Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX (AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS)

[crazyeyesreaper]

Minisforum is eager to conquer the competition with its EliteMini UM780 XTX. Leveraging AMD's Ryzen 7 7840HS processor with Radeon 780M graphics, this compact system delivers exceptional performance. Thanks to innovative features, including OCulink or USB4 eGPU support, dual M.2 NVMe slots, and dual 2.5 GbE LAN, you have a well-rounded mini-PC capable of handling nearly any task.

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[bonehead123]

Forget da 'puter, I want that AWESOME Tiger face, hehehe

But seriously, the specs/features speak to a powerful, highly-useful, and versatile machine, especially the dual M.2 slots, dual 2.5G, & max ram @96GB, all in one tiny little box for $600/439....

GIMME, GIMME, GIMME, uh huh, oh yea (after some other reviews, of course)

 

[Zareek]

Thanks for this review, I keep waffling on getting one of these. I probably would have already bought one if it could use oculink and a second NVMe drive at the same time. I'm also hoping for some better quality oculink eGPU enclosures to come on the market. The current batch are all very basic. I'm looking for something that will fully enclose my GPU and has its own power supply. Something more like the Razer Core X with Oculink instead of TB3.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yep it is expensive isn't it :/

I have pretty much the same chip/ memory although went from 5600c46 to 5600c40 on an acer 17" nitro laptop that was just under 1k.us with a 4060.

 

[HeadRusch1]

Yeah, no. $750 for a 'plenty fast enough' CPU with a 780m igpu that gets 2-10 frames more per second than something like a 7735HS 'plenty fast enough' cpu with a 680m iGPU that only costs $300 to $350? Quite a premium for 6-7 fps more on average in games (again, depending on the game, some gains will be larger, some not at all).

Both offer USB4.0 for eGPU support. Oculink connectivity is the one thing that the 7840 has going for it, but that wouldn't be a deal breaker for me at these price disparites.

 

[HOkay]

I love that this is an option these days, so much power in such a tiny space. My reservations are the same as everyone elses; for a similar price you can get a laptop or handheld which both have other large advantages such as screens. Still, for the right use cases, this would be great.

 

[maxli86]

My question and concern is the driver, the last Miniforum PC I had.
I got trouble with the driver in particular the APU and mobile Radeon had issues with drivers from AMD wesbite.
I had to use MS update to install the driver so it won't freeze and work properly.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

My question and concern is the driver, the last Miniforum PC I had.
I got trouble with the driver in particular the APU and mobile Radeon had issues with drivers from AMD wesbite.
I had to use MS update to install the driver so it won't freeze and work properly.

I had no problems with drivers and everything was rock stable during testing. If there were instabilities it usually shows up when I do the specviewperf tests with garbage numbers / crashes / or it doesn't report on a specific test. It passed those just fine. I also had no problems during my gaming sessions on the system either.

 

[SA_NYC]

I've had this device for a couple of months now and I've found it to be brilliant for productivity use cases. (I haven't tried gaming in it yet.) While I realize it's possible to pay even less for something similar, I found the UM-780 a terrific value for the ~$700 I paid for a model with 64gb/1tb. Love it! Although I did immediately disable the glowing LED tiger as it was super distracting. Great device though.

 

[HOkay]

I'm really curious how this stacks up against the handhelds with effectively the same chip at a much lower wattage, especially in gaming. I haven't had a look for that comparison yet, I'm wondering how close my Legion Go gets for desktop use.

 

[vbq7qK68eyYAH4iR]

I'm really curious how this stacks up against the handhelds with effectively the same chip at a much lower wattage, especially in gaming. I haven't had a look for that comparison yet, I'm wondering how close my Legion Go gets for desktop use.

