News AMD Quietly Launches Recycled Xbox Series X APU As 4700S Desktop Kit

This would be cool if it had m2 support. With sata only, you are never gonna take advantage of the direct storage implementation. And no built in gpu? These may be cast off parts, but Id rather have the built in gpu than add one. This could have been great.
 
Jun 26, 2021
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Nah im happier it doesnt, id rather use a dedicated gpu of my choice and if the price is decent when it launches in north america im defiantly gonna get it and throw it in a sff pc with the old 1070ti i have laying around just for a good travel pc. the x4 pcie shouldnt hurt it and it aught to be fast enough for me needs.
 
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Nah im happier it doesnt, id rather use a dedicated gpu of my choice and if the price is decent when it launches in north america im defiantly gonna get it and throw it in a sff pc with the old 1070ti i have laying around just for a good travel pc. the x4 pcie shouldnt hurt it and it aught to be fast enough for me needs.

Wake me up when it's the full package.

I'd game on that every day and put the rest of my stuff to work
 
Jun 27, 2021
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Nah im happier it doesnt, id rather use a dedicated gpu of my choice and if the price is decent when it launches in north america im defiantly gonna get it and throw it in a sff pc with the old 1070ti i have laying around just for a good travel pc. the x4 pcie shouldnt hurt it and it aught to be fast enough for me needs.

Doesn't it say it only supports up to GTX 1060?
 

epobirs

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Jul 18, 2011
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Um... where are the RAM slots? Are they soldered on?
As the article indicated, the RAM is pre-installed, much like the Apple M1 products and in the same 8 and 16GB choices, though probably not with the same level of integration Apple used to increase performance.

Another curiosity is the support for USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Xbox Series X and S only support Gen 1. This will become a notable issue as more and more giant games are released that require the limited internal/slot SSD to be played. The necessity for moving games to and from external USB drives will be a given for anybody with a decent sized library that likes day to day variety in their play. The performance of the USB ports makes a big difference in how convenient this is. Sony is supporting Gen 2 on the PS5, though they initially didn't allow for games to moved offline to USB storage. They've since fixed that glaring omission in the firmware. Now I'm wondering if the Series x/s can be upgrade via firmware for Gen 2 support or with a minor hardware revision. The latter would be annoying to owners of the 7 million or so units sold so far between the two models but an improvement for the larger pool of machines that can be expected to be sold in the next few years.
 

ezst036

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Oct 5, 2018
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AMD only provides drivers for Windows 10, meaning the AMD 4700S isn't compatible with prior versions of Windows, much less Linux.

Is this F.U.D.?

The entire AMD Linux stack is open source, save some oddball things or items easy to forget. There's no "provided drivers" on an included 3.5 inch floppy disk because the drivers are already in kernel modules.
 

wwenze1

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Mar 22, 2020
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With a disabled GPU, this thing better cost less than a standard ITX system to be worth buying.
 
Um... where are the RAM slots? Are they soldered on?
Yes, because if the article is to believed, the desktop kit comes with GDDR6 memory, which you can't find in loose modules. And this makes sense because if it really is based off defective Xbox Series X APUs, then they come natively with a GDDR6 controller, not a standard DDR4 controller.

Which would make for some interesting memory benchmarks.

Another curiosity is the support for USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Xbox Series X and S only support Gen 1. This will become a notable issue as more and more giant games are released that require the limited internal/slot SSD to be played. The necessity for moving games to and from external USB drives will be a given for anybody with a decent sized library that likes day to day variety in their play. The performance of the USB ports makes a big difference in how convenient this is. Sony is supporting Gen 2 on the PS5, though they initially didn't allow for games to moved offline to USB storage. They've since fixed that glaring omission in the firmware. Now I'm wondering if the Series x/s can be upgrade via firmware for Gen 2 support or with a minor hardware revision. The latter would be annoying to owners of the 7 million or so units sold so far between the two models but an improvement for the larger pool of machines that can be expected to be sold in the next few years.
According to Microsoft's provided block diagram of the Xbox Series X, USB support is provided on a separate chip because the APU itself doesn't have any USB controllers built in:
Xbox-Block.jpg


So no, the Series X can't get USB 3.2 Gen 2 support with a firmware update.
 

Rolan the Brave

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Sep 29, 2016
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a shame they don't sell a complete xbox series x APU kit that will run Windows - I'd be happy with that sort of graphical performance running steam games - it could fit in a very small case too.
 
Jun 28, 2021
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a shame they don't sell a complete xbox series x APU kit that will run Windows - I'd be happy with that sort of graphical performance running steam games - it could fit in a very small case too.
Hmm... An Xbox series S kit that runs W10 would be nice too! And possibly priced similarly to this board (?).
 

firemrshlbill

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Jun 14, 2018
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A Series S running Windows would be an insta-purchase for me. Though take away that metal frame from around the SSD so you could use an actual retail m.2 to upgrade down the line. I purchased a Series S last week and love the form factor, looks, and all. Would be a fun little 1080p/1440p Windows machine.