MACHENIKE Creator Mini 2nd Gen Mini PC Review

The year 2023 marks a significant turning point in the world of personal computing, where mini PCs have surged to prominence, threatening the conventional mid-to-low-end desktop PC market. A quick search on any e-commerce platform reveals a striking trend: compact and charming mini PCs, prominently featuring the powerful Ryzen 7735 and 7840 platforms. These diminutive powerhouses not only excel in CPU computing prowess but also boast gaming performance that rivals many custom-built machines within the $400 to $600 price range. In this evolving landscape, traditional PC manufacturers are stepping into the mini PC arena, with notable contenders such as MACHENIKE introducing their inaugural mini PC, the Creator Mini 2nd-Gen, equipped with options like the 12th generation Core i7-12650H and formidable hardware like the Ryzen 7 7735HS, offering enticing performance and post-sales support.

However, despite their impressive offerings, the initial Creator Mini faced a minor inconvenience: upgrading memory and hard drives required intricate disassembly, impacting user-friendliness. Additionally, with the growing popularity of the Ryzen 7840 platform, both the i7-12650H and Ryzen 7 7735HS found themselves falling slightly behind in the performance race. In response to these challenges, MACHENIKE has taken a bold step by unveiling an upgraded iteration of the Creator Mini, featuring the latest AMD R7 7840H processor and an enhanced design. Priced at $350, this mini PC aims to be a formidable contender in the market. In this comprehensive review, we delve deep into the capabilities of this Ryzen-powered mini PC, examining its real-world performance and assessing its competitiveness in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Packaging

The Machenike Creator Mini 2nd-Gen continues the classic black packaging of its predecessors, with the silhouette of the host on the front and basic configuration information on the back, which is simple and compact.

In addition to the host, the package also comes with a manual, warranty card, power adapter, wall bracket and fixing screws. It is a pity that an HDMI video cable is not included as standard. However, if you buy a monitor, it will come with a video cable, so it’s not a big problem.

Design

The measurements of the second-generation Creator Mini PC are similar to those of the first generation, a little narrower and a little thicker. The overall size is about 0.75L. When equipped with 2 memory and SSD as standard, the overall weight is 470g. It is a relatively mini existence.

The 100W power adapter of this product is small in size, larger than the mobile phone charging head, and weighs about 322g. The surface on both sides is also designed with anti-slip water wave texture, and the detailed design is highly praised.

The Machenike Creator Mini 2nd-Gen PC adopts a brand-new appearance design, abandoning the integrated metal-like body style of the first-generation PC. Its body frame is made of PCR environmentally friendly material. No paint is used on the surface, showing the color of the material itself, and it does not contain VOC (volatile organic compounds), reducing environmental pollution and resource waste.

The characteristics of this material are that it is non-slip, stain-resistant, does not stick to fingerprints, and there are irregular dots on the surface that resemble stars, making it a very attractive type.

Compared with the metal fuselage with better texture, the fuselage made of PCR material can reduce the weight, has no signal shielding effect, can bring better wireless connection capabilities, and the surface temperature is lower than that of metal when running at full speed, so there is no need to I am worried about the problem of dings and scratches caused by touching and scratching. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The first-generation Creator Mini PC has an integrated top cover and body frame, while the second-generation Creator Mini has an integrated bottom shell and body frame. The surface of the detachable top cover is covered with a layer of waterproof three-dimensional fiber, making the host It looks more homely and can be called a fashionable embellishment wherever it is placed.

By the way, the official has also prepared a replaceable leather top cover for the first batch of users who purchased and placed orders. Don’t forget to get it.

The Machenike Creator Mini 2nd-Gen has increased the air inlet area on both sides of the fuselage, and the air inlet on the bottom cover also occupies 1/2 of the area. It can be expected that its heat dissipation capacity will be greatly improved compared to the first generation.

