MINISFORUMUM690L Slim Mini PC AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX LPDDR5 32GB RAM 1TB PCIe4.0 SSD, USB4(8K) + HDMI + DP Outputs 2.5G LAN WiFi6E BT5.3, Radeon 680M Graphics Desktop Computer

This machine looked amazing, so I got the barebones version knowing it would be a bit of work, but I wanted better components than what the prebuilt ones come with. I ordered Crucial 2x16GB memory and dual Samsung 990's with the intention of using the hardware RAID that they brag about.It took 2 1/2 days to get it stable with an OS on it, but I learned a lot. The first thing was that it came with 1.04 BIOS which was stable but clearly had issues with video and dual monitors. After much research I discovered that you don't need an OS installed to flash the BIOS to 1.07. Just boot to the built in terminal, switch to the flash drive with the firmware on it, and type the name of the executable, I think it's a .SH file and boom. I thought was bricked but it just switched monitor #1 and 2 and I needed to turn the other monitor on! Be advised the 1.07 BIOS keeps the monitors reversed which is more work to configure the OS but works perfect!After much experimentation, I figured out the most stable BIOS settings were setting the power to performance mode, and setting the graphics to manual with the highest setting of 8 GB. I left the RAM to the default of 5600. The RAID settings are confusing af but it creates the new array of the 2x Samsung 990 SSDs just fine. Other than the monitor glitch, this 1.07 is probably the only near perfect BIOS I've seen in 30 years of building AMD-based computers. Make sure to also set the secure boot to off when you're installing an OS.I couldn't get any flavor of Linux to work with the hardware RAID which I'm pretty sure is AMD's fault for not making the drivers. Mint had too many issues but I didn't try the new Edge version. Ubuntu had a whole bunch of issues getting it installed but was rock solid and pretty much perfect running with the SSDs as 2 separate drives. Yes, I know I could've used the software RAID but I believe the hardware RAID is much faster and these are amazingly fast SSDs. Ubuntu is beautiful: rock solid, stable, and both monitors work great other than having to reverse them in the settings. Both flavors of Linux I tried boot from a power off in about 2 seconds without even using RAID!But I wanted RAID, and MINISFORUM provides the Windows drivers, so I downloaded the 15GB special version of WIndows they use that has all the drivers. Ironically the install script crashes with the RAID enabled, which is the only reason I downloaded that huge image in the first place. Don't download! Instead, get the universal image of Windows straight from Microsoft and put the all the drivers on a separate flash drive when installing, and manually point the Windows install to them.Well into day 2 of tinkering with this thing and taking my time, Windows 11 came up ridiculously fast. And then I had to install the rest of the drivers to get everything to work. In fact Win11 wouldn't even see the 2 monitors without the built their driver. It all runs solid, and I waited until it was fully updated to install all the AMD stuff. I usually dread the AMD software but for once it's completely stable and lets me set all those neat options that this system can do!Installing all the software I normally use blue screened once early on, but before Windows was fully patched I believe. The error message looked like Win11 having an issue with secure boot turned off, but I kept it off and it's been almost a week now of this thing being a rock solid absolute beast, and the Linux virtual machines are also beasts. Overall the SSDs aren't as fast as I expected, but this turns out to be due to the fact that pretty much nothing can feed them fast enough, and nothing has write speeds anywhere near the ballpark of what the Gen4 bus can do. But I have a beast mode SSD enclosure that peaks over 1 GBPS (bytes not bits, it's 10 GbPS) copying to the new system from the front USB-C 4 ports, which is crazy.I'm only running gigabit Ethernet but this new setup would push 10 gigabit to its limits. I have a custom built 40 TB NAS also gigabit but probably not worth upgrading since it uses mechanical drives. The gaming performance is surprising but also a little disappointing because of how fast the CPU is. The upside is that with an external discrete card, it'll basically be as powerful as any desktop PC for gaming. So far it's running all my 1080p games at ulrtra, which is above expectations.Overall though, my expectations were sky high and this surpassed them. With the disclaimer that I'm a computer engineer and for the 2 days it took to get it to work right, I thought about returning it the whole time. The internet is full of people who wanted to love this system but gave up on it because this CPU is so new and AMD is a little slow getting all the drivers working right.Looking at task manager while I was installing software and updates shows that the system having every single bit of performance I'd expect it to have, for once ever haha. I was practically drooling watching it show it peaking above 5GHZ under heavy load and most of the time not breaking a sweat at lowest the frequency in what should be heavy load but isn't to this beast.This is replacing a Zen3 full size 4700G desktop with essentially a Zen4 laptop, and I can't stress the difference with DDR5 and the Gen4 bus. This machine looked amazing, so I got the barebones version knowing it would be a bit of work, but I wanted better components than what the prebuilt ones come with. I ordered Crucial 2x16GB memory and dual 990's with the intention of using the hardware RAID that they brag about.It took 2 1/2 days to get it stable with an OS on it, but I learned a lot. The first thing was that it came with 1.04 BIOS which was stable but clearly had issues with video and dual monitors. After much research I discovered that you don't need an OS installed to flash the BIOS to 1.07. Just boot to the built in terminal, switch to the flash drive with the firmware on it, and type the name of the executable, I think it's a .SH file and boom. I thought was bricked but it just switched monitor #1 and 2 and I needed to turn the other monitor on! Be advised the 1.07 BIOS keeps the monitors reversed which more work to configure the OS but works perfect!After much experimentation, I figured out the most stable BIOS settings were setting the power to performance mode, and setting the graphics to manual with the highest setting of 8 GB. I left the RAM to the default of 5600. The RAID settings are confusing af but it creates the new array of the 2x Samsung 990 SSDs just fine. Other than the monitor glitch, this 1.07 is probably the only near perfect BIOS I've seen in 30 years of building AMD-based computers. Make sure to also set the secure boot to off when you're installing an OS.I couldn't get any flavor of Linux to work with the hardware RAID which I'm pretty sure is AMD's fault for not making the drivers. Mint had too many issues but I didn't try the new Edge version. Ubuntu had a whole bunch of issues getting it installed but was rock solid and pretty much perfect running with it as 2 drives. Yes, I know I could've used the software RAID but I believe the hardware RAID is much faster and these are amazingly fast SSDs. Ubuntu is beautiful: rock solid, stable, and both monitors work great other than having to reverse them in the settings. Both flavors of Linux I tried boot from a power off in about 2 seconds without even using RAID!But I wanted RAID, and MINISFORUM provides the Windows drivers, so I downloaded the 15GB special version of WIndows they use that has all the drivers. Ironically the install script crashes with the RAID enabled, which is the only reason I downloaded that huge image in the first place. Don't download! Instead, get the universal image of Windows straight from Microsoft and put the drivers on a separate flash drive when installing, and manually point the Windows install to them.Well into day 2 of tinkering with this thing and taking my time, Windows 11 came up ridiculously fast. And then I had to use the rest of the drivers. In fact Win11 wouldn't even see the 2 monitors without the built in driver. It all runs solid, and I waited until it was fully updated to install all the AMD stuff. I usually dread the AMD software but for once it's completely stable and lets me set all those neat things that this system can do!Installing all the software I normally use blue screened once early on, but before Windows was fully patched I believe. The error message looked like Win11 having an issue with secure boot turned off, but I kept it off and it's been almost a week now of this thing being a rock solid absolute beast, and the Linux virtual machines are also beasts. Overall the SSDs aren't as fast as I expected, but this turns out to be due to the fact that pretty much nothing can feed them fast enough, and nothing has write speeds anywhere near the ballpark. But I have a beast mode SSD enclosure that peaks over 1 GBPS (bytes not bits, it's 10 GbPS) copying to the new system from the front USB-C 4 ports.I'm only running gigabit Ethernet but this new setup would push 10 gigabit to its limits. I have a custom built 40 TB NAS also gigabit but probably not worth upgrading since they use mechanical drives. The gaming performance is surprising but also a little disappointing because of how fast this thing is. The