The 8th i5 is still excellent, and EGSMTPC MU01 Mini PC is evaluated

Advantages: reasonable design, excellent workmanship; Abundant interfaces with high specifications; Win11 system.

With the continuous improvement of the computing power of notebook chips, there are fewer and fewer use scenarios that require large desktops to cope with. Nowadays, most people only need a small mini host to handle all computing tasks. The entry-level Celeron minicomputer is difficult to undertake complex processing tasks due to its performance limitations, and high-end models are generally sold at a high price, which makes the mid price minicomputer the best choice. The EGSMTPC MU01 Mini PC, which has just entered the domestic market recently, is one of them. It is equipped with the same Intel Core i5-8265U quad core processor as NUC, which is still popular at present, and pre installed with Windows 11 Professional operating system. This host has achieved good sales in foreign countries this year, and its excellent workmanship has also made it widely praised.

Unpacking: all kinds of accessories

The packaging of MU01 Mini PC is relatively simple and elegant. The box contains a mini host, a high-quality metal VESA Mount bracket, a power adapter, a Power cable, a SATA cable, and a user manual.

Design: NUC appearance, rich interfaces

The body size of MU01 Mini pc is 128mm ×  128mm ×  38mm, the volume is only 0.6L. The shell is made of aluminum alloy. Although gray is not much of a design sense, it is at least low-key and professional, and it is also very durable. The middle of the top panel is the English trademark of EGSMTPC.

The interface configuration and distribution of the MU01 Mini PC are the same as those of the NUC, and the quality is very high. The front panel has 2 * USB3.0, 2 * USB2.0 and one 3.5mm audio interface.

The rear panel is configured with two USB 3.0 interfaces, one gigabit Ethernet interface, one HDMI 1.4, one DP1.4, one USB3.1 full-featured Type-C and one DC power interface.

Loosen the four screws at the bottom of the fuselage, and then we can remove the bottom plate and enter the interior of the fuselage. The MU01 Mini PC motherboard has two hard disk interfaces, one of which is M 2 interfaces (supporting NVMe and SATA dual protocols), one is a 2.5-inch SATA3 interface. The memory is DDR4-2400 of notebook size, which supports up to 32GB dual channels. The MU01 Mini PC may not be equipped with a network card that supports WiFi6 due to the limitation of processor compatibility, but WiFi5 is still sufficient. From the perspective of internal workmanship, the MU01 Mini PC, like the Intel NUC series, uses an aluminum alloy body, and the 2.5 inch hard disk slot on the inside of the backplane is also made of metal. Each component on the motherboard is planned neatly and compactly, and the wiring is also quite neat. This level of workmanship can be said to be quite rare in similar products.

System: Win11 is very convenient

The MU01 Mini PC is pre installed with the Windows 11 Professional operating system, which has many improvements in design and functions compared with Win10. The BitLocker file encryption, group domain, remote desktop, enterprise store and other functions of the Professional system will be very meaningful for IT users or the B-end use environment. In addition to Windows, MU01 Mini PC also supports various X86 versions of Linux systems.

Performance: the eighth generation i5 is still enough

The MU01 Mini PC evaluated is equipped with an Intel Core i5-8265U processor. The i5-8265U uses a 14nm manufacturing process, has four CPU cores, eight processing threads, and runs at 1.6GHz to 3.9GHz. In addition, the Iris Plus 620 iGPU is integrated. This processor, released in 2018, is definitely inferior to the current 12 generation Core and AMD 6000 series chips, but it can still handle mainstream computing tasks. My machine contains 16GB of memory and 512GB of NVMe SSD, but you can also buy an 8GB/256GB version for less money.

Daily use

The MU01 Mini PC is quite efficient in various conventional workflows, including Microsoft Office document editing, web browsing, and audio and video playback. More than 10 large websites are loaded in Chrome, and 4K videos are played at the same time. When several large applications are run, there will be no obvious stuttering and delay.

Lightweight content creation is not a problem. Using Photoshop, Lightroom and other software on the MU01 Mini PC is quick. Editing 1080P video with clip or power director is also smooth. Even if you add some complex filters, rendering and transitions, there is no obvious stutter in the process. However, in the complex rendering of 4K video, it is inevitable to get stuck and delayed.

Game

The speed of the Intel Iris Plus 620 core display integrated with the Core i5-8265U is less than that of the Iris Xe core display used by the 11th and 12th generations of Core, but it is still much better than the Intel UHD core display carried by Celeron and Pentium processors. The 3DMark test results illustrate this. In the three tests of 3DMark, MU01 Mini PC scored 7428 for Sky Diver, 1957 for Fire Strike and 743 for Time Spy.

League of Heroes runs smoothly under 1080P and medium special effects, and there is no obvious frame drop even in the most intense battle scenes. The average number of frames recorded by GamePP is 98 fps. The average frame rate of Genshin Impact is only 30 fps under 1080P and medium special effects, but it is barely playable, and the experience is not good. When the resolution is reduced to 720P, the average number of frames rises to 49 fps. "The broken spell" is similar to the Genshin Impact. The average frame rate of 1080P and medium effects is 41 fps, which is not too bad, but there are obvious frame drop and control delay in some more complex scenes. Only after the resolution is reduced to 720p, the picture can remain above 55fps.

As shown in the above test results, the MU01 Mini PC is not designed for gamers. However, it can run some of the latest large-scale games in low and medium resolution and special effects settings. If you prefer simple educational leisure games such as Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies, you don't need to worry about the fluency of the game. Because the XBOX game platform is built in the Microsoft store of Windows 11, we can also play most XBOX games smoothly.

Video playback

The playback capability has always been the strength of Intel Core mini host. Even the MU01 Mini PC with the 8th generation processor has better video decoding capability than the latest high-end mini host of AMD platform. According to the results of DXVA Checker, Iris Plus 620 iGPU can decode most mainstream video formats to 4K. If you and I have collected a lot of high-definition or Blu ray original movies and TV plays, you will feel that you have won the prize. I played more than ten 4K video clips on the MU01 Mini PC, all of which can be smoothly hard decoded. And because the CPU usage is extremely low during playback, the operation is relatively quiet.

Playing 4K/60fps videos on the web is also very smooth, and the CPU and GPU usage are not too high.

The power consumption is not low, but the noise is relatively low

The MU01 Mini PC is much higher than the mini host with the latest processor. The power consumption when the CPU is fully loaded is 15W. The fan speed is relatively low during standby and low load operation, and there is basically no noise. However, when the fan reaches full speed during high load operation, there is still obvious noise, but it is not too noisy.

Summary

At present, the standard price of EGSMTPC MU01 Mini PC 16GB+512GB is 399 $on Amazon platform. After using coupons, it can be 349 $, which is not cheap among products with the same hardware configuration. Although it has obvious advantages in workmanship, materials and interfaces