MINISFORUM Outs a Desktop M-ITX Motherboard with Core i9-13900HX Hardwired Processor

[btarunr]

MINISFORUM released the AR900i, an MoDT (mobile on desktop) motherboard in the Mini-ITX form factor that comes with a hardwired Intel Core i9-13900HX mobile processor and a pre-installed cooling solution. The board is priced at $560 on Amazon, with a limited-period $70-off coupon. This is good value, considering that the i9-13900HX is a maxed-out "Raptor Lake" based mobile processor that features all 8 P-cores, all 16 E-cores, and all 36 MB of shared L3 cache physically present on the "Raptor Lake" silicon. The P-cores boost up to 5.40 GHz, and the E-cores up to 3.90 GHz. The only catch with this processor compared to something like a desktop i9-13900, is its power specs that were originally designed for the power constraints of notebooks, with 55 W base power, and 157 W of maximum turbo power, compared to 225 W of the socketed i9-13900.

Since the Core i9-13900HX is a mobile BGA1964 package that remains hardwired to the board, it is not upgradable. MINISFORUM has designed a cooling solution specific to the processor, which uses a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink that relies on an 80 mm case fan for ventilation. There's a secondary fan-heatsink that provides cooling to two M.2-2280 slots north of the processor. Each of these two M.2 slots has a PCI-Express 5.0 x4 wiring, and using either of them subtracts 8 PCIe lanes from the board's sole expansion slot, a PCI-Express 5.0 x16. The board features an M.2 E-key slot that you can pair with your own WLAN card, it comes with provision for dual-MIMO ready antennas. The processor is wired to two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 96 GB of memory. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX and a single 8-pin EPS, which should prove sufficient for this processor.



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[lemonadesoda]

At $400, if that had 2x RJ45 I'd be buying multiple, dropping them into mini-ITX compatible 19" 1U that are in need of serious updating.

 

[Wastedslayer]

I'm wondering if the Amazon listing was incorrectly priced. I can't find it on Amazon any longer, and on the MINISFORUM site it's listed at 559$.

For 400$ I'd snag one of these to upgrade the kids Minecraft PC.

 

[Nostras]

These things look very interesting as a NAS replacement. I'd love for them to release a variant with:
- 7840U (or similar)
- Barrel power or ATX12VO
- Full sized PCI-E slot
- At least M.2 slots
- Preferably some SATA ports.

And I'd be very happy.
The variants released either don't have a full sized PCI-E slot or are power hungry beasts sadly.

But I'll admit that 400$ for a 13900HX ITX board is incredible value.

This is a bit better than the BD770i variant as the 7745HX is sure to have ass idle power consumption.

Edit: @btarunr I think you made a mistake, the pricing you're mentioning is about the BD770i variant, the AR900i is 560$ which is, imo, a bit expensive.

 

[bonehead123]

But I'll admit that 400$ for a 13900HX ITX board is incredible value.

^^THIS^^ or even at $500, it still presents a unified, ready to go solution that is powerful enough for all but the most demanding tasks, however.... since you need to BYO ram & ssd(s), if you also need to add a recent mid-top tier GPU, that would easily push the price into regular desktop territory and would make it a less desirable option from a $$ perspective...

But still a nice engineering and aesthetic accomplishment nonetheless.......kudos to MinisForum

 

[Forecastwolf157]

This thing looks amazing for emulation, would love to try some switch and ps3 emulation on that.

 

[Six_Times]

I'm wondering if the Amazon listing was incorrectly priced. I can't find it on Amazon any longer, and on the MINISFORUM site it's listed at 559$.

For 400$ I'd snag one of these to upgrade the kids Minecraft PC.

Not sure why it was mentioned at four hundred, its not, Its on sale for just under six. But still seems very good value.

 

[piloponth]

How many SATAs on the board? For the love of god, at least 4x SATA, so I can create a RAID10 NAS + energy eff. app server!
This board has 0... zero SATA ports!

OMG facepalm.

 

[Wirko]

h a r d w i r e d

Understood but I'd use this word to describe '80s tech, even though it's still used today in a more figurative sense (e.g. software whose function can't be changed).

 

[Ronnyv1]

Man if that igpu was the 96 eu version this would have been amazing for a plex server but no sata ports means having to use the pcie for a sata card is not ideal

 

[Tropick]

Man if that igpu was the 96 eu version this would have been amazing for a plex server but no sata ports means having to use the pcie for a sata card is not ideal

For real, should've gone with a 13900H..

 

[OkieDan]

Man if that igpu was the 96 eu version this would have been amazing for a plex server but no sata ports means having to use the pcie for a sata card is not ideal

Maybe try using one of the M.2 ports for a 6x SATA adapter.

... or not, I don't see how there'd be room.

 

[sauria]

Anyone build one of these?