A while back, I took a look at the Ayaneo AM01, a mini PC powered by a Ryzen 3 3200U, and put into the conversation whether or not it would make for a good Bazzite machine. And if you were looking for PC indies, I definitely felt like you were on the right path. But what if you were looking for something less powerful? Just for your retro games the TV. AceMagic sent over its Vista V1, a mini PC powered by the Intel N150. And now’s the chance whether it’s worth grabbing for a budget Batocera box.
AceMagic Vista V1 Specs
At the time of writing, you can grab the V1 for about $150 on Amazon if you use their coupon codes, but going through somewhere like Aliexpress might even get it cheaper. For that price, you do get an interesting setup.
- CPU: Intel N150, 4 Core/4 threads (Turbo up to 3.6GHz)
- GPU: Intel UHD Graphics with 24 EU’s (@ 1GHz)
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 (SO-DIMM)
- Storage: 512GB SSD (M.2 2280)
- I/O: 2x USB-A 3.2, 2x USB-A 2.0, HDMI 2.0, Displayport 1.4, Ethernet, 3.5mm Jack, and Power over Barrel jack
- Connectivity: Bluetooth/Wi-Fi
- Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 30mm
- Weight: 262 grams
One thing to note is that it uses DDR4 rather than the faster DDR5 compatible with if it uses the right board. This will have an impact on overall performance but I’ll cover that in the rest of this article.
The Default Experience
The user experience is pretty standard on Windows. I ran my checks to make sure the operating system was clean of anything that shouldn’t be there and I set it up for what I assume the N150 would most be used for. Daily office tasks. It ran my browsers fine, it ran my OBS Meet camera fine as well. But the biggest thing was running the Webcam for a long period of time.
After a while, I did start to pick up some stuttering, but shutting it off and then turning it back on seemed to fix that strange anomaly. Other than that, performance seemed to be on par with my Chuwi MiniBook X (that runs an N100). So I decided to just run some basic Geekbench tests to see how the two compared. The results came out to:
CPU
- AceMagic Vista V1 (N150/DDR4/Windows): 1048 Single Core, 2870 Multi-Core
- Chuwi MiniBook X (N100/DDR4/Linux): 974 Single Core, 2376 Multi-Core
GPU
- AceMagic Vista V1 (N150/DDR4/Windows): 4279 OpenCL Score
- Chuwi MiniBook X (N100/DDR4/Linux): 3640 OpenCL Score
As you can see, there’s a definite improvement. However, had Acemagic chosen to use DDR5, it likely would have seen a larger improvement bump than this. I imagine it would have brought the cost up more, but in this budget segment, I would have preferred that.
The Setup
Just to keep this on the budget end, I’ll be setting up the Vista V1 as expected, but I’ll also be using one of the less expensive controllers from my collection: The Beitong Asura 2 Pro+. For $10 to $20 you get a lot for your money, and although clicky buttons aren’t my favorite on a controller for retro games, it isn’t the end of the world.
Last but not least is the storage. Batocera can be installed onto the SSD of the machine, but to keep things simple for future use I’ll a USB drive to boot from in this case, and the usual 3.2 ports on the front should help make sure that isn’t the issue.
Setting up Batocera is as easy as it’s always been. Download it from their website, flash it to the USB Drive, and plug it in. Be sure to access the BIOS and change the boot order to make sure it boots from the USB drive first and foremost.
Performance
When it comes to performance, I’d really place it on the same tier as a standard N100 mini PC as well. Everything up to PS1 you’re going to have little to no issue getting 60FPS out of it. You could likely upscale, add your weird shaders, and do whatever else you feel you need to add to it.
The next tier up, which I classify as the PSP, Dreamcast, and N64 area works nicely as well. Personally, I keep them on native resolution because I’m a monster who likes the look. But I found that you wouldn’t have too much issue upscaling them to 2x native resolution as well.
Going up another step from there I really land in that GameCube/Wii and PS2 region of performance. Which, surprisingly ran fine as well. I never did much emulation on my Chuwi Minibook X so I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but I ran into very few issues if anything at all. For most games you will likely need to leave it at native resolution, and outside some audio hitches I generally came out pleased with the performance of the N150 even with the DDR4 RAM in it.
And if you really want to push things, One thing that I did have to come back to in terms of settings was to ensure that I was pre-caching my shaders prior to starting. For some games that I had trouble with initially, it definitely brought down the stuttering. For those more heavy performance numbers, I always recommend going to a channel like Retro Tech Dad, as I’m sure he’s got something cooking up about the N150, or a similarly powered machine.
What I Played
When it comes to what I played, I tried to cover a wide gamut of things that I actually enjoy playing. Whether that’s been Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast, Wave Race: Blue Storm on GameCube, and of course, I always have to come through and give a solid run-through of either Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic Heroes mostly because I love terrible games. As mentioned before, there are definitely some settings to adjust, but with native resolution and pre-cached shaders, I didn’t really have any issues with the games I played.
As part of a handheld community, most of the time I either play these games on a small device or on a small TV that supports the official hardware. Touching into mini PCs for retro gaming has not often been something I’ve touched on. With that being said, the biggest game I played was one called “Setup your system and stare at your work for a while before turning it off”. But really, once I got passed that point, I was actually trying to play games for longer than just the testing period.
Final Thoughts
As a whole, I think the AceMagic Vista V1 is not a bad machine. It’s super small and compact, my unit never got loud, and it’s packed with enough power to get through your day-to-day routines. Is it perfect? No. It needs to have an update with DDR5, and it has that strange stuttering with long-term use in Windows, despite the fact that it never got warm. The power brick is only about 30 watts, so it isn’t like it’s drawing a lot of heat.
As a Batocera machine, I think it’ll be a great fit under most TVs or as an alternative machine at your desk. It plays what I want, and it plays it well. However, you do need to be aware of the price. At $150-$160 on Amazon, it comes higher than a standard N100 machine and doesn’t provide much more performance.
At the same time, if you bump up your price you can start to find Mini PCs with a Ryzen 3200U or a Ryzen 3550H for as low as $180-$190. That type of APU may take more power, but it’ll also give more performance. If your budget is $150 and nothing more, then the N150 may just be the choice for you. But don’t forget to shop around.
If you want to take the AceMagic V1 for a spin, you can grab it over at Amazon, where it’s currently down to $135. But, AceMagic has been kind enough to give our readers a coupon to take another 10% off at checkout: 6X4K5MH2.
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