next models since AMD has a 105 W minimum TDP and Intel has a 125 W minimum. In this situation, only mobile processors would be compatible with mini PC models. More information on the matter is expected to be revealed in the coming days, so stay tuned.
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