MINIS FORUM Venus UM790 Pro Mini PC AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS up
MINIS FORUM Venus UM790 Pro Mini PC AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS up to 5.2 GHz 32 GB DDR5 1TB SSD with AMD Radeon 780M, 4x USB3.2, 2x USB4, 2xHDMI 2.1, 2x PCIe4.0, Wi-Fi 6E/BT5.3, RJ45 2.5 G, Windows 11 Pro
From the brand
| Weight: | 1.77 kg |
| Dimensions: | 18.4 x 16.3 x 11.4 cm; 1.77 Kilograms |
| Brand: | MINIS FORUM |
| Colour: | Black |
| Manufacture: | Micro Computer (HK) Tech Limited |
| Dimensions: | 18.4 x 16.3 x 11.4 cm; 1.77 Kilograms |
Haven’t been disappointed. Plug and play. Really quick set up Inc fast download and installation of all updates.
General speed is very good. Smooth transition between apps.
My son tried online games which had been a bit laggy on his older gaming pc. He was really impressed. Very smooth gameplay. I feared I’d lost it to him for a while.
No issues with this at all so far.
Would highly recommend.
Not to play games on. I am using it to help container development. Fantastic. More power than I need. The bonus is that the graphics are well beyond my command line requirements, if you need that.
However, it does have a thunderbolt 4 port for use with an external GPU.. I decided to buy a razor core x external gpu enclosure and equip it with my nvidia 1070ti from my desktop. After plugging it all in it was initially working – for three or 4 days. Then a few days ago, it just stopped detecting the graphics card over the thunderbolt port.. I have found similar problem reports on the minisforum forums. So if use of an external GPU is important to you, I would probably recommend not purchasing a UM690 unfortunately. It should work on paper, but your mileage may vary.
Also, as it turns out that the Ryzen 9 8/16 core is slightly faster than an M2 – it is now going to be my Handbrake encoder as it’s so much faster than the M1 Macbook Air I’d been using for that. The GPU will max out in all games the but CPU barely shows any load.
In future, I’ll increase the chipset TDP up to the full 65W and, once I’ve exploited that full, all the CPU overhead suggests an eGPU in a couple of years may well be the next step.
Anyway, great purchase!
This small pc is very fast and easy to upgrade, you can add more RAM or one more ssd, I very happy with it, and if you believe or not I can play forza horizon 5 without any lag.
MinisForum promptly sent me a replacement PC that now functions as expected, and I’m genuinely pleased with the level of customer support I received. If anyone encounters similar problems with this product after the Amazon return window has closed, I recommend reaching out to MinisForum via their Facebook page. They are incredibly helpful and responsive.
I hooked this mini PC up to my TV primarily for gaming including emulation and as a general media PC. Amazing how far technology has come that a decent performing PC can be bought in such a small form factor. I tried some 1080p gaming with some modern titles and it handled them well. Not a system for 4k or ultra settings but a PC capable of good results from integrated graphics. Overall pleased can recommend.
It arrived and I was so excited to try it. The MINISFORUM EM680 has a Ryzen 7 8c/16t CPU with 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD. For the price that I got it for around 479 was a steal. Other computers of this spec were more expensive.
However, this computer does come with some drawbacks. For example, the RAM appears to be soldered, therefore, no upgrades from the 32GB. For most that will never be a problem but for my use case maybe.
The CPU, it runs around 50 degrees celsius idle, which is absolutely astonishing considering the size of this machine.
GAMING… This computer albeit not sold as a gaming machine, is certainly able to game. And I am not just talking about small indie games. I was able to play GTA V at 1080p 30FPS. Now that is impressive. BUT… Cyberpunk 2077 brought this computer to its knees only getting 10FPS!
This computer has one other downside and that is the significant lack of an ethernet port but makes up for that with WiFi 6E. Again for most people, it won’t be a problem but for me it was.
I am not returning this item as I think it is awesome and cannot wait to see the next version!
I haven’t even tried adding an external graphics card with occulink yet. Honestly, I’m not even sure I’ll need to with the games I play. This machine is just a beast.
It amazes me how far pcs have come over the years. But this one is pushing the boundaries of what I even thought was possible.
I’d say we’ll done minisforum, but most of the credit here goes to amd. Minis forum packaged it all and did a good job. The the performance is coming from that amd cpu and graphics card.
I can’t fault it. If its still on sale and you need a new pc, nothing, and I mean nothing on the market right now compares.
It is small but as its on/off button is on the front it needs to be visible or accesible. It is very quiet and fast. Very pleased. Can’t give a score on gaming as I don’t game but as it does not have a seperate graphics card it might not be suitable. It was easy to insert extra SSD. Lots of ports.
I have this in my home office for video conferencing, it’s great for Teams/Zoom presentations, I do have mine elevated on a shelf beside the conference monitor for better camera angles.
It does have one problem, the audio output is very noisy. This is present whether the HDMI or headphone socket is used or using an external D/A converter and appears to be related to radiated noise from the processor.
This is present on the UM690 and UM590 which I have set up for other users.
Fan noise however is non-existant especially when used flat on the desk rather than in the stand supplied.
