Reatan A8
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The Reatan A8 is a palm-sized desktop built around AMD’s Ryzen 7 8745HS, an eight-core Zen 4 chip with Radeon 780M graphics. What separates it from the wall of near-identical 8745HS boxes is the port cluster: a dedicated OCuLink connector for an external graphics card, two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jacks, and a USB4 Type-C port that will drive an 8K display. Reatan positions it as a gaming and creator machine, though the same hardware makes a credible small home server or a four-monitor office box. It is a young product from a brand with a short public track record, so the specification sheet carries more of the argument here than reviewer consensus does.
Pros and Cons of the Reatan A8
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Dedicated OCuLink port (PCIe 4.0 x4) for an external graphics card | The 16GB configuration ships as one memory module, so it starts in single-channel |
| Dual 2.5G Ethernet, useful for link aggregation or a router/NAS role | Fans run high-pitched and louder than same-chip rivals in Tek Syndicate’s testing |
| Four display outputs including USB4 at 8K@60Hz | HDMI is 2.0 (4K@60Hz), not 2.1 |
| Two M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots, up to 4TB total | WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 rather than the WiFi 7 that newer boxes ship |
| WiFi 6E, VESA bracket, and a combo audio jack on the front | The 8745HS is a 2024-generation part, not a current-year chip |
| Six USB ports split across the front and rear panels | Memory ceiling is 64GB, below the 96GB some rivals allow |
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Reatan A8 Comparison Chart
![]() Reatan A8 | ![]() Reatan A8 | |
| Price | List Price: $449.00 Amazon Prices: Loading prices... | List Price: $599.00 Amazon Prices: |
| Version | 16GB/1TB | 32GB/1TB |
| Performance Rating | 8.4 | 9.1 |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Pro |
| Processor | Octa-core 3.80 Ghz (max 4.90 Ghz) AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS | Octa-core 3.80 Ghz (max 4.90 Ghz) AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS |
| GPU | Integrated AMD Radeon 780M | Integrated AMD Radeon 780M |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM, 2-channel (Ships as a single DDR5 module) | 32 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM, 2-channel (2x 16GB DDR5 5600MHz) |
| Internal Storage | 1 TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 | 1 TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 |
| Dimensions width x length x thickness | 5 x 4.84 x 1.73 inches (127 x 122.94 x 43.94 mm) | 5 x 4.84 x 1.73 inches (127 x 122.94 x 43.94 mm) |
| Weight | unknown | unknown |
| WiFi | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.2 | Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Ethernet | 2 Ethernet ports at 2.5 Gbps | 2 Ethernet ports at 2.5 Gbps |
| HDMI | 1 Full-Size HDMI Port | 1 Full-Size HDMI Port |
| DisplayPort | 1 DisplayPort (DP 1.4, 4K@60Hz) | 1 DisplayPort (DP 1.4, 4K@60Hz) |
| VGA | No VGA Ports | No VGA Ports |
| USB Ports | 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3, 1 USB 4, 2 USB-C 2x USB-A 3.2, 2x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB4-C (8K@60Hz), 1x USB-C (4K@60Hz) | 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3, 1 USB 4, 2 USB-C 2x USB-A 3.2, 2x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB4-C (8K@60Hz), 1x USB-C (4K@60Hz) |
| Thunderbolt Ports | No | No |
| OCuLink | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Internal SATA Ports | No SATA ports | No SATA ports |
| Card Reader | No Card Reader | No Card Reader |
| Headphone Jack | combo | combo |
| Fanless | No | No |
| VESA Mount | Yes | Yes |
| In the Box | Mini PC, power adapter, HDMI cable, VESA mount with screws, user manual | Mini PC, power adapter, HDMI cable, VESA mount with screws, user manual |
| Expandability | 2x DDR5 5600MHz SO-DIMM slots (max 64GB), 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots (4TB total). OCuLink port (PCIe 4.0 x4) for an external GPU. | 2x DDR5 5600MHz SO-DIMM slots (max 64GB), 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots (4TB total). OCuLink port (PCIe 4.0 x4) for an external GPU. |
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Detailed Insights into the Reatan A8
The chassis is a squat square, listed at roughly 5 by 4.84 by 1.73 inches, with a fine diamond-textured shell and mesh venting across the top and sides; the outer shell is plastic (Tek Syndicate’s hands-on flags the change from the all-metal case on Reatan’s earlier Alloy 9). The front face carries two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, a 3.5mm combo jack, and the power button; the rear holds the DC input, both 2.5G LAN jacks, DisplayPort, HDMI, two more USB-A ports, and a Kensington slot. OCuLink gets its own connector, separate from the USB4 port that would otherwise be the only external-GPU path. One thing Reatan does not document is whether that connector shares PCIe lanes with either M.2 slot; some competing boxes wire OCuLink through a drive bay, and the specification sheet here simply does not say either way. Reatan ships a VESA bracket and screws in the box, so the unit can hang behind a monitor.
