Udoo Bolt Gear Mini PC Debuts With AMD Ryzen Quad-Core CPU

By Zhiye Liu
last updated

So, so small

Udoo Bolt Gear (Image credit: Udoo)

Udoo on Monday released its Udoo Bolt Gear mini-PC with a special launch price of $399 for the first 1,000 units. The AMD Ryzen-powered desktop PC will have a $449 price tag afterward.

The Udoo Bolt Gear comes inside a tiny 5.1 x 5.1 x 2.6-inch (13 x 13 x 7cm) metal case. In addition to sitting on your desk, you can also attach the Udoo Bolt Gear behind your monitor or TV, thanks to the VESA mount. Udoo didn't specify the exact dimensions for the interface though.

Udoo advertises the device as a "mobile supercomputer," which is a bit of an exaggeration considering that the Udoo Bolt Gear employs a Ryzen Embedded V1000-series APU. Now, if the mini-PC had a Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) chip, it might hold true to Udoo's marketing.

The Ryzen Embedded V1605B, on the other hand, is a four-core, eight-thread Zen SoC. The 25W chip is built on GlobalFoundries' 14nm process node and runs with a 2 GHz base clock and 3.6 GHz boost clock. The SoC's eight Vega Compute Units (CUs), which operate up to 1,100 MHz, are in charge of graphics duties.

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Udoo Bolt Gear
Udoo Bolt Gear (Image credit: Udoo)

The Udoo Bolt Gear is equipped with two SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slots and can accommodate up to 32GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, including ECC memory modules.

For storage, the device supplies one standard SATA III port, one M.2 B-key PCIe x2 slot for SATA drives up to 60mm and one M.2 M-key PCIe 3.0 x4 slot for NVMe drives up to 80mm. 

Internet connectivity options consist of a Gigabit Ethernet port based of the Realtek RTL8111G controller and a Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 combo, thanks to Intel's dual-band Wireless-AC 3168 card. The Realtek ALC888 codec is responsible for audio.

Unique from other mini PCs, the Udoo Bolt Gear features an ATmega32U4 8-bit microcontroller to satisfy your Arduino needs. As a result, the Udoo Bolt Gear sports a 40-pin Arduino I/O interface, three Grove connectors and a 40-pin embedded I/O interface.

When it comes to conventional ports, the Udoo Bolt Gear provides two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C ports, two HDMI 2.0a ports, a 3.5mm microphone and heaphone combo jack and a S/PDIF optical output. The two USB USB Type-C ports function as display outputs so you can connect up to four 4K monitors to the Udoo Bolt Gear simultaneously.

The Udoo Bolt Gear sips power through a 19V DC port, which relies on the 65W charger. The list of supported operating systems include Windows 7 through Windows 10 and 64-bit versions of Linux distributions.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    The case is kinda cute. It's a little disappointing that the CPU is so old, but it's great that it supports ECC.

    Could be a good option, depending on the price.
    Reply
  • damric
    For $400 I thought it was ok, until I read further that it does not include RAM or storage. Once you add in the cost for those, you scratch your head wondering what is the point.
    Reply
  • Jai Molloy
    For the model with the Case, PSU, and CPU mentioned in the article, is 482 USD on Kickstarter and comes with 2x 4GB SO-DIMM, AC WiFi & Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI cable, SATA data and power cables. All the versions of this machine include 32GB eMMC soldered on (I think, it isn't mentioned if it is a module or soldered on).

    What is not mentioned and this is important... The estimated delivery was December 2018...

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/udoo/udoo-bolt-raising-the-maker-world-to-the-next-leve
    Reply
  • Hardware Geek
    "The Udoo Bolt Gear sips power through a 19V DC port, which relies on the 65W charger."
    Does this have a built-in battery backup or does it have a power supply and not a charger?
    Reply
  • bit_user
    damric said:
    For $400 I thought it was ok, until I read further that it does not include RAM or storage. Once you add in the cost for those, you scratch your head wondering what is the point.
    Oops, yeah. It's not easy to justify, when you can score an ODROID-H2 for $111:

    https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h2/
    No doubt the Zen1 cores and Vega GPU are much more powerful, but you should really need that additional power to justify the price premium. And speaking of power, the Udoo will certainly burn a lot more of it.

    BTW, I remember seeing the price, but then I guess I already forgot about it by the time I posted.
    Reply
  • MasterMadBones
    I've wanted to get one of these as an HTPC, but it didn't launch on time. Instead I have a 7th gen i3-7100U NUC now, which was actually more expensive than the V1605B Bolt is. It's actually another very "interesting" comparison on UserBenchmark... Sigh...
    Also, AMD should be more supportive of companies trying to use their embedded APUs and actually update them or merge the V-series with the mobile APU lineup, like Intel has done. There's been a lot of missed opportunities in the NUC space for AMD, even if it's a small market.
    Reply