Compact PC specialist Minisforum today presented us with images and a press release detailing some new Mini ITX PCs. The unnamed upcoming PC series will come in both AMD and Intel flavors, based around the Mini ITX motherboards Minisforum showcased back at Computex. This means buyers will be able to order these six liter PCs with one of AMD's Dragon Range 7045HX or Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake HX 55 watt processors.
As you may have already deduced from the purported processor choices, Minisforum will be kitting out these compact powerhouse PCs with mobile processors. On the AMD side that means processor choices up to 16 physical cores, and on the Intel side 24 cores.
Containing these potent but power efficient processors in a very compact form factor, Minisforum has designed the motherboard / case to make adding a discrete GPU a cinch - just like with a standard desktop.
This is a pre-launch news release, so we don't have the full details, but we have distilled all we know into the table below.
|
Minisforum Mini ITX PCs | |
|---|---|
|
Processor |
AMD Ryzen 7045HX series or Intel Raptor Lake HX55 series CPU |
|
Expansion |
PCIE5.0 x16 slot for discrete graphics, twin DDR5 slots, twin M.2 SSD slots |
|
Ports |
Front: Audio, USB-C, USB-A, power button. Back: USB-C, 4x USB-A, HDMI, DP, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 3x audio. |
|
Power |
Built-in SFX PSU |
|
System size |
Six liters (1.6 US gallons, or 25 cups) |
|
Build |
Aluminum sides, plus wood veneer top, thumbscrew interior access (observations) |
It seems that buyers will have a lot of the same upgrade options available to desktop users, but in a small package. Except the CPU won't be upgradable here. Thus potential purchasers should consider the CPU choice extremely carefully for system longevity.
Some important things that we don't know, but would like to be informed about include what is the largest GPU that we an use?. With triple-fan and >2-slot consumer graphics cards increasingly common - how are such behemoths going to fit in this case? Also it would be good to know more about the cooling system(s) which might be incorporated.
Minisforum says that it is going to sell the motherboard/CPU component separately, which may be welcomed by some that already have or prefer other Mini ITX case designs.
Pricing of the above motherboards and systems will be announced at a later date. Be prepared for higher prices with these though, as Minisforum says they are "designed with high-end customers in mind." We are also awaiting launch / availability dates.
These new Mini ITX PCs from Minisforum look like they may be timed nicely, considering Intel's recent move away from marshalling its NUC project.