I suspect it would be a double digit gap, even against your Go. My Ally is limited to 30w turbo but this has 70w. Not having to try and share a small amount of power between the GPU and GPU would help a lot. Not only that, being able to cool that power effectively would be keeping the clocks higher as well, even though they’re both rated at 2.7Ghz GPU core. I’d think the real benefit of a device like this is to get a frame buffer of 6-8GB, AND having a usable amount of memory for windows and games. Being able to set Ultra textures but have low on the other settings would be a huge benefit. The handhelds are being held back with the limited RAM at slow speeds. Lenovo got it right with the Go, using LPx memory for better bandwidth. It’s a shame they stuck with the same 16GB.

The only game I have that has been tested is Fallout 4, but it doesn’t have a canned benchmark, so I can’t compare it to the Minis.

 

[Samus-AR]

I don't understand AMD logic, nor PCs based on this type of APU, for portable consoles ok but if we want to benefit from the 780M it will necessarily be next to a large processor which increases the bill, why not decline the 780M with other more modest processors, like Ryzen 3 or 5, in this way we can equip ourselves with a mini PC with a GPU which more or less holds up at an attractive price, when I look at the price of these mini PCs equipped with this type of APU, frankly it's better to go for a laptop PC for a few dollars more you will have a device equipped with a much better graphics card not to mention the fact that in the laptop PC there is has the touchpad, the keyboard and the screen and so on.

 

[HOkay]

I suspect it would be a double digit gap, even against your Go. My Ally is limited to 30w turbo but this has 70w. Not having to try and share a small amount of power between the GPU and GPU would help a lot. Not only that, being able to cool that power effectively would be keeping the clocks higher as well, even though they’re both rated at 2.7Ghz GPU core. I’d think the real benefit of a device like this is to get a frame buffer of 6-8GB, AND having a usable amount of memory for windows and games. Being able to set Ultra textures but have low on the other settings would be a huge benefit. The handhelds are being held back with the limited RAM at slow speeds. Lenovo got it right with the Go, using LPx memory for better bandwidth. It’s a shame they stuck with the same 16GB.

The only game I have that has been tested is Fallout 4, but it doesn’t have a canned benchmark, so I can’t compare it to the Minis.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. There must be benchmark comparisons somewhere, to Google!

 

[Zareek]

I had no problems with drivers and everything was rock stable during testing. If there were instabilities it usually shows up when I do the specviewperf tests with garbage numbers / crashes / or it doesn't report on a specific test. It passed those just fine. I also had no problems during my gaming sessions on the system either.

I bought an HX100G for my wife a little over a month ago. I upgraded the GPU driver to the latest AMD Adrenaline 24.3.1, no problems there. The one quirk is that the integrated 780m only seems to output on the rear USB4 ports and the 6650M only outputs on the HDMI ports. I assumed it would just automatically switch to the best solution based on load, like a damn laptop.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Why would you want to use the 780M? The HX100G's reason for existence is the 6650M, just keep that connected and use it. If the 6650M clocks down like the desktop 6600XT does, it's power use during everyday tasks is minimal.

 

[utmode]

I had no problems with drivers and everything was rock stable during testing. If there were instabilities it usually shows up when I do the specviewperf tests with garbage numbers / crashes / or it doesn't report on a specific test. It passed those just fine. I also had no problems during my gaming sessions on the system either.

Thanks for testing miniPC. Not many people are testing Beelink or minisforum pc. Good enough coverage. Unless I missed, It would have good to see noise level of the test unit.

 

[Zareek]

Why would you want to use the 780M? The HX100G's reason for existence is the 6650M, just keep that connected and use it. If the 6650M clocks down like the desktop 6600XT does, it's power use during everyday tasks is minimal.

Just power consumption under no load and light loads. It does really well anyway, around 20W at idle, IIRC YT at 1080p used about 30 to 40W.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Thanks for testing miniPC. Not many people are testing Beelink or minisforum pc. Good enough coverage. Unless I missed, It would have good to see noise level of the test unit.

