Correction: The Beelink GTR7 models *do* come with HDMI 2.1, but it's not mentioned in their marketing materials. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out, I'm excited to see this become a standard in future mini PCs.

@DanielMuvdi

10 ай бұрын

Did you change your mind now that you know this?

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

@@DanielMuvdi I still prefer the look and size of the MinisForum, although it definitely makes it a harder choice!

@DanielMuvdi

10 ай бұрын

@@RetroGameCorps Thanks for your answer!

@rageUK78

10 ай бұрын

@@RetroGameCorps looks aside, the beelink has stronger performance also perhaps?

@BruBoyz

9 ай бұрын

What do you think about the GTR7 Pro RGC??

Thank you for including eGpu in your reviews. For me this is a major pulling point for these.

Dude, i found your channel by looking up retro stuff. Now I got recommendations from youtube of your channel. And I enjoy watching all of them. ❤

"Mysterious 2023 game you've probably never heard of" lol

@giacomofinotto

8 ай бұрын

What’s the game?

@NFKTN

8 ай бұрын

​@@giacomofinotto totk

@giacomofinotto

8 ай бұрын

@@NFKTN i know i was ironic

@qetuR

4 ай бұрын

​@@giacomofinotto Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

I need a tiny PC to put on my daughters desk for school. I know I could get something cheaper, but I am looking at this, because I like that it has more power. I think it would be fun to take her machine that she uses for school, and bring it to another room to plug into a monitor or TV duirng family game time :) The size makes moving it to another room possible. Thanks for this review and for your spreadsheet. That was EXTREMELY helpful to me. There are so many optoins here so I was totally overloaded. It is hard to konw what capabilities each of them are going to have.

The performance level is insane for an APU. Mind boggling really. Especially as you are testing "standard" resolutions. Outside of poor implementations of FSR (like Death Stranding) I actually think the image quality is overall better with a bit of FSR and some higher settings. These mini PCs are bangers. And yes, you can get a cheaper PC that performs better. You can grab something like a 5700XT or a 2070S a 5600 ryzen CPU and the finest quality 16GB of DDR4 you can find. But it is going to be big and bulky and not as cool. Would love a comparison to 6800H models and overclocking especially putting faster ram on the 6800 systems. Also bear in mind that there will be a performance uplift once these APUs get better driver support. Especially on Linux.

Switched to performance mode from bios and cranked memory ram to 5600 Hz (came with ram at 3200HZ for some unknown reason) upscale the GPU memory to 6 GB I managed to get 74 FPS on cyberpunk at low settings.....it's getting a little noisier but nothing to worry about..... kudos to minis forum they have done a great job with this mini pc...

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the tip! I saw ETA Prime set his TDP to 80W+ and got great performance, pretty impressive. This is definitely a fun little project to mess around with!

@CapyBara89912

9 ай бұрын

Hi how to upscale gpu memory ?

I've been wanting to have a pc again so insanely bad but havent gotten one due to lack of space. I'm glad I found this video. I decided to go with the upgraded 64gb ram and 1tb ssd. I'm sure that'll be great for my intro back into pc gaming.

Very nice that you also tested the most popular Emulators on this thing!!

Great review. I'm currently holding off for the EM780 which should drop soonish. To see how that stacks up in this. Then we'll see.

Great video, keep up the good work man

I think this is going to be the one for me. Saving up to fit this into a Gamecube Shell for a sleeper Gamecube PC.

@rylaaaaaaa

10 ай бұрын

dude, that'd be so cool. anywhere you plan on uploading pics?

@robert.sec2

10 ай бұрын

@@rylaaaaaaa probably to reddit, eventually, one of the retrogaming subs or r/gamecube. But it's going to be a while before I can afford the components

Love these mini-PCs. They save so much space, affordable, and have a good amount of performance Power too. Also, it allows for customized monitors and keyboards.

Tiny, cute and powerful! Now pair that with a mini display and you have a portable pc setup ❤️‍🔥

@CrumpetsNBiscuits

10 ай бұрын

The fuk am i gonna write and click with?

@RandomPlaceHolderName

10 ай бұрын

These aren't meant to be portable. They're meant to be inconspicuous. If you want portable, get a laptop.

