ASRock Industrial's 4x4-BOX UCFF PC Series Goes Premium with Ryzen 4000U Renoir APUs

ASRock Industrial has been at the forefront of AMD-based UCFF PCs, being one of the first to bring out systems based on the Ryzen Embedded APUs in mid-2019. In fact, their boards have been adopted by vendors such as OnLogic in their ML100G-40 systems. These 4x4 BOX systems definitely got the footprint right, matching the Intel NUCs in that department. However, the performance of the Embedded R-Series made them a better fit for embedded systems with single-purpose use-cases. On the general purpose computing front, they could not match up against the large variety of Intel-based NUCs with different performance profiles. Today, this aspect is being rectified with the launch of three new SKUs in the 4x4 BOX-4000 series. These systems use the latest AMD Ryzen 4000U series APUs with TDPs ranging from 10W to 25W. In addition to the markets served by the first-generation 4x4 BOX systems (digital signage, kiosks, thin clients, and other embedded applications), the 4x4 BOX-4000 series will also make its presence felt in the general-purpose small form-factor computing space.

The second-generation systems have a slightly smaller foot-print, coming in at 110mm x 117.5mm x 47.85mm. The system is slightly heavier by around 300g, coming in at 1kg. The specifications of the three SKUs are reproduced in the table below. The move to Ryzen 4000U brings premium features to the UCFF PC space - in fact, surpassing the features offered by Intel NUCs in the same form-factor - these include support for NBASE-T with a 2.5 Gbps LAN port (backed by the Realtek RTL8125BG controller), native support for DDR4-3200 without overclocking, and support for four simultaneous 4Kp60 display (including two via the front-panel USB Type-C ports) outputs. Intel's AX200 module brings in Wi-Fi 6 support. Another welcome upgrade is the support for M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSDs (the first-generation SKUs only supported 2242 and 2260)

In addition to usage as a UCFF desktop PC, the 4x4 BOX-4000 series also targets embedded applications. As a result, it is equipped with a watchdog timer and is rated to run at temperatures of up to 40ºC. It also comes with a TPM module.

The 4x4 BOX-4000 series UCFF PCs are not the first to use the AMD Ryzen 4000U APUs in this form-factor. The Asus PN50 was introduced a few weeks back, though its availability in the North American market has not been confirmed. Given that the first-generation 4x4 BOX series has been available for purchase at many US e-tailers, it does look like the 4x4 BOX-4000 SKUs from ASRock Industrial are going to be the first set of AMD Ryzen 4000U-series based UCFF PCs on this side of the pond. In addition, the premium features of the 4x4 BOX-4000 series is sure to invoke keen interest in the SFF computing community.