Features:

  • UN65U-M021M features 7th-generation Kaby Lake Intel Core i3-7100U processor (3.50 GHz, 4M Cache)
  • Supports M.2 2280 and Intel Optane Memory, a full size 2.5" SSD, and up to 16GB DDR4 Memory (2x SO-DIMM slots)
  • Integrated 4K UHD graphics featuring DisplayPort and HDMI video outputs. Card Reader : 4-in-1 SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC
  • Stream and share content with built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 and 4-in-1 card reader
  • Tiny footprint (5.1"W x 5.1"L x 2"H) with rear mounting VESA support for monitors and HD TVs
Great all around Home Computer

This is a great little computer. Quiet, Fast and Small. You will need to supply an OS. One warning if you plan to load Windows 7 you are going to have problems getting your USB mouse and keyboard to work on install because all 6 USB ports are 3.0. That's great once installed but Windows 7 install might not recognize them. I have seen a few posts with work arounds. I tried playing with the USB setting in the BIOS, but couldn't get them to work. I ended up just transferring the Win 10 license off a computer I no longer plan to use. I bought a 256 SSD and the 16gB recommended Crucial RAM kit. Passmark performance is attached. It's primary weakness is the 3D test. I don't recommend this computer for gaming. Great for all around home computing. Installing the ram and hard drive are easy for anyone with good dexterity. Update: Geekbench numbers added Single-core CPU 3574 Multi-core CPU 9607 GPU Open CL 17280 Much better than 2013 dual core i5 mac Mini Single-core CPU 3013 Multi-core CPU 5816 GPU Open CL 5390

Not too bad, but leave it to someone who has install ...

Just finish building this new Mini PC out with M2 256 GB NVMe flash drive, and 32 GB of DDR4 memory installed. Yes, you can install 2 16 GB memory cards in this unit. Install a spare 250 GB SSD drive as well, but be warn that you will need to remove the rear USB port module to install the ribbon connector to the circuit board. Not too bad, but leave it to someone who has install ribbon connectors before. The performance is incredible with true 4096 x 2160 display resolution over HDMI or DisplayPort. Attached some photos with the memory and M2 flash installed.

Better than most computers available in stores...

I typically don’t write reviews however I think this little guy deserves some justice. I read some of the reviews prior to purchasing the ASUS Mini and I noticed most of the negative ones came from people that either did not know what “bare bones” meant or did not do their homework as to understand what they were buying and what would be needed in order to make it work. “Bare bones” in this listing means that you’d buy a case and a motherboard basically. It would not be ready to use or plug-and-play, you’d need to install at least 4 things: 1) a hard-drive, 2) RAM memory, 3) an operating system and 4) applications (such as MS Office), which means you’d expend additionally between $400 and $600. The installation of the hard drive and RAM memory was fairly easy, which consisted in removing the lower cover of the ASUSMini box and inserting the RAM and the hard drive. That’s it. You’d only need a screwdriver to accomplish that. For the hard drive, I went for the M.2 2280 type. The main reason is that there are not moving parts in this hard-drive; it looks like a memory card, this is the latest generation, better yet than a solid state drive (SSD) and it would cost around the same as a SSD of previous generation. The one I bought is a western digital of 512GB, PCI (pics attached). Another reason is that this hard-drive is a bit easier to install than a SSD from previous generation. For RAM, I went for the 16GB, 2133 MHz, Hyper Kingston DDR4 SODIMM kit, which I understand it is the maximum RAM you can have. For operating system (OS), I read in the reviews that Windows 10 pro would work better, so that’s what I got. I work sometimes from home so I’ll install MS Office. Once you’ve done that, you can install any application you want/need and you'd have a computer that is better than perhaps 90% of computers available in the market at a fraction of the cost. I’ve included some pictures as reference. So far the response time and performance have been fabulous, I’m not a gamer, but I work with large databases in excel and the response has been great, I’m very satisfied!

it is easy. Also

No reason to be nervous. I moved an SSD over from another much slower PC. I was initially nervous about installing the SSD correctly and whether my Win10 would activate. No need. Although there is a cable to plug in, it is easy. Also, I did need to call Microsoft to reactivate the Win10 , but that was easy too. Now I have a very fast I-7 PC without needing to reinstall software, and attached it to the back of my monitor, freeing up desk space. ASUS is great!

