MINISFORUM scales back its ambitions for its B550 mini-PC as it reveals its open-air graphics card dock
MINISFORUM has provided more details about its B550 mini-PC that supports Ryzen 5000G and Ryzen 5000X processors, plus a dedicated GPU. Initially announced in November, the B550 measures 16.65 x 15.8 x 6.7 cm by default and will support up to 65 W TDP processors, such as the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600X.
Previously, the company claimed that the B550 would be capable of powering a Ryzen 9 5900X. However, it now states that it has set a 65 W TDP limit on account of the mini-PCs chosen cooling solution. In comparison, the Ryzen 9 5900X has a 105 W TDP, as does the Ryzen 7 5800X.
While the B550 could be on its own, MINISFORUM will bundle a mounting dock for adding a full-sized desktop GPU. The mounting dock also has space for an ATX or SFX (12 V) power supply. For some reason, MINISFORUM has settled on a PCIe 3.0 x16 connector for the B550. As Techspot discovered, PCIe 4.0 offers 'just a 3% uplift' over PCIe 3.0 in some games and no performance difference in most games.
According to Wccftech, the 'base configuration' of the B550 should launch for between US$899 and US$999, although it is unclear what MINISFORUM will include for that price. Purportedly, the mini-PC will not have a CPU, GPU, PSU, RAM or storage by default, but we imagine that the company will offer some pre-configured SKUs too. Availability remains unknown at this stage, as well.
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