ACEMAGIC Vista V1 N97 Mini PC REVIEW

A practical, affordable mini PC for light everyday use—just don’t expect it to punch above its weight.

In the past couple of years, I’ve seen quite a few Mini PC units come across my desk for review. While I’m primarily a macOS user, I am platform agnostic, and I like to use whatever works the best. So, Mini PCs are intriguing to me. I’ve come to find that they are usually made up of laptop (or mobile) parts that are repackaged in a small case that mimics a streaming device (i.e., Apple TV or Roku box). They are typically meant for basic use cases, but some are extremely powerful. The ACEMAGIC Vista V1 N97 Mini PC is the most recent device to come across my review desk, and I was eager to find out how it measured up.

About ACEMAGIC Vista V1 N97 Mini PC

The ACEMAGIC Vista V1 N97 Mini PC is a compact yet powerful computing solution designed to meet the demands of modern users. Whether you’re working from home, streaming media, or managing everyday tasks, this mini PC delivers impressive performance in a space-saving design.

Key Features

• 12th Gen Intel N97 Processor: Equipped with a quad-core Intel Alder Lake N97 CPU, the Vista V1 offers up to 3.6GHz turbo boost, providing a 30% performance increase over previous generations.
• Ample Memory and Storage: Comes with 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 512GB M.2 SSD, ensuring smooth multitasking and quick data access. Storage is expandable up to 2TB to accommodate your growing needs.
• Compact and Versatile Design: Measuring just 3.9 x 3.9 x 1.3 inches, the sleek silver chassis fits seamlessly into any workspace. VESA mount compatibility allows for discreet placement behind monitors.
• Dual 4K Display Support: Features HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, enabling dual 4K UHD displays for enhanced productivity and entertainment experiences.
• Efficient Cooling System: The advanced axial fan and cooling technology ensure quiet operation (<38dB), maintaining optimal performance without distracting noise.
• Robust Connectivity: Offers multiple USB ports (2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0), Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth, facilitating seamless connections to various devices and networks.
• Pre-installed Windows 11 Pro: Provides a secure and user-friendly operating system, ready to handle your professional and personal computing tasks right out of the box.

Pricing & Availability

The ACEMAGIC Vista V1 N97 Mini PC is available for $239 on Amazon.com, but it’s currently being offered for $159 (at the time of publishing).

User Experience

The Vista V1 arrived in a very nondescript cardboard box with the words “Mini PC” printed on the top. Now I’m all for the minimalist approach when it comes to packaging, but having something a little more descriptive would be nice. If someone found this on a shelf, they wouldn’t know one Mini PC from another. The PC was well secured on the interior with a cardboard insert, and it was packaged with an HDMI cable, power supply, and a mounting bracket.

When I started setting it up, I noticed that there were no USB-C ports on it. This meant two things for me. First, I would have to use the provided power supply instead of connecting it to my docking station, and second, I would have to make sure all my peripherals had a USB-A connector. While this might not sound like a big issue for some, for me, it changed my plans for my setup. Since I already have a dock for my laptops, I wanted to be able to utilize it for this PC as well. That way, I wouldn’t have duplicate cables or connectors. Now I have several cables strewn across my desk.

After I got it unboxed and plugged it in, I started setting it up. Naturally, there were updates that it needed to finish, as well as the typical Windows startup processes. This set of steps ended up taking around 2 hours to complete.

OVERALL DESIGN

The form factor of this Mini PC is indeed ‘mini.’ It’s smaller than a modern Apple TV and would fit most places you want to set it up. I’m not a fan of the fact that it doesn’t have any USB-C ports on it. It does have a DisplayPort in addition to the HDMI port that I used to connect it to my monitor, but that doesn’t exactly make up for the lack of USB-C ports. I had to come up with a workaround in order to connect my keyboard and mouse (I literally had to dig out a different keyboard and mouse in order for them to work with the Mini PC).

NETWORK SPEED

The network speed test I ran returned a result of 178.33 Mbps Download / 174.22 Mbps Upload, which was a stark difference from what my MacBook Pro got (504 Mbps Download / 321 Mbps Upload). I ran the test within a few moments of each other, and both computers were connected to the same wireless network. I pulled up the specs of the wireless card in Device Manager and found that it has a Realtek RTL8821CE PCI-Express 802.11AC WLAN Bluetooth 4.2 WiFi Card, which provides WiFi 5, whereas the MacBook Pro comes equipped with Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax). This could account for the vast difference in wireless network speed.

