Bosgame Beyondmax Bazzite Box! - When Hardware and Linux Align

Bosgame kind of caught me off guard late last year. They're a mini PC manufacturer I honestly wasn't very familiar with, and the system they sent over ended up being one of the best value mini PCs I reviewed in 2025. No gimmicks, no strange design choices, just solid hardware at a price that actually made sense. So, when we rolled into 2026 and Bosgame reached out again with the Ryzen AI 9 HX370 powered M6 and specifically asked for a Linux focused look on lifting Linux, that immediately had my attention. What I want to do in this video is step back and look at the whole picture. This is about understanding what this mini PC is actually capable of when you pair the hardware with an often misunderstood Linux operating system like Basite and whether that combination holds up as a complete system rather than something built for a single use case. Gaming is where everything comes together, but it's not the only thing that matters here. This is the Bosgame M6 built around AMD's Ryzen AI9 HX370. Rather than running down a spec sheet line by line, I want to focus on the parts that actually matter once you start using the system. The HX370 is a strict point-based SOC with 12 cores and 24 threads built on Zen 5, and it can run at power levels up to 54 watts. That puts it in a very different category than the low power chips you see in a lot of mini PCs. Graphics are handled by AMD's Radeon 890M integrated GPU, which is already far beyond what most people still picture when they hear the phrase integrated graphics. This unit ships with 32 GB of a very endangered kit of crucial DDR5 memory and a 1 TBTE Kingston PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD. Jokes aside, that configuration gives the system enough breathing room that it's not immediately constrained by memory or storage, which matters once you start doing anything more demanding than basic desktop work. Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. And this part really matters for Linux. Bosgame uses an Intel AX series Wi-Fi adapter. Intel's Wi-Fi remains the gold standard on Linux. [music] And right out of the box, networking on this system is completely painless. On the wired side, you also get dual 2.5 GB Ethernet, which is still rare to see on a lot of mini PCs. For IO, there's a fullfeatured 40 GB USB 4 port with display output and power delivery along with HDMI 2.1 and display port 1.4 for external displays. There are also audio jacks on both the front and the back of the system, which is a small detail, but one I genuinely appreciate. And then there's the feature that really changes what a mini PC like this can be. Oculink. Oculink matters because it turns this from a fixed performance box into something you can scale later. It opens the door to external GPUs without the overhead and limitations of USB. And that changes how far a system like this can realistically [music] go. We'll come back to that once we get into gaming. Before any of that, the operating system choice matters just as much as the hardware, which begs the question, why Basite? Well, besides the fact that Bosgame Beyond Max Basite Box makes for a great YouTube title because if I'm being totally honest, historically, immutable Linux distributions haven't been my preference. I've always gravitated towards wide openen Linux systems where I can tweak, mod, and mold everything into my own thing. But as I get older, my priorities are changing. In a lot of cases now, I just want a system that works without effort all the time. Windows has become increasingly hostile to focused work, aggressive ads, forced Microsoft accounts, data harvesting, unwanted features like co-pilot, frequent bugs, and updates that interrupt workflows or just break the system. On the other side, Mac OS is locked down and proprietary, but it largely delivers on that it just works promise. I've been using an M1 Max Mac Studio as my primary workstation for almost four years. And while I don't love Apple's ecosystem, the consistency, it's it's hard to ignore. Basite lands right in the middle. It's locked down enough that you can't easily break it in an unreoverable way, but it still gives you the flexibility to do almost anything you actually need. It's fully open-source, secure, and privacy respecting, and that makes it a really interesting pairing for a high-end mini PC like the M6. For this system, I downloaded Basite Desktop for AMD hardware and went with the traditional desktop instead of Steam's game mode. At its core, Basite is a Fedora-based operating system. And on a machine with an HX370 like the M6, treating it as a full desktop first just makes more sense than approaching it as a glorified game launcher. I used the Fedora Media to create the install USB because, well, that's what the Basite developers recommend. And while the USB was being created, I jumped into Bosame UFI. I made exactly one change here. Switching the power profile from balanced to performance so the HX370 could run at its full 54 watt power limit. That setting matters because it determines how aggressively the CPU is allowed to boost under load. After that, it was just a matter of booting from the USB drive and landing on the Basite Live environment. One small detail I really like is that the live environment uses a wireframe version of the desktop wall paper. It's a subtle visual cue that you're in a test environment, not the installed system. From there, you can poke around to get a feel for things or just launch the installer. The