ASRock Industrial 4X4 BOX-7840U mini-PC Review: AMD Phoenix in an UCFF Avatar

AMD's Phoenix line of low-power processors for the notebook market has been lapped up by various second and third-tier mini-PC vendors in the Asian market. The platform's value proposition has proved to be excellent with the inclusion of Zen 4 cores and a RDNA3 integrated GPU, along with high-end I/O options such as dual USB4 ports. Companies like Beelink and MinisForum took the lead in bringing Phoenix to the desktop market. Their primary focus was on trying to extract the maximum performance from the processor by configuring it for a power limit of 65W - beyond the top end of the range suggested by AMD. ASRock Industrial is one of the first tier-one vendors to bring a Phoenix-based ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) system into the market under the 4X4 BOX-series. The company sent over the flagship system in their 4X4 BOX-7040 series to put through our rigorous evaluation suite for SFF PCs. Similar to the previous AMD U-series-based 4X4 BOX systems, the 7040-series provides end-users with the flexibility to trade performance for fan noise. The 'Normal Mode' configures the package power limit to 28W, while the 'Performance Mode' drives that up to 40W (at the cost of operating the fan at full speed continuously). Read on for a detailed look at the performance profile and value proposition of the 4X4 BOX-7840U in both modes.