Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 desktop PC review: Compact powerhouse with Intel Core i9-12900H

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Minisforum has updated its product lineup by introducing the Neptune Series NAD9, a high-performance compact office PC. The NAD9 is primarily targeted at office users who require a lot of power and manages to achieve this thanks to its modern Intel Core i9-12900H processor with 14 cores and 20 threads. A dedicated graphics card is unfortunately not on board. That said, the Intel Iris Xe is an acceptable alternative that is absolutely good enough for the system's intended purposes.
As always, the Minisforum NAD9 can be ordered from the company's online shop. There are a number of configurations available. The cheapest option is the barebones version (currently €639, or US$569) without any RAM and SSD. You'll also have to purchase a Windows 11 Professional licence separately. The highest-end configuration costs €989 (US$1,019) and comes with 64 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Our review unit sports 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD and will set you back €769 (US$719) right now.
In this review, we are going to compare the NAD9 with other compact desktop PCs. You can find an overview of these devices in the table below.
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
Comparison with possible competitors
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Best Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
86.6 % | 01/2023 | Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 i9-12900H, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.2 kg | 66 mm | |
01/2022 | Minisforum EliteMini HX90 R9 5900HX, Vega 8 | 60 mm | |||
01/2022 | Morefine S500+ R9 5900HX, Vega 8 | 697 g | 40 mm | ||
05/2022 | Minisforum EliteMini B550 R7 5700G, Vega 8 | 1.1 kg | 67 mm | ||
02/2022 | Minisforum EliteMini TH50 i5-11320H, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 763 g | 55.5 mm | ||
12/2021 | Minisforum HM90 R9 4900H, Vega 8 | 55.5 mm | |||
09/2022 | Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 i5-1135G7, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 586 g | 53 mm | ||
10/2022 | Morefine S600-Apex Engineer i9-12900HK, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 795 g | 63.5 mm |
Detailed look at the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9
Case
The Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 is mostly made of aluminium and thus feels exceptionally premium. The two side panels are a mix of aluminium and plastic and have very fine workmanship. The honeycomb structure covering a large part of the side panels is designed to allow sufficient fresh air to enter the chassis. The roughly 2.4-litre chassis also looks very well-built, and the dark-grey colour scheme fits the overall design perfectly. The included stand is likewise made of metal and provides immense stability.
At just 1.1 kg (2.4 lb) including the stand, the Minisforum NAD9 is extremely lightweight. The external power adapter adds another 450 g (1 lb) to the overall weight.
Specifications
At first glance, the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 offers an outstanding selection of external interfaces. It has more USB ports (eight in total) than its competitors. Although three of them are USB-C ports, there are still five type A ports available. The USB-C connections on the back also have the ability to output video to external displays. This means, alongside the two HDMI ports, the NAD9 is able to drive up to four displays at the same time. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that [email protected] is the max resolution and refresh rate supported by the device. The interfaces on the NAD9 are distributed across the front and back and easily accessible. Too bad it doesn't support Thunderbolt.
Connectivity
Minisforum has packed an Intel Wi-Fi 6E module into the NAD9. The Minisforum NAD9 achieved excellent transfer rates when we tested it with our reference router (Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000). Our review unit managed to surpass its competitors in both transfer and receive rates. Although the Wi-Fi module supports the latest Wi-Fi standard, it was unable to establish a connection to a 6 GHz network. The integrated LAN port offers a great alternative for connecting to a network and supports speeds of up to 2.5 Gbit/s.
Networking | |
iperf3 receive AXE11000 | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Average Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (990 - 1679, n=4) | |
Average of class Mini PC (192.9 - 1688, n=23, last 2 years) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
iperf3 transmit AXE11000 | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Average Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (669 - 1574, n=4) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Average of class Mini PC (184.1 - 1491, n=23, last 2 years) | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 |
Accessories
Beside the device itself, you'll find a robust stand (including fastening screws), a 120-watt power supply and an HDMI cable inside the box.