installer itself is about as simple as it gets. In my case, I chose to completely wipe the pre-installed Windows 11 installation. I have no use for it here and this system is always going to live as a Linux only machine. A few clicks later, the installation was finished and [music] it was time to reboot. No drama, no forced accounts, no errors, no driver hunting. On first boot, you land straight into the KD Plasma desktop environment, and that choice is very deliberate. [music] Plasma gives Basite the space to behave like a real desktop operating system, not just a gaming launcher with a UI bolted on. Right away, the basics fall into place. Wi-Fi connects immediately. Bluetooth pairs cleanly with an Xbox controller. Audio works. Displays behave exactly the way they should. And up to this point, nothing I've done requires a terminal configuration files or Linux tribal knowledge. You're just using a desktop. On displays, I do want to briefly acknowledge HDMI [music] 2.1 because yes, HDMI 2.1 can still be problematic on Linux, especially when you're connecting to a TV or routing through an AVR. And that's a valid concern for living room gaming setups. And I'm not trying to downplay it. For PC gaming though, I'm almost always using a modern high refresh rate monitor, and Display Port 1.4 is very much an option here. The M6 has it, and using Display Port avoids most of the HDMI 2.1 headaches on Linux while still delivering the same realworld gaming features like high refresh rates, VRR, and HDR. For how I actually game on Linux, HDMI 2.1 limitations just aren't a major concern. Now, before touching the terminal at all, I update the system using the graphical update menu and then open Bazaar. This is where I want to slow thing down because this is the part that really changes how Linux feels for most people. Bizaar presents a curated list of flatpack applications. And this isn't just about convenience. It's about removing friction. Flat packs are containerized applications that bundle their dependencies, which makes them far less likely to break when the underlying operating system changes. On an immutable DRO like Basite, flat packs are the primary way you install software. And for most users, they're the only way you'll ever need for gaming. That means one-click installs of Steam, Heroic Launchers, RetroArchch, Dolphin Emmulator, and Minecraft Bedrock. But this system isn't just a gaming box. So, I also installed OBS for recording and streaming, Caden Live, and [ __ ] for content creation. Libre Office for productivity. Rust rover and Visual Studio Code for development work. All of these install cleanly through Bizaarre. All of them launch normally and none of this requires opening a terminal. This is still just a desktop usage. At this point, it should be pretty clear that the Bosame M6 running Basite isn't locked into a single role. It handles creative work, development, and everyday desktop task just as comfortably as it launches games. Now, eventually, you might want something that isn't available as a flat pack. And that's where Dro Box comes in. And this is a part that scares people when they hear the word terminal. In practice, most users will never need to touch this at all. This is optional power, not a requirement. Dro is already installed and it lets you run software from other Linux distributions without touching the base operating system. Here I can create an Iuntu 2404 container, [music] install the Vivaldi browser inside of it, and export it to the desktop so it shows up in the application menu like any native app. Once it's exported, it behaves like any other application. Launching a YouTube video, you can see hardware acceleration working, audio and video playback are smooth, and everything feels native style budget rig to show that off. The second most requested has been Cashios and today even here the terminal is a setup step, not something you live in. This is immutable Linux offering flexibility without making you babysit the system. Of course, some software does need deeper system integration and for that Basite uses RPM Ostri. To demonstrate this, I install Mulvadp. This does require reboot and that's because Basite handles system changes a little differently than most operating systems. Instead of modifying the running system in place, it takes a snapshot of the current setup and then builds a new version of the operating system that includes the new VPN. When the PC restarts, you're not continuing where you left off. You're booting into that new version of Basite already set up with Molvad fully integrated at the system level. From here, I can enable the Mulvad service, and it behaves exactly like you'd expect a VPN to behave on any desktop OS. Now, I don't have an active account here, but if I did, it would work normally. The important part is the original system never disappears. It's still there in the background untouched, which means if something goes wrong, you're not stuck trying to undo changes line by line by hand. Here's the key takeaway of that. Even when you do make system level changes, you're not locked in. If something behaves oddly or causes an issue, you can roll the operating system back to a previous state. Now, after the reboot, the system is back to the earlier Basite deployment preVPN install like it never happened. That roll back capability is one of the biggest reasons immutable dros feel stable day-to-day. You can experiment without fear and most of the time you never need to experiment at all. Now, Windows applications are usually the next