ACEPC AK1 Mini PC - Intel Celeron J3455 Windows10 4GB DDR3 + 32GB eMMC 1000M LAN BT4.0

[trebor]

ACEPC AK1 Mini PC
This ACEPC AK1 with Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core CPU and and Intel HD Graphics 500 processor, which brings you faster and lower interfering WiFi performance anywhere you go. Windows 10 OS give you a great surfing experience, and you don't have to keep rebooting all the time.

Main Features:
● Intel Celeron J3455 Quad-core CPU is rapid and stable which can give you high-speed feedback.
● Can store a very large amount of data. Comes with 4GB RAM and 32G eMMC flash.
● With the Windows 10 operating system, your surfing experience is very smooth, and you don't have to keep rebooting all the time.
● Support dual band WiFi of 2.4G and 5G as well as Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.
● 4k x 2k H.265 provides cool home theater experience.
● Bluetooth 4.0 provides fast connections to other devices, such as the mouse, keyboard, speakers.

Gearbest

[trebor]

Today we can have a close look at ACEPC AK1 Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core CPU and and Intel HD Graphics 500 processor,
4/32gb ram Dual WiFi BT4, space for MSata and upto 2TB HDD

Good looking units plenty of ports a Good looker for sure.
All Plastic finish

Windows all Legit, but Old 2016, so updated the first lot then onto Creators...lots of dloading.
All went well good wifi speed and no flakey bits. Fan a little noise but not too.
Lets have a look

The Box


A peak inside

What's in the Box, Manual 15 pages, Vesa bracket, 12volt 2.5amp power pack

Ports, a plenty, Bogus Copper (plastic)


Bottom part is removeable

This be the HDD caddy compartment

Top off the main unit and a light show around the lid by the looks

Closer and teardown heatsink assy

All the bits, pad was falling to bits so left on CPU , place for MSata nice, Samsung eMMC

Ram and Wifi

WiFi Antennae

Heat sink and Chimney

Under side not a lot to see RTC battery, USB connetion to Hdd caddy

Inside the Base

Bit of Glow about it.


Gearbest

[RISCy Dude]

Good looking box. Meaty heatsink!

[trebor]

Digging around my bits I found a 64gb Msata so slipped it in the the ACEPC just as more space all good detects and away we go..

All easy to get into no locking clips or business to pry at just 4 screws off with the lid easy fit
Very light weight unit all plastic, going well during test more to come...

[hey69]

thx, for the teardown !
i wonder would something like this be able to act as a plex SERVER?

[trebor]

Can't see why not
I am using this at present easy

http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-...t-usb3-0-black

[trebor]

http://www.gearbest.com/mini-pc/pp_694602.html[SIZE=14px][FONT=tahoma]Good little unit, working excellent I finding
4/32 is a bit tight but looking around online you can find second hand Msata cheap.
Many places remove the 64GB to put in bigger so often show up.
Same with 128GB but not as often i have found.

You can also get Msata to SSD PCB to convert to a full size (2.5) sdd and use in a caddy.
They are only a few bucks from china. tried many all ok.

As mentioned all updated to Creators update left with about 3GB left after all the installing.
A quick system clean etc soon recovered 12 or GB of old Windows.

So on with a look around system info and a bit of testing.

First switch on

Few Hours later


Also have found that the USB C port is a real one and can display up to 4k output as well as other USB functions good to see.


Windows all Legit


A bit light on Space

Bit of a disk Clean and added the Msata

Overview of system/Device Manager

More Information




Crystal Mark Internal

Crystal Mark Msata

Aida 64, Bit of a strees test, fan would Cut in and out as required and not to noisy at all


Performance test V9

Antutu

And Good Wifi,


A quick overview and all looking pretty good, bit of a surprise no heat problems fine Unit
Again thanks to Gearbest for the opportunity to show and tell.

[vadergr]

Can you install an msata drive that will work as primary? To install a new windows partition and delete the existing one? How do you enter the bios?

[aeolous]

Try F7 and see if it gets in to bios.

[Blazer]

just found the site and joined, good to know someone has some experience with the acepc ak1, got mine yesterday and seems to be a nice lil box.

ive installed a known good Samsung ssd evo 120 gb in the ssd bay and windows can see it somewhat, bios does not.

trebor I see your screenshot shows that win 10 sees the msata but can windows be installed to that drive instead or is windows locked to the emmc chip ?

[trebor]

One would think it could be, not tried,

I think you would need to blank the internal C:
If it sees windows on emmc it may say nope not going to do it.
Boot from USB to install window,
Hope it can see both emmc and ssd and install on SSD, speculation at this stage

Make sure you get your win10key just in case.

[Blazer]

what is the best tool for finding the correct key in win 10 as of today ?

I used windows imaging to create an image both before and after activation, and tried to restore the image to the ssd but that failed to see the ssd as a drive to restore to, my bios options
don't display an advanced option and the bios seems locked to the emmc drive as the only boot drive allowed, tried a couple unlock tricks but no luck so far.

[aeolous]

If you are meaning for the product key then use this program

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Have you being able to get in to bios and how?
For me if you can't install windows to another drive ssd or hdd and the only option is the emmc that leaves after the win updates etc with 16gb of storage, then doesnt worth my attention.
There is other mini pc's like the vorke v1 plus with no such limitations and in the same price range.

[Blazer]

used nirsoft and got key, thanks

I can enter bios using esc at boot, the ssd isn't being seen as a bootable device but can be used as storage, I have ordered a Samsung 850 evo 250gb msata drive to install into the board directly
to see if bios will see it as a bootable drive, if so ill image to that drive and maybe be good to go.

@ aeolous u gota like to the one u mentioned ? I got this one thru the jungle at a fair price I guess, fingers crossed it'll work out.

https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Celeron-Expansion-Ethernet-Computer/dp/B073WWKDT2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508426805&sr=8-1&keywords=acepc+ak1

[aeolous]

Blazer i am glad you ve got the key, i really hope that the ssd you have ordered to beng seen as a bootable drive let us know.

[Blazer]

I don't think trebor ever tried to boot from the internal msata drive, if the system cannot boot from the new drive I will be looking for another option, what I need is

4gb ram
quad core intel proc
ability to boot from 120 gb hd at min, larger is better
win 10 X64 pro
mini box
@ $200.00 us funds

any recommendations are welcome, tia, Mike

[trebor]

I sent an email to the ACEPC people ( bit busy myself to test)
They say just image it over, not 100% convinced