We spotted this at CES, and its throwback charm won us over right away. And just two months later the AceMagic Retro X5, a mini PC that shamelessly and adorably apes the original NES console, is now on sale. It’s packing some serious power with a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU and 32GB of RAM, but be prepared to pay up for it.
The AceMagic Retro X5 is a brave little toaster, considering how famously litigious Nintendo is with its intellectual property. But I suppose if 8BitDo is now a licensed supplier of Switch accessories, there’s a certain amount of wiggle room. Anyway, the Retro X5 is using a familiar platform in the Ryzen HX 370, a 12-core laptop design with a 16-core integrated GPU. You can see similar setups in the Minisforum AI X1 Pro and the Geekom A9 Max. But those are practical designs. This little chonkster is all about the retro vibes, right down to its presentation case, which includes a bit of papercraft for a “screen” that reveals some 8-bit art.
But don’t let the looks fool you. Unlike some other mini PCs, this one can be opened up to access two SODIMM slots for DDR5 RAM and a pair of Gen4 M.2 2280 slots for SSDs (only 1TB inside for the single configuration). Naturally there’s Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 hiding inside, too. For a smaller PC, just 139mm (5.5 inches) on its longest side, it’s packing a decent set of ports. On the rear you get dual Ethernet, USB-C, double USB-A, DisplayPort, and HDMI. That should technically offer triple monitor support, though you’ll be giving up that USB-C. Good thing there’s another one on the front, along with two more USB-A ports next to the big, chunky POWER button.
I wish there was some way to replicate the NES’s iconic hinged cartridge cover in this design, as seen on some retro Raspberry Pi cases. But maybe AceMagic is toeing a fine line here, trying to evoke 80s Nintendo hardware without actually infringing copyright. The Retro X5 is on sale now for an eye-wattering $959 USD, shipping on March 18th. (That’s about double the price of a real NES back in 1985, accounting for inflation.)
A cheaper Retro X3 model, with a Ryzen 7 H 255 processor and non-replaceable LPDDR5 RAM, is “Coming Soon.” I should note that AceMagic made headlines in 2023 for shipping spyware pre-installed on its devices, an issue it blamed on missing security certificates, and which has apparently been resolved.
