Minisforum Unveils Tiny Motherboards With 16-Core Ryzen 9 Chips For Compact Gaming PCs
What if we told you that you could get sixteen of the very same Zen 4 CPU cores along with a motherboard for just $479? This isn't some kind of shady combo deal, but there is somewhat of a 'catch'. The CPU in question is not the desktop Ryzen 9 7950X, but rather the "Dragon Range" Ryzen 9 7945HX, a mobile part. It comes soldered to your choice of Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX motherboards in Minisforum's BD795 series.
There are two models currently available: the BD795M that comes in the larger Micro-ATX form factor, and then the BD795i SE that fits into Mini-ITX. We've reported on these parts before, but those were the more expensive models that came with specialized heatsinks for the CPU and M.2 sockets. These newer models are cost-reduced, and only come with the bare motherboard and CPU; no cooling hardware included.
For that, the cost has been slashed, from $679 all the way down to $479 for the BD795M and $463 for the BD795i SE. That's a fair price for just a CPU with sixteen Zen 4 CPU cores that will clock all the way up to 5.4 GHz if cooling permits, and you're basically getting the motherboard for free. Speaking of the boards, they include full PCIe 4.0 x16 connectivity for graphics as well as a pair of PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 sockets for storage. There's also a third M.2 socket, E-key, for Wi-Fi, although that isn't included.
To be clear, performance of the Ryzen 9 7945HX is a bit lower than the Ryzen 9 7950X, even in a desktop form factor like this. That's in part because of the lack of memory overclocking support, and partially because of the lower TDP, which tops out at 120W per Minisforum's specifications. The desktop part can draw a whopping 230W, and even more with PBO enabled. The 7945XH is still a very fast CPU, though; sixteen cores allows it to chew through multi-threaded workloads like few other chips can, and a peak boost clock of 5.4 GHz means gaming performance will be similar or better than a Ryzen 7 7700X.
There are a few things to be aware of before you elect to pick up one of these boards, though. The biggest caveat is that you will need to buy SODIMM memory rather than standard DDR5 DIMMs, which could cut into your cost savings a bit. Don't spend out for fancy XMP RAM, either; the board doesn't support it. The other consideration is cooling—Minisforum notes that these boards are confusingly compatible with coolers meant for LGA 1700, an Intel socket, but considering the non-standard nature of these products, maybe we should just be grateful they're compatible with standard CPU coolers at all.
Other than those potential sticking points, these are standard micro-ATX or mini-ITX machines that hook up to regular ATX power supplies and accept standard GPU and storage upgrades. You even get a couple of SATA ports if you're keen on attaching hard drives to your new PC. At $479 for motherboard and CPU with a full sixteen Zen 4 CPU cores, this is a remarkably affordable way to get into the upper echelons of CPU core count.
