Mini-PC hardware designer Changwang has launched mini-ITX motherboards for NAS computers equipped with mobile Zen 3 and Zen 4 APUs from the Ryzen 7000 series (via HXL). While the motherboards come with mobile Ryzen APUs, the board itself uses the standard mini-ITX form factor, complete with an x16 PCIe slot for gaming GPUs, two M.2 slots for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, and a plethora of Ethernet ports.
Though Changwang’s new motherboards appear to be the first to utilize mobile Ryzen 7000 APUs, they’re not entirely unprecedented. A few months ago, Minisforum launched a mini-ITX motherboard with a Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU, a mobile version of the Ryzen 7 7700X. Erying Technology, another Chinese manufacturer of mini-PC products like Changwang, launched motherboards integrated with mobile 14th Generation Intel CPUs.
Changwang offers four different Ryzen 7000 APUs: the Ryzen 9 7940HS, the Ryzen 7 7840HS, the Ryzen 7 7735HS, and the Ryzen 5 7640HS. While the eight-core Ryzen 9 7940HS and Ryzen 7 7840HS are identical, except for the former having a 100 MHz boost clock and the Ryzen 5 7640HS is just a six-core version of the Ryzen 7 7840HS, the 7735HS is a bit unique. Instead of being based on the Zen 4 Phoenix chip, it uses the Zen 3 Rembrandt chip used for the Ryzen 6000 series, and this may be the first time this chip has ever come to a standard desktop motherboard.
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Overall, the features included on the Changwang motherboard are decently impressive. There are two M.2 slots capable of servicing PCIe 4.0 SSDs, though because Phoenix APUs only have 16 total PCIe slots, installing one or two M.2 SSDs means lowering the x16 slot’s lanes from 16 to 8. The rear I/O includes four USB ports, but one has USB4 support, which isn’t too familiar on the desktop. However, most of the I/O area is occupied by four Ethernet ports capable of 2.5 gigabits, which would undoubtedly make any networking enthusiast happy.
These motherboards with integrated Ryzen 7000 APUs might have been pretty killer a few months ago, but just days ago, AMD launched its Ryzen 8000G series APUs for the desktop, which use the same Phoenix chip that the Ryzen 7040HS chips use. Ryzen 8000G chips are a little faster, more customizable, and can be installed and upgraded like regular desktop chips, which are all significant points against Changwang’s motherboard.
However, when it comes to price, Changwang has the advantage. With a cost of 2,888 Yuan or about $400, the Ryzen 7 7840HS-equipped board looks pretty decent. A Ryzen 7 8700G retails for $329, and the cheapest AM5 mini-ITX boards cost $130 at minimum (and come with the A620 chipset). No AM5 motherboards, however, come with four Ethernet ports, a unique selling point for Changwang’s Ryzen 7000 motherboard.