Literally first paragraph of the conclusion:

The Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX is without a doubt a stellar performer considering its small footprint of roughly 133 x 125 x 60 mm. Noise levels topped out at 53 dBA during our testing at 15 cm while temperatures peaked at 82°C. Keep in mind that is with the system under extreme load. Under typical loads such as light gaming, web browsing, image editing, media playback, etc., the system hovered around 45-60°C with noise levels ranging from 35 (noise floor) to 42 dBA. All-in-all that is honestly quite good and since temperatures were kept in check there was no thermal throttling to speak of either. When the fan ramps up and the overall noise level climbs past the comfortable limit of 45 dBA, it's not an unbearable sound, the fan used has no harsh tones or bearing noises. So while it can be audible in extreme situations it's not too unpleasant. Furthermore, in the majority of light work loads it remains essentially silent. That said, I would still like to see Minisforum implement an option to set a custom PWM fan curve that allows for a better user experience.

 

[phxrider]

I just got one a few days ago and it's pretty awesome. It's as fast as my 7800x3d desktop at non-gaming tasks and runs cool and quiet. You can hear it when beating on it, i.e. gaming, otherwise it's basically silent and this is on the 70w profile in the BIOS. I'm too lazy to get out the DB meter and test it, and I don't care anyway - the reality is if you have any other room noise at all, even a ceiling fan, a TV on in the background, appliance noise, etc, it's virtually silent unless you are a foot away. An external Blu-ray drive makes more noise than this. I don't understand all the whining about only 1 SSD slot either - if you're trying to build a server, there are better minis for that (more cores, high-gbit ports for optical, etc).... Get the barebones model, think ahead and buy a big enough SSD for your needs. This also allows you to get a faster drive than the basic low-end Kingston they put in when you buy it with a drive. I got 48GB of RAM (the same Crucial Minisforum puts in it stock, which is excellent memory) and a 2TB Silicon Power US75, which Crystal-Diskmarks only a hair slower than the 990 Pro in my desktop for $50 less and is DRAM-less so it runs cooler, I thought that was kind of important in a mini. 48GB allows you to give the GPU 16GB and still have 32GB of usable RAM. Unfortunately, the GPU RAM allocations are in powers of 2 (2-4-8-16) and there is no option between 8 and 16GB - I'd like to be able to set 12GB. The Wi-Fi is the Killer 1675, which is an upgraded version of the Intel AX210 (which is almost universally loved), and it can use the excellent Intel Driver and Support Assistant that notifies you of new drivers when Intel releases them.

It runs Far Cry 6 at ~60 FPS at 1440 using 1080 FSR set in the game and using the in driver upscaling (RSR) to boost that to 1440, while still running pretty cool (case cool to the touch, air blowing out the exhaust only moderately warm). The 16GB allocated to the GPU let you run the HD textures, which with lower than 12GB will run fine for ~10 minutes and then choke your machine (so all those tests running the built-in benchmark with HD textures on 8GB cards are BS, it'll run the benchmark but choke in the game). Aside from the HD textures, which do make a difference, everything is set to low and FSR on the highest quality, DXR off. You'll need a real GPU if you want maximum visuals. It still looks pretty damn good like this at 1440, but comparing to my 7800x3d/7900xtx with everything on ultra, there's a big difference when looking at one right after the other.

Starfield runs at about ~40 FPS set up correctly. You have to set your monitor resolution to 1080 manually, which is a really dumb design, but then you can run it decently and use the RSR to boost it up to your monitor's resolution. The HD Reworked textures made a BIG difference in visual quality from stock. Pretty much any AAA game is going to need to be run on low settings on this, but the results are really impressive for an iGPU.

Ironically, AMD says NOT to use FSR in conjunction with RSR, but I found it to be the best setup with this PC for performance + quality.

Waiting on getting a GPU back from a friend, then next up is Oculink. I ordered a bare eGPU chassis from China to make an enclosure for one, so it's a little nicer than the PCB and PCB sitting out on the table with wires to the GPU and to the PC, but for now I'll just see how it works with everything exposed. Literally NO ONE makes a Razer Core X style closed eGPU enclosure with Oculink.

