I’ve never seen anything like this. A mini PC with 16 cores and a discrete GPU for less than $229 (from Amazon or from Newegg) just in time for Presidents' Day sales. Is the Rmatamini P99S too good to be true or a rare gem, made even more desirable by the current RAM apocalypse?
Well, it depends. If you can live with its shortcomings, this mini PC delivers the best value for money on the market, dare I say, even better than before the pre-RAM chaos era. The caveat is, of course, that you can live with its quirks: the fact that it runs on an old operating system, is likely to be noisy, and is sold by a new seller without any feedback. Warranty is also a big unknown.
The P99S is powered by an Intel Xeon E5-2698v3 CPU, a 16-core processor that was launched 12 (yes 12) years ago and is not supported by Windows 11. Instead, this mini PC comes with the much-maligned Windows 10. As Steve Clark, our hardware editor, said when I told him about the deal, ‘it’s bonkers’.
In terms of absolute firepower, this processor is about 3x faster than rivals like the N100 that populate mini PC in the same price range. According to the popular CPU Benchmark site, it is slightly slower than the Apple M3 (8-core) CPU and faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS.
But that’s on multitasking. Single-thread performance is closer to entry-level CPUs like the Intel Core 3 N350 (about 1,900 points) and using far more power, translating into a much, much higher power dissipation (135W vs 7w). In other words, I am sure that it will be quite loud under load.
You cannot dissipate the heat generated by this CPU without a high-speed fan and a big heat sink.
This mini PC is likely using a recycled CPU as the original price of this server part was more than $3,200 at launch but can be found on auction sites for 1/100th of this price.
Another trick that Rmatamini used to reach this price point is swapping DDR5 for cheaper DDR4. There’s 8GB DDR4-2133 and while it’s not explicitly mentioned, I posit that the P99S uses two 4GB modules in dual channel to get a jump in performance.
Another surprising inclusion is an Nvidia GTS 450 GPU with 2GB onboard memory. Despite what the product picture shows, I don’t think it will come with three full-size DisplayPort connectors. Instead, expect a HDMI one and a pair of obsolete DVI-D. I don’t think you will be able to run a higher-than-1080p monitor on it.
The rest of the specification is what I’d expect from a mini PC in this price range: a 256GB SSD, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2, a Gigabit LAN connector and seven USB ports including a Type-C one in the front. Note that it has external antennae and an integrated 450W power supply unit (see the video below)
And I still can’t believe that all the components are housed in a casing that’s only 210 x 210 x 142mm (under six liters).
So here’s my honest opinion.
The P99S is a performance beast with absolutely no rival under $300 with the added benefit of being able to swap your graphics card in the future and upgrade the RAM. But if you expect to game on it or want something a bit less space-hungry, look elsewhere and either make compromises or budget more.
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