Contrary to some comments, I find Windows 11 to be at least as stable as Windows 10 and the updates that have come through in recent months now make it the O/S of choice.
25th June 2023
Running it for a couple of months now and its held up well, no crashes, BSOD or other weirdness, updated the AMD drivers without incident and gone through a couple of Windows 11 updates too! I leave it on 24×7 and if I am not running World of Warships the fans are not audible and it sips power!
By Comparison, for the same amount of money, the MF comes with 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD, both branded Kingston. It also includes Windows 11 Pro which was straightforward to set up out of the box, and a powerful AMD processor.
The MF fan spins up when the machine is first switched on, which I think it just a re-assuring check that the fan is working, before settling down to silent operation.
The only issue that I have had is that it failed to switch on after a couple of weeks and I diagnosed the issue to a faulty power supply, so thankfully nothing wrong with the unit itself. I contacted MF and they responded quickly notifying me that the company who supplies their power supplies had none in stock but they directed me to another compatible power supply on Amazon, which I then ordered and they reimbursed me within 48 hours. They have been very easy to deal with and professional.
Incidentally, I too was worried about the cooling prowess of this small machine, so I copied a UM690 video reviewer who ran Prime95 testing on this unit and I did the same thing, running Prime95 for 30mins and my temps were actually lower at around 72C – this is truly impressive. (The video reviewer was very impressed that his temps had ran at around 78C). Normal operation is silent and the temps are usually around 42C. This is genuinely impressive for such a small machine with a fairly powerful CPU. Incidentally, I purchased the pre-built specification, rather than the barebones. I think some users have been reporting mixed results with barebones.
I had no difficulty in attaching to the USB ports at the back and they all work as expected.
In summary, the Zotac has been great and if this MF continues as strongly as it has started, I expect it to be a solid purchase, with great customer support and so I have no difficulty in recommending it.
Many Thanks.
Performance is good and it has loads of ports too. The only reason I’m not giving this 5 stars is because of the fan noise. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t take much for the fan to kick in and it is louder than you would expect it to be. Ironically if you install Linux (Ubuntu or Fedora for example, I tried both) then the fan noise is much less.
I will actually be buying more of these to sit in a home lab, but they won’t be anywhere near my desk because of the noise.
I have the version with 2 HDMI, 2 Display Port sockets plus 2 internal SATA drive bays. I’ve added a 4TB SSD, a 2TB SSD and replaced the m.2 device with a 2TB stick to meet my photography needs. It sits just under my desk, but I’ve never heard the fans make a noise. I don’t play games so cannot make a comment on it’s abilities in that sphere.
What would make it better? If I could name only one – it would be support for more than one m.2 device.
The inclusion of windows 11 is a bit of a let down (because I can’t stand windows 11) it might have been better to include windows 10 as you have the option to upgrade for free if you really really want it.
I have had a few software crashes in things like development software and virtual box that don’t bode particularly well, but with PC’s you can never quite be sure where things are messing up. For all I know this is just a windows 11 thing. Unless I see a smoking gun I’m not going to point fingers at the hardware.
I did try to get support from minis forum regarding memory upgrades. I was VERY disappointed. They respond quickly enough, just don’t expect knowledgeable responses. That said I get very irate with Dell support so this might not mean anything
Yeah decent machine, love the DP and HDMI connectivity. Fast enough for general use PCing and mid-level gaming which is all I use it for.
Even playing football manager 2022 is making the fan buzz like a cheap laptop so I don’t know what would happen with a FPS game like call of duty or battlefield!
The vertically mounted computer is almost silent, except when the fan racks up for cpu-intensive processing, when it throws out a surprising amount of hot air. This indicates that the relatively “state of the art” liquid metal cooling does facilitate excellent heat transfer. Video processing is as fast as one would expect of an 8 core Ryzen 9 chip. The integral graphic processor in the chip works fine with my single 4K monitor and external usb3 blue ray disc drive / recorder. This is a fast machine. What is not fast is the tedious business of reloading software onto windows, a problem of Microsoft not the machine.
Value for money, particularly if you get a good voucher deal, is excellent. I have no experience using the machine for gaming nor have I needed to contact the seller, so I have not rated those items.
Perhaps the best recommendation is that I was sufficiently impressed with the machine that a few weeks later I bought one for my wife. I would have preferred to buy her a more “goof-proof” MiniMac with M1 chip, not that much more expensive. However she is addicted to a particular legacy piece of Microsoft software which, to my surprise, still runs fine on Windows 11.
I rarely write Amazon reviews and it is early days yet, but two happy users of the Minisforum Ryzen 5900HX MiniPC here!
Waiting for a replacement power pack so haven’t used the machine yet, will update when we have.
Unfortunately mine is faulty with a sound problem. so can’t say much more. Did contact manufacturer support got one email from them and then nothing else even though I emailed them again,
I can only give it 4 stars due to sound problem. Will ask for replacement. Have to reorder as no provision replacement on Amazon. Amazon picking up faulty unit and manufacturer appologised for inconvenience caused. Second pc absolutely fine