In the mini PC field, the advantage of the Intel Core platform is its stronger single-core CPU performance, and the integrated Iris Xe graphics also has better encoding and decoding capabilities, making it more suitable as a home entertainment center, office, and productivity applications. Unfortunately, the prices of Core platform mini PCs are generally not cheap, with products represented by NUC 12 Wall Street Canyon, Acer Bee, and Xiaomi Mini PC still selling for over 2800 yuan.

If you have always envied the NUC 12, which has a volume of less than 0.5L but still has balanced performance and decent expansion capabilities, but cannot accept its relatively high price. The latest M9 Pro mini PC from MOREFINE can bring you a 【super-sized】 experience at a lower price.

The core competitiveness of the M9 Pro is that it provides the 12th Gen Core i7-1260P processor, a 0.5L ultra-small metal body, dual M.2 disk slots, and a stable power release of up to 45W at a price of less than 2000 yuan. Its overall strength is stronger than competitors equipped with i5-1240P, i5-12450H, and i7-12650H processors, and it is also cheaper.

Hello everyone, thank you for following Tech Fitness. In this video, we will take a look at how the MOREFINE M9 Pro provides an exceptional experience beyond its price.

Unboxing and Initial Exploration of the M9 Pro’s Design

The MOREFINE M9 Pro packaging box is not large, with a square shape, white background with light blue MINI PC and Intel logo, making it look simpler and cleaner.

The packaging is divided into two layers, with the upper part containing the M9 Pro host and the lower part containing the included accessories. The latter includes a manual, wall mount bracket, fixing screws, a 1-meter long HDMI video cable, and a power adapter.

Unlike the brick-style power adapter of NUC 12, the MOREFINE M9 Pro comes standard with a 120W charger from HANGJIA, which is smaller in size and weighs only 262g, making it easy to carry with the host for long trips.

The dimensions of the MOREFINE M9 Pro host are 113mm×106mm×42mm, approximately 0.5L, which is very close to Intel NUC 12 Wall Street Canyon (0.48L) and Xiaomi Mini PC (0.47L), all of which can be held with one hand.

The machine received by Tech Fitness has already installed dual memory and one 2280 SSD, with a total weight of about 409.5g, making it very lightweight.

The MOREFINE M9 Pro features a one-piece all-metal body frame, with an acrylic mirror cover on top that is reflective and higher-end than matte and skin-like finishes. The Intel Core label in the middle and the brand logo below make it look less monotonous.

The front panel interfaces are also embedded into a glossy cover, echoing the similar craftsmanship of the top cover. However, the mirror finish is beautiful but also prone to fingerprints, so when moving the MOREFINE M9 Pro host, it is best to hold the sides of the body. If you touch the top cover or front panel with unwashed hands, you will inevitably have to wipe it down.

This mini PC has large openings on both sides, covered with dust nets, allowing for airflow and improving heat dissipation efficiency.

The interfaces are located at both ends, with the front panel equipped with 2 USB-A3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) and a power switch with an embedded indicator light.

The back of the body is equipped with a power socket, headphone jack, 2 HDMI2.0, 2.5G network port, USB-A2.0, and USB-A3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps), supporting video output via USB-C3.2 Gen1 interface.

With 2 HDMI and 1 USB-C, this means the MOREFINE M9 Pro can connect to 3 displays simultaneously, which is very friendly for users involved in professional design or stock trading.

The bottom cover of this product also has wall mount holes and screw holes for fixing brackets. The wall mounting method will depend on the design of your display or wall mount bracket. However, regardless of which method is used, the foot pads on one side of the hole must be removed for stability.

Disassembly Exploration: The Expansion Capabilities of the M9 Pro

The disassembly of the MOREFINE M9 Pro is very easy, as the bottom cover is secured by 4 screws hidden under the foot pads. Note that the inner layer of the foot pads does not have glue; it is secured by screws, so be careful when removing the screws to avoid losing them.

The bottom cover of this machine fits tightly with the body frame. When removing the bottom cover, you can use a prying tool from the wall mount hole position to easily open it.

The internal design of the MOREFINE M9 Pro is very similar to the NUC 12, accommodating 2 memory slots, supporting up to 64GB of memory (32GB×2), one 2280 length M.2 slot, and one 2242 length M.2 slot in a compact space of around 0.5L.

The 2280 hard drive slot supports PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, while the 2242 hard drive slot is compatible with both PCIe 3.0 and SATA SSDs.

The Intel AX201 wireless card and battery are located below the 2280 hard drive. In such a compact body, the wireless card can only be positioned there. However, during this period of practical testing, there were no issues with unstable wireless signals due to temperature, so everyone can rest assured.

The method of installing and removing memory and hard drives in the MOREFINE M9 Pro is similar to that of laptops, so anyone with some DIY experience should be able to handle it themselves. Those who focus on cost-effectiveness are strongly recommended to purchase the barebone version (without memory and hard drive), as buying memory and hard drives separately while they are cheap can save more money.

The cooling module of this product is located on the back of the motherboard. Tech Fitness did not conduct a deep disassembly, so you can refer to the official promotional images.

Performance Testing: Experience the Power of the M9 Pro

The core competitiveness of the MOREFINE M9 Pro is that it provides the Intel 12th Gen Core i7-1260P processor at a price of less than 2000 yuan. This chip features 4 large and 8 small cores, 12 cores, 16 threads, with an 18MB high-speed cache, and a maximum boost frequency of up to 4.7GHz, integrating a full-blooded Iris Xe 96-core graphics card with 96 execution units.

The machine received by Tech Fitness is equipped with two 8GB DDR4-3200 Micron memory sticks, with read and write speeds reaching 47GB/s or higher, and a latency of 86.5 nanoseconds.