@hiepbenh88

10 ай бұрын

@@RandomPlaceHolderNamei'm using chuwi hi10 go window tablet for about 1.5 year. Now i regret my choice, the heat and battery stuff is quiet paint in the ass. I should buy a mini pc and a portable monitor back then.

@Ash_1277

10 ай бұрын

@@CrumpetsNBiscuits get a keyboard and mouse 🤣

@RandomPlaceHolderName

10 ай бұрын

@@hiepbenh88 Or a good laptop.

Appreciate the extra effort of testing a eGPU.

I love little PCs dearly, the smaller the better. While Triple-A-games are super nice to showcase the performance of these boxes, personally I don't mind running those at lower resolutions, though. Like 900p or using FSR to get a XBox-One-like experience. Story driven SP are, what, around 20-30h at best? Maybe 50-60h if they are open world? What I'm missing in the PC testing section were games like Diablo 4 or zooming/panning around large cities in Cities Skylines. This would help to determine whether such a PC was viable to fire up instead of using the more powerhungry main gaming rig or eg. purchase for family if games like these were the kind being predominantely played by them.

I got interested in one of these after your last Beelink video. I have limited desk space (well, technically I’m choosing to limit my desk space by using a 48” OLED as my primary monitor, but that’s besides the point). I have a Razer Core eGPU mounted on the underside of my standing desk, and thought one these or the Beelink would be a good addition. I saw this one on sale for Prime Day, and even though I was leaning towards the Beelink, I just grabbed the Minisforum since I would get it faster than direct from Beelink. I only briefly used it yesterday before going out of town but I was impressed with what I saw so far.

@rogerhalt3991

10 ай бұрын

May I ask, how long did it take to arrive? I ordered yesterday and can’t wait to use it

Great, nice to see a metal case and a fan

Thanks for the video! Made me feel alot better about ordering it earlier this week haha. I've never ordered barebones before this one though, will it still come with the cooling pre installed for the m2? Or will I need my own? Also, you talk about batocera alot, but I couldn't get it to work. I tried something called retro bat that worked immediately. Is there a big difference between the two? Thanks again for the awesome video!

I’m upgrading from a Xeon + r9 290x, I just ordered one! Can’t wait to get it.

See you soon. Excelent video!

Worth noting for the CPU temps that Zen 4 CPUs boost to max temp (95C normally) as normal behavior, it doesn't make me any less comfortable with it (I have a Zen 4 CPU in my main PC and it's always disconcerting seeing it running at 95C) but it is how they're meant to run according to AMD. I'm probably going to grab one of these, it feels like this is the marker for the Steam Deck companion box. £160 in the UK for 512gb storage+RAM though is pretty steep considering how cheap NVMe storage has gotten so I'll probably end up getting barebone with current DDR5 prices.

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the clarification!

@chemislife

10 ай бұрын

That's actually what I did. Bought mine barebones and have the ddr5 and M.2 waiting for it to arrive. Going to use it as my travel gaming setup whenever my friends and I get together for a game night.

Your Excell sheet rocks by the way :)

loving mine! great for photo and video editing

@TBar-jn7iy

6 ай бұрын

I'm asking weeks later, but are you using premiere to edit videos? How does that work for you? Are you using 4k footage? Most reviews are only talking about gaming performance, not video editing. I'd appreciate the help!!

As always, great video!! What kind of screwdriver was that you used?

Love your content Russ. You're one of my go to channels for handheld and mini PC reviews! Just bought the UM790 Pro as I wanted to update my 2019 Razer laptop and didn't want to break the bank. I have the same setup as your review with the eGPU (RTX 3060ti FE) but I'm having issues connecting it to the UM790 Pro, how did you make it work??? The PC doesn't even recognize the 3060 and it doesn't want to accept the drivers either?? You're help would be greatly appreciated. Thx

Really fast I hope this gets to $399 barebones asap for any 7840/7940HS

The Wireless Connectivity difference between two models: Minisforum UM790 Pro is Wi-Fi 6E，BlueTooth 5.3 GMKtec NucBox K4 is Wi-Fi 6，BlueTooth 5.2

Great content!

