Review of the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 desktop PC with fast AMD Ryzen APU
As of yet Minisforum is not well-known in this country. Nevertheless, the Chinese manufacturer has been offering mini PCs for office use for quite some time. With the EliteMini HX90, Minisforum now has a small gaming PC in its portfolio. However, the manufacturer has caught a lot of flak over this product.
The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is primarily intended for office and multimedia use. However, according to the manufacturer's website, it should also be able to achieve playable frame rates in more or less modern titles. We'll get to this later. The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H is at the heart of the mini-PC and provides a decent level of performance. All in all, the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H in the EliteMini HM90 performs quite well. The mini-PC can be purchased as a barebones kit or pre-configured with RAM and SSD. Currently, you will have to shell out 419 Euros (~$475) for the barebones system. The configuration with 32 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD, on the other hand, costs 659 Euros (~$765). The system is shipped directly from China free of charge. However, the import tax of 19 percent applies to any imports into Germany. The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is also listed with a AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, although this is currently sold out and isn't significantly better priced than the version with the Ryzen 9 APU that we are reviewing.
Our review device features 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. The PC comes with Windows 10 Professional (the barebones kit doesn't). Everything is contained in a small case with the following dismissions: 149 x 55 x 149 (WxHxD) millimeters. Thus, the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is a bit bigger than MSI's Cubi 5 M10. But the Intel NUC 10 is a bit more compact in terms of dimensions.
The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is delivered in a sturdy box with all accessories to get the system up and running. The relatively large USB-C power supply is very noticeable. Furthermore, in the box, there are two adapter plates for installing two additional 2.5-inch SSDs in the EliteMini HM90. A Vesa mount for mounting it to a monitor is also present, it is almost standard for such mini-PCs. Many more configurations can be found under the name Elitemini on the manufacturer's website. It is worth taking a look there if the EliteMini HM90 is not your first choice.
Case & Connectivity
The case is made of aluminum. However, the top and the bottom are made of plastic. The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 does not have any problems with rigidity. For a better feel, however, it would have been better if the upper side was also made of aluminum. This is just nitpicking, though, because there are no visible flaws. The top plastic cover matches the aluminum body in terms of color. The white and silver colors dominate, which is a good thing, because dust does not immediately show up on light colors. This is not the case with dark colors.
The device can be opened by removing the bottom plate. Four small screws join the bottom plate to the case. The RAM, SSD and Wi-Fi module can be easily accessed once the bottom plate is removed. Further disassembly is possible, although the manufacturer has covered the antenna cables on the Wi-Fi module with a kind of glue that has to be removed first. There is a risk of tearing the cables, which is why we refrained from doing so in this case. Further disassembly is also not necessary, because according to the manufacturer, the CPU cooler should not be removed, as this could damage the APU. There is a note in the box that states that liquid metal was used and we figure that the heatsink is glued in place.
In terms of external ports, the EliteMini HM90 offers many options for connecting additional devices. A total of five USB-A ports are more than enough. What is more, there is also a Type-C port on the front. External displays can be connected via DisplayPort or HDMI. But the USB-C port also offers the option of image output with the help of an appropriate adapter. Thus, you can connect up to three displays to the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 simultaneously.
Performance - A lot of reserves
As was already mentioned, the EliteMini HM90 mini forum comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 4900H, which is an energy-efficient notebook APU that can be cooled without any issues. The performance of the 8-core is completely sufficient in every respect for everyday office or multimedia use. In fact, the APU can handle simple tasks with great ease. As the saying goes, though, having is better than needing, as we all know. The 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM suits the system well and provides the best level of performance. You can be divided about the SSD, but 256 GB is sufficient for a starter build. Thanks to the pre-installed operating system, the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is ready to go after a few minutes of setup and personalization.
Processor
The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H belongs to the Renoir series and is based on the Zen2. The SoC offers a total of 8 cores with 16 threads, which is especially useful for multi-threaded applications. In the CPU benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 4900H is able to outperform most of the competition. The single-core performance is roughly on the same level as that of the Intel Core i7-10710U which is found in the Intel NUC 10. Our review sample can also keep up surprisingly well with the Zotac Magnus One in terms of CPU performance, given that the compact gaming laptop comes with a desktop CPU.
