MINISFORUM Mercury EM680 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 6800U 32GB

MINISFORUM Mercury EM680 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 6800U 32GB LPDDR5 6400MHz 1TB PCIe4.0 SSD AMD Radeon 680M Mini Computer, WiFi 6E/BT5.2,1 x TF Card Slot/2x USB4/1 x HDMI/3X USB3.2
From the brand











Weight: | 570 g |
Dimensions: | 12.2 x 12.2 x 10.7 cm; 570 Grams |
Brand: | MINISFORUM |
Colour: | Black |
Manufacture: | Micro Computer (HK) Tech Limited |
Dimensions: | 12.2 x 12.2 x 10.7 cm; 570 Grams |
Properly fast little piece of kit! Replaced my old full tower gaming computer from 2016 and for the size of it, it packs a punch. Has no problem doing the usual computer duties, also good for some 1080p gaming if you don’t mind dropping settings to medium.
The bios GUI is a nice touch and the lack of bloatware is refreshing from a pre-built!
This is the second UM790 pro I’ve bought, as I had to return one with a jammed screw on the SSD mount. But this one, which arrived today, has a new plastic case top, and the WiFi and Bluetooth antennae have been moved. This should be a marked improvement to the WiFi signal, which has been frequently remarked on as being poor. I have not yet built in the RAM and SSDs, but it has a good reputation and hopefully will be great for what I need.
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.
Got it so I could still game while visiting family, since-then I’ve ended up using it more than my Gaming PC. It is a very reliable 1080p / 960 Resolution Scaled machine
Get a 2TB+ SATA SSD for it though, you’ll need it!
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.
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.
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 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.
What a brilliant purchase this has turned out to be. Windows 11 aside, I’ve had no issues at all and it runs quiet even when hammering the dedicated gpu. Best of all, this does output at 4k/120 unlike the description and the minisforum website that, says max 4k/60.
Ive not played the most demanding games yet, I’m working through some classics on my steam library. Max payne 3 flies on this machine, getting well over 100fps at 4k which looks great on my LG C2. Tried out some emulation 2 and everything I’ve tried with yuzu works great too, some at 2x resolution. I have this setup to boot straight to steams new big picture mode and within seconds of powering on, I’m straight into big picture giving a console like experience.
Biggest letdown is the WiFi card on board, I feel like speeds aren’t as good as what they could be but not helped by the location of where the pc is kept. I may upgrade to the Intel ax210 at some point since its just a standard M2 slot. Already ordered a 2tb ssd which I’m looking forward to upgrading and will give me plenty storage for my library.
Depending on your needs, I would definitely recommend this pc if it’s for a living space or you are short on room. Yes it’s not a 4k AAA powerhouse but will comfortably run modern games at 1080/1440p without Ray tracing. This should keep me going for years to come or until minusforum realise something a lot better than catches my eye!
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
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!