This is a new series looking at the Minisforum UM890 Pro Mini PC running Linux. In this series, I examine every aspect of this Mini PC in detail from a Linux perspective. I’ll compare the machine with desktop PC counterparts along the way.
The Minisforum UM890 Pro is an impressive compact mini PC based on an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS with integrated Radeon 780M. The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS has a CPU Mark of 29608 and the Radeon 780M a corresponding G3D Mark of 6910.
The Minisforum UM890 Pro is currently available for a 25% discount on Minisforum’s website. Many of their mini PCs and other products also have sizeable discounts during the Black Friday event.
What’s in the Box
- Mini PC
- HDMI Cable
- UK kettle plug
- 120W power supply
- Mounting plate
- Appendix / Product Guide
Design
The first thing to note is that I like the design of the UM890 Pro. It’s slightly taller than other mini PC’s I’m covering but its footprint is still very compact. The machine has dimensions of 130 * 127 * 66.6mm. Build quality is very good.
Here are images of the front and rear of the machine.
From left to right we have a clear CMOS, an audio jack, one USB 4 port (Alt PD), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and a power button. If you were in any doubt, the stickers make it clear this is an AMD based mini PC.
The rear of the machine hosts two additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, an additional USB 4 port (Alt PD), DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, OCulink, two RJ45 2.5G network ports, and a power input connector. The OCuLink port lets you connect external dedicated graphics cards, external storage arrays, and expansion cards. Given the HDMI, DisplayPort and 2 USB 4 ports, you can connect 4 displays.
One of the highlights of the machine is its cooling. Besides the ventilation grills at the rear of the machines, the sides of the machine host more expansive grills. They act as intake vents. The machine has two 8mm high-performance heat pipes and a high-density offset blade. There’s also an active DDR and SSD heatsink fan and liquid gold CPU cooling. The long and short of it is that the machine runs extremely cool. At idle, the CPU gets down to 25°C which is the lowest I’ve seen from any of the mini PC’s I’ve reviewed. RAM and NVMe temperatures are also very low under normal load. CPU and GPU temperatures remain below 85°C and 65°C respectively under full load.
The machine runs very quietly when under no or little load. Like any mini PC, the fan ramps up when the CPU / GPU are stressed but noise levels are still low. The case fan is always on but it has a very low noise profile.
The case is easy to open up courtesy of a magnetic lid. To access the components you need to remove the cooling unit. You need to take care as cables are quite short.
Next page: Page 2 – Running Linux
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Design
Page 2 – Running Linux
Page 3 – Interrogation of the System