Minisforum Mars Series MC560 review: Powerful mini PC with AMD Ryzen 5 and integrated webcam for office use
Mini PCs are very popular right now because they are efficient and offer enough performance for everyday work. But, unlike a laptop, they usually aren't equipped with important elements such as cameras and speakers. Minisforum has took it upon themselves to create the first mini PC with built-in webcam and speakers – the new Mars Series MC560. The machine also features a decent hexacore processor in the form of the AMD Ryzen 6 5625U. Graphics processing is handled by the AMD Radeon RX Vega 7, which is an integrated GPU we have seen many times in compact laptops.
Before going any further, we would like to point out that Minisforum has provided us with a pre-production unit of the Mars Series MC560. Our review sample is only equipped with a Ryzen 5 5600U, whereas the final product is going to sport the newer Ryzen 5 5625U. In terms of pure performance, there is nothing much separating these two processors as they are both based on the same Zen 3 architecture and are only very slightly different. After contacting the company, we were told that supply chain issues were the reason for this SoC change.
The Mars Series MC560 is available in two configurations, with the amount of memory being the only difference between them. The product is always equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 5625U and a 512 GB SSD. As for RAM, you can choose between 16 and 32 GB. Minisforum has decided not to offer any barebones variant at all, and this can be attributed to how the system is constructed. The 16 GB option will set you back €489/US$399 right now, whilst the 32 GB model is currently going for €549/US$458.
In this review, we are going to compare the MC560 with other similarly compact mini PCs. The table below gives you an overview of these devices.
Comparison with possible competitors
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 79.5 % v7 (old) | 02 / 2023 | Minisforum Mars Series MC560 R5 5600U, Vega 7 | 562 g | 66 mm | x | ||
v (old) | 01 / 2022 | Minisforum EliteMini HX90 R9 5900HX, Vega 8 | 60 mm | x | |||
v (old) | 01 / 2022 | Morefine S500+ R9 5900HX, Vega 8 | 697 g | 40 mm | x | ||
v (old) | 05 / 2022 | Minisforum EliteMini B550 R7 5700G, Vega 8 | 1.1 kg | 67 mm | x | ||
v (old) | 04 / 2022 | Beelink SER4 R7 4800U, Vega 8 | 494 g | 40 mm | x | ||
v (old) | 02 / 2022 | Minisforum EliteMini TH50 i5-11320H, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 763 g | 55.5 mm | x | ||
v (old) | 09 / 2022 | Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 R5 5600U, Vega 7 | 628 g | 72 mm | x | ||
| 70.9 % v7 (old) | 12 / 2022 | Minipc Union NiPoGi CK10 - 10810U i7-10810U, UHD Graphics 620 | 468 g | 50 mm | x |
Detailed look at the Minisforum Mars Series MC560
Case
Despite being a pre-production unit, our review sample has excellent fit and finish and shouldn't be inferior to the retail version in any way.
In terms of materials, Minisforum has chosen a mostly plastic construction in the colours white and silver, which lends the Mars Series MC560 a premium look. Unfortunately, it is very apparent that the device feels plasticky. Nonetheless, we think it would still have been a nice touch if Minisforum had covered the silver-grey area with aluminium mesh.
At first glance, the machine appears quite small and compact in photos. However, at 15 cm (5.9") tall, it is slightly larger than you might originally think. You need to have enough space underneath your monitor if you wish to use the camera. The MC560 is nice and light at just 562 g (1.24 lb), and its compact power adapter isn't particularly heavy either (230 g, or 0.51 lb). Some of the other devices in our comparison weigh substantially more than the MC560.
Specifications
The Minisforum Mars Series MC560 has a very modest selection of ports, which are distributed across the right side and back of the device. There are a total of three USB ports, two of which are Type-A receptacles. Besides an HDMI port, the MC560 has a USB-C port capable of outputting a display signal, meaning it can drive up to two native 4K monitors at once. Though it would have been nice to have an additional USB-A port on the back of the device. The MC560 is sadly also lacking an SD card reader.
Connectivity
Minisforum has equipped the MC560 with a Mediatek Wi-Fi 6E module. This wireless card supports the 6GHz band, and we have seen the same card in many other mini PCs. We always use the same reference router (Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000) when analysing a device's Wi-Fi connectivity. During the test, the MC560 delivered stable transmit and receive speeds. That said, we didn't notice any advantage when using the 6GHz band as opposed to the 5GHz band. Optionally, the device can also connect to a network via the Ethernet port. But this connection only supports transfer rates of up to 1 Gbit/s.
