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Newsmay Technology is a Chinese system manufacturer that specializes in small office PCs. We were already able to take a look at their extremely small Mini PC, the Newsmay AC6-M. The Newsmay AC8 isn’t quite as small, but the Mini PC is still quite compact at 127 x 127 millimeters. Fortunately, the computing powerhouse, which is only about 5 centimeters high, is cooled passively.
With the Intel Pentium Silver N6005, the small office PC offers a native quad-core SoC, which is definitely capable of handling everyday office tasks. Thanks to the Jasper-Lake series, the SoC is manufactured in a 10 nm process, and it manages a TDP of up to 10 watts. Alternatively, the Newsmay AC8 can also be ordered with even more frugal 6-watt SoCs. When it comes to the RAM, the barebone PC can be equipped with up to 32 GB. In terms of mass storage, you’ll have to settle for an M.2-2280 SDD.
Newsmay Technology equipped the AC8 with 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD for this review. The price for the Newsmay AC8 in its barebone version based on the Intel Pentium Silver N6005 is $140 when 300 units are purchased. We used the preinstalled Windows 11 Professional as the operating system.
At 127 x 127 millimeters, the Mini PC doesn’t take up much space on a desk. The all-black case is made of plastic and is very sturdy. The soft-touch surfaces feel very high quality. However, a bitter aftertaste remains because the surfaces literally attract dust particles. The rough texture also makes them difficult to remove.
Newsmay has given the AC8 a passive cooling unit. There are many vents at the sides and top for the waste heat to escape from the case. There’s a small maintenance hatch at the bottom. The installed components can be quickly accessed behind it, and they can be replaced or upgraded if necessary. The WLAN module can also be changed, since this is an M.2 module. Furthermore, two SO-DIMM modules and an M.2 SSD are also located here. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to install a second mass storage drive in the device.
The Newsmay AC8 offers many options for the connection of external devices. The ports are located at the front and back. We count a total of six USB-A ports, four of which offer USB 3.0 speeds. Furthermore, there’s also a microSD card reader, but its performance isn’t very good. In our opinion, it should have also used the USB 3.0 interface. A highlight is the analog VGA output, which is hardly ever found nowadays. Nevertheless, there are still many devices in the industrial field that use this interface nowadays. But there’s place for modern technology too, since both an HDMI and a DisplayPort connection are included, allowing up to three monitors to be connected to the Newsmay AC8.
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Newsmay Technology provided us with the version of the AC8 that is based on the Intel Pentium Silver N6005. The 10-watt frugal SoC has base clock speeds of 2 GHz and reaches up to 3.3 GHz in Turbo mode. The total of four native processing cores offers a solid performance that is sufficient for simple office tasks. The 4 GB of RAM is a bit limited in our opinion, something that can be occasionally noticed when working. The AC8 can be equipped with a maximum of 32 GB.
Our review shows that the performance of our test sample is better than that of the AC6-M, which is also from Newsmay Technology. The Beelink GK Mini and the GMK NucBox K1 are also equipped with a somewhat weaker SoC, so they can’t keep up with the Newsmay AC8. However, our test sample doesn’t stand a chance against the Intel NUC10 based on the Intel Core i5-10210U.
For further comparisons and benchmarks, please refer to our CPU Benchmarks article.
* … smaller is better
The load test, which is simulated with the Cinebench R15 multi loop here, shows that the passive cooling system has its hands full with keeping the Intel Pentium Silver N6005 cool. In the end, the Newsmay AC8 is on the same level as the Beelink GK Mini with an average of 273 points.
