MINISFORUM BD790i X3D Motherboard AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D(16C/32T) Gaming Mini PC Without RAM/SSD/OS, 2xDDR5 SODIMM Slots, 2xPCIe5.0 SSD, M.2 2230 Key E Slot, HDMI+DP+USB-C Triple Video Outputs Computer

I've been building mini-ITX systems for years now. So when I saw this motherboard with the Ryzen 9 processor and heatsink combined, I was excited, but with some reservations. Like, no way to replace the heatsink with an aftermarket one is a pretty big reservation. For overclockers, the SODIMM laptop memory could be another reservation. No RGB headers in a world of Tokyo streets-like PC builds could be another.But the benefits far outweigh those potential drawbacks. I bought this on sale for $400 US, and got it even cheaper with an additional $100 off coupon, so it was a no-brainer to me. Even on sale at $400, there's nothing close to this performance for the price. It's faster with more cores than the 7800X3D I have on my main VR system.The heatsink does the job well. I have this in a 4.5 liter case with a 40mm CPU cooler clearance. With a 15mm high, 120mm fan it fits perfectly in the case. Thermals are solid as even during heavy use, the CPU temp stays under 80c. The fan does double duty by pushing air on to of the two M.2 SSDs, keeping them well below 60c for me. It feels like miniforums has done their homework on this.As others have mentioned, the WiFi card setup is a PIA. And that's not just physically installing it. I had one left over from a laptop upgrade, so it didn't cost extra, but to get the drivers installed to make it work, I had to use an Ethernet connection. If you're WiFi-only, this needs consideration, as you can't even get Windows updates without a working Internet connection. It would've been worth paying a little extra for pre installed WiFi, but that wasn't an option.Another thing missing is any SATA ports. It's M.2 only, which was okay for me, but if you have existing drives, you will need an M.2 adapter vard to add them.Despite these limitations, I think miniforums is on the right path here. I see this as the future on mini-ITX. Like the ASRock Mini on steroids.

Great build quality and performance, was able to push a 4090 just as well as an i9-14900K. Beware if you are doing a small form factor build and you’re using a PCIe 5 GPU and you have a PCIe 4 riser cable, you will have hellish instability and black screens. Make sure you get a PCIe 5 riser!Really good board overall and stupid amounts of power for the size, remarkably efficient too!

Lots of power in a small package!!I replaced my Ryzen 5600G desktop setup with this and its significantly better. The small form factor is nice, it could use some additional IO options like USB-C front panel connection, maybe RGB controls, but aside from that its a pretty solid product.Note that this device isn't going to run at super low temps like you'd expect from a standard desktop cpu, under load mine sits around 80c which is fine. That being said I'd like to see some aftermarket cooling solutions.

Unlike many, I bought this board as a board for Gaming. Replacing a 9th Gen i9 this board not only paddles it but does so while sipping power. Building it in a Case with as much volume as a Playstation 5 and pairing it with a high end graphics card this is easily able to hit high frame rates in the games that I play. It's cheaper as well, since the CPU and Cooler and Motherboard are all purchased together compared to a traditional build in which you need to buy those components separately. You just need to add RAM, Storage and Power and you're already booting a computer. The grunt work is done for you.It has WiFi and Ethernet like a regular motherboard would. My only gripe is the lack of SATA ports, and the lack of a dedicated front Type C port. But aside that everything is excellent. The fan won't need to spin often since the CPU only draws 100W at peak power and I have had no issues with stability either. It Literally, just works.

I tried to buy this board 2 times once from minisforum directly and once from amazon. Both came DOA and damaged the ram I used to test the board. Minisforum support only answer emails a couple times a month and they have no phone to call. They spend weeks gaslighting me about my issues and then I forced them to RMA by getting the payment processor involved and they then refused the refund until I reported them as fraud to my back. And this time amazon is even trying to withhold my refund. If you value your money buy something that works the price is great but that is because it's too good to be true.

I got this as the center piece of my new build which is centered around value.The CPU is of great value in this form. For a home server this would be a KING. However this thing HATES modern GPUs. The PCIe Gen4 is chocking out my 9070 XT to make it perform in the bottom 1% of 9070 XTs on UserBenchmark even when overclocked.The PCIe x16 latch has mechanical problems preventing my Gigabyte 9070 XT from seating correctly and I had to use an extension cable to get proper connectivity. It was unstable until then.

There are no sata ports on the board and there are 3 fan connectors, 2 for the chassis and 1 for the fan you use for the cpu. It performs very well and runs quite cool.As for the limitations, I knew those before I purchased it and will admit I am quite happy with the purchase.

Its faster than my Desktop 5950x CPU (previous generation 16-core) by about 20% if I'm using AI apps. The memory doesn't seem to want to go over 5200MT/s, didn't see any UEFI/BIOS setting to make that any higher.The CPU fan seems to stay quiet until the CPU gets to about 70c, then ramp up, something a laptop would likely have set. I'm using an EK Vardar fan (3,000RPM) and the CPU has stays close to 80c, but has hit a peak of 90c. Definitely want a good 120mm fan on this board.There are a couple system 12v fan headers and another motherboard header for USB3, but that's about it for expandability.