Last time we did try a mini-PC with a replaceable AMD CPU was back in 2021, with the Shuttle DA320 and had support for both Ryzen 2000/3000 series but also Athlon 2000 series of APUs. The maximum supported TDP declared by the manufacturer was 65W so we have tested it along with the Ryzen 5 2400G APU; the problem we have had with it was related to the cooling system, which was unable to keep the temperatures at acceptable levels during high loads, the dual 60mm fans starting spinning at about 4500RPM just after a few seconds high load levels were applied. The fan noise levels were a bit high even during normal, light use such as browsing and were revving to audible levels. The future UEFI BIOS enhancements have succeeded to drop a bit the temperatures by lowering the applied voltage to the SOC, but we found the best solution was to install a 35W SoC inside the system such as the Athlon 220G, which eliminated the noise issue completely, while the system remained quite responsive for light tasks.

We will take the AMD APU barebone testing journey once again, with the LIVA One A300 from ECS, sporting the A300 chipset, the simplest one from the series, which is not a lot documented on the web. Surprisingly, via UEFI updates it is able to support a ton of SKUs from Ryzen 3 2200G series and up to the Ryzen 7 5700G which is an 8-core 16-thread processor with a TDP of 65W and sporting the Zen 3 architecture. We will try the LIVA One A300 with the Ryzen 5 5600G, which is a 6-core 12-thread SoC (Zen 3 architecture) featuring Radeon Vega Graphics with 7 compute units, each containing 64 shader cores, for a total of 448 shaders.

The LIVA One A300 barebone has arrived inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure with an orange/black color scheme:

The box is provided with a handle, for easy transportation:

On the side, we will note the technical specifications, including the list of compatible architectures:

Inside the main box, we will note a secondary cardboard enclosure:

After lifting the top cover, we will note the barebone sitting in the middle, along with the documentation leaflet:

The bottom layer does include the rest of the hardware bundle:

A closer look does reveal the power brick, the power lead, the VESA mount, the vertical stand but also the necessary mounting screws:

The power brick is similar to the one we have seen with other miniPCs which can accommodate higher TDP components:

It was manufactured by FSP GROUP INC. and is rated on the output as 19v at 6.32A for a total of 120W: