I don’t know if everyone has noticed, although the DIY assembly market is not as hot as it used to be, it doesn’t mean that computer sales are failing. On the contrary, more people are starting to try mini PCs, a new form of computer. To be honest, mini PCs and desktops are not really comparable; mini PCs should be seen more as a notebook product without a display. After all, due to size limitations, including CPU, cooling solutions, and performance release, they are still somewhat inferior to traditional desktops. However, this does not mean that mini PCs have weak performance. In fact, in the past two years, with the push from major manufacturers and AMD, the performance of the recent generations of CPUs has significantly improved. Especially on the AMD side, since the release of the Ryzen 6800 series processors last year, the integrated graphics Radeon 680M’s performance has reached levels comparable to that of desktop-grade discrete graphics cards like the GTX 1050Ti.

Since the release of this generation of CPUs, it has led to a surge in the mini PC market, with many brands emerging. However, I still do not recommend choosing lesser-known brands because cooling is really important for mini PCs. Small brands that cannot handle cooling may be cheaper by a few hundred, but buying one could lead to a lot of frustration, even triggering high-temperature alarms during basic tests. So how should one choose a mini PC? Personally, if the budget allows and you prioritize integrated graphics performance for gaming, I would recommend going for AMD’s latest CPU, the Ryzen R9 7940Hs. However, considering the overall cost-performance ratio, I still recommend last year’s flagship CPU, the Ryzen R9 6900HX. The Mingfan UM690S, which has just been launched, is equipped with last year’s flagship CPU. The difference between the two is not as significant as many might think; games that can run on the Ryzen R9 7940Hs can also run on the R9 6900HX, and vice versa.

Moreover, the price difference between them is nearly 1000 yuan. The Mingfan UM690S can be purchased for under 2000 yuan during promotions, making it an unbeatable cost-performance product. Therefore, I ultimately purchased the Mingfan UM690S to share my daily usage experience and performance, and to discuss some key concerns regarding how well Mingfan handles cooling in mini PCs, especially considering it is equipped with a flagship CPU that has higher cooling requirements.

In terms of appearance, if this is your first time encountering a mini PC, you will likely be shocked by the size of the Mingfan UM690S; it is truly small. To give you a visual perspective, it looks like a small dictionary, measuring 127*122.8*56.7mm. It appears small, but in order to ensure better cooling, the Mingfan UM690S is thicker than its own UM790Pro model. This is because the Mingfan UM690S has specifically added a cooling base. The bottom shell is equipped with two fans, and the overall mold has been changed.

The overall material of the chassis is plastic, with a diagonal pattern on the top. The entire body is black, and the bottom right corner of the top has the Mingfan logo. The chassis is covered with mesh ventilation holes, and there are four elevated feet at the bottom, which indicates that Mingfan aims to provide the best cooling for this mini PC.

The interface aspect of the Mingfan mini PC is actually more comprehensive than that of a laptop. The front design includes two Type-C interfaces, one of which is a USB4 interface that supports connecting portable displays and external GPU docks, although this USB4 interface does not support PD power delivery. The other Type-C interface only supports data transfer (10Gbps). The power button and 3.5mm jack are also located on the front, with small holes on both sides for the reset button and mic pickup.

The back of the chassis is rich in interfaces, providing 4 USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, RJ45, and a power socket. However, this mini PC still lacks a DP interface, which is a bit of a regret. The upside is that the four USB ports are sufficient for daily needs, and it can easily handle connecting peripherals like keyboards, mice, hard drives, and USB drives, which is much richer than a laptop’s interface.

The two HDMI ports at the back, along with the USB4 interface at the front, allow this mini PC to connect to three displays simultaneously, which is good news for users with multi-screen needs. I connected a touchscreen OLED portable display, making it equivalent to a touchscreen laptop.

Regarding the cooling of the mini PC, as mentioned earlier, the bottom cover of the Mingfan UM690S has been changed from a sealed cover to one that has dual fans built-in, mainly to ensure that the memory and hard drive always operate in a cooler environment. We can see that the sides, front, and back of the chassis have numerous ventilation holes, along with a large area of cooling grilles on the bottom shell, ensuring overall cooling for the machine.

Most importantly, inside the chassis, the cooling design continues the classic Mingfan cooling solution, which includes a high-power fan with 120 blades and two heat pipes, along with Mingfan’s liquid metal cooling device, allowing the flagship Ryzen 9 6900HX to perform all its functions more stably and efficiently. Next, we will conduct a practical test on the most concerning cooling issue.