Fun little project But if you buy used PLEASE READ

First, the unit itself is awesome. Very sleek and quite professional looking despite the size, super impressed and totally soundless. I put 8GB of ram on it and for setup an old 2.5" HD till my M.2 comes in later this week. Made a bootable USB installation stick (Google how to) for CENTOS and Win10 and set it up for dual boot. It works fantastic. I bought the I3 unit (dual core with hyper threading) and was amazed at how fast it runs. Not sure how much better the i5 or i7 unit would be in terms of bang for the buck. The video is built in Intel so eh... For the price, the i3 unit is the sweet spot I'm thinking. I've fooled with Celeron unit in the past and would not recommend it. Quad core Pentium yes, Celeron no way. I know it would leave you very disappointed, unless you expected no performance at all and just want to be as inexpensive as possible. I also borrowed a Mini Port to VGA adapter and ran two full HD monitors just fine, BUT this will never be a screaming gamer box so don't even go there if that's what you expect. You will be disappointed. The i3 also has VM hardware support so you can do Android development/host VMs, etc. Probably doesn't matter, but I will put Android Studio on this box, so it does to me. Since VRAM is cut out of DRAM, I'd build it out this way and I think you'll be happy: 1) 8GB memory (single stick works fine and will let you stick in another stick at some point) 2) Some sort of M.2 SSD (right now 250GB appears to be the sweet spot price point and you can always add a 2.5 HDD for storage on the cheap later), 3) Add some sort of Wireless keyboard/mouse (I'm using Logitech K320 and M215 as I had an extra set laying around), 4) An HDMI Interfaced 1920x1080 monitor 5) You're in business. Clean virtually wireless setup and real good bang for the buck. Super clean if you attach it (VESA standard holes) to the back of your monitor. Think real cheap all in one without the disadvantages if it breaks. You can add an external DVD for $30.00 if you want to watch DVDs. After the KB/mouse and DVD, you'll still have two USB ports built in for expansion of printer/cam/headset/etc. I don't know about UHD 4K support as I have no UHD to test it on. It says it will run it and probably will for streaming/business but no games I'd imagine. Also didn't try the built in ethernet, just went wireless and it worked fine. Now, on to my only issue - I bought it used from Amazon Warehouse deals and I highly recommend going that route (I'm sure that most returns are because when it arrived and wasn't plug and play it went back and I'll take the savings and thank you non readers very much) BUT you may only get the box and power supply. The VESA mount kit, the 2.5" HD mounting rails and ribbon cable, and all paperwork may/will be missing. So sit it on your desk, use an M.2 SSD, by an MP-VGA/DMI/HDMI adapter if you want dual monitors, download the manuals and enjoy the savings. But KNOW there will most likely be missing stuff and Amazon will let you return it but will not give you the missing parts. Now here is something I did and you may be able to as well - When I called Amazon about getting the missing stuff and they said no can do and offered RMA and I said no, I wanted it, but before I could type my next message, they popped up and offered me a $90.00 refund to get missing parts locally. Of course I said yes. Maybe you can, too. I had a tiny ribbon cable for the HD from an old laptop, mounted it with a bit of hot glue, ordered a $7.95 MP to VGA adapter and have a perfect plate of metal to fab my VESA mount, so I'm totally happy AND spent $110.00 instead of $200.00. $90.00 for five minutes work - I'll do that all day long! Overall, super impressed and it took about ninety minutes to go from opening the box to totally done.

