MINISFORUM Motherboard BD895i SE Mini ITX NAS Motherboard, AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX,16 C/32 T,PCIe 5.0 x16 Slot, Dual PCIe4.0 M.2 Support, DDR5,8K Triple Output(HDMI/DP/USB-C), RJ45 2.5G, USB 3.2

I've been building PC's for decades at this point, and this is by far the best value board/CPU combo I have ever built! It is ridiculous value for money, the CPU is an absolute monster and cuts through anything I throw at it (figuratively, of course, heh) and it even runs quietly with my RX 6900XT Red Devil Edition just below it, which is not a card known for being the coolest of runners. It never gets above 80 Degrees Celsius and is insanely good in every game I've thrown (again, figurative) at it, along with being rock solid. If you need something simple, insanely powerful, really small and just easy to install and simple to set up, then you could do a LOT worse! As a side-note for Linux users, of which I am one, when you install your distribution of choice, then you will likely want to disable Secure Boot. This is not as intuitive as it may seem, so when booting, be sure to press the Delete keys repeatedly until the BIOS pops up. After that, Secure Boot should be available and not greyed out. I know that, even though I'm a pretty experienced builder, that caught me off guard and I could not be bother enrolling my device, so I hope this helps at least some folks out. Happy building and hope you enjoy this incredible bit of hardware! :D

What an awesome motherboard and CPU combo! I turned it into my daily gaming PC, and I even laser cut a wooden case. I managed to add RGB support using Airgoo 16-Port Signal RGB Controller and works a charm. Thermals are excellent, and the PCI 5 slot is ideal for GPUS - even drives my other GPU which is a 5090. Loads of RAM capacity and excellent NVMe storage! I am suprized this motherboard is not more popular, because it easily beats other boards. The concept of mobile on desktop is also excellent. It's nearly as powerful as my 7950X - but way less energy hungry. I initially bought one of the early batches and had an issue with fans sitting at max at all times, however, customer support has been quick to provide a replacement. Communication was excellent - now I wish I owned two of these - one for work, one for gaming. Linux compatibility is also excellent - Fedora 42 / 43 work flawlessly. Absolutely no issues. Super fast network connectivity as well!

Genuinely a fantastic product, something unique and provides fantastic value and performance. The box includes all the necessary screws and bracket to install your own 120mm fan (I recommend staying away from anything under 1900rpm and slim). I like the way you install the SSD’s, no need for tiny screws. This is definitely the most powerful pc I’ve ever used, the Ryzen 9 is efficient and VERY snappy in windows. Now for the cons, this motherboard is a bit barebones, I wish there was a header for USB C for the cases that have it, and not have to use a janky splitter solution but I understand why they’d leave it out. The ram slots take a couple of goes to properly connect and there is no proper manual or instruction booklet telling you about what all the screws and bits are for, having to rely on Reddit and YouTube videos. Also my box has a big dent in it and how the backplate is packaged meant it was all bent, however it was quite easy to mould into place and install it. Overall I’m extremely happy I went this route, I saved myself money, managed my expectations and they’ve been exceeded. Enjoying this performance in a SSF build

If you're a fan of SSF gaming rigs, this is a brilliant little prebuilt bundle to help build very capable gaming systems. 16c/32t upto 5.4Ghz CPU that sips power compared to its desktop equivalent yet provides benchmarking that is very, very close to said desktop variant. Slap a decent power supply, your chosen NVMe/s (use a DRAM decent one for your boot drive), decent PSU, whatever RAM you like, a case, and you're done! The included iGPU isn't going to set records but it's good enough for some games, or for desktop/server use. Simply add a desktop GPU if your choice and BOOM gaming PC! Oh, and add a 120mm pwm fan to your shopping list. I've got the 8c16t version of this already, but this one I've added a 5070Ti and it appears so far to be perfectly matched, neither the CPU on this or the GPU is bottlenecking each other. For the price Vs performance, especially when compared to buying a gaming ITX motherboard and a desktop CPU, it's an excellent choice. It benchmarks slightly above the gamers favourite 7800X3D in single core and floors it in multi core while costing roughly the same as the CPU alone! It's slightly behind the 9800X3D in single core but still beats it in multi core. And it's only slightly (around 15%) behind the current strongest gaming desktop CPU 9950X3D which based on current prices I can find cost nearly DOUBLE the cost of this bundle for the CPU alone, factor in another £300+ for a gaming motherboard and you can see why these are a very good option. You can even get a X3D version of this now for another ~+5% performance uplift. You have to be aware, the CPU is soldered to the motherboard so you're not replacing it to upgrade in the future, but considering again the cost, it'll still be roughly as cheap to upgrade the whole motherboard/CPU combo Vs a new CPU later anyway, and you could quite easily sell the old one for more than you would get for a old desktop CPU alone to help towards the upgrade. I really hope Minisforum continue these ITX boards with the new gaming laptop CPUs for future upgrades. I'm a huge fan!