Asrock Deskmini Series / What is with Asrock

[bomblord]

So I'm in a bit of a weird place here. I'm really into small form factor gaming but Intel's iGPU's just don't cut the mustard. The latest AMD Ryzens are nearing low end DGPU levels of performance so I've been wanting and waiting for AMD to release some equivalent to the NUC line of systems or at the very least was hoping some third party manufacturer to release a Ryzen G powered small form factor PC for use in my entertainment center. Lo and behold Asrock shows off their A300 MOBO that goes in their Desk-mini at CES this year. It's a new MOBO standard, the entire chassis is only 1.7 liters, and it supports up to the Ryzen 5 2400G CPU. I've looked around and multiple outlets report including anandtech and techpowerup have press releases saying it's been launched but it's not available anywhere. Not Newegg, not Amazon, not even freakin' Ebay has this line of Mini-PC's available for purchase. A search for them always brings up the older Intel based LGA115X series mini PC's but nothing AMD based. Oh and I did find a tweet of some tech store in Japan putting up flyers for them.

So after all that searching I thought already maybe I got something wrong so I attempted to dig up their social media account and their Linus Tech Tips followed verified twitter hasn't tweeted since 2017. They don't sell products on their site, their "where to buy" section links to a Newegg page for a router, and their contact us page only has numbers for RMA and tech issues not sales. Basically it doesn't actually seem possible to even contact them to say "hey guys where can I give you money for this product I want". They seem to have ghosted the internet and took the product I want with them.

So you're probably wondering where I'm going with this and... Basically I just want to know if anyone knows what's up with the ASROCK A300 Desk Mini and maybe while I'm at it figure out how a somewhat major company can get by with no social media presence or ability to contact them about sales.

[Jurrunio]

It's launched in Taiwan a month ago for purchase, English-speaking countries shall wait some more. If your country doesnt speak English.... forget it  That's how Asrock do things

[dayveeboi]

5 hours ago, bomblord said:

So I'm in a bit of a weird place here. I'm really into small form factor gaming but Intel's iGPU's just don't cut the mustard. The latest AMD Ryzens are nearing low end DGPU levels of performance so I've been wanting and waiting for AMD to release some equivalent to the NUC line of systems or at the very least was hoping some third party manufacturer to release a Ryzen G powered small form factor PC for use in my entertainment center. Lo and behold Asrock shows off their A300 MOBO that goes in their Desk-mini at CES this year. It's a new MOBO standard, the entire chassis is only 1.7 liters, and it supports up to the Ryzen 5 2400G CPU. I've looked around and multiple outlets report including anandtech and techpowerup have press releases saying it's been launched but it's not available anywhere. Not Newegg, not Amazon, not even freakin' Ebay has this line of Mini-PC's available for purchase. A search for them always brings up the older Intel based LGA115X series mini PC's but nothing AMD based. Oh and I did find a tweet of some tech store in Japan putting up flyers for them.

So after all that searching I thought already maybe I got something wrong so I attempted to dig up their social media account and their Linus Tech Tips followed verified twitter hasn't tweeted since 2017. They don't sell products on their site, their "where to buy" section links to a Newegg page for a router, and their contact us page only has numbers for RMA and tech issues not sales. Basically it doesn't actually seem possible to even contact them to say "hey guys where can I give you money for this product I want". They seem to have ghosted the internet and took the product I want with them.

So you're probably wondering where I'm going with this and... Basically I just want to know if anyone knows what's up with the ASROCK A300 Desk Mini and maybe while I'm at it figure out how a somewhat major company can get by with no social media presence or ability to contact them about sales.

Hi, I just made an account to let you know that I too am in a very similar situation. I have been into USFF computing for some time, and I have been watching this product with interest since I first heard of it the first week in January (and all through CES, of course). The previous reply is correct, it had been available on Pre-Order in Taiwan for several weeks with the advertised release date being February 8th. 

