Systems – SFF.Network

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 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 …

Cases Motherboards Reviews Systems

ASRock’s DeskMeet B660 – Fantastic Idea, Interesting Execution

ASRock’s DeskMini series has been a stalwart in the SFF world for some time now, even with the canning of the GTX/RX series (Rest in Peace, MXM graphics cards). Eschewing standard form factors to enable denser computers, the DeskMini has been the basis of many builds and mods in our community forum. But the challenge with the DeskMini has always been hardware compatibility – only really supporting CPU, RAM and storage upgrades. What if we wanted more graphics power and more RAM? Enter the DeskMeet. As a larger brethren to the DeskMini, the new DeskMeet series significantly increases component compatibility …

Reviews Systems

ASRock’s DeskMini A300 – Finally!

Around a year ago, AMD graced us with the Ryzen APU family, bringing higher logical core counts and the Vega GPU architecture to the APU platform. Unlike the rather.. limited.. FM1/2/2+ platform family, the new generation ran on the AM4 platform, allowing anyone to choose between CPUs and APUs for their builds. What the new Ryzen platform also offered is a chipset-less option – A300. Because Ryzen integrates so many controllers and devices into the die, it is possible to create a motherboard with no chipset at all, much like the ill-fated AM1 platform. SATA, PCIe, RAM, and more fed …

Reviews Systems

Guest Review: ECS Liva Z2

This review has been provided by forum member Duality92! Editing has been performed by John Morrison. I would like to take this opportunity to thank ECS for this product sample, they have provided me with an ECS Liva Z2 for the purpose of this review. ECS is no newcomer in the Mini PC world, this is the third unit I have reviewed, the others being the Liva Plus and the miniscule Liva Q. The Liva Z2 is the latest generation of the fanless Mini PC lineup from ECS. It sports the Intel Gemini Lake CPU, which were released in Q4 …

Reviews Systems

ASRock’s DeskMini 310 – NUC Killer?

We’ve looked at ASRock’s DeskMini range in the past, with in depth analysis of the B250 and Z370 series DeskMini GTX/RX models – with GTX1080 and GTX1060 GPUs included. These cater for the high end, with prices to suit. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the DeskMini 110 and 310 – Mini-STX rather than Micro-STX, and integrated graphics only. The barebones market is an interesting one – DIY PC with less DIY, but better manufacturer support. Buy a barebones box, slap in a CPU, RAM and storage and you’re off – no power supply selection headaches, board …

Reviews Systems

ASRock’s Z370 DeskMini GTX1060 – Barebones Bonanza? (Part 2)

In part one of this article, we tore down and set up the ASRock DeskMini GTX1060, a Micro-STX based barebones system that comes with a MXM format GTX1060 6GB GPU. In this second part of the review, we will look more in depth, to gain a deeper understanding of the Deskmini GTX/RX Z370, and see what it is capable of. As a recap, the ASRock DeskMini GTX/RX Z370 is a well designed Micro-STX barebones system, that in part 1, gained my recommendation, and my conversion from M-ITX to Micro-STX for my personal preference. The design of the platform, as well …