I had an issue with the monitor not waking up after screen timeout. I turned off auto-installing manufacturer's stuff (sysdm.cpl, hardware tab, device installation settings - set to off) and reinstalled the AMD drivers from AMD's auto-detect utility that installs the latest video and chipset drivers and everything else from AMD, and it seems to be better. My AMD laptop had a similar issue so this may be a "thing" with AMD mobile setups. There are also updated drivers from Realtek on their website for the Ethernet.

All in all, we're always going to want more slots, more ports, and more power, but for a tiny little box PC, this thing is VERY impressive.

 

[HOkay]

I just got one a few days ago and it's pretty awesome. It's as fast as my 7800x3d desktop at non-gaming tasks and runs cool and quiet. You can hear it when beating on it, i.e. gaming, otherwise it's basically silent and this is on the 70w profile in the BIOS. I'm too lazy to get out the DB meter and test it, and I don't care anyway - the reality is if you have any other room noise at all, even a ceiling fan, a TV on in the background, appliance noise, etc, it's virtually silent unless you are a foot away. An external Blu-ray drive makes more noise than this. I don't understand all the whining about only 1 SSD slot either - if you're trying to build a server, there are better minis for that (more cores, high-gbit ports for optical, etc).... Get the barebones model, think ahead and buy a big enough SSD for your needs. This also allows you to get a faster drive than the basic low-end Kingston they put in when you buy it with a drive. I got 48GB of RAM (the same Crucial Minisforum puts in it stock, which is excellent memory) and a 2TB Silicon Power US75, which Crystal-Diskmarks only a hair slower than the 990 Pro in my desktop for $50 less and is DRAM-less so it runs cooler, I thought that was kind of important in a mini. 48GB allows you to give the GPU 16GB and still have 32GB of usable RAM. Unfortunately, the GPU RAM allocations are in powers of 2 (2-4-8-16) and there is no option between 8 and 16GB - I'd like to be able to set 12GB. The Wi-Fi is the Killer 1675, which is an upgraded version of the Intel AX210 (which is almost universally loved), and it can use the excellent Intel Driver and Support Assistant that notifies you of new drivers when Intel releases them.

It runs Far Cry 6 at ~60 FPS at 1440 using 1080 FSR set in the game and using the in driver upscaling (RSR) to boost that to 1440, while still running pretty cool (case cool to the touch, air blowing out the exhaust only moderately warm). The 16GB allocated to the GPU let you run the HD textures, which with lower than 12GB will run fine for ~10 minutes and then choke your machine (so all those tests running the built-in benchmark with HD textures on 8GB cards are BS, it'll run the benchmark but choke in the game). Aside from the HD textures, which do make a difference, everything is set to low and FSR on the highest quality, DXR off. You'll need a real GPU if you want maximum visuals. It still looks pretty damn good like this at 1440, but comparing to my 7800x3d/7900xtx with everything on ultra, there's a big difference when looking at one right after the other.

Starfield runs at about ~40 FPS set up correctly. You have to set your monitor resolution to 1080 manually, which is a really dumb design, but then you can run it decently and use the RSR to boost it up to your monitor's resolution. The HD Reworked textures made a BIG difference in visual quality from stock. Pretty much any AAA game is going to need to be run on low settings on this, but the results are really impressive for an iGPU.

Ironically, AMD says NOT to use FSR in conjunction with RSR, but I found it to be the best setup with this PC for performance + quality.

Waiting on getting a GPU back from a friend, then next up is Oculink. I ordered a bare eGPU chassis from China to make an enclosure for one, so it's a little nicer than the PCB and PCB sitting out on the table with wires to the GPU and to the PC, but for now I'll just see how it works with everything exposed. Literally NO ONE makes a Razer Core X style closed eGPU enclosure with Oculink.

I had an issue with the monitor not waking up after screen timeout. I turned off auto-installing manufacturer's stuff (sysdm.cpl, hardware tab, device installation settings - set to off) and reinstalled the AMD drivers from AMD's auto-detect utility that installs the latest video and chipset drivers and everything else from AMD, and it seems to be better. My AMD laptop had a similar issue so this may be a "thing" with AMD mobile setups. There are also updated drivers from Realtek on their website for the Ethernet.