The built-in 500GB hard drive is from INNODISK, specifically the P3 Plus SSD, with sustained read and write speeds of 4500MB/s and 1900MB/s, which belongs to the mid-range PCIe 4.0 SSD category, and the quality and reliability are beyond doubt.

Some may ask if the standard i7-1260P will have high power consumption. Rest assured, modern mobile processors support dynamic power and frequency adjustments. According to the power monitoring device, the overall power consumption of the MOREFINE M9 Pro fluctuates between 0.7W and 1W in sleep mode.

In standby mode after booting, the overall power consumption fluctuates between 7W and 8W, with noise levels below 37 decibels, even if you forget to turn it off during a long trip, you don’t have to worry about how much electricity it will cost.

Next, we come to the most concerning part, the power release, full load temperature, and noise of the MOREFINE M9 Pro processor, as well as its actual scores and gaming experience.

First, let’s look at the stress test. In a room temperature of 22 degrees Celsius and a noise level of 35 decibels, the AIDA64 stress test shows that during simultaneous CPU and FPU stress testing, the M9 Pro’s processor can reach 55W (overall over 80W) for the first 30 seconds, then slowly decrease and stabilize at 41W (overall around 65W), with core temperatures around 83 degrees Celsius and CPU frequencies around 2.63GHz.

The noise level monitored by placing a noise testing device next to the host fluctuated between 55 and 58 decibels. If the testing device is brought to the edge of the computer desk near the user, it can drop below 49 decibels.

If you choose FPU single stress testing, the M9 Pro’s power consumption will drop to 38W, the temperature to 81 degrees, and the frequency to about 2.49GHz.

Simultaneously conducting FPU and GPU stress tests will further increase power consumption to 45W, with temperatures around 84 degrees and CPU frequencies dropping to around 1.62GHz.

During the stress test, the highest temperature on the top cover was located at the back edge, close to 48 degrees Celsius. The temperature at the back heat dissipation outlet was around 52 degrees Celsius.

Top Cover Maximum Temperature

Rear Vent Outlet Maximum Temperature

Now let’s look at the specific scores. The Master Lu score exceeds 1.06 million, surpassing 73% of users nationwide.

In the CrossMark test and PCMark10 modern office test, the MOREFINE M9 Pro scored 1800 and 5700 respectively, providing excellent productivity.

In the 2000-3000 yuan price range, the mini PCs on the Core platform mostly come with i5-1240P or i7-12650H. Let’s compare the i7-1260P with them using CPU-Z and CineBench as the testing software.

In single-core performance, the i7-1260P even slightly outperforms the 45W i7-12650H, leading by 14% to 20% compared to the i5-1240P.

In multi-core performance, the i7-12650H has a slight edge due to more large cores, with an average improvement of about 6% over the i7-1260P. The difference between the i7-1260P and i5-1240P is minimal, as they have the same number of cores, which is expected.

However, in the 3DMark test, the integrated full-blooded Iris Xe 96-core graphics of the i7-1260P greatly outperforms the other two family members. Although the i7-12650H belongs to the standard pressure processor category, it integrates the worst UHD 64-core graphics, and the multimedia and gaming performance is even inferior to that of the i5-1240P.

In gaming tests, with a resolution of 2K and the highest quality settings, the average frame rate of the MOREFINE M9 Pro can reach 111FPS over a nearly 40-minute game of League of Legends, with a maximum frame rate of 148FPS and a minimum of 67FPS. The entire experience can be summarized in one word—smooth, the only downside is that using Intel graphics to play LOL seems to lack shadow effects; if anyone knows how to solve this, feel free to comment.

In 3A game testing, with resolution set to 1080P, Far Cry: New Dawn at high quality had an average frame rate of 19FPS, which could be increased to 23FPS at low quality.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey at high quality had an average frame rate of 19FPS, which could be increased to 29FPS at low quality.

Tomb Raider: Shadow at high quality had an average frame rate of 20FPS, which could be increased to 27FPS at low quality.

Overall, the 12th (including 13th) generation Core integrated graphics has some pressure when playing 3A masterpieces, requiring a sacrifice in quality to achieve barely playable frame rates.

Compared to the AMD Ryzen 6000 mobile platform at the same level, Intel integrated graphics performs better in multimedia, natively supporting AV1 decoding, whether playing 8K resolution AV1 encoded videos or 4K resolution HEVC encoded videos, the CPU usage can be kept in single digits, making it perfect for acting as a TV box and home entertainment center.

Exceptional Experience: The Best Value Core Mini PC in Its Price Range

Having reached this point, I believe everyone has a more intuitive understanding of the MOREFINE M9 Pro. This mini PC, with a volume of only 0.5L, features exquisite body design, good expansion capabilities (dual M.2 disk slots), and has successfully brought the 12th Gen Core i7-1260P processor into the mainstream battlefield under 2000 yuan, combined with a maximum power release of 45W, making it the strongest contender among mini PCs on the Core platform in the same price range.

Of course, the MOREFINE M9 Pro also has some shortcomings, such as the number of USB ports (4A1C) is still relatively low (which is actually a lot compared to laptops), and the USB-C does not support Thunderbolt 4 or PD charging. However, the included mini charger has maximally compensated for this defect.

Overall, the MOREFINE M9 Pro is a mini PC that is well worth the price despite its flaws. In the past, Tech Fitness recommended prioritizing the i5-1240P and being cautious with the i7-1260P, as the performance difference between the two processors did not justify the higher price. However, since the i7-1260P is now cheaper than the i5-1240P, we naturally need to keep up with the times and prioritize the stronger and cheaper MOREFINE M9 Pro.

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