Arctic Senza review: silence of the mini PCs

Few things are as satisfying in PC building as a well-crafted fan curve, getting the gust of wind to lower into a faint whirr. However, what if we didn’t have to deal with that at all? Arctic Senza is a mini PC that aims to eliminate noise entirely, living by the mantra ‘out of sight, out of mind’ under your desk.

The only way to remove acoustics is to get rid of any and all moving parts, opting for a passively cooled solution. Most dare not attempt such a feat because removing fans is like throwing the baby out with the bath water, but Arctic isn’t just anyone; it’s known for its cooling chops.

Arctic Senza 5700G

€700

Pros

• Completely silent
• Leaves your desk clear of cables
• Passive cooling yields good temps
• Fantastic build quality

Cons

• Windows 11 N
• Can’t mount it to glass or metal desks
• Going fanless attracts a premium

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With an assortment of partners, Arctic’s first foray into the mini PC market is an interesting one, filled with design decisions that are brilliant in some instances and baffling in others. If nothing else, it proves there’s a world of untapped potential through different cooling methods that I want to see more of.

Design and specs

Arctic Senza comes ready-made, with all parts tightly packed into a chassis that resembles a large AIO cooler. Instead of tubing and liquid, we get a decent port selection and four wires stretching toward an accessible front panel. After all, nobody wants to venture under the desk each time you fancy using a portable storage drive – squeezing down there should be a one-time deal.

It comes in three flavours, each named after their corresponding AMD APU. The review unit in my mitts is the middle-of-the-pack Senza 5700G, which sports all the same hardware as the flagship unit but downgrades the operating system from Windows 11 Pro N to Windows 11 Home N. There’s some merit to spending the extra €30, but both suffer cutdown ‘N’ versions of Microsoft’s operating systems anyway.

Although Arctic strictly markets Senza as a plug-and-play workstation, the first thing that caught my gamer eye is the full-fat AMD Ryzen 7 5700G desktop APU that can out-muscle chips featured in modern gaming handhelds. It features eight cores, 16 threads, and frequencies ranging between 3.8GHz and 4.6GHz, rounded off with 16MB of L3 cache. Since there’s no room for a discrete graphics card, visuals lean on an integrated Radeon Vega 8 solution, with eight GPU cores at 2.0GHz. At the very least, the 65W rating is enough horsepower to give OneXPlayer 2’s Ryzen 7 6800U a run for its money.

Since we’re in Zen 3 territory, memory and storage are straightforward choices. There’s 32GB of DDR4-3200 (2x 16GB in dual configuration) and an unnamed 1TB NVMe PCIe 3 SSD. Nothing that will set the world alight, but that’s for the best given there’s nothing to put the fire out if it did.

Connectivity is surprisingly wide compared to some other small form factor (SFF) PCs. Two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports on the main body carry enough bandwidth for data-driven peripherals like webcams, while dual USB 2.0 ports handle the rest. I also appreciate that the single USB 3.2 Type-C is helpfully positioned on the extended front panel alongside a third USB 3.2 Type-A for ease of access. And there’s even Bluetooth 5.3 for any other wireless peripherals you might want to connect.

Split audio in/out is also available at the rear, so plan your audio systems in advance, and there’s a handy combo jack for headphones on the front panel sitting next to the reset and power buttons. HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 tag team the visuals so you can connect up to two monitors, which works a treat.

Onboard WiFi 6E offers a good wireless option for the cable averse, but 2.5Gb Ethernet remains a strong consideration since Senza is destined to sit under a hunk of wood. All networking is buried under the hood without a WiFi extender, leaving me with some concerns that signal will be less consistent through obstruction. I’ll put both to the test, but your mileage will vary depending on your router, proximity to it, thickness of your desk, and broadband package.

Finally, there’s a DC-in on the back of the main unit, eschewing a traditional power supply in favour of a 119.7W brick.

Installation

Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail. I know this all too well because my first obstacle is owning two metal desks. I’m not debating the possibility I could drill through my Secretlab Magnus Pro XL or its little brother, but it’s not a task I’m up for any time soon. The thought of magnetic mounting crossed my mind but I quickly dismissed it at the notion of gravity’s handiwork unceremoniously tumbling the hefty mini PC to the ground.

Naturally, Senza is primed for wood with no alternative ways to mount it other than screws. Some optional feet would’ve been a nice option, but Arctic otherwise gives you everything you need in the box, from copious amounts of cable wraps to your choice in 13mm Philips Head PH2 or Torx T15 screws. There’s no wrong answer, although Torx will hold firmer to compatible screwdrivers when balancing the main unit.

