Mini PC Madness! - Minisforum UM890 Pro

[@CraftComputing]

WHAT THE HELL????? The video glitch is in my render! Thanks Davinci Resolve! For those who are going to ask: 1) No, I will not be fixing and re-uploading. KZbin punishes reuploads to the point that it'd be better if I didn't post this video at all. You're going to have to live with it. 2) Doesn't KZbin allow you to replace a video or sections of a video? Mark Rober did it once! - No. I'm not Mark Rober. KZbin doesn't even know I'm alive, let alone allow me access to super secret tools if I'm caught faking reactions to a porch pirate booby trap.

[@JuryDutySummons]

faking reactions .... ?????

[@CraftComputing]

@@JuryDutySummons It was a whole controversy a couple years ago. Some of the alleged 'porch pirates' were friends of Rober who staged reactions. When called out, that footage mysteriously vanished from the video, without the need to delete or re-upload.

[@notreallyme425]

Watching zoomed by 1.1x Problem solved.

[@bpbrainiak]

@@CraftComputing no worries stuff happens

[@PlayingItWrong]

[@DaveNZ3339]

Now I know why Minisforum hasn't shipped my UM890 Pro for three weeks. YOU HAVE THEM ALL!! Thanks a lot, Jeff 😂

[@CraftComputing]

It took 3 weeks for these to arrive :-D

[@queegfivehundred8197]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there appears to be a rendering problem with the video (I'm guessing, as a non video editor) - there is an intermittent flashing strip at the top of the screen for at least the first 30 seconds.

[@CraftComputing]

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[@nickarmani031]

Don't worry you can barely notice 👀

[@glynnetolar4423]

Yeah, he knows. Just doesn't care.

[@zacharyberridge7239]

​@@glynnetolar4423clearly, you are incorrect

[@LanceTechLair]

​@CraftComputing It was bound to happen eventually. Only so much you can drink before you start flashing your audience...

[@svanhoosen]

My home Proxmox lab consists of three of those amazing little machines. Each has 64 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe, and a 2 TB NVMe for Ceph cluster. Each draws around 14 watts. My entire lab, including a mini Synology with six 2.5" SSDs, takes up less space and power than a single desktop computer. I love it!

[@Sci-fi-Si]

I killed my laptop recently by spilling a glass of wine over it and seeing a pint of beer so close to a minisforum makes me feel uneasy 😂

[@CraftComputing]

In the history of the channel, I've spilled one beer while filming a main video, and one on the podcast. That's out of 952 total uploads. That's a 0.2% spill rate.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@CraftComputing the oil industry is jealous of that

[@F0XH0UND007]

I replaced all my companies desk computers with the um890 a couple of months ago. Major performance and space improvement on a budget.

[@prashanthb6521]

😂Quality ?

[@bpbrainiak]

THE LINE ON THE TOOOOOOP!!

[@sortebill]

indeed

[@JordansTechJunk]

Just scroll down slightly.

[@Symbiiote]

I thought my monitor was going bad.

[@saiyantwan]

@@Symbiiote same, but he posted that's with the render

[@ghangj]

I thought my laptop was taking an L

[@magoid]

It is impressive that now you can run Industrial/Scientific/Healthcare equipment with those little things. A couple decades ago it was the wildest of different connection options. You had to use Serial, Parallel, FireWire or even a proprietary format out of a PCI card, to connect a 10-100 thousand dollars equipment. And the PCs that came with them were big and really expensive. Now that everything more or less standardized on USB and Ethernet, and small computers are more than powerful enough (for the most part) to run the dedicated software, you can have those adorable little things hiding behind a monitor and not taking precious workspace.

[@catalystguitarguy]

don't forget thanks to the oculink port now your client has the option to buy the minisforum egpu dock for $99 and use a psu to add more compute if needed down the line.

[@stevef6392]

Looks like KZbin is delivering subtitles/CC through the vertical blanking interval now!

[@CraftComputing]

Gotta watch on a CRT with overscan 😂

[@glynnetolar4423]

Nope good old line 22 CC looks busier than that. But I get it.

[@specter.salvation]

I am bringing one of those with an oculink dock to pdxlan in the spring

[@CraftComputing]

NICE! Come find me, I'd like to see it in action.

[@GlassPup]

Vessa? Veesa? Vieza? 😂 Thanks for the video!

[@polypolyman]

I think my v. hold is off a little…

[@spotopolis]

I picked up 3 of the Minisforum S100-WPL compute sticks a few weeks ago for our marketing team, and they are pretty slick. Stick PC format, active cooling, 2.5Gbe WITH PoE. They are only N100 CPUs, but all they are going to be used for is digital signage. I was not expecting the 2.5g PoE though. Super cool in that form factor.