Through AIDA64’s FPU stress test, running for half an hour, during the thermal stress test, the CPU maintained a stable output of 45W, and the CPU temperature remained around 75°C, while the temperatures of the hard drive and memory were even lower, only around 40°C. In this high-load test, the cooling performance of this Mingfan mini PC can be said to be outstanding. Besides allowing the CPU to perform more stably and efficiently, the newly added cooling base indeed helps to better control the temperatures of the hard drive and memory. Nowadays, hard drive and memory performance is very strong, and cooling should indeed be given more attention.

First, I used the benchmarking software to run a score test, and the Mingfan UM690Hs can easily reach a score of over a million, achieving a score of 1,149,512, making it undoubtedly a flagship machine. The CPU score reached 628,000 points, which is very impressive.

In terms of configuration, if you know how to install the system and can perform simple disassembly to install the hard drive and memory, it is recommended to buy a more cost-effective barebone system, which can save some money. However, I suggest novice users to directly purchase the standard machine with a pre-installed genuine Windows 11 system. My machine is configured with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. The original configuration includes two 16GB ADATA DDR5 4800 memory sticks, forming a dual-channel 32GB memory. The hard drive is a Kingston PCIe 4.0 SSD, and there is also a reserved 2.5-inch hard drive interface for additional installation. The wireless card is RZ608, supporting WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

The Mingfan UM690S is equipped with the Ryzen 9 6900HX processor, which has a boost frequency of 4.9GHz and a standard TDP of 45W. The Ryzen 7 7735HS, which was released shortly after, has a frequency that is 0.15GHz higher and better performance. Meanwhile, the integrated Radeon 680M graphics of the 6900HX also reaches a frequency of 2400MHz, which is 0.2GHz higher than the 7735HS. Therefore, its performance is second only to the Ryzen 9 7840Hs, making it a flagship CPU.

In the CPU-Z test, we can see the score of the Ryzen R9-6900HS processor, with a single-core performance score of 639.4 and a multi-core performance score of 6187.5. From the scores, it can be seen that Mingfan has done an excellent job in tuning this CPU, and the performance release is very thorough.

The memory test shows that the two 16GB DDR5 4800 memory sticks from ADATA achieved a read speed of 51,684MB/s, write speed of 55,195MB/s, copy speed of 51,033MB/s, and a latency of 92.4ns, which is quite good.

In terms of storage, the Mingfan is equipped with a powerful Kingston 1TB SSD that supports PCIe 4.0 protocol. From the hard drive read and write speed tests, we can see that its sequential read speed reached 4799.17MB/s, and the maximum write speed was 3973.69MB/s, which is a good performance, but there is still room for improvement as it can support up to 7000MB/s read and write speeds.

Next, let’s focus on the strength of the AMD Radeon 680M integrated graphics. In the 3D Mark TimeSpy benchmark test, the Time Spy score was 2881, Fire Strike was 6668, and Sky Diver was 24011. This score is already very close to that of independent graphics cards, reaching scores of 2950, comparable to the GTX 1650. It is worth noting that this is just an integrated graphics, theoretically reaching the level of the powerful NVIDIA GTX 1050ti.

However, in terms of actual usage experience, objectively speaking, it is still slightly weaker than discrete graphics. But as long as you choose a suitable display, I recommend a 1080P high refresh rate display. With this, and by lowering the game graphics settings appropriately, most mainstream AAA titles can run smoothly. In practice, at 1080P resolution, I tested a few AAA titles such as Battlefield 5 and God of War, which maintained around 40 frames per second. Such a frame rate is already very smooth. For users like me who do not often play games, I do not care much about the visual quality, and the performance of this integrated graphics is sufficient for my needs.

If you are a professional gamer who seeks better graphics and clearer details, I recommend using a desktop with a professional 40 series graphics card. However, it is worth noting that the price of such a graphics card can currently buy three or four of these mini PCs. So, in this regard, this mini PC is indeed very attractive. Pursuing graphics quality is limitless, and one must consider their own needs and budget.

In summary, the Mingfan UM690S, as a next flagship product launched by Mingfan, is priced nearly 1000 yuan lower than its flagship mini PC, the Mingfan UM790 series, but its performance is not much inferior to that of the flagship model. Especially, the performance of the Ryzen 9 6900HX is slightly stronger than that of the Ryzen 7 7735HS, making it currently one of the most cost-effective flagship machines available. However, it is undeniable that choosing the UM690S means accepting its shortcomings, such as the chassis being made of plastic rather than metal, which does not feel as premium. However, the advantage is that the WiFi signal is better with a plastic chassis than with a metal one. The chassis has become thicker, and the new cooling bottom cover has improved the cooling for the hard drive and memory, but at the same time, the noise level is higher than with a sealed cover. Fortunately, the noise only exceeds 40 decibels under full load. The most critical factor remains the budget; if your budget is around 2000 yuan, the Mingfan UM690S should be the most cost-effective model available.