All in all, we're always going to want more slots, more ports, and more power, but for a tiny little box PC, this thing is VERY impressive.

Thanks for the great write up, it was very interesting to read! I'm looking forward to your OCuLink adventures. I've got the Legion Go which is more or less the same thing but with a 30W power limit & only 16GB of RAM & I'm impressed by what it can do. OCuLink would have been the icing on the cake since TB3/USB4 just isn't quite fast enough for a decent eGPU. It works ok, but it definitely loses a lot of performance, depending on your GPU, the game & settings etc. ofc

 

[Lew Zealand]

Thanks for the great write up, it was very interesting to read! I'm looking forward to your OCuLink adventures. I've got the Legion Go which is more or less the same thing but with a 30W power limit & only 16GB of RAM & I'm impressed by what it can do. OCuLink would have been the icing on the cake since TB3/USB4 just isn't quite fast enough for a decent eGPU. It works ok, but it definitely loses a lot of performance, depending on your GPU, the game & settings etc. ofc

Yes, I also got a UM780XTX based on this review and have a TB3 case from my NUC days. Older games play pretty well with a GPU in a TB3 case (SotTR, Ark, Rocket League, TR'13) but the newer games just don't. Not lower framerates but unstable framerates, uselessly so. Hogwarts, CP2077, TLOU all suck on a TB3 eGPU with highly variable FPS though they can be played stably at higher FPS (on lower settings OFC) on the internal 780M. I'm looking at trying out the Oculink to see if it's worth the effort as I already have a gaming PC or 5 but hey, life's for doing fun things and Oculink looks fun.

 

[phxrider]

Follow up: Oculink went really well, I bought a $22 Oculink PCI-E slot board from Amazon and a cable and pulled a power supply from an older PC. Used a staple-gun staple to jump the green wire pin (power on) to one of the black wire pins next to it (ground), put the GPU (6800XT) into the slot on the board, hooked SATA power to the board and GPU power to the GPU, and ran the Oculink cable between the board and the port on the mini PC. Powered on the PSU with the switch by the power cord socket and the GPU fans started spinning.... held my breath and turned on the min PC and it "just worked". AMD Adrenalin installed the 6800XT drivers without me doing anything (I know it was Adrenalin doing it because I have Windows set not to in sysdm.cpl -- Hardware tab -- Device installation settings [and recommend doing this with all your builds after Windows initially sets up and device manager has no more errors, so it doesn't replace stuff you install manually after Windows setup - just wait until Windows does its thing the first time]).

I played Far Cry 6 and Starfield, both played at very high FPS on Ultra with all the DXR options on in FC6, 70-80 FPS most of the time. Starfield may have dipped a little lower but I don't think it was much lower, it played like a real gaming PC, subjectively, performance didn't seem far off from the same GPU in a full size PC with x16 slots. I'm waiting for my enclosure to get here from China (May ETA), and I ordered a little longer cable after realizing this one isn't long enough to use with an enclosure that doesn't sit right next to the PC. So I should basically have a homemade Razer Core X with Oculink if all goes well.

 

[Zareek]

Follow up: Oculink went really well, I bought a $22 Oculink PCI-E slot board from Amazon and a cable and pulled a power supply from an older PC. Used a staple-gun staple to jump the green wire pin (power on) to one of the black wire pins next to it (ground), put the GPU (6800XT) into the slot on the board, hooked SATA power to the board and GPU power to the GPU, and ran the Oculink cable between the board and the port on the mini PC. Powered on the PSU with the switch by the power cord socket and the GPU fans started spinning.... held my breath and turned on the min PC and it "just worked". AMD Adrenalin installed the 6800XT drivers without me doing anything (I know it was Adrenalin doing it because I have Windows set not to in sysdm.cpl -- Hardware tab -- Device installation settings [and recommend doing this with all your builds after Windows initially sets up and device manager has no more errors, so it doesn't replace stuff you install manually after Windows setup - just wait until Windows does its thing the first time]).

