The Minisforum HX90 is a small PC that packs a punch. The system is a bit larger than our TinyMiniMicro series 1L systems, but it also sports an 8 core processor and a fairly large cooling solution along with a solid amount of connectivity. It certainly offers something different and we had many requests to review this one, so that is what we are (finally) doing here.
Minisforum HX90 STH Mini PC Background
With our STH Mini PC series, we have videos as we have done for the Project TinyMiniMicro series. Here is the video for this one:
As always, we suggest opening this in its own YouTube tab, window, or app for a better viewing experience.
The system itself we purchased for $859 – a $50 coupon. As of the morning this is going live it is now a $60 coupon on Amazon making it a $799 configuration.
For that, we got 32GB of DDR4 memory, a 512GB SSD, a AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE networking, and even Windows 10 Pro that we were able to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.
Here is an Amazon Affiliate Link to the unit we purchased. Note we do earn a small commission if folks purchase through the link.
Overall this is about the price of a Project TinyMiniMicro node in this generation, but it is more readily available. One trades size and a better warranty/ support for a slightly better built-in feature set.
With that, let us get to our hardware overview.
Minisforum HX90 External Hardware Overview
The system itself is a 195x190x60mm box, making it quite a bit larger than some of the other units we have tested. You can see a few of these near the end of the video where I held this up next to a 1L TMM PC and another Ryzen 9 unit.
On the front of the system we get the reset button, a headphone and microphone jack. We also get two USB 3 ports, one Type-A and one Type-C. One fun feature is that the power button glows blue when the unit is on.
In the rear of the unit we get a Kensington lock port, a 19V DC power input. We also get four display outputs. There are two DisplayPorts and two HDMI ports so one has 4x 4K display options. There is also another headset and microphone set on the rear of the unit.
Networking is provided via an Intel i225-V 2.5GbE NIC which was a nice addition. We also get four USB 3 Type-A ports on the rear of this unit. That means that overall we have a bit more standard connectivity than the TinyMiniMicro series.
On the bottom, we have VESA mounting bracket points, but the system is fairly large and heavy. The four screws in the corner are used to get inside the system.
You may notice “carbon fiber” looking faceplates on this system. They are plastic, but they also look cool.
Next, let us get inside the system as we continue the hardware overview.
Does it support ECC?
Quoting the STH article:
“In terms of noise, in the video we had the unit held up to the microphone so you can hear it. At idle and lower power it is quiet, bot silent. At 100W+ it gets quite a bit louder.”
[The typo was in the version of the STH article that was on their website when I copied these 2 sentences.]
Translation: if you want to do anything truly productive with this little toy be prepared to suffer with fan noise.
So, yet another import product that proves the concept of: “Small, Quiet, Performant. Pick any two.” If this toy is successful in the retail market, then it will prove the old adage: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
It almost makes me think that STH is trying to supplant the “Fanless Tech” website for displaying the most absurd implementations of personal computing platforms.
And in other news, this little toy must be making the reviewing rounds, and that sounds to me like a desparate marketing outfit at work. Another tech website that is heavily populated by PC nerd types did a review on this item. The user comments on that article did not have many nice words to say about this pint-sized joke of a computer; lots of comments about needing more ports if the intended use is “desktop replacement”.
With the number of equipment already tested, it would be interesting to provide a page listing everything, like an intel ark ….
I’d love to see the HM90 reviewed if you can get ahold of one. It has dual ethernet and a pair of 7mm sata drive bays, making it a great STH type mini pc.