[@Micromation]

Bigger problem with those than N100 (which is on par with like, Gen6 low power Intel chips performance-wise which is still fine for normie desktop use) is that they only come with 8GB RAM configuration... it's a miserable Windows experience...

[@spartan1986og]

Good timing. Tonight I am moving my Proxmox hypervisor I've had running on an old gaming laptop for years over to a new NUC. The NUC is a quarter the size of this 8 year old laptop and has double the drive space and 50% more cores. It's a bot overkill for the Linux based Proxmox, but it's what I could get with the RAM and storage my growing home laps needs. It was also half the cost of the laptop when new. LOL. Cheers!

[@gwynbleidd69]

3:32 packing wrap on the right: "Alright, I'm out, see ya!"

[@atleast4566]

I also enjoyed that. 😂

[@dozerd42]

I love mini pcs, and I love e seeing how people use them! Can't wait until the Strix Halo APUs become more available, because those sound amazing

[@annebokma4637]

I want a halo mijn pc/workstation too. Let's hope they will be "affordable" 😂

[@CharredChar]

As someone has who deployed various NUCs over the years for various tasks I think one thing should be pointed out... Yeah, NUCs tend to be cheaper to deploy initially but depending on the usage they aren't always the best choice *long-term.* If there is *ever* a reason a major component will need upgraded in the future then NUCs can very quickly (as in, all at once and not soon after deployment) become the more expensive option as the entire PC will need to be replaced instead of just one component inside of that PC. This is helped *a lot* by modern USB and even Oculink but it is still something that you should be mindful of when deciding where to deploy NUCs.

[@PatchedUpGaming]

Hopefully you left them with a spare to harvest for parts - I've always had nucs and mini pcs and USFF pcs fail at a higher rate then SFF towers.

[@CraftComputing]

As I said in the video, I've literally deployed THOUSANDS of NUCs and Mini PCs. YOY failure rate was similar to desktops, and less than laptops.

[@maximravinet9950]

High or low failure rate, a cold spare is always appreciated if you can't afford the downtime of shipping stuff back for warranty. If they can wait a little, then it's not necessary

[@PatchedUpGaming]

Yeah I’ve also deployed thousands as well. I love the idea of NUCs but they’ve just never been as solid anecdotally for me. We had way higher % of warranty claims until we discontinued providing them to clients.

[@alain-m2t]

Can you show the building of a low cost firewall with open source software installation?

[@edalder2000]

I have a Beelink SER7. Ryzen 7840HS with 780m iGPU. I do everything from streaming Netflix to playing some older games. The SER7 works well and I love the space efficiency of a Mini PC on my desk.

[@Snufflumpagus]

Love when I wake up right when a new video is posted. 🎉

[@RambozoClown]

Funny the UM 790 Pro is slightly faster than the UM 890 Pro but the 890 does use a little less power. I've become a big fan of mini PCs. My first one was just to make a hackintosh mac mini clone. But now I've used them for my last three desktops with my current being the aforementioned UM 790 Pro. I can put my whole system with two WQHD monitors, keyboard, mouse, spacemouse, and a UPS on a small medical rolling stand, so it can be moved to anywhere I want to use it.

[@TechnologyGeek862]

Switched my power hungry proxmox server for one of these last summer. Been loving it so far 😁

[@Snufflumpagus]

There's a white flashing bar at the top of the video starting a couple of minutes in.

[@EHKvlogs]

How it compares to beelink ser8 with 8745hs?

[@CraftComputing]

The 8745hs is essentially the same APU, but without the NPU. If AI/Copilot are important to you, the 8945HS is the better choice.

[@WarriorProphet]

8845HS also has the extra AI npus on die, which combined with GPU makes them great for ai tools, not quite enough for training, but they'll run max ollama 3.3 version spanking fast

[@estusflask982]

Does Ollama automatically combine the NPU and GPU?

[@WarriorProphet]

@estusflask982 it has more to do with your host OS, which is why I used Proxmox with a custom kernel...but I'm crazy like that

[@bokami3445]

Are going to cluster those PC's? I'd be interested in hearing more on how these were deployed

[@ewenchan1239]

Great video! If they're just running OnShape, their CAD needs probably isn't super taxing.

[@patrickprafke4894]

I wonder how those and the fans them self handle very dusty and iron dust environment. A manufacturing place I work at. And lasers and cnc plasma can make some really fine dust.

[@Destroyer954]

the fact that this CPU is ~70% as fast as a server with epyc 7402p (24 core) really says something

[@lethaldonkey]

Thats deffinatly geared toward a LTW CAD package because my CAD Workstation cost over $10k to run FEA, CATIA, Polyworks and most aerospace/ mechanical engineering software packages under the sun. It is still not enough power to run 30 to 100 GB full assembly without frames skipping. I need one of those Nvidia H100 haha

[@Seatux]

I am thinking this mini PC is plenty power for us doing strictly 2D CADs, like floor plans and township layouts. The towers should be more for those 3D guys.I got a 8600g tower for work and its pretty cool that it keeps up with the proper purpose built CAD machines from 4 years ago.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

He said "to run Onshape and other online cad programs", the CAD is mostly running in the cloud so these are just "fat clients" to run the client software

[@CraftComputing]

Yeah, these are for a makerspace, not professional engineering :-)

[@kristopherleslie8343]

I had purchased 3 of these and haven’t been upset at all

[@Bob_Smith19]

As much as I like Mini-PCs I’ve stopped using them. They always run hot and loud. My opinion is unless you’re pressed for space build a mini-itx system. They run cooler/quieter and have an upgrade path.

[@CraftComputing]

82C at a max of 65W. Fans barely audible at 2ft away. There is a WIDE variance in quality among brands, but Minisforum is consistently good. That's why I opted to sell them to my client here.

[@cheako91155]

The last time I needed one of these I choose the steamdeck... it's a good kit as long as the other choices are in the same price range.

[@Monarchias]

If the customer agrees, we might just want to see a video about their old hardware. You know, if it's possible, whatever can be shown. But I guess a wiped hardware is ready for testing, right? Do I mean the hardware? Yes. But you know I also ment dust cleaning before putting on your desk (How you folks say? No pun included in my wordmeal! Nah, that's not how you say it). ;)

[@BeeWhere]

Fun stuff, these mini PCS are getting so good that I've started recommending them to family instead of building a tower. Am I the only one seeing artifacting on the top video?

[@davidharris730]

Nice vault suit. Will you review a Pipboy next?

[@CraftComputing]

I ordered my Fallout TV Pipboy, and am waiting for it to arrive just like everyone else.

[@sdaviscpcs]

and here I thought you were rolling a new proxmox cluster :)

[@CraftComputing]

Maybe next time ;-)

[@gustersongusterson4120]

Yeah, but how is that warranty?

[@cgaquikkie]

1 year RTB warranty as standard.

[@itsmilan4069]

0:43 is it only me or there some flickering going on at the top of the video dunno if it encoding glitch or yt compression or just some lights in the studio

[@itsmilan4069]

should have read the pinned post before commenting 🥲

[@zanderfaehrteisenbah]

No it’s fine, it’s interaction. Jeff deserves or comments 👍😂

[@paulthegeek]

you appear to have the wrong Amazon link for the NVMe. It's the same link for the RAM.

[@CraftComputing]

Fixed :-)

[@patteahan8704]

Just here to comment on the glitch; feed the algorithm

[@CraftComputing]

That's reason 3 to leave it as is :-D

[@twochambz]

First time i have heard VESA pronounced like that

[@CraftComputing]

Fun fact, it's actually pronounced GIF.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

He is a man of culture you know

[@Nikongen]

Nice video. The link for the nvme is wrong / the same as for the ram ;)

[@CraftComputing]

Fixed :-)

[@JasonsLabVideos]

I've been rendering videos in Resolve for over 10 years, never seen this issue at all! Good content anyways !

[@Micromation]

UM790 Pro had absolutely DOGSHIT WiFi, had to route cables outside the case to connect external antenna because it would struggle with connection quality. Did they address it in 890?

[@Tb0n3]

Honestly I don't understand the point of the VESA mount since pretty much every monitor I've owned uses the base amount area to hold the stand. And if you're using the stand or using a VESA mount you can't use it to mount your computer.

[@eveypea]

I have a laptop with a Ryzen 8845HS with the 780M iGPU and it is incredibly good for most sub AAA games. It is incredibly powerful as a desktop CPU, but is limited to 64GB RAM. The CPU in Geoff's mini pcs can have 96GB of RAM

[@PeterBuffon]

The link for the RAM and NVME are the same on the video description.

[@CraftComputing]

Fixed :-)

[@SirFlukealot]

If Jeff supplied me with new PCs he built while drinking beer, I would rely on those more than anything an SI put together

[@marcogenovesi8570]

He always drinks responsibly

[@charizard4410]

Your link to the SSD is just a 2nd link for the RAM.