It goes without saying that the easiest way to fix Senza to the underside of your desk is to flip it so you don’t need to fight against the laws of physics. Arctic is aware you’ll probably ignore that advice, so it provides you with a cheat sheet of sorts. Instead of measuring twice and cutting once, you can tape the template to the table and tighten your screws through the paper. Once you’ve punctured your four holes, remove the screws and blueprint so you can arrange the main unit.

There’s no such guide for the front panel, but it’s far easier to affix with two screws while holding it in place. You’ll just need to decide how far forward you want it. While flush against the edge of your desk offers the nicest finish, the downward-firing ports might leave a spaghetti of wires in range of your knee. Generally, you should be fine if it’s at arm’s length from where you sit, but you can place it anywhere it’ll reach.

Once it’s done, your PC will be tucked away, snug as a bug where you can’t see it. I appreciate the space it saves, particularly if you’re running a smaller desk, but it’s somewhat of a shame hiding such beautiful build quality. The craftsmanship is on point and I rather like the matte black chassis. There’s nothing saying you couldn’t run it upside down on your desk, although it will become a dust magnet with its perforations, so it’s best leaning into function over form.

Performance

Clicking the power button for the first time is somewhat of an eerie experience. Delivering on its promise of utter silence, there’s no hum of a fan spinning up or even a beep to confirm everything’s working as it should. Short of the screen turning on, the only other indication you have that everything’s working as intended is the white glow of Arctic’s logo on the front panel and flicker of light from the now-hidden 2.5G LAN port.

For a completely passive unit, I was impressed to see the CPU temperature peak at 68.5°C during prolonged all-core load pulling an average of 82W. Placing my hand on the fins, it’s never hot to the touch, leaving no risk of burning your leg, but it will keep your toes warm throughout winter as heat slowly collects under the desk. Whatever magic Arctic weaves under the hood surely makes you wonder how a sophomore unit may fare with more potent AM5 innards, but that’s not to sell Senza short.

Everything’s in line with what you’d expect for a machine that’s two generations old. The Gen 3 SSD runs at 3,483MB/s sequential read and 2,969MB/s sequential write speeds, while DDR4-3200 caps out at 46,387MB/s with a 78.8ns latency. It doesn’t compete with modern devices, but holds its own throughout the workday.

Senza performs like a champ with Microsoft Word, Excel, and image editing software like Affinity Photo 2. Dragging things across a multi-monitor setup poses no issues and its 32GB of DDR4-3200 can handle more than a few Chrome tabs. Video editing is on the cards, thanks to memory capacity, but expect slow rendering queues and live previews to resemble something of a slideshow.

Windows 11 Home N

Not everything runs like a dream. The perplexing decision to run with Windows 11 Home N rather than a standard version of the operating system is a constant roadblock. There are workarounds in place, but such hoops do call into question whether Senza is truly plug-and-play.

Windows 11 Home N is almost identical to the original, but removes all pre-installed media applications. This sounds nice in theory, with Arctic billing Senza as bloatware-free, but the reality is that you can’t do half the things you otherwise would be able to since it’s missing:

• Windows Media Player app
• Windows Media Player Runtime
• Windows Media Format
• Windows Media DRM (digital rights management)
• Media sharing and Play To
• Media Foundation
• Windows Portable Devices (WPD) infrastructure
• Audio codecs, including MPEG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, AMR, and Dolby Digital
• Standards-based codec components for video, including VC-1, MPEG-4, and H.264, H.265, and H.263
• Movies & TV app
• Windows Voice Recorder
• Skype

The lack of media codecs renders core functions, such as watching videos or playing music locally or through the browser, completely moot. I can’t run PCMark 10 like I normally would, as it kicks back error messages. Even standard workday activities become Herculean tasks, as there’s no way I can take video calls through Teams straight out of the box – receiving video feeds is mostly fine but your webcam won’t work.

It also poses problems in games due to missing DirectX runtime components. Some titles prompt a download for missing elements, but you leave it up to the fates as to which will successfully register.

If you’re wondering why such a strange OS exists, the short answer is legal reasons. Following antitrust concerns that Microsoft was abusing its monopoly and hurting competing multimedia applications by forcing its first-party solutions, the brand appeased European lawmakers with Windows 7 Home N and Windows 7 Pro N. Both have continued through respective Windows 10 and Windows 11 variants and the same applies to Windows KN versions in South Korea.

