Minisforum Venus Series UM690 desktop review: small office PC with Ryzen 9 6900HX and USB4
Miniforum has already established itself well as a manufacturer of highly compact desktop systems. Right now, the Venus series features very powerful mini PCs with AMD's latest Rembrandt SoCs. The UM690 is the current flagship model in the lineup, but there are also slightly cheaper and less-powerful devices such as the UM450 and UM590. Spoiler: we can tell you now that we are impressed by the performance and versatility of the UM690.
The PC is based on the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, which is an efficient and yet very fast CPU with powerful integrated graphics – namely the AMD Radeon 680M. The APU is flanked by 16 GB of DDR5 memory, which is the latest standard, and a 512 GB SSD. The Minisforum Venus Series UM690 is also available as a barebones kit without RAM and storage. Users will have to purchase a Windows licence separately. Prices of the UM690 currently start at €559 (US$499), and our review model will set you back €719 (US$649). The Minisforum Venus Series UM690 can be configured with up to 64 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.
In this review, we are going to compare the UM690 with other highly compact desktop PCs. The following table will give you an overview of the devices in the comparison.
Comparison with possible competitors
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86.1 % v7 (old) | 02 / 2023 | Minisforum Venus Series UM690 R9 6900HX, Radeon 680M | 621 g | 48 mm | |
v (old) | 01 / 2022 | Morefine S500+ R9 5900HX, Vega 8 | 697 g | 40 mm | |
v (old) | 05 / 2022 | Minisforum EliteMini B550 R7 5700G, Vega 8 | 1.1 kg | 67 mm | |
v7 (old) | 09 / 2022 | Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 i5-1135G7, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 586 g | 53 mm | |
v7 (old) | 10 / 2022 | Morefine S600-Apex Engineer i9-12900HK, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 795 g | 63.5 mm | |
| 85.1 % v7 (old) | 01 / 2023 | Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 i9-12900H, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.2 kg | 66 mm | |
| 78.9 % v7 (old) | 11 / 2022 | Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 i7-1260P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 511 g | 37 mm |
Detailed look at the Minisforum Venus Series UM690
Case
The Minisforum Venus Series UM690 is mainly made of plastic on the outside. Inside, though, you'll find metal built into the system to boost the chassis' overall sturdiness. The device feels premium, and there is nothing to complain about its workmanship. We didn't find any imprecise gaps or sharp edges on our review unit. The device can be placed flat on a desk or mounted vertically on the included stand. You won't need any tools to insert the UM690 into its sturdy stand, which (unlike the chassis) is made of aluminium and perfectly complements the overall look of the UM690 colour-wise.
Due to its compact dimensions, the Minisforum Venus Series UM690 doesn't take up much space on a desk. The device can, for example, also be installed on the back of a monitor using the included mounting kit (VESA). What's more, the UM690 is amazingly lightweight at just 621 g (1.36"). Weighing 449 g (0.99 lb), its power adapter is just as heavy as those included with competing devices.
Specifications
Despite being so compact, the Minisforum Venus Series UM690 has all the necessary interfaces. The total of six USB ports should be enough for most users, even if two of them are USB-C ports. Furthermore, one of the USB-C outputs supports Thunderbolt, which massively widens the potential applications of the tiny computer. You can connect up to three monitors to the UM690 at the same time – two via the HDMI ports on the back and one via the USB-C on the front.
Connectivity
Minisforum has included a Mediatek Wi-Fi 6E module in the UM690. The computer managed to achieve good and stable transfer rates in a real-life test with our reference router (Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000). However, the Mediatek chip is unable to match the performance of an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210, though you won't notice this in everyday use. Alternatively, the LAN port can be used to establish a faster network connection. It can transmit data at up to 2.5 Gbit/s.
Accessories
Besides device itself, other items in the box include a robust stand, a 120-watt adapter and a VESA mount for attaching the UM690 directly to a monitor.
Maintenance
Generally, the Minisforum Venus Series UM690 can be opened up to allow users to install or replace various components, such as RAM and SSD. But the screws are hidden underneath rubber feet that need to be removed first. The device looks very neat on the inside, and all important components can be accessed quickly. If the cooling unit requires cleaning, though, you'll have to take apart the device further. But Minisforum has included an explicit warning to advise users against dismantling the cooler because the system uses liquid metal as thermal paste.
Performance - AMD's Rembrandt SoC offers great performance
Minisforum has equipped the UM690 with AMD's new Ryzen 9 6900HX processor. This is a good choice because the device benefits overall from the performance provided by the new SoC in all kinds of applications. And the SoC features a fast iGPU (Radeon 680M). The company also offers this Venus Series model with less-powerful SoCs under the names UM590 (Ryzen 9 5900HX) and UM450 (Ryzen 5 4500U).
Test conditions
We used the "High performance" power plan for all performance tests in this review and only deviated from this when measuring power usage and noise levels, in accordance with our test criteria. CPU and cooling performance were left unchanged in the BIOS.
Processor
The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX is an eight-core Rembrandt processor and can execute a total of 16 threads in parallel. The SoC in the UM690 is allowed to draw up to 65 watts of power for a short burst before the 45-watt limit kicks in. Nonetheless, our review unit did very well in our comparison and is on par with an Intel Core i9-12900H, which is found in the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9. To give you a general idea of the performance of the Venus Series UM450 and UM590, we have added their respective SoCs in our comparison table.
You can refer 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 Venus Series UM690 running Cinebench R15 Multi loop
Running Cinebench R15 in a loop over a prolonged period gave us a good look at how effective the cooling solution is in the UM690. There was indeed a small performance drop after the fourth run, but it wasn't as severe as with the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9, for example. Our review unit managed to take the top spot with an average score of 2,111.
System performance
The overall system benefits from the snappy SoC paired with DDR5 memory. The Venus Series UM690 can handle day-to-day work exceptionally well. The memory's higher data rate became apparent during the AIDA64 tests, where the competitors couldn't keep up with the UM690. That said, the latency of the included RAM isn't amongst the shortest. The Minisforum Venus Series UM690 slipped up slightly in this regard, but you are unlikely to notice it in everyday use.
| AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (47938 - 53345, n=20) | |
| Average of class Mini PC (6481 - 89287, n=117, last 2 years) | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM690 | |
| Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
| Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
| Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (43892 - 53321, n=20) | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM690 | |
| Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
| Average of class Mini PC (6914 - 99171, n=117, last 2 years) | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 | |
| Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (51085 - 57202, n=20) | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM690 | |
| Average of class Mini PC (6862 - 98583, n=117, last 2 years) | |
| Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
| Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
| Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Latency | |
| Morefine S600-Apex Engineer | |
| Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9 | |
| Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi7 | |
| Average of class Mini PC (44.9 - 184.8, n=117, last 2 years) | |
| Average AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (80.7 - 120.6, n=20) | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM690 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550 | |
| Morefine S500+ | |
| Minipc Union Ace Magician TK11-A0 | |
* ... smaller is better
DPC latency
LatencyMon already indicated a minor increase in latency when we kept several tabs open in Microsoft Edge. But playing back our 4K demo video and running Prime95 didn't cause latency to rise any further.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini B550, AMD Ryzen 7 5700G | |
| Morefine S500+, AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM690, AMD Ry | |