The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H has a TDP of 45 W. However, the power limit can be increased up to 54 watts in the BIOS of the Mini Forum EliteMini HM90. That being said, we did not see any significant improvements in performance in our review after switching to the higher power limit.
For further comparisons and benchmarks, check out our CPU comparison chart.
* ... smaller is better
Cinebench R15 multi-loop
In the Cinebench R15 multi-core loop, the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 manages to handle the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H very well and to deliver a good level of performance. With an average score of 1880 points, our review device performs quite well. Compared to the one-off benchmark run, the result is about 100 points worse. In the case of the Intel Ghost Canyon NUC the performance gap is a bit bigger with 130 points.
System performance
The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 reveals how powerful it is in the synthetic benchmarks. Our review device easily beats the Intel NUC 10 with the Intel Core i7-10710U. Compared to the Intel Ghost Canyon NUC and the Zotac Magnus One our review device does not do that well. The reason here is the missing dedicated graphics card, which is why the performance is lower in the synthetic benchmarks. The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 does not exhibit latency spikes under load and during playback of 4K videos. The latencies increase slightly after starting the 4K video, though. Nevertheless, we assumed a slightly better result due to the performance. The drivers do not yet seem to be perfectly optimized here.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| AC6-M Mini-PC, Intel Celeron J4125 | |
| MSI Cubi 5 10M, Intel Core i3-10110U | |
| Minisforum HM90, AMD Ryzen 9 4900H | |
* ... smaller is better
Mass storage
Our test system deviates a bit from the pre-configured systems on the manufacturer's store page by having a 256 GB NVMe SSD. If you do not order a barebones system, you will always get a 512 GB SSD, which should be enough for most users right now. Our 256 GB model is fine for most usage scenarios. In the review, our model with the Kingston SSD delivered decent results. A total of up to three SSDs can be installed in the Mini Forum EliteMini HM90. You can use an M.2 2280 drive, which is already installed in our system. Alternatively, you can install two 2.5-inch SSDs, which are screwed to the bottom plate and directly connected to the motherboard with cables. All brackets, screws and cables are included.
Graphics card
The integrated graphics unit of the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H is known as AMD Radeon RX Vega 8. The iGPUs of the mobile Ryzen APUs have already been around for a few years, which is also reflected in the performance. While the AMD's iGPUs were initially very competitive with Intel's iGPUs, AMD's integrated GPUs are beaten by current Intel Iris Xe iGPUs which are found in the latest Tiger Lake SoCs. Unfortunately, Minisforum can only use the hardware that is widely available on the market. When comes to GPU performance, the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H is about as good as it gets.
More benchmarks for the AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 can be found here.
| 3DMark 05 Standard | 30964 points | |
| 3DMark 06 Score 1366x768 | 34940 points | |
| 3DMark Vantage P Result | 19152 points | |
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 5732 points | |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 88824 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 21321 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 3166 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme Score | 1445 points | |
| 3DMark Time Spy Score | 1243 points | |
Help | ||
| low | med. | high | ultra | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA V (2015) | 92.8 | 82.4 | 23.6 | 9.85 | |
| The Witcher 3 (2015) | 61.6 | 39.5 | 19.6 | 13.6 | |
| Dota 2 Reborn (2015) | 100.5 | 80.4 | 50.1 | 46 | 12.6 |
| Final Fantasy XV Benchmark (2018) | 34.2 | 17.4 | 12.3 | ||
| X-Plane 11.11 (2018) | 44.8 | 35.2 | 31.8 | ||
| Far Cry 5 (2018) | 46 | 21 | 20 | 19 | |
| Strange Brigade (2018) | 72.6 | 29.1 | 24.7 | 21.1 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn (2019) | 41 | 21 | 19 | 18 | |
| F1 2020 (2020) | 79.7 | 38.6 | 28.6 | 21.2 | |
| F1 2021 (2021) | 84.8 | 37.1 | 28.1 | 19.5 |
Emissions & Energy
Temperature
Minisforum uses an axial fan for the EliteMini HM90, which sucks in the cold air from above and directs it downwards onto the heat sink, so that the warm air can escape from the sides of the case. The system works well and there were no performance drops due to thermal limitations in our review. When operating on a desk, users should take care not to place anything on top of the device so that enough fresh air can be sucked in. The manufacturer claims to use liquid metal to cool the CPU. However, we could not verify this because disassembling the system can result in damage to the SoC. Under full load, the CPU temperatures reached 86.3 °C (187.34 °F), although the iGPU was slightly cooler at 74 °C (165.2 °F). This means that the SoC never gets too hot. If the SoC is under medium load, the temperatures are even lower. Under sustained load, the performance remained stable. The result of the 3DMark11 benchmark is almost identical to the cold start and only varies by a few points within the measurement tolerances.
