It will support up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 1TB NVMe SSD, with WiFI 6, Bluetooth 5.1 and the usual assortment of USB ports, HDMI and DisplayPorts. What we like about the Minisforum HX90G? The NUCxi7 is the latest release from Minisforum, aimed squarely at gamers who want a gaming desktop and gaming laptop but can’t decide between the two. This system takes advantage of both form factors and melds them into one highly compact and robust design. NUCXi7: Best Deal Today Minisforum is known as a system manufacturer for mini PCs in this country (Germany). However, with the NUCX series, the manufacturer aims toward a slightly different target user group, offering a full-featured gaming PC with this model. This is not your usual desktop computer, but an ultra slim PC with a decent amount of power. It is based on an Intel NUC-XI5 laptop mainboard, which is also used in laptops. In our full NUCXi7 review we benchmarked and tested games to see just how powerful this gaming mini PC was. Capable of playing the latest AAA Windows games at high resolution and graphics settings, you can simply load a game and enjoy it without having to tweak settings to squeeze a few extra FPS out because it runs slow. Below are some examples of games running at different resolutions, read the review for full details. Having an SD card reader is great, but it does appear to be capped at USB 3 speeds with my file transfer test topping out at 82MB/s with a V60 UHS-II SD card.

Naturally the i7 model has the higher performance with up to 10% difference on system benchmarks. Where we start to see the increases is on 3DMark with between 15 to 20% difference in performance. At first glance, you’ll notice the internals of the NUCXi7 is composed mainly of laptop components. While most gaming desktops use desktop components, this system employs smaller and more efficient laptop components to save space and power. Fortunately, you can still upgrade your system without too much trouble. There are additional spots for more RAM and up to two NVMe M.2 solid-state drives. Power Consumption All this to say, Minisforum created a very powerful gaming machine. You definitely pay for all that power, but I liked how the NUCXi7 handled every game I threw at it. Cyberpunk 2077, for example, did great with ray tracing and DLSS on at 1080p and medium to high settings. I’m actually impressed with how strong of a performer this PC is given its size. Minisforum NUCXi7 review: Software For the Ryujinx emulator, we do see mixed performance with games. With the Vulkan graphics we get full speed on a fair number of third party games as well as some earlier first party games. Others you may see speeds of around 50%.We finish our games benchmarks with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. At 800P on the Minimal graphics settings with no upscaling, we get 167 FPS on the i5 and 188 on the i7.

It also supports up to 64GB DDR5 RAM and 4TB of NVMe SSD. Despite it being a slightly larger mini PC it does not have space inside for an HDD or SSD. The GPU test is the hardest to compare because all three machines use a different level of the RTX 3000 series. All three are the laptop versions, but the 3070 in the NUCXi7 put up a good fight. I expected the Razer Blade 17 to best it considerably, but it did so only in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (at Ultra settings).

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While not as powerful as the Minisforum NUCX range of mini PCs, it will be shorter although a fair bit wider. It should be around the same CPU performance as the HX90G but of course better performing graphics thanks to the Nvidia 3060M and 6660M GPU. What we like about the Minisforum A4DLA? The Beelink SEI12 PRO has two models with different processors. Both gaming mini PC’s measure 4.9 x 4.4 x 1.6 in (12.6 x 11.3 x 4.2 cm) and weigh 649g. Beelink SEi12 Pro i5 and i7 Gaming Mini PC In our opinion, the best reason to buy a gaming mini PC is to use it as a core of a media centre in your living room or a similar communal location, such as a lounge for a youth centre, or perhaps even a hospital. The third advantage of a gaming mini PC that you’d do well to consider is its ease-of-use. With few individual components to concern yourself with, the overhead knowledge-wise of a gaming mini PC is quite small. Even if you’re not very tech-savvy, it is not too complex to upgrade/change the RAM and storage to your desired capacities. Why should I buy a gaming mini PC?

A few months after the launch of the Venus UM560 model , the Chinese brand Minisforum is preparing to launch, over the next month, two new miniPCs with the name, respectively, of NUCXI5 and NUCXI7, with Intel Alder Lake H45 processors and option for Windows 11 Pro (in the case of choice with the storage already mounted). Both gaming PCs NUCX17 and NUCX15 built on the Intel NUC platform with Intel Tiger Lake-H45 mobile processors. New items are equipped with discrete graphics GeForce RTX 30 series. The SER6 measures around 4.9 x 4.4 x 1.6 in (12.6 x 11.3 x 4.2 cm) and weighs 649g. In a change from the usual plastic or metal casing, the gaming mini PC features a plastic sides and bottom with a fabric cover for the top. It will help keep dust and fingerprints off the top when compared to other materials. The second Beelink SEi12 Pro has the higher performance Intel Core i7-1260P with 12 cores & 16 threads up to 4.7GHz. And the graphics is an Intel Iris XE running up to 1.40GHz. The NUCXi7 with 3070 GPU is definitely the model to go for, with an average 50% performance difference to the i5 model it is a no brainer. Gameplay Performance The expected launch date is Q4 2022, around the same time that Intel launches the 13th generation processors.With the MinisForum Neptune HX90G you can enjoy all the latest Windows games at good resolution and graphics settings with this gaming mini PC. Some examples include Forza Horizon 5 running at 1440P at High graphics settings. Spiderman at 1440P Very High Graphics with FSR Quality settings, and Cyberpunk 2077 1440P High graphics with FSR Quality. The hardware brands may vary from batch to batch. Please rest assured that they all meet Minisforum's standards and are all covered by the warranty.

You can also perform your own upgrades. The computers feature two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of total DDR4-3200 memory and two M.2 2280 slots for PCIe SSD storage. The Minisforum NUCXi7 is a quiet gaming PC in an ultra slim case that is designed for 1,440p gaming. The NUCXi5 will feature the 11th generation Intel i5-11400H processor with NVIDIA Geforce 3060 graphics. The NUCXi7 will have the 11th generation Intel i7-11800H with NVIDIA Geforce 3070 graphics.

Thanks to the HDMI port and Thunderbolt 4 , you can connect two displays at the same time . Note that the Thunderbolt 4 port can also be used in a gaming key , perhaps to connect a box (in the style of Asus ROG XG Station 2) with eGPU (external graphics card). The NUCXi7 gives you plenty of options for wireless connectivity. With a built-in Intel WiFi 6E-AX210 module, you can enjoy decent performance for gaming and streaming. One area where the NUCXi7 shines above standard desktop gaming PCs is power consumption. The energy efficiency of this system is on par with a laptop, thanks to its unique construction and composition out of mainly laptop components. Even when pitted against similar small form factor desktops, the NUCXi7 comes ahead.