A $559 Core i9-13900HX Mini-ITX Platform

Minisforum has launched a brand new high-performance Mini-ITX motherboard that is primarily based on Intel’s thirteenth Technology Core HX cell components. The upsized, extremely built-in AR900i platform guarantees to carry collectively the ability effectivity advantages of a cell platform with desktop-class efficiency and options – and all at a slightly average worth.

Minisforum itself calls its AR900i platform an final mobile-on-desktop (MoDT) platform and certainly it’s fairly succesful due to its 14-core Core i7-13650HX (as much as 4.90 GHz, 24 MB LLC) or 24-core Core i9-13900HX (as much as 5.40 GHz, 36 MB LLC) processors, that are designed for high-end laptops. These CPUs are configured to dissipate as much as 100W of thermal power (decrease than 157W set by Intel), so they’re geared up with a slightly superior cooling system with 4 warmth pipes and a 12-cm fan. The CPUs will be mated with two DDR5 reminiscence modules in an SO-DIMM form-factor. 

Being aimed primarily and avid gamers in search of for each efficiency and portability, the Minisforum AR900i comes with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for graphics playing cards in addition to 4 M.2-2280 slots for PCIe 4.0 SSDs (two on prime of the motherboard and two on the decrease aspect). To make sure constant efficiency of high-end drives underneath excessive masses, there’s an energetic cooling system for them. In the meantime, it’s unclear how loud this SSD fan is. Talking of followers, the motherboard has a connector for a system fan, which will definitely come helpful for high-end builds.

In terms of expandability, the Minisforum AR900i platform doesn’t disappoint and resembles different high-end Mini-ITX motherboards with an M.2-2230 slot for a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapter, a built-in 2.5 GbE, three show outputs (DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, USB4 Kind-C), loads of USB ports (USB4, two USB 3.2 Kind-A, two USB 2.0 Kind-A), and 5.1-channel audio connectors.

Getting a high-end CPU and a high-end motherboard fairly an funding these days, so one would anticipate Minisforum’s AR900i to be fairly costly. Certainly, it’s priced at $689, however for the reason that producer sells nearly all of its merchandise with a reduction, it may be obtained for $559.