AMD Quietly Launches Recycled Xbox Series X APU As 4700S Desktop Kit

AMD 4700S Desktop Kit
AMD 4700S Desktop Kit (Image credit: Disclosuzen/Twitter)

AMD has silently launched the AMD 4700S eight-core processor desktop kit. This chip consists of an Xbox Series X APU that suffered from defects during the manufacturing process, making it unsuitable for use in the Xbox. Although we've known about the kit for some time, the chipmaker has finally listed it on its website with its full specifications.

The AMD 4700S desktop kit is an integrated solution, meaning that you'll find almost everything you need for a full system crammed onto the small mini-ITX motherboard — processor, memory, and cooling. The motherboard leverages the A77E fusion controller hub (codename Bolton-E4) that's geared towards embedded platforms.

AMD listed the processor as the AMD 4700S with eight Zen 2 CPU cores. There are no signs of any Ryzen branding, but we already know that the chip is an eight-core, 16-thread APU with a disabled or defective iGPU. Unfortunately, AMD didn't specify the chip's clock speeds. However, Geekbench 5 benchmarks have pointed to a 3.6 GHz base clock and a 4 GHz boost clock. AMD offers the 4700S desktop kit with either 8GB or 16GB of GDDR6 memory. Once again, the chipmaker didn't list the speed of the GDDR6 memory chips.

The AMD 4700S lacks display outputs, so you'll have to pair the motherboard with a discrete graphics card. Like any normal mini-ITX motherboard, the AMD 4700S only supplies one PCIe x16 expansion slot, which is restrained to a x4 signal. This means that the list of supported graphics cards is very limited as well.

The AMD 4700S is compatible with the Radeon 550, RX 550, RX 560, RX 570, RX 580 and RX 590. On the Nvidia side, the AMD 4700S supports the GeForce GT 710, GT 1030, GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1060.

There are only two SATA III ports for storage on the AMD 4700S, though, so you won't be able to leverage high-speed M.2 SSDs on this motherboard. It also has a Gigabit Ethernet port and three 3.5mm audio jacks. The first is based on the Asix AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet controller, while the latter is based on the Realteck ALC897 audio codec.

The AMD 4700S is pretty generous on connectivity. You receive four USB 2.0 Type-A ports, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports, and one USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A port. Additionally, the motherboard comes equipped with one USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header to expand the number of USB ports further.

The motherboard draws its power from 24-pin and 8-pin EPS power connectors. AMD recommends a 250W power supply as the minimum but suggests you feed the motherboard with a 300W unit. Do note that power requirements will differ, depending on which graphics card you plan to plug into the AMD 4700S.

AMD only provides drivers for Windows 10, meaning the AMD 4700S isn't compatible with prior versions of Windows, much less Linux.

Since it's just a listing, AMD didn't reveal the pricing or availability for the AMD 4700s desktop kit. The chipmaker backs it with a limited two-year hardware warranty. We've seen it retail for roughly $317.38 at a Finnish store. However, we'll have to wait until the desktop kit is available here to get the U.S. pricing.

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.

  • maestro0428
    This would be cool if it had m2 support. With sata only, you are never gonna take advantage of the direct storage implementation. And no built in gpu? These may be cast off parts, but Id rather have the built in gpu than add one. This could have been great.
    Reply
  • Jakwei11
    Nah im happier it doesnt, id rather use a dedicated gpu of my choice and if the price is decent when it launches in north america im defiantly gonna get it and throw it in a sff pc with the old 1070ti i have laying around just for a good travel pc. the x4 pcie shouldnt hurt it and it aught to be fast enough for me needs.
    Reply
  • spentshells
    Jakwei11 said:
    Nah im happier it doesnt, id rather use a dedicated gpu of my choice and if the price is decent when it launches in north america im defiantly gonna get it and throw it in a sff pc with the old 1070ti i have laying around just for a good travel pc. the x4 pcie shouldnt hurt it and it aught to be fast enough for me needs.

    Wake me up when it's the full package.

    I'd game on that every day and put the rest of my stuff to work
    Reply
  • necrophoric
    Jakwei11 said:
    Nah im happier it doesnt, id rather use a dedicated gpu of my choice and if the price is decent when it launches in north america im defiantly gonna get it and throw it in a sff pc with the old 1070ti i have laying around just for a good travel pc. the x4 pcie shouldnt hurt it and it aught to be fast enough for me needs.

    Doesn't it say it only supports up to GTX 1060?
    Reply
  • MoulaZ
    Um... where are the RAM slots? Are they soldered on?
    Reply
  • epobirs
    MoulaZ said:
    Um... where are the RAM slots? Are they soldered on?
    As the article indicated, the RAM is pre-installed, much like the Apple M1 products and in the same 8 and 16GB choices, though probably not with the same level of integration Apple used to increase performance.

    Another curiosity is the support for USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Xbox Series X and S only support Gen 1. This will become a notable issue as more and more giant games are released that require the limited internal/slot SSD to be played. The necessity for moving games to and from external USB drives will be a given for anybody with a decent sized library that likes day to day variety in their play. The performance of the USB ports makes a big difference in how convenient this is. Sony is supporting Gen 2 on the PS5, though they initially didn't allow for games to moved offline to USB storage. They've since fixed that glaring omission in the firmware. Now I'm wondering if the Series x/s can be upgrade via firmware for Gen 2 support or with a minor hardware revision. The latter would be annoying to owners of the 7 million or so units sold so far between the two models but an improvement for the larger pool of machines that can be expected to be sold in the next few years.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    Admin said:
    AMD only provides drivers for Windows 10, meaning the AMD 4700S isn't compatible with prior versions of Windows, much less Linux.

    Is this F.U.D.?

    The entire AMD Linux stack is open source, save some oddball things or items easy to forget. There's no "provided drivers" on an included 3.5 inch floppy disk because the drivers are already in kernel modules.
    Reply
  • wwenze1
    With a disabled GPU, this thing better cost less than a standard ITX system to be worth buying.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    MoulaZ said:
    Um... where are the RAM slots? Are they soldered on?
    Yes, because if the article is to believed, the desktop kit comes with GDDR6 memory, which you can't find in loose modules. And this makes sense because if it really is based off defective Xbox Series X APUs, then they come natively with a GDDR6 controller, not a standard DDR4 controller.

    Which would make for some interesting memory benchmarks.

    epobirs said:
    Another curiosity is the support for USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Xbox Series X and S only support Gen 1. This will become a notable issue as more and more giant games are released that require the limited internal/slot SSD to be played. The necessity for moving games to and from external USB drives will be a given for anybody with a decent sized library that likes day to day variety in their play. The performance of the USB ports makes a big difference in how convenient this is. Sony is supporting Gen 2 on the PS5, though they initially didn't allow for games to moved offline to USB storage. They've since fixed that glaring omission in the firmware. Now I'm wondering if the Series x/s can be upgrade via firmware for Gen 2 support or with a minor hardware revision. The latter would be annoying to owners of the 7 million or so units sold so far between the two models but an improvement for the larger pool of machines that can be expected to be sold in the next few years.
    According to Microsoft's provided block diagram of the Xbox Series X, USB support is provided on a separate chip because the APU itself doesn't have any USB controllers built in:

    So no, the Series X can't get USB 3.2 Gen 2 support with a firmware update.
    Reply
  • Rolan the Brave
    a shame they don't sell a complete xbox series x APU kit that will run Windows - I'd be happy with that sort of graphical performance running steam games - it could fit in a very small case too.
    Reply