MINISFORUM UM890 Pro Barebone with Mini PC, AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS Mini Computers,8K Quad Display HDMI/DP1.4/USB4 х 2, AMD Radeon 780M/Dual LAN 2.5(NO RAM/SSD/OS)

I think I am done with full size computers. It's hard to believe just how fast these mini PCs have become and when they are built with quality RAM and storage and have great cooling while costing less than a typical full size computer, I can't find any reason to back. This little guy has 8 cores and 16 threads and nearly hits 5Ghz while remaining nearly silent and having no heat issues even on the most intense tasks. The RAM and SSD are made by Crucial and are not the generic 'cheap stuff' other manufacturers often use to increase their own profit. The case is entirely plastic. This is a good thing because metal cases block WiFi and Bluetooth signals to a point. With plastic, WiFi and Bluetooth range are fantastic on this little guy! I also appreciate that Minisforum sells a version of this exact mini PC without any RAM, SSD or operating system. These days, those components can double the price of a computer. So if you already have your own, its less waste and a big cost savings if you are a DIY type. I love this has USB4 and it has an OcuLink port. By default, with the model I ordered, it has a 1TB NVMe drive that runs at top Gen4 speeds (see photo) with no heat issues. Next to it is an empty M.2 slot for expanding the storage. Alternately, you can use the OcuLink adapter included in the box to install in the empty M.2 slot if you prefer to use it for an eGPU. Your choice and it's not sold separately. It's included at no extra cost and can be removed if you change your mind later and want to use the second M.2 for storage later on. While this mini OC can play plenty of games as-is with it's built-in AMD Radeon 780M graphics, the sky is the limit when gaming with an external GPU using OcuLink. This little guy does my photo editing and my video editing with ease and I can't get over how cool and quiet it stays! The RAM can be upgraded. It is NOT soldered in like other models. Same is true with the WiFi/Bluetooth adapter (a MediaTek) and the aforementioned NVMe SSD. Mine came with Windows 11 Pro 24H2. I updated it to 25H2 and update the AMD Adrenlin and chipset drivers and, again, I find it hard to believe you get so much in every category of computing and pay so little for it! The CPU in here has no NPU (no AI processor) so I also save money there for something I have no use for. I expect Minisforum to be a household name in a few years. They have been around since 2018 and I have been very impressed with their products, prices, warranty and support so much, I have been buying from them ever since with each year bringing new designs and more performance and functionality with each new generation. Minisforum just makes these mini PCs with so much unique ingenuity that many of their models have no equal competitors (yet!) So, for whatever it's worth, until you get one in your own hands and see for yourself, I don't know the words to express my happiness with this purchase!

This review is for the MINISFORUM UM890 Pro. I was looking for an all around fast PC with good graphics for gaming. I run multiple virtual machines at the same time with Windows and Linux operating systems. My gaming is mostly MMORPGs. I am very impressed with how fast and quiet this Mini PC is even with 100% CPU and 100% Graphics processing. Running continuously at 100% CPU and 100% GPU the temperatures were 71c for the SOC (entire chip) and 81c for the CPU. The system had no problems and the fans were still barely noticeable. The air coming out was warm, but not hot. The 4nm gate technology makes a big difference. It has no problem running virtual machines (make sure to turn off Windows 11 Core Isolation!). I use VirtualBox to run everything from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 11. Mint Linux 22 with the 6.1 kernel has support for the graphics in this PC. Earlier versions did not detect the graphics device. If you plan to use Linux, make sure you have a recent distro with at least the 6.1 kernel. It comes with Windows 11 Pro. It also starts encrypting your disk as soon as you install Windows. If you don't want your disk encrypted, turn off BItLocker encryption as soon as possible, so you don't have to wait for the disk to be decrypted. My biggest problem with Windows 11 was the Core Isolation security feature. It caused virtual machines to malfunction without any error messages from Windows about blocking access by software. It wasn't obvious why the virtual machines were slow, erratic and crashing. The network ports, wireless and Bluetooth work great and are fast. The audio on the front is clean and quiet to make the most of your headphones or sound system. This Mini PC is well worth the price. It packs a lot of power in a small space and still manages to be quiet and cool. I added a larger nVME module and the PC was easy to upgrade. I had a little trouble reconnecting the fan cable to the main board. It would be better if that cable was longer, so that the top can be flipped up completely without disconnecting the fan. The PC also comes with a separate OCulink card that has to be installed by you if you want it. The OCulink card goes in one of the M.2 slots. So, you might want to install the OCulink card and upgrade storage or RAM at the same time. Be prepared for reconnecting a tiny fan connector.