GENERAL PERFORMANCE

I will measure the performance of a PC in a number of ways. First, I will look at how many processes it’s running when idling. Then, I will run several benchmark tests to look at CPU and GPU performance. Finally, I will run some basic tasks like seeing how quickly an internet browser opens and loads, and if applicable, how games run on the computer. The test results are listed below.

Processes: With no applications other than Task Manager running, the Vista V1 had 149 processes running. This is less than some higher-end PCs I’ve tested recently (there was one laptop that had over 200 processes upon initial startup), but it still seems like a lot to be running, especially with this being a low-powered machine.

Geekbench: This benchmarking tool is an industry standard when it comes to testing the performance of a computer. It performs a range of CPU tasks that mimic real-world applications, including PDF rendering, speech recognition, and machine learning. Then, it provides a single-core and multi-core score based on its tests.

The Vista V1 received a Single-Core score of 1260 and a Multi-Core score of 2935. Based on these results, this Mini PC is on par with mid-tier mobile or low-end desktop processors. Most productivity and light multitasking workloads will be fine, but heavy creative work or serious multitasking (like video editing, software compiling, or 3D rendering) will feel sluggish.

Geekbench AI: This tool is designed to measure the performance of your device’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. It gives a standardized score to help you compare how efficiently different devices handle AI-related tasks. It’s useful for developers, reviewers, and consumers who want to understand a system’s readiness for current and future AI-driven applications.

The Vista V1 received the following scores: Single Precision 818, Half Precision 435, and Quantized 1184. These indicate that the Mini PC is optimized for quantized AI workloads, and it can handle basic tasks, but not at high performance. It’s suitable for lightweight AI tasks like speech recognition, object detection, or image classification.

GFX Bench and Cinebench: In order to test how well the graphics performance with the Vista V1 is, I attempted to run these two tests. GFXBench is a cross-platform GPU benchmarking tool that measures graphics performance using real-time 3D rendering tests, ideal for evaluating gaming and mobile device capabilities. Cinebench, on the other hand, benchmarks CPU performance by rendering complex 3D scenes, making it great for assessing processor power in creative and multitasking workflows.

Unfortunately, neither benchmarking test could complete its tests. GFXBench crashed three times when it attempted to run, and Cinebench locked up 4:58 into the test. This tells me that this system is too limited as far as its graphics capabilities go. Therefore, it’s likely not suitable for heavy workloads like gaming, 3D rendering, or AI tasks.

GAMING ABILITY

While I typically run a gaming test on PCs, I opted not to do that this time around due to the results I received from the benchmark testing. The scores I received from the Geekbench tests suggested that light gaming might be possible, but wouldn’t be ideal on this device. And since the two graphics performance tests I attempted to run crashed and could not be completed, I thought that gaming would just be too much for this little machine.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR

So, since it seems as though this Mini PC failed or underperformed with some basic benchmarking tests, what is it good for, and who would want this? In general, it’s great for web browsing, emails, streaming media, and basic productivity tasks. You could possibly use it as a remote server or a home theater setup if it were dedicated to that purpose. Students and casual computer users who just need a device to connect would be ideal for this Mini PC. It’s a great budget purchase for what you get. The only downside is that you need to add your own monitor, keyboard, and mouse in order for it to be a fully functional setup. That said, if you were going to use it as a media device, you could easily connect it to a TV and use a keyboard with a trackpad combo, which would reduce the added cost.

Great for:

• Web browsing, emails, and streaming media
• Office tasks: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Remote desktop or lightweight server tasks
• HTPC (Home Theater PC) setup
• Running cloud-based apps or thin clients
• Students and casual users

Usable but not ideal for:

• Light photo editing (e.g., Photoshop Elements)
• Basic coding or low-resource IDEs
• Light gaming (indie or older titles at low settings)

Not recommended for:

• Video editing or rendering
• Advanced 3D gaming
• Machine learning or high-performance computing
• Running many applications at once

Conclusion

The ACEMAGIC Vista V1 N97 Mini PC delivers solid everyday performance in a compact, budget-friendly package. It’s ideal for users with basic computing needs such as web browsing, media consumption, and office work. While it falls short in areas like graphics performance, gaming, and heavy multitasking, its small footprint, quiet operation, and affordability make it a great choice for students, home office users, or as a secondary PC for lightweight tasks.

For more information, visit acemagic.com.