Love this channel

16:34 I laughed out loud seeing the gigantic external Graphics Card beside the mini PC he's reviewing

Damn, that chip for that price is nuts, very intrigued :D

You are so right about the front/back USB4 complaint. A lot of miniPC manufacturers seem to do this and put their USB4 ports all on the front with none on the back and for displays, power, ega or very fast network adapter surely in all those cases people would far rather have the cabling tucked away at the back?

Thanks for the video. What do you think is the best way to play the emulated gamecube in my living room right now? I'm talking about performance, price and comfort.

I have the GTR7 Pro and it DOES come with HDMI 2.1, also the machine is sold barebones as well as specc'd out depending on who you buy it from such as MinixPC. May want to correct your statements.

It's nice the TotK runs upscaled nicely. It's a slightly painful experience at normal resolution on the steam deck so I was hoping it'd run better here. Mine is currently shipping from Honk ong so I'm excited.

I bought one of these and it lasted about 4 months before things started to go wrong with it - the case fan is very dodgy, mine started to make horrendous noise and eventually stopped working. In addition, the machine will randomly shut down and restart itself every few minutes. I have, of course, been trying to contact minisforum for support in the hope of getting a new fan, but their customer service is absolutely dire. In order to open the case to fit a new fan, you would need to remove the rubber feet which have been glued over the screw holes. great design, right there. I am advised by a relative who knows stuff that the shut down problem might be a bios issue so we might be able to work on that, but honestly I did not expect to have these problems with a computer less than 6 months old. very disappointed with the computer and also with the company and good luck to anyone who has issues with one of their computers because you will find yourself dealing with a brick wall. I would definitely not recommend.

With Intel ending the NUC it's great that options like this are available, and the AMD APU is surely better than Intel HD Graphics. I'd love to see a quick attempt of AAA games with ChimeraOS (Steam Deck OS for PC).

@akin242002

10 ай бұрын

The NUCs death has been greatly exaggerated. Revived/bought by Asus. I just don't know if it will keep the amazing customer service it once had.

It's a balanced set and a good product.

one differentiator between UM790 and GTR7 is the strange magnetic power supply of the GTR7. I can imagine the challenges in getting a replacement outside of beelink if it fails

@akin242002

10 ай бұрын

Also the fingerprint reader in the Beelink GTR7. The only mini-PC to have this feature outside of other Beelink options.

@julianfp1952

2 ай бұрын

Maybe I’m a very niche use case but I only buy mini PCs for my main desktop now because I have 2 homes with each home having an identical monitor/mouse/keyboard/webcam setup so that when I move between them I only have to pack the miniPC. That also means that I have a PSU at each home which is easy to do for miniPCs that just use a standard 19V laptop supply but for the GTR7 I would need to find a way to buy a spare magnetic PSU. OK, I believe it can be powered from USB-C but I’d prefer not to have to go that route and be able to reuse my current PSUs since it’s the Minisforum UM790 for me. I have read quite a few reports of it freezing but I get the impression that v1.09 of the BIOS has fixed that and since it’s available via Amazon there’s a pretty simple return policy if it’s immediately apparent that I made a mistake. It’s also nice to see that, judging by the numbering scheme, Minisforum have done 9 BIOS updates since the initial presumably 1.0 release; quite a few of these smaller miniPC manufacturers aren’t great at pushing out BIOS updates.

Nice review! I like this little machine, but I heard some people having trouble with video drivers. Looks like it won’t display correct aspect ratio on non last gen TV ( maybe non 2.1 HDMI?). Do you know anything about that?

The HDMI 2.1 port is what I wanted for using this as a media center

How does PS3 and 360 perform in Batocera (without the added gpu)? I picked up a UM690 after watching your review and was hoping running natively in Batocera would perform better than in Windows figuring it would require less resources, but both perform so poorly they are basically unplayable (tested Gears of War 1+2 and Uncharted 1+2).

For the heat issues, can you control voltage from BIOS to help the heat at the expense of some performance? Esp in cases where you may be using the eGPU it probably makes sense to do that? I've been on the fence of getting this or the GTR7 or GTR7 Pro and my only take away is that the GTR 7 and 7 Pro are not available on Amazon while the UM790 Pro is.

Hi Retro! Nice video. Can I ask you to test and put in this comment the results from wifi speeds and bluetooth range, please? Are they fine or not at all comparing to your mac or other pcs?

I do think your work is incredibly helpful, thank you. Where I get confused is all I need is a mini PC that I can use to play VR games via a headset, such as Pico 4. There is an over-load of pecs and data that I lose track. It does not have to be Win11. Can you suggest any in your opinion that might do the job?

@slicedpage

8 ай бұрын

Since posting I have tried a few mini pc's (thank you Amazon for your return policy) and bought the Beelink AMD Ryzen7 5800H. It does what I want and is very quiet.

Thanks for addressing the Razer Core X Chroma, Russ. I bought one three years ago in a sale, and had hardly used it. Got it out of storage last week to run a 3080 Ti with my shiny new GTR7 Pro aaaaaaaand… the enclosure’s broken. Won’t power on. Presumably the PSU’s died. Sad face.

hey there, thanks for all this reveiws ! do you think this is a suitable machine for 3D work , CAD and MAYA for example ? thanks !

Is it possible to improve cooling by adding an external fan to the bottom of the miniPC? to increase air circulation inside the box?

Great video. I bought a UM790 Pro as a result. I can’t seem to get Botacera operating on my UM790 Pro - i use a USB option but always get the Secure Boot error here. I updated my Botacera version to 38 (Beta) on a different PC as I read that can help but it doesn’t seem to help. Is there some other system settings to change on the UM790 to make it work? Thanks!

just wondering how good these are to replace the Intel NUC to be used for Homelab servers and virtualization..

I don't know what it is like for people in other countries but in Colombia, it is way cheaper to buy this rather than a laptop or building your own PC.

For emulation, assuming PS3/Xbox isn’t your priority, nothing beats the price and performance of the UM450, so far. Any chance we will see a review of the UM560XT in the future?

Hi @RetroGameCorps, did you try starting the UM790 using power over USB-C from the eGPU?

Does the MinisForum not have a boot menu that you need to boot it by going through the Windows recovery options? I thought all modern computers have boot menus just to find out, that my mini PC (not a MinisForum) doesn't seem to have one, where I have to go through the BIOS to boot from my second SSD (the system from my dying laptop). At least it uses ESC as BIOS key and lets me boot from whatever device directly from inside the BIOS, without having to mess with the boot order settings.

I appreciate how far computers have come because back when I bought my Dell XPS 8300 the price new was 1,000 dollars, I bought it refurbished for 800. This computer was considered a high-performance PC at the time, close to the performance of a gaming PC at the time with plenty of USB ports and an HDMI port. It came with Windows 7; I used it basically for streaming and browsing the internet. It finally died after 12 years, it's not the hard drive because the screen stays black with both cloned hard drives. I decided not to fix it, it's time for an upgrade so I ordered the UM790 with 1 TB SSD and 64 GB ram. I built a computer from scratch a long time ago and now I rather not mess with this work. I paid 730 for the UM790 so considering inflation 800 dollars back in 2011 is almost 1200 dollars in 2023. So I think the money spent for the UM790 is a bargain when you consider inflation and the performance of these computers, the Dell XPS 8300 doesn't have 1/3 of the performance of the UM790.

Could you please compare something like this to a 7840u or Z1 Extreme handheld? I'm curious about the difference between 30-ish W and 54 W.

I would think the Beelink GTR7 is better due to lower temp meaning lesser fan noise with option to increase TDP when needed plus 3x USB4 ports (1 front & 2 back) and most of all an Orange coloured casing option.

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

They're both great choices! I personally don't like the brighter colors, and all of the GTR7 branding on the PC -- I like a more subtle design. Small clarification: the front port on the GTR7 is only USB-C 3.2 not a full USB4 port. Still very handy!

@whoanelly-

10 ай бұрын

@@RetroGameCorps um, doesnt this one (minisforum) use higher memory freq?

Did you try to place a disk with a preinstalled heatsink on? Did it fit?

You can hook an adapter into the NVME adapter and hook up an external card OR you can literally use the USB 4 40Gbps connection for an external connection.... INSANE!

Please update the description or something on the RG353v black seraph android build to alert screen v2 users of the incompatibility.

This has a similar price with the 2060 Intel NUC in China, the NUC costs like 20 USD more but I believe it has much better gaming performance with the dedicated graphics card.