I played Far Cry 6 and Starfield, both played at very high FPS on Ultra with all the DXR options on in FC6, 70-80 FPS most of the time. Starfield may have dipped a little lower but I don't think it was much lower, it played like a real gaming PC, subjectively, performance didn't seem far off from the same GPU in a full size PC with x16 slots. I'm waiting for my enclosure to get here from China (May ETA), and I ordered a little longer cable after realizing this one isn't long enough to use with an enclosure that doesn't sit right next to the PC. So I should basically have a homemade Razer Core X with Oculink if all goes well.

Please update us again when you get the case. That's one of the biggest reason I didn't make the leap. I want my GPU in an enclosure. Pics would be sweet too!

 

[phxrider]

Well OK.... Here are some pics, it came today and I couldn't help but tear into it....

Finished... well mostly (see below):

If you look closely you can see it's missing a few screws, literally LOL. This is because I stole some of the ones that shipped with it for the internal mods. I will get some equivalents ones from the hardware store tomorrow and swap them out so they all match.

From the back:

I have a longer cable arriving soon and will need to swap that out as well.... It's sitting on a place mat to protect the table, the screws are sticking through on the bottom a bit more than I'm comfortable with. They are also currently not actually held in by anything. I will get some thin nuts and then once those are on, grind off the excess screw.

These are some pics of the process I took:

Figuring out where to drill the holes - I installed the GPU into the slot and propped up the unfastened end with a screwdriver, then painstaking slid the board around under it and looked from multiple angles to be sure it was aligned properly. It sits a bit below the GPU without spacers (you'll see what I mean in another pic showing the spacers). I taped it in place to keep it from moving, before removing the GPU to drill it. In case you're wondering, I just left the board in place and drilled through the holes. It's like $23 if you screw it up.

This is with the board in place, those are the pieces that came with the case to expand the side for a fat GPU, I didn't need them so I used them as spacers. I had to shim them with two #4 washers under them as well. The rubber pieces came with a case, IIRC, they aren't really necessary. If you do this, plan on removing the GPU multiple times and checking the height. Just shim with washers until it's just right.

Admiring my handiwork... Actually that's more like relieved as hell that the holes lined up in the right place.

You can see one of the case sides with protective film on it. Only the base, back and top are metal, the sides and other end are acrylic.

No pic, but for the PSU I didn't want that massive snake of an ATX power connector, so I traced the pins to turn it on from the ATX side (which are standard and easily looked up) to the pins in the PSU connector with an Ohm meter, and then took the PSU plug and cut the wire for power on and a ground wire, and soldered them together, and ripped out all the other wires so I had just a PSU connector with jumped pins, so it'll turn on with the power switch on the PSU. When I have it apart next time I'll get a pic, it unfortunately isn't as easy as a Razer Core X to open up - you have to take out several screws.

Parts:

Oculink PCIe board:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP24YVW5?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Cable - too short but 100% works:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TG9DK4W?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Longer cable - have not received yet so I can't guarantee it works:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNH83CLR?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Chassis:

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If you have more time or need to use the dock expansion for a fatter GPU, get some spacers about the same length as the case expander ones that come with it, and make sure you have some washers to use as shims, and some screws that won't stick out as far from the bottom (or better yet, something that you can face the screw upward and have the nut on the top side, instead of sticking down underneath like I ended up with. #4 washers worked well for shims.

Here's before the case, I had to take pics of nerd heaven to show my friends and co-workers:

 

[phxrider]

ATX power supply power on jumper. It's the 2nd one on the bottom row and the 4th one on the top. I'd still verify them first if I were you, before possibly blowing up your power supply. This is a Super Flower Leadex 3.

I re-engineered the spacers because I wanted the screws to come in from the bottom. They didn't have the perfect size at Ace Hardware, so I had to grind a few mm off, but it came out nice.

Case bottom

Guts partially installed

Finished with all the screws in finally: