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Minisforum Launches Uranus Series with the B550 Pro

Minisforum has added a new product to its growing arsenal of mini PCs, this one being a followup to an existing design but a much needed and welcomed followup.  When the original B550 released, it looked like a normal mini PC but with a socketed design, meaning you could easily upgrade to a newer CPU.   Since AM4 socket hasn’t seen any APU’s release since the 5700G, this wasn’t particularly useful on the surface.  The B550 had a hidden secret however, which was an external PCIe 3.0 x16 connector as well as ATX PSU connectors, allowing it to be a modular component in a larger PC – not too dissimilar to the Intel NUC Extreme.  The downside is everything was held in by brackets and was rather exposed.  The B550 Pro rectifies this by adding a case around it all.

In addition to the case, the B550 Pro brings some other upgrades as well.  Instead of only 4 USB 3.2 Type A ports, it now gets 6, plus a USB 2.0 Type A.  The solo Type C with DP/data remains.  Minisforum recommends up to a 5800X3D CPU but does not recommend higher power SKUs such as the 5900x or 5950x. Additionally it has support for a PCIe 4.0 M.2 drive as well as a separate 3.0 M.2  drive.

It will be offered as a barebones kit or bundled with a Silverstone SFX 650W power supply.  Currently it is already available from Chinese retailer JD.com for ¥1799 barebones (260 USD) or ¥2399 with PSU (348 USD).  It should hit other markets very soon.

Interestingly, it appears the case is a 3 slot design but it only supports dual slot cards for the x16 slot, as it’s using a bifurcated design with a single slot x4 slot adjacent.

 

Minisforum has added a new product to its growing arsenal of mini PCs, this one being a followup to an existing design but a much needed and welcomed followup.  When the original B550 released, it looked like a normal mini PC but with a socketed design, meaning you could easily upgrade to a newer CPU.   Since AM4 socket hasn’t seen any APU’s release since the 5700G, this wasn’t particularly useful on the surface.  The B550 had a hidden secret however, which was an external PCIe 3.0 x16 connector as well as ATX PSU connectors, allowing it to be a modular component in a larger PC – not too dissimilar to the Intel NUC Extreme.  The downside is everything was held in by brackets and was rather exposed.  The B550 Pro rectifies this by adding a case around it all.

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AlexTSG

Master of Cramming
Jun 17, 2018
599
590
www.youtube.com
Instead of this case, or the frame that's supplied with the original B550 I have, I'd love to see this supplied with an adapter plate and IO shield. This would allow the motherboard to be removed from the original mini case and installed into any Mini-ITX case.
 
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haunting

Cable Smoosher
Jan 2, 2020
10
0
Why would they recommend 5800x3d or any of the non-G series CPUs when they don't have integrated graphics? That completely defeats the purpose of the product unless all you want is a smaller motherboard