AOOSTAR MACO Barebones PC: Ryzen 7 Pro 6850H, 24GB LPDDR5 (No SSD)

SensibleBird3184

Jul 17, 2026 1:48 AM

78 Comments

Joined Jul 2026

SensibleBird3184Jul 17, 2026 1:48 AM

78 Comments

Quote from Luigis3rdcousin

:

Last I checked base tier Mac mini has shot up to 1000$ eek. So you could buy 4 of these for the price of one of those. The cpu will be significantly more powerful than the M4 chip but I believe the M4 gpu is more powerful. And of course if your into the Mac eco system and love things like notes and calendar and like to transfer things back and forth from your iPhone to the Mac it's kinda hard to compare to PC and if you use Mac specific software. But if you don't care about those things. This is pretty good. The 680M Radeon is a decent iGPU for what it is. But it says you will have to add a ssd. Which you can find decent SSDs on eBay used. That's what I've been doing during the rampocolypse thanks to ai...

There is A LOT of wrong in your statement. First of all the M4 Kills this CPU in every way (single core, multiple core and GPU). The M4 as far as I know beats EVERY SINGLE AMD and Intel CPU on single core speed. It is the multi core stuff when AMD wins because they have more cores not because their cores are better. Apple probably makes the best hardware. In addition, AMD is SUPER efficient with these mini pc's but apple is WAY more efficient... it is crazy.
OK... the 680m just does not cut it... but the 780m can do it and that is why I always recommend getting the 780m.

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SensibleBird3184

Jul 17, 2026 1:50 AM

78 Comments

Joined Jul 2026

SensibleBird3184Jul 17, 2026 1:50 AM

78 Comments

Quote from xnorthernx

:

Is it perfect? No, 780m would be nicer. But it has ram, it has a decent(if older ish) cpu, and has occulink so you can add an egpu later if you really want. For sub 300, youre getting a very capable small computer.

I don't understand... this system does not come with a hard drive... how do you find a hard drive for $31? This is NOT a sub $300 system.

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General_Klinger

Jul 17, 2026 1:58 AM

6.2K Comments

Joined Nov 2004

General_KlingerJul 17, 2026 1:58 AM

6.2K Comments

Quote from SensibleBird3184

:

I don't understand... this system does not come with a hard drive... how do you find a hard drive for $31? This is NOT a sub $300 system.

I have like 6 nVME drives laying around from old builds. People buying this system presumably have stuff laying around. Otherwise, why are you even looking at one that doesn't have a drive already lol

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SensibleBird3184

Jul 17, 2026 2:39 AM

78 Comments

Joined Jul 2026

SensibleBird3184Jul 17, 2026 2:39 AM

78 Comments

Quote from General_Klinger

:

I have like 6 nVME drives laying around from old builds. People buying this system presumably have stuff laying around. Otherwise, why are you even looking at one that doesn't have a drive already lol

But we need to put a price on it so we can put a price on the system. Lets say 512 MB Gen 4 M.2 for $50. SO now the price of this system is $318.00.

I still see value in getting the 780m even at $470 vs this system. You can find them as cheap as $470 but with 512GB. ACEMAGIC S3A Mini PC,AMD Ryzen 7 H255(8C/16T,up to 4.9Ghz),16GB LPDDR5 512GB SSD on Ebay.

Last edited by SensibleBird3184 July 16, 2026 at 07:42 PM.

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starcaptor

Jul 17, 2026 4:44 AM

3.8K Comments

Joined Sep 2003

starcaptorJul 17, 2026 4:44 AM

3.8K Comments

Quote from SensibleBird3184

:

But we need to put a price on it so we can put a price on the system. Lets say 512 MB Gen 4 M.2 for $50. SO now the price of this system is $318.00.I still see value in getting the 780m even at $470 vs this system. You can find them as cheap as $470 but with 512GB. ACEMAGIC S3A Mini PC,AMD Ryzen 7 H255(8C/16T,up to 4.9Ghz),16GB LPDDR5 512GB SSD on Ebay.