A Successful Windows 7 Install on the UN65U

This review is based on the UN65U-M021M with Intel i7-7500U which is a very nice platform for a small, quiet, dedicated Home Theater PC (HTPC). While I'm quite impressed with the UN65U in general, and I'm sure building a Windows 10 PC would have been a breeze, I thought I would share my experience building a Windows 7 HTPC on this platform in the hopes that it might help others who head down a similar path. I had been quite happy using an ASUS VivoPC VM62N-G050R for the past two years as an HTPC running Windows 8.1 with Windows Media Center (WMC) to watch and record cable TV. Unfortunately, during a recent power outage in our neighborhood, this PC died completely and needed to be replaced. After a rather hurried search for a replacement I decided to stick with the ASUS VivoPC line and selected the latest bare bones version with the best processor available and decided to purchase the following: ASUS VivoPC UN65U-M021M with Intel i7-7500U Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DR x8 Unbuffered SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT2K8G4SFD824A Crucial MX300 1TB M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (CT1050MX300SSD4) Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit ISO download The reason I wanted a Windows 7 HTPC was to continue using WMC since Microsoft no longer supports it in Windows 10 and I have two SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime TV Tuners with CableCards on my home network and don't want to use cable boxes. Our cable service is from Time Warner/Spectrum and most of the channels are encrypted so I need to deal with DRM and WMC is still the best solution available that I've experienced. Little did I realize the challenges I would face with this impulsive purchase decision. Installing the RAM and SSD was straight forward and the BIOS detected both without issues. I then had to create a bootable Win 7 Installation USB Drive from the ISO file I had purchased and was able to use the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool (https://wudt.codeplex.com/) without any trouble. I'd recommend using a blank USB drive with at least 8 GB since you will want to use this same device to store all the additional Win 7 x64 drivers that will need to be downloaded from the ASUS suppport page(https://www.asus.com/ae-en/Mini-PCs/VivoMini-UN65U/HelpDesk_Download/) The driver DVD that comes with the UN65U can be ignored since it doesn't include Win 7 drivers. The beauty of this is that only this USB thumb drive is needed for installation and you don't need to bother with an external DVD at all. Using this newly created Win 7 Install USB you quickly run into the "A required CD/DVD driver is missing" error during the install process that is due to the fact that the UN65U only has USB 3.0 ports which are not supported by the original Windows 7 installation. To solve this you need to use the Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility) from Intel which will modify your Win 7 Install USB with the necessary 3.0 drivers. The next issue I ran into was the fact that the Crucial M.2 SSD came preformatted with GPT (GUID partition table) partitions which the Win 7 Installation said couldn't be used. I simply deleted all the partitions on the SSD and created a new partition through the Win 7 Installation software which allowed me to complete the install. Next, after installing the Ethernet driver I downloaded from the ASUS suppport page, I began the long process of Windows Updates. The first 187+ updates installed successfully, however I then received the "Unsupported hardware” pop-up error claiming that the hardware I'm using is only supported in the latest Microsoft operating systems. This is Microsoft's attempt to stop installation of older operating systems on newer hardware, however, in my case I'd be happy to use Win 10 if they would still support WMC. To get around this I had to use a patch wufuc v0.7.1.81 (https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc/releases) created by a developer using the handle “Zeffy” that kills the CPU detection that trigger this error and allow you to continue to get all updates for Win 7. This allowed me to continue updating but the error returned and I've had mixed success by rerunning the patch. I'm not sure how long this patch will continue to work as Microsoft probably has already found a way around it. Lastly, I was on to initializing WMC and remembered that I first needed to run the Digital Cable Advisor in order to allow the use of a CableCard. Then during initialization of WMC, installation of PlayReady PC failed. To solve this I needed to download PlayReady PC Runtime v1.3 (x64) (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5445) manually and then rerun the setup sequence in WMC. Finally, after all this, I was able to use WMC running Windows 7 Home Premium on the UN65U and it seems like it will be a great little HTPC.

