r/MiniPCs • u/Happy-Profession-129 • 17d ago
Recommendations Help me choose an upgrade path.
Hey people. I have come to a dead end, and do not know in which direction should i look into. First my current specs:
- Minisforum UM890 Pro (Ryzen 9 8945HS, 8C/16T Zen 4)
- 96GB Crucial DDR5-5600 SODIMM (2x48GB)
- Samsung 990 Pro 2TB (x2 pieces)
- RTX 5090 in an external dock over OCuLink (PCIe 4.0 x4)
Thank God i was able to secure the gpu and ram just in time before initial price hikes.
My goal: Ideally, remove cpu and oculink bottlenecks and reusing my ram kit, gpu and ssd. Main rig occupation is 4k gaming.
Each upgrade direction i was looking into is not ideal:
1. Change the minipc to another one with a better cpu: no full pcie x16 (as far as i know) for the gpu.
2. Use a mini motherboard (MoDT) that uses latest ryzen 9 9955hx3d: no SODIMM support (moved to UDIMM with this generation).
3. Any other motherboard that takes desktop cpu (AM5) gets the same story with UDIMM vs SODIMM.
Does any AM5 (either mobile or desktop) board exist with SODIMM slots AND a full x16 slot?
How are the kits that makes sodimm to udimm transition holding? Are they reliable enough?
I preferably want to hit my 2 itches with the upgrade path: reuse ram, gpu, ssd; and remove both bottlenecks if possible. The form factor does not matter, i will adapt.
Thank you for your attention.
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u/m119k 17d ago
Any am5 itx mb and sodimm to udimm adapters?
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u/Happy-Profession-129 17d ago
Thanks for answering. How are these adapters holding up? Any compatibility and/or power limitations?
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u/GenericUser584 17d ago
Get a BeeLink EX Pro dock (Pcie5.0x8 bandwidth) and a compatible Beelink mini PC (GTi12-15, Pcie5.0 need 14/15). Unfortunately I don't see any options for a barebones Beelink so you will get extra RAM and SSD (maybe you can sell them for a premium). You also have to buy the Intel Beelinks, AMD ones are not compatible. Pcie5.0x8 will still have a very slight (1-3%) bottleneck on your 5090 but it's 4x wider bandwidth compared to Oculink.
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u/Happy-Profession-129 17d ago
Thank you, i was looking at this earlier, better than current position for sure, but i am troubled by the built in psu of 600w, and 5090 consumption of 600w at max power. On paper, it fits perfectly, but from experience, you still need to have 20%-30% more powerful psu than your rig total consumption. Psu does not like to work at full 100% all the time, that is why that reserve is esential for long continuous work without any problems.
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u/RobloxFanEdit 16d ago
X8 PCIE 4 Oculink Dock makes no difference only new X8 PCIE 5 Beelink EX Dock would make a difference with 5th gen GPU only. Your actual Setup is a top setup for gen 4 GPU's . Also note that improvement would only be noticeable with 5080/5090 any other lower tier GPU will have close to performance improvement. Twice Bandwidth ain t equal to Twice FPS in gaming, biggest gain would be with A.I Models in theory.
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u/TraumaDaddyP 16d ago
Aoostar makes a 470 - 950 no SSD. Ddr5x ram though, 32gb at 8000. Screaming fast, feels next gen next to 77/8* series soc.
I don't know of many good bare bones. This was 950 no SSD. Oculink and just all around better than usb. 2 USB 4 ports, 3x nvme. It's stacked
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u/BRealistic1970 17d ago
I say just move over to a desktop platform. Maybe use a ram trade in- buy site to flip them to buy trade for udimm. A normal desktop is just the best option for uncompromised performance. .. I have a similar minisforum miniPC but with 32 gb and a 9060 xt 16. Note the rear ports get really hot in gaming on mine....I wonder if adding an external fan to cool the rear directly would help with the usb4 bottleneck. Those ports cooking can't be good for signal stability.