AI X1-255 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 255 (8C/16T, up to 4,9 GHz), 32 GB DDR5 RAM 1 TB M.2 SSD,HDMI/DP/USB4 (4K@120 Hz), Dual Speaker/DMIC,USB-A X 3, 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 7/BT5.4

The hardware specs on this thing are ace for the money. It looks a bit like a Mac Mini, but you get way more i/o, and you can expand it with either the included oculink adapter or an extra M.2 ssd, depending on what you’re after. As an all-round machine, the thermal design is the only weak link here in my opinion - at least when the internal gpu is pinned (gaming…). That said, I’ve paired mine with RTX4060 on a DEG1 dock via oculink, and it runs sweet. Once the heavy graphics tasks are offloaded to the egpu, the pc stays much cooler and quieter because the internal fan isn't fighting to cool the Ryzen 7 255 cpu and npu at the same time. I can play my favourite games at the highest quality with zero thermal throttling issues now, fair play. Some people say having ‘ai’ in the name is just a bit of a marketing gimmick - but it actually has a proper cpu and npu for running models locally at a decent speed. Obviously, they need to be quantised, but it just adds to the versatility. I’ve been experimenting with a few local ai models (with or without the egpu), I can have a play around with qwen or llama. It’s basically my attempt at a little home lab, and for that, it’s great as a standalone unit. If you’re just using it for gaming on its own, the heat is a bit of a faff, but with an egpu setup, it’s easily a 5-star bit of kit. The oculink connection is miles better than thunderbolt for an egpu, no stuttering or performance loss (especially with a 4060 or hgher). Solid value too, considering how the price of components and ram has skyrocketed. Recommended.

The hardware specs are absolute ace for the money. You’re getting a Ryzen 7 255 and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, which makes frontend dev work a breeze; apps open instantly and multitasking is smooth as anything. The build quality is decent—it looks very Mac Mini-esque on the desk—and having built-in speakers is a nice touch for casual bits. It looks like a Mac but this little guy actually has more ports and user-upgradable RAM/SSD, which are the biggest selling points over Apple. The only real niggle with this aluminium box is the thermal design. It’s not an issue if you’re using it as a little home lab device, but if you’re planning to game, it struggles. Once you load up something like Overwatch 2 on medium-high settings at 2K (or even 1080p), the temps skyrocket and it starts thermal throttling almost immediately. The GPU can handle high frame rates, but the cooling just isn't efficient enough. I ended up having to cap the wattage to 28W and use silent mode just to keep it stable. I didn't buy it for gaming, so it’s not a dealbreaker for me, but keep it in mind if that’s your primary use case. If you want to game for hours without it getting toasted, you’ll need to look elsewhere or invest in a decent external fan. Still, it’s a silent bit of kit for my daily work, so I’d definitely recommend it.

Machine is decent, got it as a Steam Box. Installed SteamOS and it runs smoothly, but as others have reported, WiFi and Bluetooth quality is really bad. For now, I connected an ethernet cable and have a USB extension for the controllers, but will need to eventually fix the wireless connections. Noise wise, it's much quieter than the Steam Deck, and the CPU/GPU also better, with native 1080p and 4k, though it doesn't really do 4k gaming well. For TV gaming, though, perfectly fine.

Been using for a few months now. I replaced the Windows 11 installation with CachyOS and it's been a solid media center machine / file server. Also great for Steam gaming. At the spec I got, it has roughly similar performance at 1080p that the Steam Deck has at 720p. Linux drivers are solid and haven't found anything incompatible. Runs pretty quietly if you set the fans to low. My Spec: Ryzen 7 255, 32GB DDR5 (8GB reserved in bios for GPU)

Phenomenal value for this chip (rebrand of 8745H) and RAM config. Great looking little machine, too.

It's a great mini pc, silent (mostly) and very powerful. Windows 11 runs smoothly. Beware of one "little" thing. As of the date of this review (July 15, 2025) linux kernel does not really support the wifi/bluetooth card. It's a Mediatek 9625e and the drivers are there in the kernel, but not really supported. Result: wifi will work badly and bluetooth will not work at all. This will all be presumably fixed in kernel 6.16. My solution was to replace the card with one with better linux support.