question I typically get. To address that, I installed the Windows version of Notepad++ using Lutris. The installation completes, the app launches, and it behaves exactly the way you'd expect. No hacks, no strange behavior, and this isn't magic, but it does show that Basite doesn't cut you off from familiar tools you still need. Now, I do want to be honest here. Not every Windows application works like this. Microsoft Office, Adobe's Creative Suite, and Autodesk tools, to name a few, still don't run properly on Linux. Open-source alternatives exist, but they aren't always drop-in replacements. For some professional workflows, including some of my own, Windows or Mac OS is unfortunately still necessary. That's just the reality today. Where Linux has made massive progress, especially in a relatively short amount of time, is gaming. Now, at this point, the system is set up, the operating system is stable with essentially no effort on my part. Software is installed, controllers are paired. Now, it's time to do the thing. this hardware name suggests it was built for. Steam is already pre-installed, so I can just launch it, log in, and start downloading games from my existing library. Compatibility is enabled by default, and if I want to, I can switch to Proton Experimental, or install Proton Upqt to pull in the latest GE Proton builds. Now, this moment matters because this is exactly where Linux gaming used to fall apart. Today, it's simply part of the out ofbox experience. From here on, the footage starts doing more of the talking. I installed a few lighter titles to get a feel for how the Stricks Point system handles 1080p gameplay. Let's just jump in. We'll start with a native Vulcan title, Balders's Gate 3. You can still force a DX11 launch if you want, but with recent updates, the game defaults to Vulcan, so that's what I'm using here. For all of these tests on the integrated Radeon 890M, I'm running at 1080p using low graphics presets [music] and enabling FSR where it makes sense for the title. Not for this one, though. Frame times are mostly very consistent, sitting between about 16 and 18 milliseconds with a nice straight frame time line through most gameplay. [music] You'll see a few spikes during cutscenes, but during actual play, it's smooth and stutterfree. Being GPUbound does show up in visual quality, though. If you watch the textures closely, especially the rasterized shadows, they're rough, jagged initially, and tend to pop in at the last minute, which can be distracting. Even so, we're looking at an average frame rate of around 58 FPS with 1% lows right around 50 FPS. That's a very smooth and playable experience for this game on integrated graphics. [snorts] Moving on to Counterstrike 2. This is again 1080p low with FSR disabled. As is typical for this game, frame pacing is a bit more jagged, but we're maintaining frame rates above 120 FPS, which is perfectly fine for casual play. I ran this map about six times and the average consistently landed in the low to mid130s with [music] much tighter 1% lows than I actually expected. That gives us a frame time consistency of about 63%. That's not ideal for competitive play, but it's the best results I've seen from any mini PC I've ever tested. Well, I've got more games queued up. But before we keep rolling, if this kind of Linux focused real world hardware coverage is useful to you, well, that's exactly what I do here on Lifting Linux. I spend a lot of time testing how actual hardware actually behaves on Linux, not just whether it boots. So, if you want more real world Linux builds, mini PCs, and deep dives like this, subscribing helps me keep doing that. And if you found this video helpful, a like also goes a long way, too. All right, back to gaming. Next up is Marvel Rivals. Running at 1080p low with native resolution. As expected, performance here is rough at first. Jagged frame pacing with frame rates hovering in the low30s range. I chose this title intentionally though because on RDNA 3.5 hardware like the Radeon 890M, FSR support is quite good even on integrated graphics. [music] Enabling FSR3 upscaling and balance mode along with FSR3 frame generation transforms the experience. With those settings enabled, the game averages around 70 FPS with 1% lows at about 63 FPS, making it far more smooth and playable. For Cyberpunk 2077, the story is similar, using only FSR3 upscaling and quality mode. Frame pacing is very smooth overall. There are a few spikes in dense outdoor scenes, which is expected, but the experience holds together well, delivering an average of about 72 [music] FPS with 1% lows around 60 fps. Taken as a whole, these are genuinely strong results for integrated graphics using shared system [music] memory. The Radeon 890M isn't just running these games. but it's doing so with consistent frame times and a level of smoothness that would have been unthinkable for iGPUs not that long ago. Now, every time I review a mini PC with Oculink, I get the same question about Linux support. The short version is that it works and it works cleanly. Oculink is just PCIe. From the operating systems point of view, there's no real difference between this and installing a graphics card into a desktop motherboard. There's no translation layer, no tunneling, and no special handling required at the OS level. So, to turn this already serious mini PC into a full desktop class gaming machine, I connected my Minis Forum Oculink dock, dropped in a Radeon RX970 XT, and powered everything on. Basite immediately detected the external GPU and set