Webcam
The built-in webcam is a good solution for video conferencing. But we don't recommend using it to take photos due to the stationary nature of the machine. The camera isn't great in terms of colour accuracy. However, it can produce a higher level of detail than many laptop webcams thanks to its 2.5K resolution (5 MP). There is an integrated tilt stand that lets you lean the device back 10 degrees and adjust the camera to a usable position.
Accessories
Other than the device itself, you'll only find a 65-watt power adapter and an HDMI cable inside the box.
Maintenance
Minisforum expressly advises users against any maintenance work that requires opening the device. The reason for this is the built-in camera. The MC560 is assembled in a clean room to prevent dust particles getting inside the device and negatively affecting the camera's image quality. This is also why the company chose not to offer the machine as a barebones kit. Considering all the reasons stated above, we have decided not to open up our sample unit for this review. Nonetheless, the following image will give you a look inside the Minisforum Mars Series MC560.
Performance - AMD's Cezanne is still fast enough
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600U in our review unit is comparable to an AMD Ryzen 5 5625U in terms of performance. The six-core processor offers solid performance for everyday use and doesn't even need to shy away from intensive tasks. The MC560 also comes with Radeon RX Vega 7 integrated graphics and at least 16 GB of RAM. If you are the kind of person who keeps a lot of browser tabs open at once, you might want to consider buying the 32 GB model straight away to avoid the previously mentioned problem with upgrading the device.
Test conditions
We selected the "High performance" power plan on the MC560 for all performance-related tests in this review. In line with our test criteria, the only exceptions were when we were measuring power consumption and noise levels. We didn't modify the SoC's power usage or the fan curve in the BIOS.
Processor
At the heart of the Minisforum Mars Series MC560 is an AMD Ryzen 5 5600U, which has six Zen 3 cores along with SMT. But as we mentioned at the start, the device currently only ships with the AMD Ryzen 5625U, which is a slightly newer model with a marginally higher clock speed. This means retail units of the MC560 should perform a smidge better than what we see here with our review unit. For comparison purposes, we have included the average performance of the Ryzen 5 5625U in the table. Our review unit delivered great performance and is neck and neck with the Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5, which uses the same hexacore AMD processor. It performed worse than the competitors with a native eight-core processor, but not by much – the difference in performance rating is 12% at most.
Head on over to this page for more processor benchmarks.
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
Minisforum Mars Series MC560 in Cinebench R15 Multi loop
Running Cinebench R15 in a loop gave us an insight into how efficient the cooling system is. We saw a performance drop of roughly 10% after just the first run. With an average score of 1,099, the Minisforum Mars Series MC560 trails slightly behind the Ace Magician AMR5.
System performance
The MC560 can definitely hold its own against other devices in our comparison during system performance benchmarks. The performance differential between it and devices with a faster eight-core CPU is fairly reasonable and not really noticeable in normal, day-to-day use.
| AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
| Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
| Average of class Mini PC (6481 - 89287, n=118, last 2 years) | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minisforum Mars Series MC560 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
| Beelink SER4 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 5 5600U (19785 - 38102, n=6) | |
| Minipc Union NiPoGi CK10 - 10810U | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
| Average of class Mini PC (6914 - 99171, n=118, last 2 years) | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
| Beelink SER4 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Minisforum Mars Series MC560 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 5 5600U (22505 - 40126, n=6) | |
| Minipc Union NiPoGi CK10 - 10810U | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
| Average of class Mini PC (6862 - 98583, n=118, last 2 years) | |
| Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
| Beelink SER4 | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minisforum Mars Series MC560 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 5 5600U (19884 - 40633, n=6) | |
| Minipc Union NiPoGi CK10 - 10810U | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Latency | |
| Minisforum Mars Series MC560 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
| Beelink SER4 | |
| Average of class Mini PC (44.9 - 184.8, n=118, last 2 years) | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 5 5600U (88.2 - 96.2, n=6) | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician AMR5 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minipc Union NiPoGi CK10 - 10810U | |
* ... smaller is better
DPC latency
We only observed a small increase in latency when we started playing our YouTube demo video in 4K. In contrast, leaving several browser tabs open at the same time didn't cause any issues. Utilisation of the Ryzen 5's iGPU was just below 40% during playback of our demo video. And the number of dropped frames was negligible at just two.
* ... smaller is better
Mass storage
The Mars Series MC560 ships with a 512 GB NVMe SSD that delivered solid performance in our testing. The company says it won't be offering any other SSD options. And upgrading the system is going to be a difficult task due to the reasons we already discussed. Nevertheless, we think that 512 GB is a good amount of storage for office applications. The drive in the MC560 maintained a very consistent level of performance under sustained load. But the same can't be said for all of the devices in the comparison.
Refer to our storage drive list for more comparisons and benchmarks.
