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phoinix 7.4K Views
Today 9:09 AM

Prime: BOSGAME E5 Mini PC: Ryzen 3 5300U, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Win 11 Pro

$189

$359

47% off
+ Free S&Hat Amazon
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Deal Details
BOSGAME Direct via Amazon has for Prime Members: BOSGAME E5 Mini PC for $209.99 - 10% automatically at checkout =  $188.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member phoinix for sharing this deal.

Specs:
  • AMD Ryzen 3 5300U Processor (4 Cores, 8 Threads, up to 3.8GHz boost, 6MB total cache)
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • 256GB M.2 2280 SSD
  • AMD Radeon Graphics (6 Graphics Cores, 1500 MHz frequency)
  • Empty Internal M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 Slot
  • Windows 11 Pro
  • Ports:
    • 1x HDMI 2.0
    • 1x DisplayPort
    • 1x Full-Function Type-C
    • 2x USB 3.2 Gen2
    • 2x USB 2.0
    • 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet

Editor's Notes

Written by citan359 | Staff
  • About this Deal:
  • About this Store:
  • Additional Notes:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the WIKI and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.

Original Post

Written by phoinix
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
BOSGAME Direct via Amazon has for Prime Members: BOSGAME E5 Mini PC for $209.99 - 10% automatically at checkout =  $188.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member phoinix for sharing this deal.

Specs:
  • AMD Ryzen 3 5300U Processor (4 Cores, 8 Threads, up to 3.8GHz boost, 6MB total cache)
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • 256GB M.2 2280 SSD
  • AMD Radeon Graphics (6 Graphics Cores, 1500 MHz frequency)
  • Empty Internal M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 Slot
  • Windows 11 Pro
  • Ports:
    • 1x HDMI 2.0
    • 1x DisplayPort
    • 1x Full-Function Type-C
    • 2x USB 3.2 Gen2
    • 2x USB 2.0
    • 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet

Editor's Notes

Written by citan359 | Staff
  • About this Deal:
  • About this Store:
  • Additional Notes:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the WIKI and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.

Original Post

Written by phoinix

Community Voting

Deal Score
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Community Reviews

This BOSGAME E5 is a low-cost mini PC that stands out most as a compact router, home server, or light desktop box. It handles OpenWrt, OPNsense, Proxmox, Plex, and Home Assistant well, and the dual 2.5GbE ports make it especially useful for networking projects. The Ryzen chip and low idle power are solid, and Windows 11 can run fine after a clean install or a RAM upgrade. The main drawbacks are the slow stock SATA SSD, the single slow 8GB memory stick, and Realtek networking quirks on FreeBSD-based firewalls. It is best suited to buyers who plan to upgrade storage or use Linux-based software.

  • The dual 2.5GbE Realtek ports support Linux-based OpenWrt router setups with strong symmetric VPN throughput.

    Hedonic_VoidERMarshall

  • The hardware supports virtualization workflows where Proxmox can host OPNsense or pfSense as a VM.

    hypnosis4u2nvERMarshall

  • The mini PC can serve as a home server for UmbrelOS and media services like Plex with HDHomeRun Connect.

    michrech

  • The platform can be a low-power router option, with measured idle power around 8 watts in OpenWrt use.

    Hedonic_Void

  • The Realtek 2.5GbE ports can require add-on driver work on FreeBSD-based OPNsense or pfSense, with mixed results.

    shaqweekERMarshallhypnosis4u2nv

  • The stock 256GB SATA SSD can feel very slow until it is wiped or replaced with faster storage.

    ERMarshallUniqueLeopard361

  • The RAM configuration can arrive as a single 8GB stick in one SO-DIMM slot, which runs single-channel unless upgraded.

    ERMarshallsuperslickz

  • The out-of-the-box Windows experience can be problematic, including a corrupted Windows install that takes a long time to fix.

    Vathana

Common Questions (5)