it as the primary graphics device. No scripts, no hacks, no driver juggling. It just works. Now that experience is very deliberate. Basi images are built around specific GPU stacks and this system is running the AMD image with an AMD GPU. All of the drivers are already baked in and maintained as part of the operating system. The kernel, Mesa, and Vulcan stack are already aligned. So there's nothing extra for the user to manage. Things do look different if you try to pair an Nvidia GPU with [music] the AMD focused Basite image. However, Nvidia requires proprietary drivers and on an immutable system like Basite, those drivers have to be layered on top of the base OS using RPM that adds complexity and requires reboots and can introduce friction during updates. It works, but it's not the same frictionless experience [music] you get when the GPU stack matches the OS image with AMD on AMD through Oculink feels exactly like what it's supposed to be, a direct extension of the system, not a workaround. Even with the GPU running over a Gen 4x4 Ocul connection, adding the RX970 XT completely changes what this system can do. At this point, 1440p gaming is a given, and even 4K becomes very realistic. Starting again with Balders's Gate 3, I'm able to push straight up to 4K ultra with a very small amount of upscaling. Not only do resolution and image quality climb dramatically, but frame rates improve as well, while staying consistently smooth. There are still a few frame time spikes during cutscenes, but during game play, everything settles down nicely. You can clearly see that textures are fully resolved now. Shadows aren't popping in at the last second [music] and volutric lighting looks the way it's supposed to. In Counter Strikes 2, I stayed at 1080p low, but this time for a different reason. With the external GPU attached, frame rates and pacing jump firmly into competitive territory. Even with a less than ideal mouse and a 60 Hz capture pipeline, latency feels much lower and the game is noticeably more responsive. I [music] ran the map again six times and consistency here was immediately obvious. [music] This finally feels like a desktop class performance. For Marvel Rivals, I ran the game at native 1440p high. The frame time graph shows a bit more jitter, but not enough to affect gameplay in any meaningful way. Final results are solid and there's clearly room to tune settings further if you want to prioritize either smoothness or image quality. Moving over to Cyberpunk 2077, we're now looking at 4K Ultra with FSR3 set to quality. Performance is very smooth and entirely playable with none of the frame time and [music] stabilities you'd expect from integrated graphics. This is exactly the kind of workload where the external GPU makes its value obvious. Where Oculink really earns its keep though is in games that simply [music] aren't realistic on integrated graphics. Clear Obscure Expedition 33 is a good example. With the RX970 XT attached, I'm able to run it at 4K epic using FSR quality and still get genuinely playable performance. >> [music] >> The same goes for Doom: The Dark Ages, which has ray tracing enabled by default. Here I'm running at 1440p ultra with FSR balanced. [music] This game blocks the Manglehood overlay and its own FPS counter jumps around quite a bit, but in actual play, it feels smooth and responsive, which matters far more than raw numbers on screen. Now, at this point, cost matters because context matters. The Boss Game M6 is currently selling for $888. And on the surface, that might not sound inexpensive for a mini PC, but once you break down what's actually in the box, the pricing starts to make a lot more sense. A 32 GB DDR5 kit on its own is currently well over $300. Add a 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, and that's another $100 to $150. Those two components alone already account for roughly half the cost of the system. From there, you're paying for a Ryzen AI 9 HX370. the chassis, cooling, motherboard, power delivery, and networking. Looked at that way, this doesn't feel like inflated pricing at all. What's more interesting is where this lands in the broader market. When HX370 equipped mini PCs first launched, many of them were priced well north of $1,200. Even today, some of the bigger name brands still sit above this price point with similar configurations. Bosgame is coming in more than $300 under those early launch prices and in some cases undercutting current competitors outright. But value here isn't just about the numbers on the price tag. It also about decisions Boss Game made the Intel AX series Wi-Fi adapter, dual 2.5 GB Ethernet, a clean and straightforward UEFI, and the absence of weird proprietary behavior all matters, especially on Linux. Those choices are the difference between a system that technically runs Linux and one that actually works well with it. That ties directly back to what I wanted to understand going into this video. The Boss Game M6 isn't just a powerful mini PC, it's a well balanced one. Paired with Basite, it delivers a Linux experience that's stable, flexible, and low friction. It handles gaming, productivity, development, and content creation without consistently getting in your way. And when you factor in Oculink and the ability to scale performance later, this stops looking like a short-term purchase and starts looking more like a platform you can grow into over time. For me, that combination of performance, Linux compatibility, and price is what makes this setup stand out and why Bosgame continues to impress.