There are also screw holes reserved on the bottom cover for installing a wall-mounting bracket. With this accessory, the host can be hung on the back of a VESA-compatible monitor, further saving desktop space and turning the monitor into an [all-in-one PC].

The interfaces of Creator Mini II are located on the front and rear panels. Among them, the front panel provides the reset hole, power switch, audio interface, full-featured USB4 and 2 USB-A3.2 Gen2 interfaces.

The back of the fuselage provides a power jack, 2 2.5G network ports, HDMI2.0 and DP, USB-A3.2 Gen2 and USB2.0 interfaces. There is also an anti-theft lock hole next to the air outlet at the bottom, which can prevent the host from being stolen when used in public places such as offices.

The Full-featured USB4 is a remarkable technological innovation, boasting an impressive 40Gbps transmission rate while simultaneously providing video output capabilities and delivering a robust 100W PD (Power Delivery) power supply. This versatile marvel also doubles as an external desktop graphics card expansion dock, making it a game-changer for those seeking enhanced graphics performance. Equipped with both HDMI and DP interfaces, it seamlessly enables a three-screen output experience that's nothing short of spectacular.

But the USB4 doesn't stop there; it takes your networking capabilities to the next level with two 2.5G network ports, offering higher playability and the potential to transform into an ultra-high-performance soft router. This multifunctional device is truly a game-changer in the world of connectivity and performance.

Disassembly

MACHENIKE officials also noticed the inconvenience of dismantling and upgrading the first-generation PC, so they optimized and upgraded the internal structure of the second-generation Creator Mini.

When disassembling the machine, you still need to unscrew the 4 screws at the bottom, and then turn the machine over. Through the gap on the side of the top cover, you can easily pry the cover open with your fingernails without any difficulty.

It can be seen that inside the Creator Mini II, a metal bracket equipped with a fan has been added. If you remove the bracket, you can see the memory and hard drive hidden under it.

There is also thermal conductive silicone grease on the back of this metal bracket corresponding to the hard drive, which can serve as a large-area hard drive heat sink.

This Mini PC comes standard with 2 Jintek DDR5-5600 high-frequency memory modules. The measured performance is as shown in the figure, and the performance is pretty good.

The standard hard drive comes from Yangtze Storage. The model is PC300 with 1TB capacity. It is an entry-level PCIe 4.0 SSD with sustained read and write speeds of 3800MB/s and 2940MB/s respectively.

Below the hard drive is the Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless network card, which has better performance than the RZ608 commonly used in competing products. With the help of the fan bracket, there is no need to worry about the heat dissipation problem of the network card and hard drive stack design.

On the motherboard, you can also see a SATA cable interface, and there are screw holes on the fan bracket to fix the 2.5-inch hard drive. However, after consulting the official, we learned that Ryzen 7040 does not natively support 2.5-inch SATA hard drives and requires additional transfer lines. Therefore, Creator Mini II can only install one M.2 hard drive, which is the biggest regret of this PC.

It is reported that the subsequent molds of the Machenike Creator Mini 2nd-Gen will also have derivative models of Ryzen 5 6600H and 7735HS, both of which can unlock the 2.5-inch hard drive bay to enable the installation of dual hard drives.

It is worth mentioning that the second generation of the Creator Mini has incorporated full metal sputtering into the interior of its casing. This significant improvement enhances the device's overall performance and durability, particularly in terms of radiation resistance, lightning strike protection, and surge protection. These features give it a competitive edge when compared to other Mini PC rivals in the market. However, it's important to note that, like any product, the Creator Mini's second generation does have some shortcomings that potential buyers should consider.

Performance, Game Tests, Temperature, and Noise

The second-generation Creator Mini stands out primarily due to its powerful AMD Ryzen 7 7840H processor. This chip is a technological marvel, boasting the cutting-edge TSMC 4nm process technology along with the dynamic combination of Zen 4 CPU architecture and RDNA 3 GPU architecture. With a generous 8 cores and 16 threads, it can achieve a maximum acceleration frequency of 5.1GHz. Furthermore, it incorporates a Radeon 780M integrated graphics card that rivals entry-level independent graphics solutions. In contexts where dedicated graphics cards are not available, such as mini PCs and lightweight devices, this processor delivers a gaming experience that surpasses the capabilities of the 13th generation Core platform.