AI-generated summary based on comments from the community. Updated ago

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31 Comments

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Today 4:18 PM
12.7K Comments
Joined Jan 2009
teaberryToday 4:18 PM
12.7K Comments
refurbished intel nuc with 11th gen i5 and 16gb ram are usually about this price on ebay so i am not sure how this one stacks up in compute capabilities and power efficiency.
Today 4:24 PM
5.2K Comments
Joined Sep 2012
cscamp20Today 4:24 PM
5.2K Comments
Does it came with spyware from China? Asking for a friend
2
Today 4:29 PM
537 Comments
Joined Sep 2003
ordmasterToday 4:29 PM
537 Comments
I don't see the automatic 10% discount in the cart.
Today 4:31 PM
478 Comments
Joined Sep 2015
RepresentativeEarthToday 4:31 PM
478 Comments
Quote from CleverMusic3435 View quoted comment :
Is this a good deal?
Not really, I got the Firebat r3, Ryzen 5, 16GB ram, 512GB ssd for $165 2 weeks ago
Today 4:32 PM
537 Comments
Joined Sep 2003
ordmasterToday 4:32 PM
537 Comments
Quote from cscamp20 View quoted comment :
Does it came with spyware from China? Asking for a friend
No spyware from China Included. I'll happily take female spy from China with this. But then again, I'm not a billionaire CEO of a company
1
Today 4:40 PM
3.6K Comments
Joined Jul 2017
fintlewoodlewixToday 4:40 PM
3.6K Comments
I don't see much value at all in these. If you are going to run 24/7 for light serving, other chips will use less power. For the money, you can probably find an old laptop with the same specs that also has a screen and more RAM and uses less power for the same dollars. Advantage of this? Not used. Just old stock.
Today 4:51 PM
195 Comments
Joined Feb 2008
ArtThouFeelingItNowToday 4:51 PM
195 Comments
Quote from satanslover View quoted comment :
Isn't the 5400U Zen 3 version the better deal at the same price?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GDZPLPP8
Yup, that's the better deal. Bosgame seems to have multiple listings/stores on Amazon, so you have to poke around to find the best deals. For instance, this same PC from here is $340!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQF1NG5M

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Today 4:51 PM
95 Comments
Joined Jun 2011
inb4Today 4:51 PM
95 Comments
The system has been this price a few times like on Prime Day, so it is the usual sale price. Seems to be among the best bang-for-buck deals out there.

I will wait to see if any even better deals pop up closer to Black Friday.
Today 4:55 PM
585 Comments
Joined Dec 2016
shaqweekToday 4:55 PM
585 Comments
I bought this last time for use as an OPNSense router and everything is sufficient except for the 2.5Gb ports. They're Realtek and I had to install a plugin to patch in a driver since it's no longer included in the OS. I started having network issues a week into deployment on the WAN side of things and ended up pulling the wifi card and installing an intel 2.5Gb card. I did have to drill a hole in the case and 3d print a new rack mount that had a spot for the new port but it's rock solid now and the wife is enjoying the more compact networking setup and I would probably buy it again.
Today 5:29 PM
2 Comments
Joined Dec 2007
ERMarshallToday 5:29 PM
2 Comments
I bought two of these a month or two ago at this price and I've been very happy with them. I went overboard in testing them, so I'll share my findings in case they're helpful to someone:

The Amazon listing is vague or wrong in a few places, so here's what I found on my unit:
- CPU: The listing says Ryzen 3 5300U in a few places, but mine has a Ryzen 3 5400U (newer Zen 3 core, 4 cores/8 threads, 4.0 GHz boost).
- RAM: Despite "dual-channel" in the listing, it came with a single 8 GB DDR4-2133 stick in one of two SO-DIMM slots, so it runs single-channel. This is slightly disappointing for someone who plans to run it with its stock RAM, but good news for someone (like myself) who intends to upgrade it, as it means you can purchase a single 8GB SODIMM to upgrade it to 16GB of RAM in dual-channel mode (rather than having to buy TWO 8GB sticks and then having two removed/leftover 4GB sticks). By default the BIOS reserves about 3 GB for the integrated graphics, so Linux only saw 4.7 GB until that setting is changed.
- Storage: A 256 GB KingFast M.2 SATA SSD (not NVMe). The factory Windows image read at only ~65 MB/s, which probably explains reports of sluggishness. After wiping it, freshly written data tested normal for SATA (~450 MB/s write, ~490 MB/s read). It's strange that the stock SSD that people (understandably) complain about performs so much better once wiped. The second unpopulated M.2 slot is NVMe only.
- Network: Two Realtek RTL8125B 2.5GbE ports that worked out of the box on Linux. Great for a router running Linux-based OpenWrt. FreeBSD-based OPNsense/pfSense need an add-on Realtek driver, and results there are mixed. I plan to run OPNsense, but as a Proxmox VE virtual machine (as this small form factor PC can easily act as a router and have plenty of compute resources left over for other VMs or Linux containers). Because Proxmox VE is Linux-based, it handles the Realtek interfaces fine, and passes through generic NICs to the OPNsense VM, so no Realtek add-on drivers needed in OPNsense.
- Also: Realtek Wi-Fi 5, a headphone jack, and a Windows 11 Pro key embedded in the firmware (a clean reinstall activates automatically).

Testing/Benchmark Results:
- Geekbench 6: 1640 single-core / 4381 multi-core. 7-Zip: ~40 GIPS.
- Power (measured with a Kill-A-Watt): About 4.6 W idle and about 41 W at full all-core load.
- A 10-minute all-core stress test held ~4.0 GHz with no throttling at 84-89 °C. The fan is audible (though definitely not loud or annoying) under full load but quiet at idle.
- The BIOS supports automatic power-on after a power outage, Wake-on-LAN, and virtualization (SVM/IOMMU).
- BrowserBench.org (Firefox, Lubuntu 26.04 live USB); Speedometer: 15.8; JetStream 3: 122.2; MotionMark: 1021.