The Ryzen 7 8745HS pairs eight Zen 4 cores and sixteen threads with a 4.9GHz boost ceiling and Radeon 780M integrated graphics. PassMark’s published average for the chip sits near 28,600 in the multi-thread CPU Mark, which lands it in the same neighborhood as the 8845HS boxes that dominate this price bracket and comfortably ahead of the Ryzen 5 and Intel N-series machines a tier down. The practical read for a buyer in 2026 is that this is a 2024-generation chip: still quick enough for compiling, virtualization, 4K timeline work, and 1080p gaming at medium settings, but no longer the newest silicon on the shelf, and without the NPU that its 8845HS sibling and AMD’s newer mobile parts carry. If local AI acceleration matters to you, that omission is the reason to look at a newer chip instead.
Memory is where the configurations diverge, and it is worth reading the listing carefully. The 32GB build is described as two 16GB DDR5 5600MHz modules, which fills both SO-DIMM slots and runs the 780M in dual-channel mode. The cheaper 16GB build is described in Reatan’s own product bullets as a single DDR5 module, quoted there at 4800MHz even though the same listing’s technical detail sheet says 5600MHz. A single stick means single-channel memory, and integrated Radeon graphics are unusually sensitive to that: budgeting for a second matching module is the single most valuable upgrade you can make to the 16GB machine. Both configurations cap out at 64GB across the two slots.
Connectivity is the strongest part of the package. WiFi 6E (802.11ax) with Bluetooth 5.2 covers wireless, though Reatan’s listings are inconsistent on this point and one of them describes the same machine as WiFi 6. The two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports open up uses a single-NIC mini PC cannot manage: link aggregation to a NAS, a software router or firewall with separate WAN and LAN legs, or simply keeping a lab network separate from the house. Display output runs four ways at once, with HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB-C each carrying 4K@60Hz, while the USB4 port pushes 8K@60Hz and doubles as a 40Gbps data link. Storage expands through two M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots for up to 4TB, and the OCuLink port runs PCIe 4.0 x4 for an external GPU enclosure, which is roughly 64Gbps of bandwidth against the 40Gbps a Thunderbolt or USB4 eGPU link provides.
Review Coverage for the Reatan A8
Tek Syndicate, which has reviewed ten to fifteen mini PCs a year for the last several years including Reatan’s earlier Alloy 9, has published a hands-on review of the A8. The measured numbers land where the spec sheet promises. Cinebench came in at 1734 single-core and 16,352 multi-core, Geekbench at 2573 and 12,950. Baldur’s Gate 3 at 1080p medium averaged 47.6 fps with FSR 2.2 enabled (30.2 fps without upscaling), and Cyberpunk 2077 with FSR ran 44.5 fps on medium and 50.7 on low. A 52-minute all-core stress run peaked at 88.6C with, in his words, “no overheating whatsoever.” The preinstalled Kingston drive benchmarked at 6,106 MB/s reads and 5,335 MB/s writes, and after scrubbing 4K footage in Premiere he concluded “this thing can edit 4K video just fine.”
