The Perfect Balance | MinisForum NAB 9 & Intel 12th gen

Testing the Intel i9-12900HK-powered Minisforum NAB9 mini PC in gaming, 3D rendering & video editing
Thanks to Minisforum for supplying the review unit.
UK viewers can buy one using the following Amazon link (not affiliated):
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZL9LJG...
£504.99 for the tested 1TB model, or £459.99 for the 512GB model
Specs as provided:
Intel Intel i9-12900HK
Iris Xe 96 graphics
32GB DDR4-3200 (2x16GB)
1TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD
Music by Backing Track backingtrack.gg/
Track names: "Future Tomorrow", "Starstream Returns“, “Midnight Racer” & "Binary Sunrise”
and as always, Unicorn Heads "808 Doorbell Chime"
00:00 12th Gen Mini PCs Done Right
00:49 Minisforum NAB9
02:16 Ports & Connectivity
03:11 Internals
04:21 Power Limits, Throttling & Intel XTU
04:47 Synthetic Benchmarks
08:01 Productivity Benchmarks
09:48 Gaming Benchmarks
12:38 Power Consumption & Conclusion
A D S
The following links are affiliated. Everything costs the same to you, but I get a commission.
G E A R
Audio:
Behringer UM2 amzn.to/3aV17wq
Behringer XM8500 amzn.to/3nCt2WY
Generic microphone arm amzn.to/339yZRC
Video:
Fujifilm X-T3 Camera & 18-55mm lens kit: amzn.to/3nGapRY
Fujifilm 23mm f2 amzn.to/3udXvgn
FeiyuTech G6 Max Gimbal amzn.to/3nHndYs
Interfit LM8 Video LED amzn.to/2SkESJL
Neewer 120cm Softbox amzn.to/2RjlMDm
Raleno Rechargeable Bicolour Video LED Panel amzn.to/3f2l7hV
C O N T A C T
Twitter/Insta @IcebergTop10s
Email [e-mail]
#i9 #miniPC #Minisforum

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Hey glad to see you're getting Minisforum samples now! Great video as always :)

[@IcebergTech]

I asked nicely if they’d send me a BD790i, but no luck.

[@ranjitmandal1612]

👏

[@waynetuttle6872]

@@IcebergTechdon’t worry, you will have more opportunities to sell out at a future time, 😂. Great video!

[@macheerou]

​@@IcebergTechI don't think they made a lot of those. The 790i is still in stock but the smaller sibling 770i has been out of stock for quite awhile now. I'd assume they'd rather sell whatever's left because zen 5 is on the corner. But I still think that laptop chip on desktop mobo a great piece of tech, I do hope they continue making similar product and I'll be looking forward to buy the next gen one.

[@richardmcgowan1651]

AMD just make better APUs. Always have even before the Ryzen days.

[@OneAngrehCat]

MI300 isn't going to slow down their love for APUs either. Zen 5 soon...expect some monster APUs!

[@sieghartmartin6307]

member the time when the cpu bottleneck its own apu, forgot what cpu it is but i've seen it on either dawid or random gaming hd

[@50H3i1]

That's because they own radeon . Intel GPUs have a long way to catch up to them . But they eventually will get better cause they are more committed to gpus than before .

[@ranjitmandal1612]

😶

[@alderwield9636]

@@sieghartmartin6307 I remember dawid's, its usually the low level celeron thats pulling its own igpu's legs

[@hyudlet2289]

Something sbout iceberg techs intro hits different

[@f0x4nn3]

Yeah the videos are very nice to watch and in general well edited and enough talking and music to keep the video interesting even when showing slides of numbers. I really dunno why this channel doesn't have 10x the subscribers.

[@aadityasingh6134]

2 videos within 2 days‽ You spoil us Mr. Iceberg.

[@IcebergTech]

Nah, I’ve been slacking lately and needed to pick up the pace!

[@aadityasingh6134]

@@IcebergTech everyone deserves some slacking off once in a while ;)

[@shrishpotdar343]

Idk why but your comment sounds like what Dawid would say, but yeah I've been seeing Dawid's style of commentary everywhere these days

[@ranjitmandal1612]

💥

[@singular9]

My issue with Mini PC's is that if I want one that is powerful enough to game (like with a 6600m gpu), I could build a PC that is 2x or 4x more powerful for the same price, and probably build it in a very small form factor. The 780m and 680m versions are at a great price point (600) but again, I could do better building something. So the issue is price. I am pretty sure this could improve in the future if we get something less than Ryzen 9's which are expensive. Something with just 4 or 6 cpu cores is plenty for something with integrated graphics and could cost less. These mini PC's really need to be at or bellow the price of a steam deck.

