Even after the release of new generation chips from Intel and AMD, the Ryzen 9 7950X chip remains one of the fastest processors for desktop systems: 16 Zen 4 cores are a powerful arsenal. Minisforum proposed a compact version of such a system.
Image source: minisforum.com
Minisforum has released two motherboards: BD795M in Micro-ATX form factor and BD795i SE in Mini-ITX size – they are equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX Dragon Range chip, a mobile analogue of the Ryzen 9 7950X, soldered onto them. And if the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X costs $500, then compact motherboards with its mobile version have price tags of $479 for the BD795M and $463 for the BD795i SE – not the worst option for a 16-core chip based on Zen 4 architecture with a clock speed of up to 5.4 GHz .
Motherboards provide full PCIe 4.0 x16, a pair of PCIe 4.0 x4 for M.2 drives, and an additional M.2 connector for connecting a Wi-Fi module. The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX processor, of course, will not offer the same performance as the older Ryzen 9 7950X: the mobile chip does not support memory overclocking and has a TDP of 100 W with the ability to increase this figure to 120 W; the desktop TDP is 170 W and even more with PBO enabled.
In addition to the boards, you will need to purchase SODIMM mobile memory; XMP is not supported. There are a couple of SATA ports that will come in handy if you want to install a hard drive. And for cooling, coolers designed for the Intel LGA 1700 connector are suitable.