I wonder how everyone feels about the current mini host. Many users can’t accept new things and always think that a computer should look like a computer. Even though laptops have developed for so many years, they still don’t believe that laptops can match the performance of desktops. In fact, it’s not their fault. In the past, laptops indeed couldn’t match desktops in performance. Desktops have larger bodies, and at that time, the CPU performance of desktops was far superior to that of laptops, which has solidified the thinking of many computer novices. However, it is now 2023, and mini hosts the size of a palm have emerged, and their performance can even compete with flagship desktops! However, most people approach mini hosts with a sense of trying something new, and more people tend to choose very cheap thousand-yuan machines.

In the early days, the performance of thousand-yuan mini hosts was limited by cost and the relatively weak CPU performance at that time, so the performance was not satisfactory, making the experience of thousand-yuan mini hosts not very good. However, this year, mini host manufacturers like Mingfan have played a little “smart” on thousand-yuan mini hosts, using the flagship CPU of the previous generation in new mini hosts, reducing costs while maintaining strong performance. For example, Mingfan’s new machine UM480XT is such a mini host, which uses AMD’s previous flagship CPU, the Ryzen R7-4800H processor. Its performance is really strong, and it is the old flagship processor of Ryzen R7. Computers equipped with this processor can score nearly 800,000 points on the Lu Master benchmark, which is a very powerful chip.The comprehensive performance is even stronger than Intel’s 11th generation Core i7-11390H. However, Mingfan has managed to keep it at the price of a thousand-yuan machine.

On a side note, many manufacturers are still polishing their thousand-yuan mini hosts. Intel’s N100 processor is being used by Mingfan, which can be said to have completed a dimensionality reduction strike against those equipped with ultra-low power processors. In the same price range, there is simply no comparison; it is a complete performance crush. Next, let’s talk about this mini host and also summarize and answer the questions that everyone is concerned about regarding mini hosts.

Let’s talk about the appearance. The Mingfan UM480XT maintains a very small overall appearance, with a square design measuring approximately 128mm in length and width, and a thickness of 48.2mm, resembling a small dictionary, very compact. The body material is plastic, with diagonal stripes on the top and the Mingfan logo in the lower right corner. The appearance design is quite standard; although it does not use a metal body like flagship models, the advantage of a plastic body is that the WiFi signal is better.

The body also has a very comprehensive range of ports. On the front of the body, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack and two Type-C ports, one of which supports up to 10Gbps data transfer, while the other outputs video. The two buttons on the body are the power button and the reset button, and there is also a mic pickup hole. Speaking of this pickup hole, I personally quite like it. When attending online classes or chatting, having a microphone hole is very convenient.

The rear ports of the body include: RJ45 standard network port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two HDMI ports, and two USB 2.0 ports, providing strong expandability. With two HDMI ports and the front Type-C video output, you can connect three screens simultaneously for multi-display.

Disassembly is also very simple. First, peel off the foot pads on the bottom cover, and then unscrew the four screws on the bottom. Once opened, you can see that the Mingfan UM480 XT has two DDR4 memory slots, one M.2 hard drive slot, and one 2.5-inch hard drive slot. The expandability is good. My version is 16G+512G, and Mingfan equipped it with two Micron DDR4 3200 8G memory sticks and a 512G Phison M.2 solid-state drive. In fact, hard drives and memory are quite cheap now. If you can install the hard drives and memory yourself, and install the system, you can buy the version without the system for a little over a thousand, which is more cost-effective.

Now let’s talk about the cooling issue that everyone is very concerned about. In fact, I have always advised against choosing unknown brand mini hosts because many unknown brand mini hosts use public molds and have not properly considered and designed the cooling of the host. The airflow design is also unreasonable, leading to CPU overheating, throttling, or even crashing, making it impossible to use normally under high loads. Since Mingfan has used a standard pressure processor for this mini host, it also tests the cooling of the host.

In terms of passive cooling, this machine adopts a dual intake and dual exhaust airflow design, making the airflow design more reasonable. Additionally, in terms of active cooling, the cooling design continues the cooling scheme of its flagship model, with a built-in high-power fan with 120 blades and two heat pipes, along with Mingfan’s liquid metal cooling, allowing the old flagship chip Ryzen 7 4800H to run without pressure.

I conducted an AIDA64 FPU stress test for 11 minutes and observed that the CPU could stably maintain a power output of 35W, with a core frequency of 3.4GHz and a temperature around 75°C. Under high load, the cooling performance of the whole machine is outstanding. Mingfan’s mini hosts have always been known for their excellent cooling, and indeed, the cooling is very strong.

Let’s run a score on Lu Master. Mingfan’s mini host can easily score 777718 points, with the CPU score reaching 444,000 points, which is very impressive. This score is actually higher than many desktops present. If you don’t believe it, you can run a score yourself for comparison.

The AMD Ryzen 7 4800H processor is built on TSMC’s 7nm FinFET process and adopts the AMD Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock frequency of 2.9GHz, a maximum boost clock frequency of 4.2GHz, a secondary cache of 4MB, a tertiary cache of 8MB, and a standard TDP of 35W.

Through CPU-Z tests, we can see that the single-core score is 526.7 points and the multi-core score is 5346.7 points, which is stronger than its next generation R5 5600H, easily defeating ultra-low power CPUs like N305 and N100 in the same price range.

In terms of memory, the standard two 8G DDR4 Micron DDR4 3200MHz memory sticks performed well in actual tests. We tested with AIDA 64, achieving a read speed of 46007MB/s, a write speed of 45554MB/s, a copy speed of 39990MB/s, and a latency of 83.2ns.

In terms of hard drives, due to the limitation of the Ryzen 7 4800H platform, which only supports PCIe 3.0, the actual speed is certainly not comparable to the latest PCIe 4.0 protocol solid-state drives. However, this 512GB hard drive performs well, with a sequential read speed of 2462.71MB/s and a write speed of 1941.42MB/s, which can meet daily usage needs.

Furthermore, the Mingfan UM480 XT also reserves a 2.5-inch hard drive slot for additional storage expansion.

In summary, although the Mingfan UM480 XT is positioned as a thousand-yuan entry-level mini host product, its performance should not be underestimated due to its low price. It can be said to be the most worthwhile mini host to purchase in this price range, offering excellent cost performance. Compared to other thousand-yuan mini hosts equipped with N100 and N305, its performance is several times stronger. After all, it is AMD’s old flagship CPU, and even in 2023, it still performs well. Mingfan has also put a lot of effort into tuning this thousand-yuan machine, including its cooling and performance release, which are very conservative. Under TDP 35W, it balances the strongest performance release and the best silent performance. If used for office work or occasionally playing large online games like LOL, it is completely fine. Plus, with such a small body, once you really use it, you may no longer be interested in bulky desktops. You might even consider upgrading to a higher-end flagship mini host due to the excellent experience of Mingfan’s thousand-yuan mini host. Perhaps this is the manufacturer’s careful thought in refining this thousand-yuan mini host!