Maintenance
The side panels on the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 can be removed very easily. All screws are readily accessible and not hidden under any rubber feet for absorbing vibrations. The device is very neat internally. But it becomes quickly apparent that there is still a lot of space inside. You'll also find an MXM slot that can potentially accommodate a dedicated graphics card. Our guess is that the NAD9 and the upcoming NAG6 share the same platform. Getting to the M.2 SSD involves a bit more unscrewing, but it isn't too bad. Overall, the NAD9 has an easy-to-maintain chassis, and the CPU fan is also straightforward and quick to clean.
Test conditions
All performance tests were carried out with the power profile set to "High Performance" on the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9. We only used a different power profile when measuring power consumption and noise, in accordance with our test criteria. CPU power and cooling were left unchanged in the BIOS.
Processor
The Intel Core i9-12900H is a high-end mobile SoC based on the Alder Lake architecture. The hybrid architecture combines performance and efficiency cores and can run up to 20 threads concurrently. During testing, our review unit was able to secure an excellent spot in our comparison thanks to its fast processor. The CPU even outperforms the Core i9-12900HK used in the Morefine S600 Apex Engineer. The reason is that the NAD9 has a slightly larger thermal headroom that allows for a touch more performance in the short term. That said, the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 isn't able to get the most out of the Intel Core i9-12900H. We saw a maximum power usage of 85 watts under load, but the PL2 is capped at 95 watts out of the box.
Click here to see more processor benchmarks.
3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance Physics | |
Average Intel Core i9-12900H (11793 - 26126, n=23) | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 |
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - 4k Preset | |
Average Intel Core i9-12900H (9.16 - 22.5, n=22) | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 |
* ... 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
AIDA64 / FP32 Ray-Trace | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Average of class Mini PC (561 - 15814, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 |
AIDA64 / FPU SinJulia | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Average of class Mini PC (408 - 13164, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 |
AIDA64 / FP64 Ray-Trace | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Average of class Mini PC (308 - 8447, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 |
AIDA64 / CPU PhotoWorxx | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Average of class Mini PC (4408 - 44347, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 running Cinebench R15 Multi-loop
We got a good look at the efficiency of the included cooling solution during the Cinebench R15 loop test. Following the first few runs, the system's performance dropped drastically, and the SoC only ran at PL1 (45 watts). At the end of 50 runs, the NAD9 received an average score of 1,703.
System performance
In the system benchmarks, the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 was definitely able to build on the great performance in the CPU benchmarks. The results correspond to our subjective experience with the device during our review. The system is snappy and doesn't make you wait long. The included memory doesn't offer the best latency, but this is hardly noticeable in everyday use. In our testing, the transfer rates were nevertheless good and mostly better than what competing devices are capable of.
AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
Average Intel Core i9-12900H (34438 - 74264, n=22) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Average of class Mini PC (6481 - 70620, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
Minisforum HM90 |
AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
Average Intel Core i9-12900H (36365 - 74642, n=22) | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Average of class Mini PC (6914 - 65856, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
Minisforum HM90 |
AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
Average Intel Core i9-12900H (32276 - 66275, n=22) | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Average of class Mini PC (6862 - 66047, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 |
AIDA64 / Memory Latency | |
Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
Minisforum EliteMini TH50 | |
Minisforum HM90 | |
Average of class Mini PC (55.3 - 146, n=31, last 2 years) | |
Average Intel Core i9-12900H (88 - 118.1, n=21) | |
Minisforum EliteMini HX90 | |
Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
Morefine S500+ | |
Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 |
* ... smaller is better
DPC latency
Using the tool LatencyMon, we didn't detect any increase in latency even when keeping several tabs open in Microsoft Edge and playing back our 4K test video. The iGPU usage was about 20 per cent during the 4K video playback. Latency only increased slightly once we started Prime95.
* ... smaller is better
Mass storage
Our review configuration of the Minisforum NAD9 comes with an M.2 2280 Kingston SSD with 512 GB of storage. During the review, the SSD delivered very high transfer speeds. The 4K read speed is extremely high at over 100 MB/s. We only noticed minor issues with the SSD's sustained read performance. The NAD9 can be fitted with up to three storage drives. On the back of the motherboard is a bracket for mounting two 2.5-inch drives. The necessary connection cables are already present in the device.
Refer to our storage drive comparison table for more information and benchmarks.