System Noise
In a work device, no matter if it is a notebook or a desktop PC, we expect a low noise level, because nothing is worse than loud fan noise. Minisforum has done a very good job here. The only fan measures 75 millimeters and runs at low RPM. When idle, the fan is inaudible unless you put your ear very close to it. Here, we have a sound pressure level of 30.8 dB(A). But even under full load during the stress test, we can't really perceive any annoying noise. At 32.5 dB(A), the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is now a bit louder, but this is still a very quiet PC. The fan speed is regulated very smoothly and there is no intermittent howling due to high speeds.
Energy Consumption
In terms of energy consumption, the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is quite frugal, although Intel could do a bit better with its NUCs. The bottom line is that the EliteMini HM90 with its 8-core offers significantly more performance. In the GPU stress test, the Zotac Magus One and also the Intel Ghost Canyon NUC struggle with unequal conditions due to the dedicated graphics card, so we should not read too much into this. However, we could only extract a maximum of 85 watts from our test system, which the relatively large 120 watt power supply can easily handle. Since our configuration does not include a 2.5-inch drive, there is still enough room for maneuver.
| Power Consumption | |
| 1280x720 FurMark 1.19 GPU Stress Test (external Monitor) | |
| Zotac Magnus One (ECM73070C) (Idle: 37.6 W) | |
| Intel Ghost Canyon NUC (RTX 2070) (Idle: 33.1 W) | |
| Minisforum HM90 (Idle: 9.8 W) | |
| Intel NUC10i7FNH (Idle: 8.4 W) | |
| Intel NUC10i5FNK (Idle: 15.7 W) | |
| MSI Cubi 5 10M (Idle: 8 W) | |
| Prime95 V2810 Stress (external Monitor) | |
| Zotac Magnus One (ECM73070C) (Idle: 37.6 W) | |
| Intel Ghost Canyon NUC (RTX 2070) (Idle: 33.1 W) | |
| Minisforum HM90 (Idle: 9.8 W) | |
| Intel NUC10i7FNH (Idle: 8.4 W) | |
| Intel NUC10i5FNK (Idle: 15.7 W) | |
| MSI Cubi 5 10M (Idle: 8 W) | |
| AC6-M Mini-PC | |
* ... smaller is better
Pros
Cons
Verdict - Great performance but wasted potential
The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is a very compact mini PC that is more of an all-rounder than a classic office PC due to its features. With the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H, the small PC offers a very good level of performance in multi-threaded applications. Thanks to the advantages of Zen2, the single-core performance is also on a good level and can compete with the Intel Comet Lake-U SoCs. Our review device has 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, and it offers more than enough performance for everyday office use. As a matter of fact, the SoC is barely utilized in most cases. However, it is good to have a very future-proof system. If paired with a dedicated graphics card, the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 would do quite well as a compact gaming PC. This is why the lack of a Thunderbolt port limits its usability somewhat.
The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is a very powerful all-rounder that can handle a lot more than just simple office tasks. The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H is fully utilized by the system.
Those who would like to use the small PC as a streaming box in the living room will be positively surprised by how quiet it is. Furthermore, the SoC ensures a high good level of multimedia performance. Even though only
an iGPU is available, the Minisforum EliteMini HM90 can be used to play a game or two. However, you'll have to accept some sacrifices in terms of resolutions or visual settings in newer titles. However, the AMD Ryzen APU handle casual games with ease.
The color combination of silver and white is going to be appealing from a purely aesthetic point of view. Minisforum does not offer an alternative case color for the EliteMini HM90. Overall, we do not have anything bad to say about how the system looks. Because there is no glossy black plastic, the EliteMini HM90 is not going to get lots of clearly visible micro scratches.
Price and availability
The Minisforum EliteMini HM90 is available as a barebones kit starting at €419 (~$475) directly from the manufacturer's site. However, those who have deep pockets can get the version for €659 (~$746) with 32 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD.
