Ace Magician offers a comprehensive variety of Mini PCs with a variety of CPUs from both the Intel 12th Generation Core processor as well as AMD Ryzen CPUs. The review model received was the AD15 which contains an Intel 12th Gen i5-12450H CPU. This CPU has 8 Cores and 12 Threads. Of these 8 cores, 4 are performance-cores that top out at a clock frequency of 4.4 GHz in Max Turbo mode. The remaining 4 are efficient-cores that have a Max Turbo clock rate of 3.4 GHz.
The system memory consists of two DDR4 modules giving a total of 16 GB of 3200 MHz RAM. These two memory modules could be replaced, allowing up to 64 GB of RAM. Disk Storage is a 512 GB NVMe SSD drive in a 2280 footprint (22 X 80 mm) and using an M.2 “B+M” key arrangement. The installed SSD has an integral heatsink and had an OEM part number on it.
Storage can be expanded by using the 2.5” SATA expansion socket. There is 10 mm clearance in terms of height, so that would need to be taken into consideration if you wanted to use a 2.5” Hard Disk rather than an SSD. I mounted a 500 GB Samsung EVO 850 which worked fine. Both the M.2 and SATA sockets will support up to a 2TB drive.
The RAM, M.2 main SSD storage and the expansion SATA drive can easily be accessed by removing two Phillips screws on the bottom panel, and sliding the side cover off. No more than a minute would be needed to upgrade any of the above devices.
The video system is the Intel UHD graphics subsystem running at a maximum of 1.2 GHz. It drives two HDMI 2.0 ports with a maximum resolution of 4K@60 Hz refresh rate. There is a front panel USB type C socket which is also capable of driving another display I have only one 4K monitor and it handled that perfectly well.
The AD15 mini PC comes with the following user ports:
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- 4- USB3.0 (2 front, 2 back)
- 1- USB Type C (front)
- 1- 3.5 mm Audio socket
- 1- Gigabit Ethernet socket (with 2 status LEDs)
- 2- HDMI 2.0
I tried out the Audio socket with a pair of headphones and it worked fine. The Windows Device Manager shows a microphone input present, so the Audio socket is likely a TRRS type to accommodate a microphone. I didn’t have a headset with a built-in microphone to check this, however.
The built-in WiFi uses a Realtek RTL8821CE device and is capable of operating on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, at speeds up to 800 Mbps in ac mode. The same device also supports Bluetooth 5.0.
The i5-12450H CPU in the unit has a base power dissipation of 45 watts. When running in Turbo mode at 4.4 GHz, its power dissipation can rise to 95 watts. Power for this unit is supplied by a power brick providing 19 volts @ 6.3 amps. This 120 watt power brick is conservatively rated for the AD15 unit. This brick is somewhat bigger than laptop power supplies: 7” x 2.8” x 1.3”. The DC power cord to the unit itself is 42”- just long enough to place the power brick on the floor and reach the AD15 on a desktop.
The AD15 is meant to be mounted vertically- the side panels flare out to 3” at the bottom to prevent the unit from tipping over. I suspect this flaring is also present to promote cooling air flow. I did not run the i5 with an application that would put it in MaxTurbo mode, but in normal operation, the fan was almost inaudible. There is a soft power switch on the top of the unit, as well as a Kensington lock cutout in the rear.
The unit comes with Windows 11 Pro, version 21H2 installed.
The top panel of the unit comes with a tag giving contact phone #s (US, UK, Germany), an email address and the Ace Magician website.
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Ace Magician | acemagic.com
