Mid-Vary Meteor Lake at 65W

Compact computing techniques have gained vital market share over the past decade. Enhancements within the efficiency per watt metric of processors have enabled the alternative of cumbersome desktop PCs by ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) and small form-factor (SFF) machines. The Meteor Lake collection of processors is the most recent Intel providing to service this market. They’ve had a drawn-out launch since preliminary info was officially made available in September 2023. The tile-based chiplet configuration held along with Foveros packaging represented a significant shift in Intel’s method to the patron market, with notebook platforms being the primary focus. That has not prevented a number of distributors from introducing SFF / UCFF desktop systems utilizing the Meteor Lake Extremely H-series (MTL-H) processors.

ACEMAGIC sampled us their F2A 125H providing across the time we had been finishing the evaluation of the ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-155H and the ASUS NUC14RVHv7 UCFF techniques. The F2A is has a bigger bodily footprint in comparison with both of these techniques. This permits for a greater thermal resolution, enabling the inner processor (Core Extremely 5 125H) to be operated with a sustained energy restrict (PL1) setting of 65W.

This assessment takes an in depth have a look at the options and efficiency profile of the ACEMAGIC F2A 125H. The evaluation additionally offers some insights into the optimum working energy setting for the MTL-H processors.

Introduction and Product Impressions

The final decade has seen vital strides in processor efficiency in addition to energy effectivity. Coupled with developments in thermal options, we’ve got seen compact techniques with low-power SoCs changing into able to changing cumbersome desktops for a lot of use-cases. This pattern gained mainstream consideration with Intel’s introduction of the ultra-compact form-factor (4in. x 4in.) NUC within the early 2010s.

Lately, we’ve got seen a gradual development within the energy envelop of the processors getting built-in into such techniques. The primary technology NUCs had processors with a TDP between 6W and 15W. Within the late 2010s, 28W processors fashioned the flagship lineups. With Tiger Lake, Intel launched the Panther Canyon NUCs with a 40W restrict. 65W has proved nearly not possible to chill inside UCFF constraints – and that has prompted ASUS to introduce the NUC14 Professional+ with a barely bigger footprint. ACEMAGIC’s F2A additionally operates the processor at 65W albeit with a footprint even bigger than that of the NUC14 Professional+.

The F2A system is available in at 147 mm x 147 mm x 52 mm (in comparison with the 144 mm x 112 mm x 41 mm of the NUC14 Professional+ and 117 mm x 112 mm x 54 mm of the tall 4″x4″ NUC14 Professional). The promotion for the PC’s AI options is heavy within the exterior package deal in addition to the advertising and marketing collateral. The package deal contents embody a 120W (19V @ 6.3A) energy adapter, a geo-specific energy twine, a HDMI cable, an person handbook, and a mounting plate with screws along with the principle unit.

ACEMAGIC sells the F2A as a ready-to-use system with 32 GB of DDR5-5600 SODIMMs and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD. Home windows 11 House is pre-installed on the system. We at all times advise customers of techniques from distributors similar to ACEMAGIC to wipe the drive and set up their very own copy of the OS after getting the important thing from the unique set up.

Our pattern was outfitted with Kingston SODIMMs and a Kingston Design-In OEM SSD (BiCS5 TLC NAND behind a Silicon Movement SM2267XT DRAM-less controller).

Entry to the SSD and SODIMM slots is obtained by eradicating 4 screws from the underside of the system. We had been pleasantly stunned to discover a fan hooked up to the underside. Energetic cooling for the SSD and SODIMMs must end in good thermal efficiency, and that is without doubt one of the points evaluated additional down on this assessment.

The total specs of the assessment pattern are offered within the desk under.

Within the subsequent part, we check out the system setup and comply with it up with an in depth platform evaluation.