I plan on running my two small form factor (SFF) PCs as Proxmox VE hosts. I removed the 8GB stick from one of mine and installed it in the other, bringing that PC's RAM to 16GB. I couldn't do the same with the 256GB SATA SSD, as the second M.2 slot is NVMe only. But I did purchase a 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C48P4RRJ) that I installed in the PC with 16GB RAM, and set up a software RAID 1 mirror across the stock 256GB SATA SSD and the added 256GB NVMe SSD. I didn't test it, but this should mean that writes to the mirror will be at the speed of the slowest drive (almost certainly the stock SATA), but reads will be at least as fast as the fastest member drive (the NVMe), perhaps even faster if reads are shared across both mirrored drives.

I installed two new sticks of 16GB each on the other SFF PC (32GB total) (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T17RQ87) and two 512GB NVMe SSDs (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C48MS1D5), which all worked great.

Opening the case is easy. There is a heatsink and small fan on the base plate, primarily for cooling the M.2 SSDs. The stock thermal pad is only large enough to contact the stock SSD. Because I added two side-by-side M.2 SSDs in both of my PCs, I replaced the stock pad with a larger one, cut from the kit at the following URL (match the thickness of the stock pad - I think it was 2.5mm): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZ89DK4C

In general, I've been impressed with the performance of these SFF PCs, and they seem like a good value for the price. I've only owned them for a short while and haven't finished setting them up fully, but I did run a lot of testing and liked what I saw! Wiping the stock SATA SSD is my biggest recommendation, as it's horribly slow for some reason until wiped.

Edit: Also posted this same info to the Amazon listing as a review, and included some photos of the PC with its bottom panel removed. I tried to post the photos here as well, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe they're too high resolution (too large file size). I'm new to posting on SlickDeals, so I'm kinda clueless
[IMG]https://static.slickdealscdn.com/images/smilies/wink.gif[/IMG]. You can see the photos in the Amazon review I just posted, if curious - though the review doesn't seem to be live yet (maybe Amazon needs to review it - I'm also new to posting reviews on Amazon).
Last edited by ERMarshall November 13, 2026 at 10:58 AM.
1
Today 5:54 PM
5.3K Comments
Joined May 2011
satansloverToday 5:54 PM
5.3K Comments
Quote from ArtThouFeelingItNow View quoted comment :

Yup, that's the better deal. Bosgame seems to have multiple listings/stores on Amazon, so you have to poke around to find the best deals. For instance, this same PC from here is $340!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQF1NG5M
Sadly they took off the 10% coupon now.
Today 6:05 PM
5.3K Comments
Joined May 2011
satansloverToday 6:05 PM
5.3K Comments
Quote from OrangeCaesar View quoted comment :
I'd love to build another Hackintosh!!! Just for the joy and frustration of trying to get everything to work properly…

Thanks for bringing this up!

Very tempting!
You'll need NootedRed for the gfx and recommend OpenCore-Simply.
Today 6:31 PM
7 Comments
Joined Jan 2026
Hedonic_VoidToday 6:31 PM
7 Comments
Quote from ComoEstanPinches View quoted comment :
with the ram shortage this seems like a good deal for openwrt/opnsense vpn firewall
I have this exact device and use it as an OpenWRT router. I get 1.1 Gb/s symmetric on Proton VPN, my connection speed. Lots of future plans as it can be a mini NAS and Promox device too when I get to it. It uses 8 watts when idle. It's connected to an 8 port 2.5 Gb switch and I have a TP Link wifi router in AP mode connected to it. This set up is a lot better, especially for the price, than any ARM-based wifi router.
Last edited by Hedonic_Void November 13, 2026 at 11:35 AM.
Today 7:03 PM
158 Comments
Joined Feb 2019
Killer_PandaToday 7:03 PM
158 Comments
Quote from Adam1983 View quoted comment :
would this be good for home automation?
Would be overkill most likely. I run home assistant for 2 homes on one old Celeron. This runs circle around that old NUC.

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Today 7:04 PM
1K Comments
Joined Dec 2008
VathanaToday 7:04 PM
1K Comments
As others have mentioned the Bosgame E5 Plus with a Zen3 5400u for the same or slightly higher price is the better deal. I got mine down from $200 to this same $188 price using an old coupon code someone posted a couple of months ago that somehow was still valid.

I would say that the out of the box experience was not great for me as the Windows installation came corrupted and was taking ages to try and fix itself. I eventually did a clean install of Windows 11 Pro.

For use as a desktop replacement I would suggest spending a little more on something with more performance. The memory that comes with this is basically the slowest 2133 mhz DDR4 sodimm you can find despite the CPU supporting up to 3200 mhz.

What this is perfect for would be an OPNsense/PFSense or OpenWRT router though for me it took a little work to figure out how to load the Realtek drivers manually as OPNSense did not detect or automatically download it.

For that purpose of just one of the cheapest and low powered computer I can currently find with a dual 2.5 nics so far I can't complain.

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