Worked for one day, then started failing. First, upon updating the OS, it needed to restart, but instead went to never-never land. Had to do a hard restart. Then it stopped responding to the button altogether, had to cut the power. You never know if it is working or not, the button is lit all the time. I contacted the manufacturer via their support form, and via their support email, there was no response. Then it just became a brick. Running or not was impossible to tell, but there was no display. Would not boot. Amazon was terrific, and took it back for a full refund.

Note in the picture that the Minisforum UM890 Pro is less than half the size of my Unifi USW Enterprise 8 PoE switch. The UM890 Pro is REALLY quiet. Under normal conditions you never hear the fan. I ended up putting a Samsung 890 Pro 4TB NVMe in mine to replace the provided 1TB NVMe. I run Ubuntu 24.04 on mine and it runs perfectly from the start. I have mentioned this little marvel on my @ScottiBYTE YouTube channel multiple times. I bought the UM890 to replace my Dell XPS 8930 which had developed problems. I configured the two 2.5Gbps NICs as an 802.3ad aggregated connection to my aforementioned switch and it is great to have a 5Gbps connection that hums along flawlessly. My only complaint has been the design of the BIOS. This BIOS lacks support for legacy boot. So, you will be booting EFI only. I suppose the fact that Microsoft has dispensed with MBR booting has influenced PC makers. The BIOS also lacks granular control over PXE booting features and for that matter I have not managed to get PXE booting to work at all. I have both Netboot.XYZ and a iVentoy PXE servers and my other systems boot from them fine. The UM890 takes the NBP download from the server but hangs on initializing iPXE. I use PXE booting for my backups and I am presently using a USB Bootable thumb drive as an alternative since PXE doesn't work. I emailed Minisforum three times and their support apparently had no idea what PXE was and told me they only support Windows thinking PXE was an OS. The last BIOS issue I found was there appears to be absolutely no provision for a BIOS upgrade to this machine ever. After 40 years of building and configuring PCs that is a first. In fact the BIOs is what I would call the "PlaySckool" BIOS. However, past the BIOS this system is completely and totally FAST and AWESOME and I could not have hoped for better. By the way, pro tip... F7 is the key to bring up the alternate device boot menu.

Nice little gaming machine at a great price. I use it with a KVM switch to easily switch between work and personal stuff. Runs Zorin 17 out of the box without issues. Only thing that would make it better is if it ran coreboot or some open source BIOS to increase my trust.

So far so good very fast and powerful mini pc. Love that it has occulink. Very quiet even while playing triple A games. Would recommend for business and for gaming, editing etc.

When my Minisforum UM790 Pro (purchased March 2024 via Amazon) failed after 1.5 years with the no-display-after-sleep issue (powers on, fans spin, no video), support was outstanding. They reviewed my troubleshooting (multiple monitors/cables, RAM reseat, CMOS reset, BIOS reflash), approved RMA quickly, let me keep my SSD, and processed a refund to my original order. Even better, they offered an upgrade path to the AI X1 Pro (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, 32GB RAM + 1TB SSD, $999.99). I paid the difference, and the AI X1 Pro is impressive: snappy performance, quiet cooling, tons of ports (dual USB4, 2.5GbE), and the Radeon 890M iGPU handles everyday tasks smoothly. Minisforum turned a frustrating failure into a positive experience through clear communication and goodwill. Highly recommend their customer service and warranty handling!

Great fast quite zero hiccups compact ez setup and configurable hardware