[@keerthan7558]

the sweet spot for mini pc is around 500 dollars or less imo.

[@Quast]

I haven't checked in the last years but is Gigabytes Brix series still alive? They always tried to incorporate powerful iGPUs.

[@keerthan7558]

@@Quast althought it shows new models on their site, it doesn't seem like any retailer is actually selling it

[@nadtz]

Pretty much agree with this and have been saying it for a while now. For $300-$400 a mini PC with decent cooling and performance could be a decent to good deal but once you get to or above $500-$600 mini's don't make that much sense. I'm sure there are some people with a use case that would justify it and that's fine but for anyone comfortable building a PC they won't make that much sense at those prices especially considering the lack of overall expandability.

[@Quast]

@@keerthan7558 This comes unexpected to me. I would have really guessed the series would have died in 2019 or 2020 but actually an interesting prospect that they still produce the series!

[@Cunaverse]

Another video so soon, excited to watch

[@LeGoooze]

Mini PCs have come a long way

[@SerHoratio]

3:40 its so nice to see changeable ram i feel like its a dying trend.

[@Quast]

Mini PCs are mostly (if not all) take a barebones approach and you can always choose your memory... just sad that for Laptops that's not the case anymore

[@Isaacthemaniac]

when you get sent stuff like this do you have to send it back or are you just swagging out with lots of cool stuff?

[@IcebergTech]

So far I’ve been able to keep everything I’ve been sent. I don’t take money for reviews, but the free stuff is effectively a form of payment in itself.

[@Quast]

Mid-12000 in Cinebench R23, wasn't that R5 5600(X?) territory?

[@IcebergTech]

A bit better than the Ryzen, actually

[@ranjitmandal1612]

Great video 🙌

[@user-vd4el1zr9t]

Watched on my Nab 7 barbone 16 core. NO regrets getting mine.

[@auraenchanted2503]

iceberg i think if your trying to inform people about budget friendly options consider looking at the xfx 6650XT core 210, its very affordable the same cost as an rx 6600 nearly

[@normanwei529]

Before somebody can cause you insecurities about it, you have nice clean hands 👌 don't let anyone tell you otherwise ❤

[@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyComments]

Well that's what happens when you don t have a REAL job.

[@terminator_playz5167]

bro why

[@aChairLeg]

2:53 Damn right it won't stop me.

[@srvuk]

Balance is probably a fitting descriptive. Can't help but feel that £50 less is a fairer price bearing in mind that it still doesn't quite get to same day AMD performance and value.

[@saiftube5833]

hey big fan is it worth it if i get a high refresh rate moniter currently rocking an i5 2500k and gtx 1650 12 gb ddr3 ram and an xbox series s and can you do a video to see if you can get a high refresh rate on old cpus

[@Skyunai]

For your PC, no, I used to have a 1660 it could hardly go past 80fps in most modern games, for your series S however, yes it would be worth it

[@lamhkak47]

Might opt for Intel Ultra for the integrated graphics (why the new naming schemes are worse tho) Also, the title has a typo unfortunately

[@zxc930213]

I always wonder about the performance for emulation on these mini pcs.

[@tyler6602]

I would assume it does up to ps2 emulation, i have an optiplex with an 8700 and uhd 630 graphics and it can do some light ps2 emulation

[@user-bf5qh3ih4u]

Aren’t the newer intel CPU’s terrible for it because the lack of support for AVX-512?

[@tyler6602]

​​@@user-bf5qh3ih4uthe only emulator i know of that benefits from avx512 is rpcs3

[@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyComments]

AVX512 really only makes a difference in PS3 emulation, even then CPUs without it have performed well. AVX512 only helps.

[@kai84m]

Really like those Mini PCs. I also use ohne as a flexible Multimedia Machine on my TV. But I wouldn't buy one with inefficient Intel crap in it.

[@Rkcuddles]

Please cover more oculink ready devices

[@robertm9682]

The um773 with a ryzen 7735HS would be my preference for the money

[@FireWoreal]

why is it so blury?

[@karlallantola3703]

Yo

[@emmanuelbecool]

Mini me

[@tendosingh5682]

Absolutely no reason to get Intel when AMD is faster and better GPU AND cheaper.

[@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyComments]

Yes but you have to realize some people are so braindead with brand loyalty they won't even look at AMD products.

[@ipoopmuffins]

youve been doing a ton of mini pc reviews lately, with your collection of gpu's id say get an egpu dock and do some game testing on these puppies.