Minisforum AI X1 Pro review: An all-round mini PC for the office, multimedia, gaming and creative tasks

[Redaktion]

The Minisforum AI X1 Pro is an impressively performant compact mini PC. It promises sufficient power for work, light gaming and creative applications thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 HX, an integrated NPU for AI calculations and modern cooling. But how does it perform in everyday situations? We test the performance, noise and energy efficiency.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Minisforum-AI-X1-Pro-review-An-all-round-mini-PC-for-the-office-multimedia-gaming-and-creative-tasks.973433.0.html

[Oscar]

Can you please test CPU performance when using a external GPU since the internal GPU is not using power we get more performance to the CPU. Its very important since we are limited by power on these smaller CPUs. Also measure TDP and consistent CPU frequency. (You only show GPU perf)

Im also missing information about the allocated PCI-E Lanes since they must have made some compromises.

Im also missing a teardown of both sides of the motherboard.

Thanks and good work!

[Adams]

I'm not fan of internal Power Supply because today's monitors with PD up to 100W is available and if have such monitor, the only one cable is needed. Also is easy to replace external than internal PSU.

I don't understand 2 NICs. Who will use 2 NICs in such miniPC?
Internal speakers in such miniPC? Why/what for?
3 M.2 slots are nice, but I'm not sure anyone will use all of them.

Instead, they could have used a larger heatsink/fan for quiet cooling.

It would be nice to have barebone version also without WIFI module.

[davidm]

It has two NICs because some people might use it as a single comprehensive device including routing.

"An OCuLink interface is also integrated, which enables optimal eGPU support" except it's not "optimal," it's slower than PCIe.

Again nbc doesn't include the obvious comparison, Mac Mini, even though it can do many of the same tasks with more efficiency and performance (and at similar prices for lower memory configs).

nbc should know by now that current NPUs aren't useful for "AI" in the LLM sense, only for spot algorithms like fuzzing your desktop background.  LLMs need GBs of fast RAM.

Still, I'd consider an open-air top end (max memory bandwidth) Ryzen AI at the right price, this is just a bauble though that wastes space and performance pretending it's a Mac Mini.

[Adams]

It has two NICs because some people might use it as a single comprehensive device including routing.

But how many? I don't think that this miniPC will somebody use as comprehensive device with routing.
These days a lot of miniPCs have two NICs(it's a new trend).

[_Pascal_]

3 M2 slots to create a NAS
I love that !

What is scary is the DPC Latencies
I don t want to buy a speedy computer that will have huge latency for video /audio / web / games !!!! That is non sense ...

[ddb]

totally agree on the nic... I can't believe there are many people who will use both.
I think having another DP instead would be far more desirable for a much larger % of potential users.

i also think with devices like this, having close to zero noise is far more desired than squeezing out the last 10% of performance. If you are already eye-balling a product like this you are obviously willing to make sacrifices in terms of upgradeability/maintainability and performance for a less obtrusive machine. After all, this thing is clearly modeled after the mac mini, with its biggest selling point for the masses being its 0 noise and compact design. I feel manufacturers and testers should pay this aspect a little more attention than they currently do.