The criticisms center on acoustics. The fans are high-pitched, with “a whistle like a jet turbine,” louder than the same-chip MINIX box he tested a week earlier, and noise is the main reason he still prefers the all-metal Alloy 9 overall. That MINIX box also edged the A8 slightly in Unigine Valley (73.6 vs 69.9 fps) and Superposition (5233 vs 5029) despite the A8 posting the faster Cinebench run. Opening the bottom panel, he found a thermal pad on the M.2, the empty second slot, and name-brand Crucial memory. Two gaps remain: he walks through the OCuLink port and what it can do but never attaches an external GPU dock, so eGPU behavior over OCuLink is still unverified by a third party, and whether that connector shares PCIe lanes with an M.2 slot is something Reatan’s documentation still does not say either way. His overall verdict is that Reatan has “crammed this full of everything you need and then extra.”
Conclusion
The Reatan A8 makes a specific argument rather than a general one. Plenty of mini PCs at this level give you one Ethernet port, a single M.2 slot, and a USB4 port as the only external-GPU path. The A8 gives you two 2.5G NICs, two M.2 2280 slots, and a dedicated OCuLink connector alongside the USB4 port, on top of a Ryzen 7 that scores close to 29,000 in PassMark. For a home lab, a router-and-NAS combination, a quad-monitor desk, or a small box that can borrow a desktop graphics card on weekends, that combination is hard to assemble elsewhere at this size.
The reasons to hesitate are equally concrete. The chip is a 2024 part with no NPU, the wireless stack is a generation behind the WiFi 7 boxes now arriving, HDMI tops out at 2.0, and the 16GB configuration starts life in single-channel memory, which is the worst possible footing for integrated graphics. Add the absence of any independent testing and this becomes a machine you buy on specifications and a return policy rather than on a reviewer’s verdict. If that trade sits badly, the better-documented alternatives are worth a look: Starry Hope’s Mini PC Comparison Chart puts the A8’s specification sheet next to them, and the Reatan X7 covers the same brand’s WiFi 7 chassis, while Beelink and Minisforum offer models with far deeper review histories.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Reatan A8’s OCuLink port use up an M.2 slot?
Reatan does not say. The A8 has a dedicated OCuLink connector running at PCIe 4.0 x4 and two M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slots, but neither the manufacturer’s product page nor any of the Amazon listings state whether the OCuLink shares PCIe lanes with a drive slot. Some competing mini PCs do route OCuLink through an M.2 slot, so an external GPU costs a drive bay on those machines. Until a teardown or a direct answer from Reatan settles it, treat it as an open question rather than a point in the A8’s favor.
How much RAM does the Reatan A8 support?
The A8 takes up to 64GB of DDR5 5600MHz memory across two SO-DIMM slots. The 32GB configuration ships with two 16GB modules, filling both slots. The 16GB configuration is described in Reatan’s listing as a single module, which leaves one slot open and runs memory in single-channel mode until you add a second stick.
How many displays can the Reatan A8 drive?
Four at once. HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB-C port each carry 4K@60Hz, and the USB4 Type-C port supports up to 8K@60Hz. The USB4 port also doubles as a 40Gbps data connection.
What can the Ryzen 7 8745HS and Radeon 780M run?
The 8745HS is an eight-core, sixteen-thread Zen 4 processor boosting to 4.9GHz, with a PassMark CPU Mark averaging near 28,600. That is enough for software development with heavy browser use, virtualization, 4K video timeline work, and 1080p gaming at medium settings on the integrated Radeon 780M. Professional 3D rendering in Blender Cycles and local model training are beyond an integrated GPU; that is the workload the OCuLink port exists to solve.
Why does the Reatan A8 have two Ethernet ports?
Both jacks run at 2.5 Gigabit. A second NIC lets the machine act as a software router or firewall with separate WAN and LAN connections, run link aggregation to a NAS, or keep a lab network isolated from the household one. A single-port mini PC cannot do any of that without a USB adapter.
Has anyone independently tested the Reatan A8?
Yes. Tek Syndicate has published a hands-on review with gaming benchmarks (Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077), Cinebench and Geekbench runs, and a 52-minute stress test that peaked at 88.6C without throttling. Fan noise under load is his main criticism. External GPU behavior over the OCuLink port has still not been tested by a third party.
What comes in the box with the Reatan A8?
The A8 ships with the mini PC, a power adapter and cable, an HDMI cable, a VESA mount with screws, and a user manual. Windows 11 Pro comes pre-installed on the configured models.