Great for Snowbirds or Home and Office

I have not had a desktop computer for a while. I had a 17 in notebook with an old I7 but the graphics could not drive the nice 28 in UHD monitor I bought on Prime day. The old notebook had two 512G drives so I thought I would move them into this. I had no experience with roll your own computers so I was not certain how this was going to work out. I bought two 8G ram sticks and was ready with them when it arrived. First thing I discovered was that I would not be able to put in both SSDs from the notebook. I could (and did) put in one as a second drive. If I wanted two drives, one had to be an M2 drive. Since a 512 M2 drive is about $150 I went for it and left a drive in the old notebook. (I left in the spinning drive). Now I have two 512 G SSDs and love the speed of this unit. (I had to make the spinning drive the boot drive in the old notebook and was painfully reminded how SLOW Windows 10 is on a spinning drive.) Since I kept the old notebook going, I decided to buy a new license for Windows 10. Creating a bootable thumb drive and installing Windows was easy. I found docs online which showed how to put in the M2 drive and the 2.5 in SSD. Other that dealing with some tiny screws, this went well. Now that it is going, and I have it connected to a 28 in UHD monitor, I have a system that could reasonably be called a "Workstation". I can have several windows opened, and can tear off Chrome tabs. I find the performance is good for photo and video editing. Now. why do I say "Great for Snowbirds or Home and Office"? I have a KBM at each place and (more expensive) a monitor at both places. This Mini PC is about 1/4th the size of the notebook computer that I used to carry. It goes into my backpack. I get to the other place and I have my "Workstation" going again. Things to note: This I7-7500 is 2 cores, not 4. Also has a little slower clock speed than the I7-7700. You would notice the difference is you did things like video encoding on several files at once. On the other hand, it runs cool so you can hardly hear the fan, when it runs. Another thing to note is that you should not expect to save a lot of money by buying this unit and buying your own memory, M2 SSD. Keyboard and Mouse, and Windows 10 license.

Incredible Power in a Little Box...

This is probably one of the best little units I have had in my hands. It was actually used to replace our Test Bench server. Loaded 2 SSD 's 240 and 120 GB in slots 1 and 3... 1 TB WD and 500 GB WD (blacks) in slots 2 and 4. Running a Dual OS, Windows 10 Pro / Ubuntu 16.04. The little unit is now capable of monitoring 3 computers at the same time by connecting a KVM Switch and a 7 port USB 3.0 hub. 2 Asus external DVD Burners provide DVD Support. Monitor is an Asus VE 198 TL, Keyboard and Mouse are Asus as well... All we build are 100% Asus based Customs.

Fast and amazing - Buying 9 more today!!!!

Just got this baby today and have spent the evening getting it setup.. It is amazing!! First and foremost it comes with a wifi card installed as well as a mounting bracket for the monitor so dont order those (I did.. oops) it was simple to install the memory 2x8GB cards as well as a 256GB SSD card and the 500GB SSD. All fit inside nicely!! One note for installers as it is barebones and does not come with an OS of course, If you are trying to install from a USB it ONLY has USB 3.0 so you may experience problems as I did. Two options, get and external CD drive and loads easy. Second option is to load the USB 3.0 drivers into your install image. All the googling I did said to use the ASUS CD to get teh EZ USB tool to input the drivers into your boot. Well it does not come with a ASUS CD with the tools, but it DOES have the EZ tool USB3.0 creator loaded in a section in the Bios to fix this. Other than that this is a great mini box.. sooo fast and runs amazingly. I bought this as a trial to see how well it works as I will be using for a Microsoft/Cisco boot camp training center I am starting up in the Philippines. I am getting ready to order 9 more of these as they are amazing!!

Great Plex server. Great little PC too.

I bought this to be an always-on Plex server, since the power consumption is very low, it seemed perfect. So far, it is! It's tiny, well built, and works like a dream for my needs. I stuck an m2 128gb drive and 8gb ram inside. It really flies. Can't speak for the durability as I only just bought it, but right now I highly recommend this.

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