Minisforum launches UM880 / UM890 Pro mini PCs with AMD Hawk Point APUs

Minisforum was among the first mini PC makers to release models powered by AMD’s acclaimed Phoenix APUs with Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3 iGPU in the summer of 2023. This year, AMD will release a true Phoenix successor with the Strix Halo family integrating Zen 5 cores and RDNA 3.5 iGPUs, but these will be launched in August, so mini PCs powered by these chips will most likely hit the market in late Q3. Until then, Minisforum is upgrading all of its previous Phoenix-powered lineups, including the UM780 / 790 models with the minor Hawk Point Ryzen 8000 update.

Replacing the previous Ryzen 7 7840HS along with the more powerful Ryzen 9 7940HS are the Ryzen 7 8845HS on the UM880 Pro model and the Ryzen 9 8945HS on the UM890 Pro, respectively. Minisforum also includes a more powerful cooler, which in turn needs a somewhat larger case, similar to the one on the UM780 XTX. Thanks to the improved cooling solution with dual-fans, the Hawk Point APUs can be pushed from the 54 W rating usually featured on laptops up to 70 W TDP, allowing the cores to function at maximum boost clocks for longer periods.

Otherwise, the CPU core and iGPU structure is the same from the previous Phenix lineup, with the only notable exception of a faster NPU. Even the RAM and storage support is the same, with dual DDR5-5600 slots for up to 96 GB capacities and dual M.2 2280 slots for PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs.

The port selection on the new UM8xx models is essentially unchanged from the UM780 XTX mini PC that features an OCulink port, unlike the UM790 Pro model. It includes 4x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB4, DP and HDMI video outs, audio and dual 2.5 GbE jacks.

For now, the Hawk Point upgrades are only available for pre-orders on the Chinese JD.com store. A barebones UM880 Pro is listed for ~$400, while a pre-configured unit with 16 GB RAM and 512 Gb storage costs ~$490. The UM890 Pro cannot yet be pre-ordered, but the price difference will most likely be under $100.