Reviews – SFF.Network

RTX 4060Ti Review: Part 1- Pricing and Rasterization Performance

I’m not going to waste time with a long and fluffy opening. Nvidia has launched the RTX 4060Ti and it has not gone well. By now, must people know the RTX 4060Ti has been a let down in terms of performance for the price. Let’s start off by looking at why. Why are Gamers Upset? “The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness…shadow and flame” – Lord of the Rings. The raw performance has been disappointing. The bus bandwidth and memory size has been disheartening. The price to performance has been …

Reviews Systems

Minisforum HX90G Review – 5900HX and RX 6600M at under 4L

Today is the last Mini PC review I’ll be doing for awhile. The good news is I think we’re ending on a high note, as the Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G delivers fantastic value for a PC. Before we get too far into the review, I want to point out that there are 3 different CPU’s offered with this PC, all equipped with an 8GB RX6600M or RX6650M (virtually identical) GPU’s. All 3 CPU’s use 8x Zen 3 cores with hyperthreading, but the clock speeds are different. I’ve added a table below to highlight the differences in the 3 SKU’s. I …

Reviews Systems

Minisforum UM690 (6900HX) Review

Today the UM690 follows up on our previous reviews of Minisforum mini PCs. Unlike the previous two reviews, we now have RDNA2 graphics and Zen 3+ CPU cores, which should offer a significant uptick in performance across the board. As you may recall from the UM480 review, I was not particularly impressed with the chassis that Minisforum picked for that PC. That chassis makes an appearance again today with the UM690, albeit with a more powerful 120W power supply. Keeping in previous themes of comparing these mini PC’s with equivalent ITX APU builds, I will be benchmarking the UM690 against …

Reviews

System76 Thelio Review

Before we begin, I want to thank System76 for their patience and extra time they provided for us to review the Thelio SFF PC. During the course of this review, I had a lifetime’s worth of events happen ranging from back-to-back natural disasters, upheavals in my career and financial situation, major medical events, and even deaths in the family. To my great regret, these events left me with little time for my passion for computer hardware, and required me to step away to get things settled. I greatly appreciate System 76’s patience, understanding, and support. The entire Small Form …

Reviews Systems

Minisforum UM480 (4800U) Review

Recently we took a look at the HM90 mini PC, today we’re taking a look at a smaller, cheaper, and probably less powerful UM480 from Minisforum. Minisforum released this last fall, but it was overshadowed by bigger news such as the UM690. It shares the same design, but it is built to a much lower budget. Despite this, it might be possible that it matches the HM90 we reviewed earlier, as it does have TDP limits unlocked in BIOS. SPECS & PORTS Like the HM90, the UM480 is using a 4000 series Ryzen mobile processor. The chassis is smaller than …

Reviews Systems

Minisforum HM90 (4900h) Review

Over the next few months I will be releasing a series of Mini PC reviews. Today I’m starting with one that I’ve been sitting on for awhile, over a year in fact. It is the Minisforum HM90, powered by a somewhat dated but still powerful Ryzen R9 4900H mobile APU. Like most mini PC’s, this means you cannot upgrade the CPU, but you can upgrade the RAM, SSD, and WiFi card. PC’s like the HM90 are quite a bit smaller than even the smallest ITX builds, and could easily be mistaken for something like a Thunderbolt dock. While the HM90 …

Power Supplies

V-Amp Studio PSU Extensions and Cable Kits

Whilst arguably adding bulk to the cabling in your PC, sleeved cables and extensions are a very aesthetically pleasing addition to any PC build. Paired with a case window, sleeved cables accentuate the attention to detail in your custom built (SFF) PC. V-Amp Studio, a vendor active on our forum and Discord server, is creating custom PSU cables and extensions to order – and invited us to check out his wares. Firstly, these cables were supplied to SFFn for review at no cost, with no request to return the cables after testing. However, at the time I received the cables, …

Cases Feature Reviews

Introducing the Fractal Design Ridge, a better, more refined, Node 202.

We would like to thank Fractal Design for providing us with a review sample of their Ridge chassis. Without their generosity, this case review would not be possible. Way back at CES 2019, representatives at Fractal were quick to quell our disappointment in their LFF case lineup by asking that we to stay tuned, and to rest assured that the ITX audience had not been forgotten. Immediately, I expected Fractal to simply take the easy route and refresh their wildly popular Node 202 chassis with some brushed aluminum variant but instead they released the wildly stylish Fractal ERA chassis that …