Chinese Mini PC offers external PCIe slot - and an interesting inverted U form factor

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The unconventional design is dubbed "Magic Computer" by its Chinese manufacturer CWWK.

Render of the green CWWK "Magic PC" from the AliExpress listing. It also comes in black and blue.
Render of the green CWWK "Magic PC" from the AliExpress listing. It also comes in black and blue. (Image credit: CWWK via AliExpress)

Chinese PC manufacturer CWWK has released an interesting Mini PC design that mainly seems to be composed of an elevated heatsink and a sideways, open PCIe x8 slot. The CWWK Mini PC, spotted by Liliputing, is dubbed the "Magic PC" by its maker and has garnered attention for its unique design. 

Of note before proceeding is that the gap created by the stand at the bottom is the only protection provided for the motherboard beneath the heatsink, and of course, any PCIe extensions will also need to live in the open air. You'll want to take some precautions with your setup and environment if you plan on running just about anything this way. Liliputing recommends the usage of some kind of stand beneath any expansion cards you mount to this thing, and we agree with that assessment.

That said, the device certainly looks pretty unique and could end up turning out to be a fun pet project. It comes in Green, Black, and Blue color variations. You can also choose to buy it in a "barebones" configuration with just the chassis, motherboard, and CPU, if you have your own compatible RAM/storage/etc to use with it.

Additionally, you have three Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs to pick from (relevant AliExpress listings linked below):

  • Intel N100 CPU — Starts at $214 for a barebones kit. The N100 is a 4-core, 4-thread 12th Gen CPU with a TDP of 6 Watts and a max clock of 3.4 GHz.
  • Intel N200 CPU —  Starts at $261 for a barebones kit. The N200 is a 4-core, 4-thread 12th Gen CPU with a TDP of 6 Watts and a max clock of 3.7 GHz.
  • Intel Core i3-N305 CPU — Starts at $320 for a barebones kit. The Core i3-N305 is an 8-core, 8-thread 12th Gen CPU with a TDP of 15 Watts and a max clock of 3.8 GHz.

As far as other specs go, the CWWK Magic Computer can be outfitted with up to 2TB SSD storage and up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM. The maximum RAM speed supported by any of the CPUs listed above is 4,800 MT/s, though the board itself apparently supports up to 5,600 MT/s.

If a mini PC design like this interests you, we recommend checking out the original listing. Beyond the details we've discussed here, there are some nifty graphics included showing different ways to use the PCIe slot, as well as an optional fan attachment for those who don't trust passive cooling like that.

Before you get too ambitious with this one, though, be mindful that that PCIe slot everyone's been talking about is only a PCIe Gen 3 x8 slot... restricted to x4 bandwidth. If you want to go mad with power and plug a GPU into this one, be sure that it's still a low-power design that can function on x8. Just as a general rule of thumb, don't expect to play anything above 60 FPS on this, regardless of the attached GPU— the bandwidth limitations are simply too severe for most modern cards to enable high frame rates.

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Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ezst036
    8x is a very strange choice.
    Reply
  • A Stoner
    x8 is shorter and there does not appear to be room for a x16 in the image shown.
    Reply
  • chaz_music
    They made one goof: The EMI effects of having the PCI bus surrounded by a ground is very important. They should have made a ground connection pad/gasket from the heatsink and motherboard to allow a return path for the conducted EMI. Think about PSU conducted noise in the PCIe connector to the peripheral and PCIe system common mode noise.

    I have been wanting a configuration like this for years, and had been searching for someone doing this. You can add an external GPU, RAID setup, expansion box, etc. And not penalize the original enclosure for the expandable volume. Expansion just requires stacking the assemblies inline.
    Reply
  • HideOut
    one of the many issues of "toms" reporting on this (other th an as usual, they get a kickback from sales) is that th ere are errors. Like the 4800mhz. Its a max of 3200 because this is DDR4. If it was outfitted by DDR5 then the 4800 kicks in. 12th gen intels officially support 4800 when in the right setup, but this is not one. Its like this thing was translated strait from the chinese ad...
    Reply
  • thestryker
    STH went over this device was in December (before they'd added N200/N305 options) and it seems interesting despite its shortcomings: https://www.servethehome.com/cwwk-crazy-a-small-6w-tdp-cpu-homelab-super-system/
    HideOut said:
    one of the many issues of "toms" reporting on this (other th an as usual, they get a kickback from sales) is that th ere are errors. Like the 4800mhz. Its a max of 3200 because this is DDR4. If it was outfitted by DDR5 then the 4800 kicks in. 12th gen intels officially support 4800 when in the right setup, but this is not one. Its like this thing was translated strait from the chinese ad...
    What are you talking about? The device uses DDR5 SODIMMs not DDR4.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    As far as other specs go, the CWWK Magic Computer can be outfitted with up to 2TB SSD storage and up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM. The maximum RAM speed supported by any of the CPUs listed above is 4,800 MT/s, though the board itself apparently supports up to 5,600 MT/s.
    I'm not sure where the disconnect is, but somebody is confusing DDR4 and DDR5, here. These SoCs support up to DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800. Each at only a single-channel (64b).

    Edit: thanks for the link, @thestryker
    Reply
  • bit_user
    chaz_music said:
    I have been wanting a configuration like this for years, and had been searching for someone doing this. You can add an external GPU, RAID setup, expansion box, etc. And not penalize the original enclosure for the expandable volume. Expansion just requires stacking the assemblies inline.
    Why not just use Thunderbolt, which is actually designed to properly support eGPUs?
    Reply
  • thestryker
    bit_user said:
    I'm not sure where the disconnect is, but somebody is confusing DDR4 and DDR5, here. These SoCs support up to DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800. Each at only a single-channel (64b).

    Edit: thanks for the link, @thestryker
    CWWK talks about supporting 5200/5600 though I think it's just a bad translation as it supports using those SODIMMs, but will run them at 4800 (found this out with my N305 box).
    Reply
  • chaz_music
    bit_user said:
    Why not just use Thunderbolt, which is actually designed to properly support eGPUs?
    I had been thinking of that, but it very expensive for what you are getting. This PCIe solution is very affordable and directly expandable.

    Note that the fiber optic version of Thunderbolt would completely fix the EMI issues that I outlined. As communication data rates go up, fiber optic technology is going to become the lead, although it does not allow power delivery unless wires are also included.
    Reply