One often overlooked feature of the Ryzen 7840H platform is its integration of a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) designed for AI computing—a first in X86 chip history. Dubbed the Ryzen AI engine, this innovation relies on XDNA, a novel computing architecture that fundamentally differs from traditional CPU and GPU structures. With the proliferation of AI applications shifting from the cloud to the edge and device side, the era of AI-powered PCs is rapidly approaching. Tasks such as intelligent voice noise reduction, video background blur, super-resolution, capturing exciting in-game moments, large language model dialogues, and AI-generated content production all necessitate integrated AI capabilities within the processor.

The Machenike Creator Mini 2nd-Gen Mini PC, featuring the Ryzen 7 7840H processor, is well-prepared for the impending AI PC era. It eagerly awaits the launch of applications and functions that will harness the full potential of its integrated AI unit, enabling users to experience the next wave of AI-powered computing in a variety of exciting scenarios.

In addition, the Ryzen 7040 platform also adds support for AV1 hardware codec for the first time. It has finally caught up with the Core platform in terms of multimedia experience. It is measured that the CPU usage of AV1-encoded 8K video is only single digits when played.

After upgrading to the latest firmware provided on the official website, Creator Mini 2 can set three power modes (Quiet, Balanced, Performance) and virtual video memory capacity in the BIOS. We set 8GB in the three modes respectively. The actual measurement was carried out with the video memory in the state.

The first thing everyone is concerned about is power consumption and heat generation. In the standby state of the desktop after booting, the power consumption of the Creator Mini 2 fluctuates between 7W and 9W, which is similar to that of an entry-level Mini PC equipped with an N100 processor. It is still very power-saving.

In high-performance mode, running the AIDA64 FPU baking test, the processor can initially achieve a power consumption release of 65W, but it will soon fall back and stabilize to about 48W, and it will still stabilize in a straight line after 30 minutes. At this time, the CPU temperature 84 degrees, the main frequency is about 3.8GHz, the noise value next to the host is about 52 decibels, the power consumption of the whole machine is about 73W, and the maximum temperature of the top cover is about 41 degrees.

If the sound monitor is moved closer to the user, the noise will be reduced to less than 45 decibels, which will no longer affect the mood during creation and gaming.

After running 30 rounds of CineBench R15 in high-performance mode, the score in the first round was the highest, but the gap from the lowest value was only less than 80 points. It can be seen that the performance output of Creator Mini 2 is still very stable.

The power consumption of Creator Mini 2 in balanced mode is 45W, which is similar to performance mode. The frame rate of benchmark games is almost the same, so I won’t go into details here.

In silent mode, the FPU baking test also runs AIDA64, the processor peak value will be limited to 45W, and will soon stabilize at 35W. At this time, the CPU temperature has dropped to within 78 degrees, the main frequency is 3.4GHz, the noise value next to the host is only 44 decibels, and the power consumption of the whole machine is about 53W.

Move the sound monitor closer to the user, and the noise will be further reduced to 36 decibels, which is the same as the ambient noise and is extremely quiet.

So, is there a big performance gap between the 35W quiet mode and the 48W performance mode?

The answer is, very little. Through comparison, it can be seen that between the two power modes of Creator Mini 2, the CPU single-core performance gap is less than 2%, and the multi-core performance is improved by 6% to 11%. In comprehensive testing software such as Master Lu, PCMark and CrossMark, The difference is also very small.

Through horizontal comparison of CPU-Z and CineBench with other common hardware platforms of Mini PCs, the single-core performance of the Ryzen 7 7840H processor at 35W power consumption exceeds that of the 55W 13th generation Core i5-13500H, and is infinitely close at 48W. 65W i7-13700H.

In terms of multi-core performance, the 35W 7840H is slightly inferior to the i5-13500H, but it can surpass it with 48W power consumption.

The 3DMark graphics test belongs to the advantage battlefield of the Ryzen platform. With the support of dual-channel DDR5-5600 memory, the GPU sub-score of Creator Mini II can crush the 13th generation Core-integrated Iris Xe 96 core display, which is infinitely close to the level of the early GTX 1650 independent display. .

In the game test session, in "League of Legends", with 2K resolution and the highest image quality, after a 26-minute game, the average frame rate of Creator Mini 2 can reach 188FPS, the highest frame rate is 241FPS, and the lowest frame rate is 93FPS. Very smooth.

In the actual measurement of AAA games in high-performance mode, the resolution was set at 1080P. The average frame rate of "Far Cry New Dawn" in high-definition mode was 41FPS, and it could be increased to 48FPS in low-definition mode.

The average frame rate of "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" in high image quality is 43FPS, which can be increased to 64FPS when adjusted to low image quality.

The average frame rate of "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" in high image quality is 39FPS, which can be increased to 62FPS when adjusted to low image quality.

The average frame rate of "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" in high image quality is 42FPS, which can be increased to 57FPS when adjusted to low image quality. 

The average frame rate of "Horizon Zero Dawn" is 33FPS when quality is prioritized, and can be increased to 55FPS when performance is adjusted.

At the default low image quality of "Red Dead Redemption 2", an average frame rate of 48.6FPS can be obtained.

I also conducted the same game test in 35W silent mode. The measured frame number dropped from 1 frame to 6 frames, which had little impact on the smoothness of the game.

It can be seen that the energy efficiency ratio of the AMD Ryzen 7040H platform is much better than that of the 13th generation Core H45, and it can output better performance with lower power consumption. Users who are sensitive to sound can rest assured that they can set it in quiet mode for a long time and enjoy low noise with very little actual performance loss. At the same time, the official temperature control setting in performance mode is still a bit conservative. The processor temperature of 84 degrees is still very cool. We hope that subsequent BIOS updates can stabilize the continuous power consumption at 65W. As long as the temperature is controlled to about 90 degrees, everything will be fine. This is acceptable.

More reliable Ryzen 7840 Mini PC

In conclusion, the MACHENIKE Creator Mini 2nd Gen Mini PC represents a significant milestone in the ever-evolving landscape of compact computing. As we navigate the technological shifts of 2023, where mini PCs are challenging the dominance of traditional desktop PCs, MACHENIKE's offering comes as a formidable contender. The integration of AMD's Ryzen 7 7840H processor, with its cutting-edge 4nm process technology, and dedicated NPU for AI computing, showcases the brand's commitment to staying at the forefront of innovation. This processor not only delivers impressive gaming performance but also positions the Creator Mini 2nd Gen as a promising platform for AI-powered applications and functions in the near future.

Design-wise, the Creator Mini 2nd Gen boasts an appealing aesthetic with its PCR environmentally friendly material construction, offering a balance between weight reduction, wireless connectivity, and durability. The addition of air inlets, a wall-mounting bracket option, and thoughtful interface placement enhances the user experience and flexibility of this mini PC. While the absence of native support for 2.5-inch SATA hard drives may disappoint some users, the overall design and structure optimizations demonstrate a commitment to user convenience.

When it comes to performance, the Creator Mini 2nd Gen excels, showcasing its efficiency with a variety of power modes. Its AMD Ryzen 7840H processor, combined with high-frequency memory and advanced thermal solutions, delivers impressive results across a range of tasks, from AI-related applications to gaming. The measured power consumption and noise levels are commendable, providing users with a choice between performance and quiet operation. Overall, the MACHENIKE Creator Mini 2nd Gen Mini PC stands as a strong competitor in the mini PC market, offering a blend of power, innovation, and user-friendly design that positions it favorably in this ever-competitive landscape.