Also, Russ, re your summary slide: I have the GTR7 Pro, which runs the same 7940HS and has an HDMI 2.1 socket. I don’t own the 7840HS model, but I’d be *very* surprised if that too didn’t have HDMI 2.1…? Dealbreakers for me between the GTR7 Pro and the UM790 Pro were the rear Thunderbolt and DisplayPort sockets on the GTR7 - because both of my monitor’s HDMI sockets were occupied, but the DP socket was still available to me.

@chris67italiano60

10 ай бұрын

usb 4 is compatible with thunderbolt(and carries displayport 2.1), and two are available on the um790 pro(so for example one for charging and one to connect to a monitor via thunderbolt or a usb 4 to dp adaptor).

@rhythmandblues9302

10 ай бұрын

@@chris67italiano60 Good to know. Thank you.

@DanielMuvdi

10 ай бұрын

@@chris67italiano60 GTR 7 pro has 2 usb 4 40gb ports on the back aswell...

@chris67italiano60

10 ай бұрын

@@DanielMuvdi Yes I just said it wasn't a differentiating factors between the two mini pcs(unlike the placement of the ports, with the um790 pro having both at the front, or the dual hdmi 2.1 at the back).But the full displayport on the gtr7 pro negates the use of an adaptor if you already have a displayport monitor and cable(and any usb 4/thunderbolt ports can't be used).

I got the GTR7 Pro. Love it. Either is good.

Is it a good idea to change the VRAM from 2GB to 6GB in the BIOs for AAA games and emulation?

Thanks, this is great! I have some screen font artifacts in the 1.05 BIOS. Did you see this? I can't seem to find a link to BIOS Version 1.03 on their site? Does anyone have this? Do they not post older BIOS versions in an archive?

This one or an HX80g for a dedicated emulation/gaming setup? The HX80G is the exact same price still has eight cores and 16 threads but also has a dedicated graphics card (RX 6600M) I haven't been able to find any good reviews for this model but it seems like it would be a great choice for my dedicated arcade cabinet. Looking for something that will handle everything up through PS3 at 1080p resolution.

@acejon2162

10 ай бұрын

If it is the same price go with the HX80G with dedicated graphics given you don't really need this small formfactor size.

@HeavyInstinct

10 ай бұрын

@@acejon2162 Yes that is what I have been thinking as well. It would just be nice to be able to see someone put it through its paces before actually making a purchase.

I'm currently playing Baldurs Gate 3 on one of these. It's nuts.

You are from Geekom, it is normal for you to say that the product you are reviewing. That said, I've seen a lot of videos of the Minisforum UM690 PRO and it seems to be a good device, very competitive

So I decided to install Pop Os Linux on this box. Do I need to install any specific AMD drivers for the GPU to work?

Hello ! The spreadsheet link won't open on any video so I can't compare between consoles.

Can you change the COMS battery or is it Soldered in on mini PCs?

So you reviewed the pre-release version?

Is the CMOS battery soldered to the board or can you replace it?

so 7940hs cannot all games keep 60fps in 080p?how about RSR 720p>1080p/1440p? or can it oc ram 5600mhz>7500mhz and oc the 780m?

How come you don't include any trigkey models on your sheet?

With the price of ddr5 vs ddr4 I wonder if the Neptune barebones is a better buy with the 6600m and cheaper ram.

The company site and every KZreadr reviewing these mini pcs state/restate the 2tb limits on SSD and nvme expansion. Nobody explains why that limit exists including the mfr. Perhaps you could explore this topic. I have a beelink ser 5 with a 4 tb SSD as the second drive. And it works perfectly. I haven’t explored a 4tb nvme as a main drive, but that’s on the todo list. Please look into this limit on expandability. Thanks.

I've got a Lenovo legion laptop from 2017, with an i5 and mobile 1050 ti card, mechanical disk drive...and it's showing his age, so that nowadays I mostly use consoles and GeForce Now on my phone hooked to the TV thru hdmi, can this mini pc be a good replacement for my laptop? It's more powerful?

Any plans to review the Retro Shooter Pandora’s box?

Is there a noticeable diffrence in performance compared with the R7 7840HS variant?