 

What may be interesting to you is that this product is available with international shipping on Amazon Japan. I have ordered a few items this way (shipping to Canada) in the past with no issues. I am going to keep an eye for another week or so to see if any Western retailers will start listing it, and if not I will order from Amazon Japan as the listed price is very similar to what was advertised at CES. I think the shipping will be reasonable as the electronics I ordered this way in the past did not have outrageous shipping costs. 

 

If you are interested the Amazon Japan product listing is--> https://www.amazon.co.jp/A300-A300M-STX内蔵-DeskMini-BB-BOX/dp/B07MTRXVR7/

 

Edit: I apologize, I did not actually check the exchange rate and just guessed that at 19,900 Yen it would be pretty similar in price, but I just checked and it would actually be around $40 US more than the listed price at CES ($130). That may or may not be a dealbreaker for you, for me it is enough to make me be a little more patient to see if they appear on shelves here, but not enough that I am not willing to still buy it this way to get a few months earlier.

Edited February 12, 2019 by dayveeboi
Correction

[bomblord]

9 hours ago, dayveeboi said:

Hi, I just made an account to let you know that I too am in a very similar situation. I have been into USFF computing for some time, and I have been watching this product with interest since I first heard of it the first week in January (and all through CES, of course). The previous reply is correct, it had been available on Pre-Order in Taiwan for several weeks with the advertised release date being February 8th. 

 

What may be interesting to you is that this product is available with international shipping on Amazon Japan. I have ordered a few items this way (shipping to Canada) in the past with no issues. I am going to keep an eye for another week or so to see if any Western retailers will start listing it, and if not I will order from Amazon Japan as the listed price is very similar to what was advertised at CES. I think the shipping will be reasonable as the electronics I ordered this way in the past did not have outrageous shipping costs. 

 

If you are interested the Amazon Japan product listing is--> https://www.amazon.co.jp/A300-A300M-STX内蔵-DeskMini-BB-BOX/dp/B07MTRXVR7/ 

 

Edit: I apologize, I did not actually check the exchange rate and just guessed that at 19,900 Yen it would be pretty similar in price, but I just checked and it would actually be around $40 US more than the listed price at CES ($130). That may or may not be a dealbreaker for you, for me it is enough to make me be a little more patient to see if they appear on shelves here, but not enough that I am not willing to still buy it this way to get a few months earlier.

Oh awesome thanks for the insight! Also thanks to @Jurrunio for the info as well. Any idea if that link is for the Wi-Fi version? Can't read it but given the higher price I would guess that may be why.

[dayveeboi]

Hey, sorry I don't browse the forums here regularly and I actually just created the account to reply to you and forgot about it. I should probably try and find the email notification settings and allow them.

Anyway, I actually didn't even know that there was going to be one with onboard wifi. I kind of figured with all they went through to bring socketed CPU's to this STX form factor that onboard was gonna be off the table. I did go and check for you and it has onboard Broadcom Gigabit LAN, but it appears that (the one I linked at least) does not have a wifi chip. I just used Google translate, but here is what it had to say re: wifi

Quote

【WIFI】1 x M.2 (key E2230) Slot for Wi-Fi + BT Module

so it looks like it just has an empty M.2 slot available for Wifi. 

Anyways, sorry again for the late reply and I will try and figure out how to turn on notifications in case you do reply. Take it easy!

[bomblord]

On 2/27/2019 at 12:01 AM, dayveeboi said:

 

Anyway, I actually didn't even know that there was going to be one with onboard wifi. I kind of figured with all they went through to bring socketed CPU's to this STX form factor that onboard was gonna be off the table. I did go and check for you and it has onboard Broadcom 

Available on Newegg now
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158064&ignorebbr=1
 

[SliceT]

12 hours ago, bomblord said:

Available on Newegg now
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158064&ignorebbr=1
 

Pretty good price, might have to grab one for the office.