You can get the Reatan A8 with zen4, a 1tb SSD, and oculink for like $474 right now...but only 16gb of RAM.

But assuming that you got a cheap leftover SSD, this, IMO, is the better deal. Even a modest GPU via oculink will destroy the 780m. $200 is a lot... And ssds are magnitudes cheaper than RAM.

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alien8t3r

Jul 17, 2026 5:29 AM

226 Comments

Joined Jul 2015

alien8t3rJul 17, 2026 5:29 AM

226 Comments

One more data point as I got one of these during 4th of July, with the 1TB SSD at a higher price of $390, which if the barebones no SSD was at this price I'd definitely pulled the trigger.

I was concerned about soldered ram but honestly worth it at these inflated ram prices. When ram falls back to normal levels (who knows when) you can just build another PC.

Wanted to build a steam machine like PC. Decided on this given ddr5 ram costs as much as this entire mini PC lol. Then added a RX9060 XT using a minisforum DEG1 since this has occulink (many mini PCs may not, eg some firebat or ace magic) and bought a PSU I can use for my next build.

Surprisingly plug and play beyond the first boot. Running bazzite and playing cyberpunk,doom TDA. Coming from i5-7th gen and GTX 1070.

I will say aesthetics isn't as nice given the egpu setup is all exposed but I think it works for me to get a gaming pc console setup. Other options were a ddr4 build, refurb Lenovo or optiplex sff or waiting for another deal ...

Refurb minisforum might be worth it too to reduce the cost of eGPU. But shipping times take awhile.

Good luck!

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albocaj

Jul 17, 2026 5:50 AM

547 Comments

Joined Dec 2014

albocajJul 17, 2026 5:50 AM

547 Comments

Quote from alien8t3r

:

One more data point as I got one of these during 4th of July, with the 1TB SSD at a higher price of $390, which if the barebones no SSD was at this price I'd definitely pulled the trigger. I was concerned about soldered ram but honestly worth it at these inflated ram prices. When ram falls back to normal levels (who knows when) you can just build another PC. Wanted to build a steam machine like PC. Decided on this given ddr5 ram costs as much as this entire mini PC lol. Then added a RX9060 XT using a minisforum DEG1 since this has occulink (many mini PCs may not, eg some firebat or ace magic) and bought a PSU I can use for my next build.Surprisingly plug and play beyond the first boot. Running bazzite and playing cyberpunk,doom TDA. Coming from i5-7th gen and GTX 1070.I will say aesthetics isn't as nice given the egpu setup is all exposed but I think it works for me to get a gaming pc console setup. Other options were a ddr4 build, refurb Lenovo or optiplex sff or waiting for another deal ...Refurb minisforum might be worth it too to reduce the cost of eGPU. But shipping times take awhile. Good luck!

what kind of perform is your setup giving you, if you don't mind me asking (4K or lower)?

CalmRain713

Jul 17, 2026 6:01 AM

177 Comments

Joined May 2023

CalmRain713Jul 17, 2026 6:01 AM

177 Comments

Quote from SensibleBird3184

:

But we need to put a price on it so we can put a price on the system. Lets say 512 MB Gen 4 M.2 for $50. SO now the price of this system is $318.00.

I still see value in getting the 780m even at $470 vs this system. You can find them as cheap as $470 but with 512GB. ACEMAGIC S3A Mini PC,AMD Ryzen 7 H255(8C/16T,up to 4.9Ghz),16GB LPDDR5 512GB SSD on Ebay.

i'd rather take that 220 price difference (when factoring tax) to save up for a egpu setup than worry about not having a 780m.

alien8t3r

Jul 17, 2026 6:24 AM

226 Comments

Joined Jul 2015

alien8t3rJul 17, 2026 6:24 AM

226 Comments

Quote from albocaj

:

what kind of perform is your setup giving you, if you don't mind me asking (4K or lower)?

