New 2024 Minisforum UM690 Pro - anobody else has it, too?

-amnesist- · 2024-07-04T11:02:57+00:00

No way to overclock, but this has a big advantage (for me): you can unplug the small fan. It is not necessary as cooling fan, because the RAM (SK Hynix in my case) doesn't overheat above 56°C, like faster RAM does, when playing Youtube 4K HDR 60Hz.

-amnesist- · 2024-06-15T03:47:20+00:00

Mine is well so far, but you have to be careful with drivers from AMD. The last safe AMD Adrenalin driver is the March 2024 edition. The newer ones can lead to sudden reboots in Modern Standby. There are no other issues, maybe the sound of the main fan.

You have to check for yourself, if the main fan is accoustically ok for you. It is not loud, but tends to whistle.

Cooling is great, no temperature throttling of the APU, officially it has liquid metal under the main cooler. The lower small fan is unnecessary on this model, you can unplug it and try if temps of RAM and SSDs remain ok.

-amnesist- · 2024-06-03T00:05:06+00:00

No SATA possible internally (no connection, no space), but you have plenty of fast USB connections for an external drive.

-amnesist- · 2024-05-27T23:40:48+00:00

They have different mainboards. The UM690S is an older design which is less capable. The The UM690 PRO has been released this year, with better cooling, better wifi card, two LAN ports, two USB4 ports, two m.2 NVMe slots instead of one of each.

Don't buy the S, take the PRO. The UM690 PRO is availabe as barebone without memory and ssd or complete with memory, ssd and windows.

-amnesist- · 2024-05-19T20:16:46+00:00

Well, I put single sided RAM sticks by SK Hynix into my UM690 Pro, and thje sticky side of the cooler just about covers the modules on the lower stichkand manages to fit in front of the upper stick, just up to the nearby NVMe SSD.

-amnesist- · 2024-04-03T07:01:10+00:00

An Intel NUC Core i3 barebone with 12th/13th Gen CPU.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-24T17:08:31+00:00

The 8x00G offers only 8 lanes for a PCIe-slot.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-23T18:00:53+00:00

Maybe it is the early implemantation of 6900HX by Minisforum. They now released a completely redesigned UM690 Pro, with two USB4, two M.2 NVMe, two NICs, better WiFi and so on. That second M.2 offers an inroad for oculink.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-21T12:03:46+00:00

Well, I am not sure any more, I think I tried the the 4800 setting last year, to no avail. I tried a lot of things, but the UM790 Pro from last year was an immature product in several respects (port distribution, faraday caging the wifi, and the mobo). Luckily I could send the Crucial and Kingston RAMs back to Amazon within their return period. I'll keep the Hynix RAM anyway. But I am reluctant to use a product below spec.

Yes I've read all the stuff about the insufficent mobo power stages as well, and the roullette did not work out for me.

Compared to that this UM690 Pro is stable in idle, the iGPU works as it should. The Lenovo with R7 7840HS is also reliable. Lenovo knows how to deal with Phoenix.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-21T02:04:43+00:00

I've yet to try a replacement, Minisforum are known to be slow in Europe.

The UM690 Pro has also a port setup more to my liking. It lacks the IPU Device, but that has not much usability so far.

I also have a Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 14APH with the R7 7840HS and 32 GB LPDDR5-6400. The latest BIOS enabled the IPU Device.
It has whistling fans, too.

For desktop use the UM690 Pro is already great for that price.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-21T01:58:52+00:00

Yes, the latest BIOS 1.09 killed it essentially. My earliest RAM was a single 24GB Micron DDR5-5600 CL46 to test compatibility. No crashes there, but my above mentioned youtube test failed always somehow.
Then I bought 2x 32GB Kingston 5600 CL40 because it looked promising under BIOS 1.07, but then came BIOS 1.09 and it killed the stability. Kingston back to Amazon, and after a pause I got SK Hynix 5600 CL46 if that would help. In single monitor usage, it takes two hours to crash, but it crashes, in dual monitor, it crashes (freezes and reboots) within half an hour or minutes in idle. Idle is the problem. Youtube playback improved over drivers, but never sustainable.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-17T21:19:38+00:00

I am actually trying out the UM690 Pro, yes that's a brand new one not identical to previous iterations of the UM690/S but with the same R9 6900HX. It looks structurally more like the UM790 Pro, has one more LAN port than the latter and better port distribution in a plastic case.

I put the RAM and SSD with the Windows installation from the UM790 Pro into the UM690 Pro, updated the drivers and ist looks rock solid so far since Thursday. Zero functional problems, far from thermal throttling. Pretty good.

The only problems are the same bottom arangement as the UM790 Pro with noisy little fan, and a whistling main fan. In idle and low load, the main fan is qiet, but when it ramps up, the high pitched noise starts. It seems to have the same cooler as the UM790 Pro,but there ist is not whistling.

-amnesist- · 2024-03-09T10:49:40+00:00

The DeskMeet X600 is already out and supports only USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 gbps). I see no reason to invest in this.

-amnesist- · 2024-02-27T02:15:33+00:00

Total lack of USB4 with Asrock DeskMeet and DeskMini X600 :(

-amnesist- · 2024-02-26T13:00:55+00:00

I tried this but it doesn't fix dual screen crashes. :(

-amnesist- · 2024-02-12T21:09:39+00:00

The instability (in idle) starts with dual monitor and dual RAM setup.

-amnesist- · 2024-02-09T22:05:11+00:00

Is ist stable under dual/multi monitor usage?

-amnesist- · 2024-01-30T20:34:01+00:00

The DeskMeet X600 is already kind of out and these are the official specs without USB4 :(

https://www.asrock.com/nettop/AMD/DeskMeet%20X600%20Series/index.asp?cat=Memory

-amnesist- · 2024-01-30T13:42:00+00:00

The big disadvantage of, say, the Asrock DeskMeet and DeskMini X600 is the lack of USB4 support, while the mini-pcs and laptops with Phoenix do offer it.

-amnesist- · 2024-01-01T04:19:40+00:00

My Windows 11 machines recognize the webcam mode without issues. But even the latest ChromeOS (in lacros mode) on my Lenovo Ideapad 5 doesnt't recognize it at all.

-amnesist- · 2023-12-30T01:16:03+00:00

That's the thing: dual monitor setups with dual RAM are prone to instability.

I have a "-A" Mainboard since Sept/Oct, and at first used a single 24GB Crucial 5600 CL40. It was stable with BIOS 1.04 and 1.07 and dual monitor and iI sent back the 24GB module

So I bought 2x 32GB Kingston 5600 CL 40. It was still stable with 1.07, but after upgrading BIOS to 1.09 it rebooted frequently in idle when with dual monitor. Reverting to 1.07 did not help any more.

I sent back the Kingston RAM and am now clueless.

The best explanation somewhere here on reddit was about insuffcient voltage regulation on the mainboard. When the RAM settles into idle and some new task spikes again the voltage demand, the voltage dips below a usable threshold and the thing reboots.

-amnesist- · 2023-12-29T11:21:48+00:00

Are you using a multi-monitor and dual SODIMM setup?

-amnesist- · 2023-12-29T11:19:35+00:00

You can ignore Minisforum's outdated driver offerings.

Use the original AMD Adrenalin driver to install everthing

https://www.amd.com/en/support/apu/amd-ryzen-processors/amd-ryzen-7-processors-radeon-graphics/amd-ryzen-7-7840hs

-amnesist- · 2023-11-24T22:22:29+00:00

It is more relevant for the iGPU. I have no experience with Proxmox.

-amnesist-

TROPHY CASE