Mini PCs get big Cyber Monday discounts — up to 26% off Minisforum Venus and Neptune Series
Are you looking for a good deal on a mini PC? Minsforum and Amazon have Cyber Monday treats for you.
We spotted two great Cyber Monday deals on Minisforum mini PCs, with two of the company's popular mini systems coming with big discounts. Minisforum is well known for making handsome and feature-packed mini PCs that cater to many types of users. While the company has multiple deals for Cyber Monday, the best deals are for the Minisforum Venus NPB7 at $616, which is 22% off its original price, and the Neptune HN2673 at $623, which is 26% off the retail price.
Minisforum Venus NPB7 is 22% Off on Cyber Monday
Minisforum Venus Series NPB7 Mini PC: now $615 at Amazon (was $789)
Intel 13th-Gen Core i7-13700H CPU, 32G DDR5+1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, 2x HDMI (4K) + 2x USB4 (8K) Output, 2x 2.5G RJ45 Port, 4x USB 3.2.
The NPB7 comes packing a tremendous amount of connectivity for a mini PC. The foundation starts with a 14-core / 20-thread Intel Core i7-13700H CPU with integrated Intel Xe graphics. The system sports 32 GB of DDR5 memory and a 1TB NVMe SSD in an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot and an additional SATA slot for a 2.5-inch SSD.
For display outputs, Minisforum provides two HDMI ports supporting 4K @ 60Hz and two USB4 ports supporting up to 8k @ 60Hz. There's also one audio jack. You also get two 2.5GbE ethernet ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, two USB 4, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A, and a data-only USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C port. The system includes an Intel 802.11 AX WiFI 6E+ BT 5.2 chip for wireless connectivity.
Minisforum provides an active cooling option for the PCIe 4.0 drive, with a much larger fan for the Intel CPU on the other side of the PCB facing downwards. The compact chassis has aluminum sides, but the top and bottom cover are plastic.
Minisforum Neptune Series HN2673 is 26% Off on Cyber Monday
Minisforum Neptune Series HN2673 Mini PC: now $623 at Amazon (was $839)
Intel 12th-Gen Core i7-12650H(10C/16T) CPU and Arc A730M Graphics, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2xHDMI / 2xUSB-C 4K@60Hz Outputs, 2X HDD Slot, WiFi6, 2.5G LAN
The Minisforum Neptune HN2673 uses a last-gen 10-core / 16-thread Core i7-12650H Alder Lake CPU, clocked up to 4.7 GHz. However, this device offers the additional charms of the Intel Arc A730M GPU with 6GB of GDDR5 memory.
While this mobile discrete card won't replace your primary gaming setup, it can definitely power some light gaming fun. Intel Arc drivers have improved lately with regular WHQL driver releases and optimized game-specific BETA drivers. This is a very different situation from the state of Intel Arc series driver support when it was launched.
Other specs of note are the system's two HDMI ports and two USB-C ports that support up to 4K @ 60Hz displays. There is 32 GB DDR4 memory on board and a 1 TB SSD with expansion options via two SATA III ports for 2.5-inch SSD drives.
The HN2673 looks well-ventilated and has a stand to place it in the upright position. However, for a mini-PC, this is a larger unit due to its powerful quad-fan active cooling.
Which will you pick?
Whether you want to use this as a family PC or a personal entertainment system, both provide great options. The biggest decision is weighing the NPB7's compact form and newer and more powerful CPU against the bulkier HN2673, which has less CPU power but discrete Arc graphics.
Both systems come bundled with Windows 11 Home by default. For the Cyber Monday deal, the Venus series NPB7 sells at $616, which is 22% off its original price, and the Neptune series HN2673 system is $623, which is 26% off the retail price.
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Roshan Ashraf Shaikh has been in the Indian PC hardware community since the early 2000s and has been building PCs, contributing to many Indian tech forums, & blogs. He operated Hardware BBQ for 11 years and wrote news for eTeknix & TweakTown before joining Tom's Hardware team. Besides tech, he is interested in fighting games, movies, anime, and mechanical watches.
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bit_user I want a N97 mini-ITX board with DDR5. I have yet to see any which aren't industrial-focused, thereby making them cost at least $350 and lack some of the backplane connectors I need.Reply
The main downside I see to the growing mini-PC trend is we get fewer modular options like this. I'm glad to see companies like ASRock making Alder Lake-N boards, after skipping a generation (had me worried!), but theirs are annoying just DDR4-based!
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