It's too early to tell given I finally just got the eGPU dock last week, but no sweat ultra nightmare for DOOM TDA on 1080p as well as cyberpunk. 1440p as well, I don't really gave in 4k so i got to try that. Reading online the oculink/eGPU setup has a 5% penalty and this CPU won't really bottleneck that much (I lose 2-3 fps tops), so I hope for that to be the case Smilie

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eskimojo

Jul 17, 2026 8:01 AM

283 Comments

Joined Dec 2007

eskimojoJul 17, 2026 8:01 AM

283 Comments

Has anyone tried running Colibri on this? Compared to Ollama, that is supposed to run a lot more efficiently with practically zero GPU usage.

chonkerdonk

Jul 17, 2026 12:43 PM

622 Comments

Joined Apr 2009

chonkerdonkJul 17, 2026 12:43 PM

622 Comments

Quote from albocaj

:

says it has oculink on the product images, but not seeing a port or in the specs... am I missing something?

Bought this with a 1TB sad recently for 100 more. It works wonderfully as a proxmox rig in my use case. Sure I'd prefer real ram sots, but every other port and 3x nvme slots is arguably better for what I needed anyway. No regrets.

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LesterY

Jul 17, 2026 1:54 PM

315 Comments

Joined Nov 2014

LesterYJul 17, 2026 1:54 PM

315 Comments

Nice mini pc!

Micro_rotor

Jul 17, 2026 1:56 PM

3 Comments

Joined Nov 2021

Micro_rotorJul 17, 2026 1:56 PM

3 Comments

Good deal but wish it had the SSD!

dstanton33

Jul 17, 2026 2:25 PM

103 Comments

Joined Jul 2013

dstanton33Jul 17, 2026 2:25 PM

103 Comments

Quote from SensibleBird3184

:

But we need to put a price on it so we can put a price on the system. Lets say 512 MB Gen 4 M.2 for $50. SO now the price of this system is $318.00.

I still see value in getting the 780m even at $470 vs this system. You can find them as cheap as $470 but with 512GB. ACEMAGIC S3A Mini PC,AMD Ryzen 7 H255(8C/16T,up to 4.9Ghz),16GB LPDDR5 512GB SSD on Ebay.

You really need to be providing a reason WHY the 680m doesn't cut it, because so far all you've done is say its not enough. What workload specifically is it not good enough at? Because for gaming it's within 10% of a 780m given the cooling, TDP, and RAM found in this machine.

tripknotix

Jul 17, 2026 4:20 PM

377 Comments

Joined Aug 2012

tripknotixJul 17, 2026 4:20 PM

377 Comments

Quote from bers817

:

I've setup Lemonade AI on this machine, it took maybe 15 minutes to start chatting with Qwen 3.6 27B.

2 days ago they released bonsai 27b 1.7bit and 1bit models . These are not quantiized and they are based on qwen 3.6 27b. 1.7bit retains 90% of quality of the full model, and its only 8gb. The 1bit model is 4gb but is closer to 80% of the quality. The bandwidth on this machine still limits its to around 20tokens a second on this machine. Because of bandwidth of ddr5 ram here is at best 100gb/s. Vs vram is usually hundreds. So 20gb model would flash 5 times in 100gb/s giving you 5 tokens a second since the active part is the whole model reading every token. This is why a3b active 3b is like flashing 3gb per token as an example. So the 1.7b version at 8gb is still a huge win here . Especially against quantized versions, since those degrade kinda quickly for coding. ( so bandwidth of ddr5 is part of the limitation of these mini pcs , thankfully bonsai models exist, they even have a Klein image generator at 1.7bit as well, those are by prismml) for comparison mac mini has the same limitation of ram used as vram. but the gpu processes faster so thats better. and the higher end macs have more bandwidth. (it comes from more chips in more io lanes and faster ram speeds) combined with faster gpu ofcourse

Last edited by tripknotix July 17, 2026 at 09:27 AM.

AOOSTAR MACO Barebones PC: Ryzen 7 Pro 6850H, 24GB LPDDR5 (No SSD)

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