Do these mini pc's allow fast ssd's? Like the sn850x and 990pro's ??

I know you’re a gaming channel but I’m new to mini PCs and I’m wondering if this would work well with video editing, photo editing and modeling software (like autocad).

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

Yes, it should be well suited for those tasks thanks to its pretty impressive multi core performance. Probably not 4K video editing though.

Just a thought, but are mini PCs the future - not just for gaming, but for every day normal usage?

@acejon2162

10 ай бұрын

MiniPCs definitely can be used for everyday normal usage. Plus mounting it behind tbe monitor means can be totally out of sight.

In the specifications it says maximum of 64GB. Does the bios not recognize 2x48GB DDR5 sticks?

Russ, have you considered testing VR with these mini PCs? I'd be interested to see if it'd be possible to have a more mobile or compact VR setup using one. Thanks for the reviews, your videos are always incredibly helpful and informative!

@stormtrooper2425

10 ай бұрын

Withough a designated graphics card vr might be a bit too much for it.

@RealAct

10 ай бұрын

I play VR on my Minisforum HX90G without issue. Pavlov VR, Half Life Alyx, No Man's Sky, VR Chat, you name it. This machine seems pretty powerful as well, I think it'll probably do fine, but I can't say for sure. If you want VR the HX90G or HX99G will do just fine for VR.

I was looking forward to the comparison with the beelink but you chose the wrong model. I would like to see a comparison with the gtr 7 pro. I am looking to purchase one or the other and I'd like to know if there any performance differences since the have the same specs.

@acejon2162

10 ай бұрын

GTR7 Pro should be better with the front & back USB4 ports. Plus slightly bigger size means better cooling with lower temp & lower fan noise.

@phillyguy8541

10 ай бұрын

@@acejon2162 Thanks, That's just what I have been thinking.

Going to review any Intel N100 boxes soon?

The Geekom A7 is out, it seems to be more performing. Do you share?

Can you provide details on how you got botacera (linux) to run in revovery modr. Minisforum support told me that is not possible without installing a second ssd and booting from that.

Question for @RetroGameCorps , how good would this Mini PC be strictly for live streaming or recording console gaming? I have an Xbox Series X, and an AVerMedia HDMI 2.1 Game Capture Card. It allows 4k 120fps Passthrough, streaming at 4k 60fps. Would I be able to do that on this PC?

I really want to get one of these mini pc's but the cost is just too much at the moment. I do have an alternative which is running coin ops as a non steam game through my steam link which does work really well as my new 'retro game console' in my living room.

Received mine today, and secure boot is locked! Any idea how to disable it? I want to use it for Batocera

The reason you’re not getting better performance in Horizon zero dawn is because of thunderbolt 3/USB 4. It has bandwidth limited. Try the same GPU with an occulink link set up like the Phax does :)

Just received mine earlier today but it wont startup for some reason. Did anyone face any weird issues on first boot?

Hi all, I bought this PC 1month ago and WIN11 keep crashing every time I use integrated graphics. I already updated drivers to latest one. After update of windows it do not crash when using web and yusutube that often as before. But once accelerated video or game is strated, it just crash. And of course if it is running long time it crash as well. Is there something I can do to fix it ?

Have you looked at their elite UM 780 xtx. Besides USB C 4 it has oculink

@geobot9k

4 ай бұрын

I saw that literally the day after I got a um790 w/64gb ram. Kinda bummed bc I picked it up to experiment with LLMs and even though it's way faster than what I was using before, mixtral 8x7B is still topping out at 5.50 tokens per second and 30B models rarely get above 2 tokens per second. Pairing a 40 series gpu with the um780xtx is def the way to go

If you use a 32gb ram instead of 16gb ram do the emulator games play better. I'm new in this or s it just the videocart that needs upgrading

If I replace the SSD in my steam deck would I be able to use the old drive in this machine?

@CFWhitman

10 ай бұрын

It should certainly be pin compatible. I didn't see the bare slot to see if it has a screw anchor for the shorter drive. The specifications page only mentions the full length 2280 size, so there is no guarantee it has a way to anchor a shorter drive. You may be able to find a video that shows the unit with a slot free so you can see whether there are screw anchors for other drive lengths.

Can you use SSD NVME with heatsink?