Arctic tells me that Senza is not beholden to any regulation, but that the brand chose Windows N because it’s “streamlined.” I’ve never considered multimedia APIs bloat, personally, but the mini PC is by definition lighter than it otherwise would be software-wise. Instead, Arctic guides users to where they can download missing components via a red notice on the final packaging.

Workarounds

To make the process as easy as possible, Arctic helps restore Windows 11 to its former glory on the Senza support page. Just navigate to the Windows Configuration section, download the Media Feature Pack and any drivers you want, and execute them as administrator.

Alternatively, you can take the manual route by heading into Settings > Apps > Optional Features > View Features, where you can download the same bundle. It’s listed alphabetically, making it easy to find, and requires a restart once you’re done. Ideally, this should introduces audiovisual codecs and missing apps, getting your webcam and players working again. Just make sure it’s installed after the mandatory restart, as mine didn’t initially take.

Getting games to work will require DirectX runtime components, which you’ll have to grab for yourself. Fortunately, Microsoft lets you download them from its website. Once you have the file, run dxwebsetup and follow the instructions. This may take a moment. Once again, check that it has properly installed, as my first attempts were all met with failure.

Windows 11 Home N hamstrung me so much that I considered installing full-fat Windows 11 Pro to preserve my sanity, and this might still be the best case scenario despite the extra legwork. There’s no easy upgrade path from N-class operating systems, but there’s nothing stopping you from wiping the rig and adding your own. Arctic even confirms this doesn’t go against the two-year warranty, although the comapny won’t be able to help with software-related problems if you go DIY.

Gaming

With an ungodly amount of hours in the game, my first instinct is to run Rainbow Six Siege. After all, Ubisoft’s shooter is a good indication of what you’ll roughly see in most esports-focused titles since it’s a little less optimised than the likes of CS2 and League of Legends. To my surprise, a passively-cooled Ryzen 7 5700G handles it well, not even dropping below 60fps when graphics demand double its 1GB of memory on the high preset. There’s certainly some scalability here for older games.

Newer triple-A titles are different beasts altogether. I didn’t hold much hope when running our usual suite of tests, even at the lowest settings possible, but the magic of upscalers is a wonderous thing. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla jumps from 29fps without AMD FSR, just below the minimum I’d consider playable in 2024, to 48fps when it’s set to Performance.

Of course, it’s a mixed bag. Not all games have upscalers (Far Cry 6), and some that do still struggle to chug along at a decent frame rate (Black Myth: Wukong). That’s if they even run at all. Auto-detection tools sometimes block Senza for not meeting the correct system requirements and refuse to boot the game, as was the case with Forza Motorsport.

Finally, there’s the small matter of visual fidelity. Having to run everything on the lowest settings already leaves most looking a bit muddier than I’d personally like, but upscalers sometimes introduce artifacts when hoisting from lower resolutions to FHD.

That said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Senza isn’t typically a gaming device. In fact, Arctic makes no mention of games at all, strictly marketing the mini PC towards offices and professionals for light workloads. This is simply a showcase of its upper limits and I’m pretty happy with the performance available. It wouldn’t be my primary gaming system, but could very well work in a pinch with tempered expectations and older games.

Conclusion

Arctic Senza accomplishes its two primary goals with flying colours, keeping the mini PC out of both sight and earshot. You’ll need to be mindful of compatibility since it only supports wooden desks, but if you don’t mind drilling a few holes, the two-part mounting system does well to tuck it away while still keeping core elements within reach via the front hub.

Despite its destiny to live a life hidden from the world, Arctic treats Senza’s passive cooler like the showstopper it is, boasting quality from end to end. Its gorgeous metal chassis puts the plastic casing on other SFFs to shame, all while doing a superb job keeping the CPU cool. We’ve seen plenty of passive PCs come and go over the years, but none led by a processor nearly as capable as AMD Zen 3.

Of course, Windows 11 Home N is something of an elephant in the room, questioning Senza’s supposed plug-and-play ethos. Instructions to get basic functionality back to what you’d expect are simple enough for the technically apt but could very easily trip up customers who want a product that works out of the box.

As you might expect, going fanless attracts a bit of a premium since there’s nothing like Senza on the market. You get a perfectly capable mini PC for €700, but keep in mind it faces tough competition from active-cooled alternatives. Geekom Mini IT12 features a more powerful with Intel i7-12650H at €50 cheaper and Apple’s new M4-powered Mac Mini comes in swinging with bespoke silicon at $600. It all comes down to whether or not you want to wage war on acoustics.

Verdict: Arctic’s passive cooling forms an impressively silent mini PC but its hamstrung OS will have you shouting in frustration.