This is the weirdest looking AI MAX+ 395 Mini PC that I’ve ever seen — and you can apparently hold it comfortably in the palm of your hand
- AOOSTAR’s NEX395 has the power, but the cooling system remains a complete mystery
- Radeon 8060S beats RX 7600 XT in specs, making external GPU pairing confusing
- Without OCuLink, the eGPU dock likely suffers major bottlenecks in real-world tasks
AOOSTAR NEX395 is the latest in a growing field of AI-focused mini PCs which comes in a box-like casing that departs from the more common designs found in the segment.
The company says the NEX395 uses AMD’s flagship Strix Halo processor, a 16-core, 32-thread chip with boost speeds up to 5.1GHz.
It includes 40 RONA 3.5 compute units and appears to support up to 128GB of memory, most likely LPDDR5X given the compact casing.
Memory capacity matches rivals, but key hardware details are missing
This level of memory is in line with other mini PCs targeting AI development workflows, especially those involving large language models.
However, no details have been confirmed regarding storage, cooling, or motherboard layout.
The device looks more like an oversized SSD enclosure or an external GPU dock than a full-fledged desktop system.
Its slim, rectangular, vent-heavy design completely deviates from the usual cube or NUC-style mini PCs.
Holding it in your palm feels more like gripping a chunky power bank or a Mac mini cut in half, definitely not what you’d expect from a 16-core AI workstation.
The layout makes you question where the thermal headroom or upgradable internals even fit.
The AOOSTAR NEX395 includes an integrated Radeon 8060S GPU, part of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 APU.
However, it also sells an external eGPU enclosure featuring the Radeon RX 7600 XT.
Given that the integrated GPU already offers a newer architecture and more compute units than the RX 7600 XT, the use case for pairing the two is unclear.
Also, the NEX395 does not appear to support high-speed eGPU connectivity like OCuLink, which would limit bandwidth for external graphics support.
Port selection includes dual Ethernet ports, four USB-A ports, USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort outputs, along with a dedicated power input, suggesting reliance on an external power brick.
Without confirmed thermal design or sustained performance metrics, it’s unclear whether this system can function reliably in roles normally filled by the best workstation PC or best business PC options.
Unfortunately, the pricing details for the NEX395 are currently unavailable.
Given the $1500–$2000 range of comparable models such as the HP Z2 Mini G1a and GMKTEC EVO-X2, AOOSTAR’s model is unlikely to be cheap.
Via Videocardz
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AOOSTAR’s NEX395 has the power, but the cooling system remains a complete mystery Radeon 8060S beats RX 7600 XT in specs, making external GPU pairing confusing Without OCuLink, the eGPU dock likely suffers major bottlenecks in real-world tasks AOOSTAR NEX395 is the latest in a growing field of AI-focused mini…