upside is that with an external discrete card, it'll basically be as powerful as any desktop PC for gaming.Overall though, my expectations were sky high and this surpassed them. With the disclaimer that I'm a computer engineer and for the 2 days it took to get it to work right, I thought about returning it the whole time. The internet is full of people who wanted to love this system but gave up on it because this CPU is so new and AMD it taking a while to figure out the firmware and drivers.Looking at task manager while I was installing software and updates shows that the system having every single bit of performance I'd expect it to have, for once ever haha. I was practically drooling watching it show it peaking above 5GHZ under heavy load and most of the time not breaking a sweat at lowest the frequency in what should be heavy load but isn't to this beast.This is replacing a Zen3 full size 4700G desktop with essentially a Zen4 laptop, and I can't stress the difference with DDR5 and the Gen4 bus. I only have 1080p monitors and with no video cards this runs some of the newer games I play like Diablo 4 cranked up to ultra settings.The pre-built versions of this rig I believe come already configured with RAID in beast mode so the barebones isn't going to be worth the hassle for most people, but I don't really regret the effort running this thing day to day. And if you don't care about hardware RAID then it'll run Ubuntu stable at mind blowing speeds but technically not as fast as hardware RAID.Hopefully sharing my experiences will help someone not be as frustrated building the barebones version of this amazing machine to squeeze out that last 10%.The pre-built versions of this rig I believe come already configured with RAID in beast mode so the barebones isn't going to be worth the hassle for most people, but I don't really regret the effort now that I finally have my dream mini PC. And if you don't care about hardware RAID then it'll run Ubuntu stable at mind blowing speeds but technically not as fast as hardware RAID.Hopefully sharing my experiences will help someone not be as frustrated building the barebones version of this amazing machine to squeeze out that last 10% performance. Unless something fails or a bad update bricks it, this is exactly what I was looking for: a desktop PC that fits in my pocket and can be powered from a USB battery pack from the front ports! I don't need a laptop anymore because I can just throw this into a bag with a couple portable monitors. Thanks for reading!

I have had this mini computer, with its "on motherboard", AMD Radeon 780 M Graphics card for almost one full month. When it worked correctly, it was fabulous, other times, it would load but refuse to show (on screen) spreadsheets or PDF editing programs. If I restarted the computer, it would work correctly for a short time, and then the same problem would crop up. Really, really, frustrating. Eventually, I stumbled on the "AMD, Adrenalin edition" video card enhancement package. Download and install the package; it searches your computer to determine what you have, then it installs the correct, updated drivers. This package is intended to maximize your gamming experience. I don't game. BUT, it seems to have fixed my problem. My Bluetooth mouse now works just fine and all the video, PDF and spreadsheet programs load and work.The actual computer is about as long in width, length and height as a standard desktop stapler. It is nearly silent, except for the few moments the CPU is working hard. It can handle multiple monitors, just like description states. Did I mention it is pretty fast, comes with Windows 11 pro, is really small, and virtually silent.This is a great computer, AFTER you install the "AMD, Adrenalin edition" video card enhancement package.

I’ve been using the Minisforum UM790 Mini PC for a few weeks now, and I can confidently say it’s been an outstanding experience. This little machine packs a serious punch! I’m able to play all the games I want with smooth performance and solid frame rates—even more demanding titles run great with the right settings.Beyond gaming, it’s been a beast for video editing. My editing software runs flawlessly, and rendering times are surprisingly fast for such a compact system. It’s rare to find this kind of performance in a mini PC, and the UM790 absolutely delivers.Build quality is solid, it stays cool and quiet, and the design fits perfectly on my desk without taking up space. It’s truly a great all-around mini PC for anyone who wants power and versatility without the bulk.Best part? I’m writing this review using it right now—and it hasn’t missed a beat.Highly recommended for gamers, creatives, or anyone needing a reliable, high-performance compact PC!