[@CraftComputing]

Fixed :-)

[@RabbiKrieg]

Your taste buds must be better than mine, I can't tell you how many IPAs, hazy or otherwise I've had over the years, and they are all like you should taste grapefruit, and lemon/citrus, and it should taste like the sound of a child's laughter, and all things good. And I just taste "beer", some are good, some are bad, but I just taste IPA, maybe I'm too much of a brutish Neanderthal, I don't know, but I came here to check out the builds and stayed for the beer, but that face you made while drinking I know it well, I've made it and so have my friends.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

maybe you smoke? it does dull the taste buds

[@citizensteve6713]

Ok so you’re impressed. Cheap and multiple use ready. 13 minutes distraction from the empire is falling.

[@TiggerLyOne]

Am I the crazy one wishing these mini PCs have internal psu instead of an external brick?

[@g.s.3389]

what chip is used for the LAN ports?

[@nixxblikka]

Really fighting with myself to get the UM890 - lackluster BIOS with no updates and customer support to hold me back...

[@GeorgeSomething5]

Many companies have gone with keeping documentation on their websites. I prefer physical copies too.

[@cluberti]

The user manual does talk about opening the unit and setting it up, etc. - but it was NOT that easy to find without scrolling to the bottom of the product page, or knowing *exactly* what to Google. It indeed should not be that difficult - Minisforum, if you're seeing this, please do better. Make this easier.

[@Sunlight91]

On Linux Mint I can move the browser easily offscreen a bit with Alt +F7. No flicker visible 😀

[@ClayBellBrews]

I’m not sure why anyone keeps buying from Minisforum. They clearly don’t support what they sell; and yes, I’m talking about the MS-01 they have refused to fix but I’ve never seen any kind of firmware update form them.

[@cgaquikkie]

you can't have looked very hard, there is absolutely a firmware update available - 1.26V which I found in 2 minutes. good luck

[@ClayBellBrews]

That would be great if there was any such file on the minisforum website, but thanks for the useless 404.

[@CraftComputing]

www.minisforum.cn/new/support?lang=en#/support/page/download/108

[@DcKayb]

God damn TV. I hit it really hard with a hammer, but the damn flickering is still there....

[@CraftComputing]

Hit it again.

[@chancefinley2432]

Silicon power SSD Link is wrong btw

[@CraftComputing]

Fixed :-)

[@WarriorProphet]

These bad boys are fast, got a startup running 6 of them for kubernetes AI microservices

[@rexthewild]

At first I thought is a bug with KZbin, sorry to see you having issues 😢. But I guess everything can live with it, I sure can

[@antoninoromeo4015]

Hi! I installed proxmox with passthrow and It works like a bare metal w11 in 3d Mark performance very impressive. Id like ti passthrow another oculink GPU for llm labs like a 3060. Awesome😊

[@RedneckResto]

When there were 5 mini PC I thought proxmox cluster build.

[@brandondegantevillasante538]

Straight up got scared thinking my no warrenty phone decided to take a dump or something

[@px794]

Apologies for an 'can it run Crisis' meme, but I'm looking for a mini PC to play Doom Eternal. I'd like to play it at about QHD 2560 or above but HD would be ok. Would this device run it at that resolution witthout frame dropping?

[@CraftComputing]

DOOM Eternal plays VERY well on the 780M APU. 1080P, High settings is very doable. 1440P might also be in the cards, though I haven't tested with this hardware.

[@pinsandscrews6459]

I need a VESA mount off my VESA mount to mount it to my monitor since I use a monitor arm 🤣

[@guildpilotone]

Nice video.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

such a shame these great machines have to run windows

[@CraftComputing]

They're GREAT Linux PCs too. The client needed Windows.

[@jonathan.sullivan]

TRIGGER Warning visual glitch at the top of the video. Way BMB this one.

[@bakakafka4428]

Minisforum? Nah, thanks, poor experiences with them all around. I'm just here for the beer this time.

[@recycledsoldier]

Word of warning on these MINISFORUM machines. The QA seems to be all over the place. I’ve bought a few and I’ve had about a 50% failure rate after about 4 months. Usually related to cooling or video or both. These are fun little toys but I wouldn’t trust these for prime time. I’ve got several year-old Thinkcentres running longer, cooler and more stably than these for half the price off eBay.

[@ranjitmandal1612]

Great 😃

[@ClayBellBrews]

I’d like documentation and firmware updates, but you are buying from the wrong company.

