Mini-PC maker Minisforum just launched a gaming motherboard dubbed the BD790i X3D, and it sports a mobile X3D chip. The motherboard comes in an ITX form factor and is powered by a Dragon Range AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D; it will also have two SODIMM slots that accept DDR5-5200 RAM up to 96GB and two M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe SSD that can give it a total capacity of 4TB. More importantly, it seems that the motherboard also comes equipped with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, similar to what you find on the Minisforum BD770i, although the Minisforum website does not specifically say that. This opens the door to using powerful desktop graphics cards.
Another interesting thing we found with the BD790i X3D is the massive heatsink that comes with it, which covers nearly 80% of the motherboard surface. The heatsink is topped a single 12cm fan, which should provide better, quieter cooling than in laptops specced with this processor. It also has a smaller active SSD cooler, ensuring your system can maintain PCIe 5.0 transfer speeds even after hours of using it. This cooling configuration could help the entire motherboard run at a lower temperature even while under heavy load, and even help reduce fan noise.
If you choose to skip putting a discrete GPU on the motherboard, the 7945HX3D CPU has an integrated Radeon 610M GPU. While this is no powerhouse, it should be more than enough for you to run older retro titles and competitive games that focus on system performance over image quality. It’s also equipped with DP 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (Alt DP) ports, allowing you to have a triple-monitor setup for the ultimate in productivity even if you don’t have dedicated graphics yet.
Although you’re not getting the latest Fire Range 9955HX3D CPU with the BD790i X3D, the 7945HX3D is still a respectably fast processor. It might feel a bit expensive, though, at $599, especially as you could get an AM5 motherboard for about $150 and the 7800X3D for around $450. Still, the smaller profile of Minisforum’s custom-designed heatsink and the lower TDP of the mobile X3D chip should be enough to entice users who prefer a more compact system over raw horsepower and the desktop footprint that usually means.
