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UPDATE ON WINDOWS 11 COMPATIBILITY:
I was running a System Update for Windows earlier this week and the updater told me that my system wasn't compatible with Win11. Trigger brief moments of rage/panic/confusion. I reinstalled the new PC Health Tool that Microsoft is publishing to run a compatibility test. It came back as OK for the upgrade. Today, the Windows Update started pushing the update to Windows 11 (offered as an optional upgrade as I'm enrolled in the Windows Insider Program on the Early Access Channel). So if you get a Windows Update message indicating incompatibility, it's probably inaccurate and you can relax. A screenshot of the results is attached to this review.
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ACTIVATING TPM2.0:
For those curious about BIOS changes to ensure compatibility, I did the following to turn on TPM. Before you go on tinkering with your system BIOS, remember you can mess things up. The machine does have a CLR CMOS button which should fix any obvious mistakes, but any issues you may cause are on you.
To start, I recommend a shutdown and power-on over a reboot/restart, but it should work either way. Start pressing <ESC> or <DEL> as soon as you power on, as the default delay is quite brief. On the main BIOS screen, use the arrow keys to navigate to the "Advanced" tab at the top, which should highlight in white. Highlight the top item, "Trusted Computing". Press ENTER to proceed to the TPM20 screen. On the top line, "Security Device Support", press ENTER and select the "Enable" option. Press F4 to save and exit, which will reboot the machine.
Again, press <ESC> or <DEL> as soon as it starts rebooting. This time, you want to go back to the "Advanced" tab and select the "AMD fTPM Configuration" just below the "Trusted Computing" one you just used. This gives you the option to select the TPM mode. The options here are "AMD CPU fTPM", Disabled or Enabling the motherboard TPM module. I'm using the AMD module with no issues, but the motherboard (SPI) module should work as well. Once you've selected your TPM module, press F4 again to save and exit, and your machine should now reboot into Windows as normal. That's it.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW
This is my first-impressions review, having received and set up my system yesterday. I will update it if I have any issues that contradict or reinforce my initial impressions. I paid for the device myself and received no compensation or incentives from the seller/manufacturer. This review reflects only my experience.
To start, this is meant to replace my primary laptop as my personal workstation at home. The laptop it replaces was purchased in 2013, and had similar specs in terms of processor, memory, and storage but would not be eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade. I made the change to add a bit more future-proofing and a moderate bump in performance.
About the Windows 11 concerns, according to the Microsoft-published upgrade tool, this system is eligible for the upgrade to Windows 11. However, by default, the TPM module is not activated (at least in my case). You'll need to go into BIOS at boot and activate it. BIOS reports the module as TPM v3.36. After activation, the Windows tool (from Microsoft) reports the system as eligible for the upgrade. On with the review...
This was packaged nicely, with adequate protection, and included several accessories. These include the power brick with integrated cable, which is a bit short, but more than sufficient for my application. Also included were 2 HDMI cables, one 10-12 inches and the other about 24 inches in length. If mounting to the VESA mounts on your monitor, these should be sufficient. A small mounting plate (incl. screws) attaches to 2 of the 4 VESA mounting points on the monitor (not used by me). Also included were a couple of internal components, one a small ribbon cable marked "GTI-SATA" and a small circuit board with a SATA connector for a 2.5-in SATA SSD/HDD.
Upon opening the case, it is not immediately clear how the small circuit board would connect to the mainboard, but there is a metal plate to mount a drive, which I don't plan to do (also another connected "GTI-SATA" is inside). Looking further inside, removing the mounting plate gives access to the M.2 slots and SO-DIMM slots. The M.2 slots are for (1) NVMe and (1) M.2 SATA. The NVMe slot is taken up by an NVMe SSD, which Windows shows as 512GB (I didn't remove it to check brand or model yet). Memory is via 2 SO-DIMM slots (marked for DDR4 2400MHz modules). Mine has 2 Crucial modules, each of 8GB. I plan to add 1TB to the open M.2 SATA slot and replace the memory with (2) 16GB SO-DIMM modules.
Setup was no different from the typical Windows 10 setup from a recovery drive or the like. I did not have the "Finder's International" screens that others have commented on, nor was there any bloatware to be found (other than the typical stuff Microsoft includes in retail images). I initially set up a local account and ran all of the Windows updates before loading up my primary user account. In adding all of my desired apps and some of my peripheral drivers, I have seen only a vanilla Windows build.
From a performance perspective, one of the key features I wanted was improved graphics support. I do some CAD design and 3D modeling for my hobby projects, which was causing headaches with the integrated graphics hardware on my laptop (Intel i7 integrated chipset). Having set up Fusion 360, the performance warnings are all gone, and navigating viewports is smother and stutter-free, without the freezing and lag I was experiencing before. I have yet to render a model yet, but I'll do so this weekend and amend this section if the performance isn't similarly improved.
One note on the memory, however, is that the AMD Radeon graphics system on this system reserves 2GB of system memory for its use, so the system will only have 14GB available to Windows out-of-the-box. This is one reason I plan to upgrade the memory. Also, the clock speed of the memory is somewhat less than would be available for discrete graphics solutions, but at this price-point and in this form factor, it's an acceptable compromise. There may be ways to tweak these settings, but it's not something I've delved into yet.
I haven't tried any local gaming yet, mostly because I've been using Stadia (quite happily) for the past 9 months. While streaming games is less resource-intensive, it does have high networking demands, which this machine meets without issue. This is an area I'll try to update if I have time, but with this chipset, gaming is hardly a priority or an area to expect great performance.
In all, I'm quite happy with the purchase, and I haven't seen any of the initial issues that have led to complaints from others. As in all things, YMMV, but my experience has been a positive one.
Tyler Harris