In this video, I take an in-depth look at the Bosgame M6 Mini PC, a powerful Linux gaming mini PC built around the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX370 with Radeon 890M graphics. This isn’t just a gaming test. It’s a full mini PC review, focused on real-world Linux usability, performance, and long-term value. Check out this full Bazzite Custom PC Build - https://youtu.be/7VbGhYPDjSs Bosgame M6 - https://www.bosgamepc.com/products/bosgame-m6-hx370-ai-pc-radeon-890m-32gb-ddr5-1tb-pcie-4.0-ssd-mini-pc Products Highlighted (Amazon Affiliate links) 00:00 - Intro/Agenda 01:08 - specs & Features 03:24 - Why Bazzite? 04:59 - Installing Bazzite 06:43 - Exploring Bazzite 08:04 - It's Bazzar! 09:53 - App Installation with DistroBox 11:39 - System Level Installs 12:37 - It's all Undoable! 13:24 - Installing Windows Apps? 14:31 - Game Ready Out-of-the-Box! 15:14 - iGPU Gameplay 19:00 - OCuLink Support? 20:56 - eGPU Gameplay 23:50 - Overall Value 25:00 - Final Thoughts Find me on Social Media Patreon: / elevatedsystems X: https://x.com/elevatedsystem1 My Studio Equipment (Paid Links) Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K Pro - https://amzn.to/3tA6ScP Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7 - https://amzn.to/2VjqKSR Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ300 - https://amzn.to/2WJnxw6 Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art DC HSM Lens - https://amzn.to/3quDgM0 Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens -https://amzn.to/3uv13Of Panasonic LUMIX G Lens, 25mm, F1.7 - https://amzn.to/3A9f9Vi Magnus REX VT-5000 2-Stage Tripod - https://amzn.to/3GxsGJH Neewer 72.4-Inch Camera Tripod - https://amzn.to/3fsRuqU SMALLRIG Parabolic Softbox - https://amzn.to/3Hyvbxt SmallRig RC 120D COB Light - https://amzn.to/3S9Grp4 Kshioe Softbox Lighting Kit - https://amzn.to/3A5vZEq Neewer Camera Slider Motorized - https://amzn.to/3ltX54e Sennheiser MKE 600 Shotgun Mic - https://amzn.to/3fziRPv SAMSON Q2U Dynamic Microphone - https://amzn.to/3ikExBe Sennheiser XS Wireless Lavalier System - https://amzn.to/3ilSIpA PreSonus Eris E3.5 Studio Monitor - https://amzn.to/3CcVx4d Behringer U-Phoria UM2 USB DAC - https://amzn.to/3ZmyOOO Gator Frameworks Deluxe Boom Stand - https://amzn.to/3fs7Os3 Glide Gear TMP100 Teleprompter - https://amzn.to/3CdgIDy GLEAM Microphone Stand - https://amzn.to/3A4dth5 Davinci Resolve 17 & Speed Editor - https://amzn.to/3fsECRG AVerMedia Live Gamer ULTRA - https://amzn.to/3CCH5nV Apple 2022 Mac Studio - https://amzn.to/3GXW6mS LG 40WP95C-W 40” 5K2K Display - https://amzn.to/3ZtiiN6 INNOCN 15.6" OLED Portable Monitor. - https://amzn.to/3jEOqgu BenQ ScreenBar Halo - https://amzn.to/3XpUZ52 Audio file(s) provided by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com