In the PCMark 10 synthetic benchmark, the Newsmay AC8 delivers a better performance than the Newsmay AC6-M due to the faster SoC. However, its performance clearly lags behind the widespread Core i5 models. The Newsmay AC8 also has problems when playing 4K content. In this regard, we had to struggle with significantly elevated latencies right from the start. When playing the 4K test video, the average iGPU load was around 50%. The many dropped frames accumulated during playback. This suggests that the 4 GB of RAM is simply too little. When opening several browser tabs, the system takes some seconds to respond from time to time, which makes it difficult to work smoothly. Unfortunately, the SSD is unable to compensate for this. Moreover, if you want to expand storage with a microSD memory card, you should know that the transfer rates of about 17 MB/s aren’t exactly fast. We tested this with our UHS-II Angelbird AV Pro V60 microSD card.
* … smaller is better
Since the Newsmay AC8 is offered as a barebone version, the mass storage configuration is up to the buyer. However, Newsmay Technology equipped the device with a 128 GB SSD for our review. This allows the system to run without any problems, and a few programs can still be run alongside the operating system. The built-in SSD is an M.2-2280 model from Lexar, which only offers SATA speeds. This is also confirmed by the sequential write and read rates. Unfortunately, the Newsmay AC8 can only be equipped with one mass storage unit. Considering the design, accommodating two SSDs should actually be no problem. We didn’t observe any temperature problems in our model.
The Newsmay AC8’s integrated graphics unit is the familiar Intel UHD Graphics 600. However, with 32 EUs and a chip clock speed of up to 850 MHz, it can’t even begin to keep up with the latest Intel Iris Xe iGPUs. The Intel UHD Graphics 600 is not meant to be used for more than just office applications.
You can find more benchmarks of the Intel UHD Graphics 600 here.
Based on the first load tests, it was already clear to us that the Newsmay AC8 quickly reaches the thermal limits of the Intel Pentium Silver N6005 with its passive cooling system. Accordingly, we registered a maximum temperature of 91 °C (~196 °F) in the stress test. However, there’s still a small margin to the official maximum of 105 °C (~221 °F) specified by Intel. Nevertheless, there’s still a bit of thermal throttling, something that we also saw in the Cinebench R15 multi loop. Newsmay seems to have defined the limit at 90 °C (~196 °F) here.
The case heated up noticeably under load, and it should be placed in a well-ventilated place to allow the waste heat to properly dissipate.
The Newsmay AC8 doesn’t produce any noise due to its lack of fans. Consequently, the Mini PC operates silently at all times. We didn’t notice any other interfering noises in idle usage or under load, either.
Users who are careful about their energy bills can safely go for the Newsmay AC8. The small Mini PC is very frugal, and it doesn’t even exceed the 20-watt mark under load. The compact power supply doesn’t reach its capacity limit, because it can deliver up to 30 watts.
* … smaller is better
The Newsmay AC8 is a compact and silent Mini PC. Based on the Intel Pentium Silver N6005, it delivers a solid performance, which is sufficient for simple office tasks or browsing the Internet. In our opinion, the very limited RAM of 4 GB turned out to be the weak point. This prevented a better subjective performance overall. We repeatedly experienced short delays, which were caused by an excessive utilization of the RAM. However, this situation shouldn’t influence the overall rating too much, since Newsmay sells the AC8 as a barebone system without RAM and SSD. Therefore, buyers will be spoiled for choice when deciding what to build into the system.
Users who want to purchase the Newsmay AC8 should definitely consider choosing the Pentium variant. The alternative configurations offer more frugal SoCs, but also less performance as a result. A small office system, however, needs no less performance to be able to work well.
The Newsmay AC8 offers a good port configuration, and it’s easy to fit on a desk thanks to its compact dimensions.
The connectivity of the AC8 is good, and all the necessary external interfaces are present. There’s also a card reader, but it only supports the microSD format. We would have liked to see at least USB 3.0 speeds here, though.
The small office PC is very inexpensive for about $140 (before taxes). Nevertheless, this offer is rather directed at B2B customers, as this price refers to a purchase quantity of 300 units.
The biggest drawback of the Newsmay AC8 is the cooling unit, which has a hard time cooling the SoC effectively under load. However, the fact that the cooling unit is completely silent is a plus that we would like to emphasize here once again.