[@cgaquikkie]

obvious troll is obvious

[@marcogenovesi8570]

it's on their literal website

[@ClayBellBrews]

It’s literally not, none of the googled links work. Maybe do some actual research, before making half-assed fan boy comments.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@ scroll to the bottom, click on Support (in the list on the left), click on Mini Workstation then on MS-01, then click on Downloads, then on Bios and Firmware. I hope that's enough guidance to help.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@ sorry for the brevity but the youtube modbots keep axing my post and this is the 5th iteration, let's see if it sticks

[@WonderSausage]

"USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is stupid" - yeah, that's why the USB-IF retired that naming scheme in 2023 in favor of "USB 20 Gbps", so maybe use the current terminology.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

how much does one of these go for?

[@CraftComputing]

$479 Barebones.

[@estusflask982]

The GMKtec mini pc with the same chip is $429 barebones on Aliexpress.

[@cgreever1]

haha, bluesky

[@tmendoza6]

you have a kick ass merch

[@CraftComputing]

Thanks!!!

[@estusflask982]

Why 5 of them?

[@CraftComputing]

That's what was requested by the client.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

they have 5 people that need to use them

[@Vash.Baldeus]

One thing, top of the video had something flicker through the whole video..

[@auroran0]

The exchange rate makes it about $1000. Still, it looks like a decent system. A good candidate for my next Windows system.

[@denizsevinc9334]

i had to stop watching because of that rendering problem on the top :(

[@mitchell5566]

Windows 11. Yikes. Good luck with that

[@CraftComputing]

As opposed to......?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Good luck installing Linux-based OS on a office workstation

[@matthewarchibald5118]

Onshape is entirely browser based, these systems don't even run the cad, it's all cloud.

[@CraftComputing]

Still benefits from improved raster performance.

[@matthewarchibald5118]

@@CraftComputing Good to know, thanks.

[@JordansTechJunk]

Its like, five computers at the same time, man. (jeffs lame if he does not pin this)

[@CraftComputing]

"I'll tell you what I'd do, man. Five PCs at the same time, man."

[@axescar]

But why? Why mini PC? Why this model with soldered CPU? There is a lot of 1L tiny/mini/micro with 65w CPUs. There is ASRock Deskmini (x600 for example) that can handle 8600g/8700g and APU is upgradeble.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

why is upgradability for a couple years to get like 15-20% more performance so important? This item is probably just going to last a decade as-is and then be retired

[@axescar]

@marcogenovesi8570 it's not working like that. Not 15-20%. Just compare some early A6 AM4 CPU with 5950x in raw performance. On the other hand when you preconfigure with CPU you want you can save money - for example using R5 8600G. In case of these presoldered mini PC's is really rare when you can choose not top CPU from current gen, they can provide you with previous gen top like 6800u that can not meet your needs. In any case IMHO socketable CPU is better while there is a socketable alternative - for Ryzen Max 395 there will be no socketable counterparts.

[@vinnyvince23]

I can't wait till they start doing IPMI with small PCs....

[@marine1718]

answering questions from viewers after u build this chinese machines isn´t your strong, I regret seing you videos and make a build based on your opinion!

[@pleb_world]

Blue sky is lame. try nostr! ⚡️

[@jasonhowe1697]

i'm sick of seeing obsolete to me may be 4/8-16 TB my experience 1 TB becamer obsolete win 10 sp2

[@CraftComputing]

...for who? The only use cases where 1TB isn't enough is if you install 5 copies of Call of Duty. If you want a 16TB drive, I can sell you one for only 3x the cost of this Mini PC.

[@Bob_Smith19]

@@CraftComputing1TB is bare minimum. It’s easy to max out w/ Steam or even easier w/ modded Minecraft(game saves become very large). 2TB is the smallest I will use for a gaming device. It’s just peace of mind. Anything larger is for a NAS and whatever else you’re using for a backup.

[@CraftComputing]

These aren't gaming PCs. I thought I made that perfectly clear in the video. Even if they were, 1TB is fine for most people, especially in lower-powered systems like this.

[@jasonhowe1697]

@ i knowthey aren't gaming pc''s os on its own can consume c;lose 2TB in update cad can consume a lot of space in program alone been planning with cad office suites and other photo/film editing suites ias for gaming if you are using current install ratiio from console your averagon 400+ GB per title i gave raid option no for gaming

[@CraftComputing]

What TF OS are you running that requires 2TB???

[@WoodyJohnson-r3v]

F Windows!!