This is the mini PC that finally got me to show my home server instead of burying it

It’s no secret that I love it mini computers. They are I run my home lab for the most partI appreciate their low power requirements and silent operation. Minisforum is one of the biggest names and I’ve been wanting to try one for a while so when they offered the AI ​​X1 Pro-470 I jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure I’ll get the chance again. Powering this mini PC is the AMD Ryzen AI HX 470, a revision of the last generation HX 370 with a fresh coat of paint and nothing more, and the performance was underwhelming. While the OCuLink port is cool, the plethora of ports doesn’t save this mini PC (if I had an eGPU case that could use it).

It’s not a terrible PC, but it doesn’t have much of a value proposition at this point. It has plenty of features home lab enthusiasts will want, like two Ethernet ports, three SSD slots, and up to 128GB of RAM, but the price is still prohibitive for users looking at the lower end of the mini PC market.

About this review: Minisforum sent me the AI ​​X1 Pro-470 for this review. There were no entries in the company’s content.

6.5/10

CPU

AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470

Graphics

AMD Radeon 890M

Memory

Up to 2 SODIMM DDR5 (32 GB installed)

Minisforum’s AI X1 Pro-470 is a mini PC with plenty of expansion ports, but a bit less performance than expected. It’s fine for everyday computing and home lab users, and if you’ve got the memory and RAM, you can mitigate the sticker shock by opting for the barebones version.

Pros and Cons

• Three M.2 slots
• Lots of ports including OCuLink
• Fingerprint sensor

• Expensive
• Gorgon Point is disappointing
• Why is there a Copilot button?

Price and availability

The Minisforum AI X1 Pro-470 has recently been released and is available from Newegg, Amazon and Minisforum’s official website. You can get a bare-bones version with no RAM or storage for $719, or 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $1,360 (though prices vary depending on where you buy it).

Minisforum usually offers a number of configurations, but the price squeeze of RAM and SSDs currently reduces the options.

6.5/10

CPU

AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470

Graphics

AMD Radeon 890M

Memory

Up to 2 SODIMM DDR5 (32 GB installed)

Storage

Up to three PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs (1TB installed)

Ports

OCuLink, USB4, DisplayPort 2.0, HDMI 2.1, Fingerprint reader, 1 x USB-A 5 Gbps, 2x USB-A 10 Gbps, 3.5 mm audio, Copilot button

Operating system

Windows 11

Network

2x 2.5GbE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4

Size

195x195x42.5/47.5 mm

Weight

1.5 kg

PSU

134.9W internal

Related

This mini computer challenged the Mac Mini to battle and arrived 2 years late

Competing with the wrong computer

Design and ports

Some thoughtful design choices

Minisforum has gone to town with connectivity on this mini PC and it’s a remarkable feature. There are four different graphics outputs: DisplayPort, USB4 with DP Alt mode, HDMI and OCuLink. Then there are two 2.5 GbE LAN ports, one USB-A 5 Gbps and an internal power socket to round out the back.

On the front is the power button, two USB-A 10 Gbps ports, one USB4 port, a 3.5mm audio jack and the oddity of a dedicated Kopilot button. You also get a microphone and two speakers, which is pretty neat, so you don’t have to waste ports connecting peripherals.

And then there’s my favorite feature, the fingerprint scanner on the top of the chassis. I hate typing passwords or PIN codes and this is a much nicer option for logging into Windows.

Then inside, you get three M.2 slots and two SODIMM slots, each with up to 64GB for a total of 128GB. That means plenty of RAM for AI training, other development tasks, and home lab use. Oh, and the Wi-Fi 7 chip is a huge improvement over the previous model, which was one of our main complaints.

Performance

Good enough, but I wonder why the OCuLink port is there

When testing the AI ​​X1 Pro-470, I had to check things more than usual because I couldn’t figure out why most tests showed poor performance. The new APU has the same 4 Zen 5 cores and 8 Zen 5c cores as the HX 370, but it looks like Minisforum has tweaked everything to keep temperatures down, so the dual-fan cooling system doesn’t have to work as hard. I appreciate that it allows me to keep my mini PC running longer through the night without disturbing my sleep.

I’d like to see more than 32GB of RAM, but that would cost more in the current climate. This is a tough spot for PC manufacturers, so it’s good that the RAM and storage on this mini PC are user-replaceable after removing a few screws.

Pricing aside, this is a fine mini PC for everyday use. The APU inside is a laptop chip, so I shouldn’t expect desktop-level performance, but the slight regression from the previous generation is a bit of a concern for AMD, not for Minisforum.

There are better uses for this mini PC

The plethora of ports offered here make this mini PC perfect for home lab use. You get two 2.5 GbE ports, meaning you can use it as a router, firewall or Home Assistant controller with one NIC on your IoT device network and the other on your home network. With three M.2 SSD slots, you can get up to 12TB of fast storage (Minisforum doesn’t say if 8TB SSDs are compatible) and fit up to 128GB of DDR5 SODIMM memory inside, which is tons.

I am currently using it As an AI X1 Pro-470 home serverwhere it reduced my annual cloud subscriptions by over $1,000. This is almost the cost of a mini PC and will be in a positive ROI after the first 14 months. No annoying compatibility issues with Linux drivers, it just works and I appreciate that. The only concern is that BIOS updates must be initiated from Windows via a BAT file; There is no way to upgrade the BIOS within the BIOS, which seems like a huge oversight.

Related

I (almost) fixed this mini PC by installing…Linux

Ubuntu saved this computer and it can save yours

Should you buy the Minisforum AI X1 Pro-470?

You should buy Minisforum AI X1 Pro-470 if:

• You want a slim mini PC that can be expanded
• You want OCuLink for eGPU usage
• You have a home lab

You should not buy Minisforum AI X1 Pro-470 in the following cases:

• You prefer Intel CPUs
• You want more USB ports
• You need a discrete graphics chip

The Minisforum AI X1 Pro-470 fixed some of the issues we had with the last iteration of this machine, but there was a lag in performance. However, it still has enough power for everyday tasks, and the ability to fit three M.2 SSDs and up to 128GB of DDR5 memory into this small chassis gives it more than many other mini PCs.

Which puts me in a pickle. It’s not a Mac mini or a Studio, but it doesn’t pretend to be. It handles Windows well and handles Linux even better, which is where I’d be tempted to use it for long periods of time. The price makes it hard to recommend, especially when the previous version looks more powerful. Even though the HX 470 is essentially the same chip as the HX 370, with a slightly increased maximum clock speed, this is strange. Maybe a new BIOS update will fix this part, but until then it might be something to avoid if you don’t need the OCuLink port.

6.5/10

CPU

AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470