AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX Mini-ITX 'Mobile on Desktop' motherboard now available for $519

Minisforum seems to be close to releasing its AMD-based Mobile on Desktop (MoDT) motherboard, which features an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX for $519. Not bad, read on:

Minisforum looks to be giving customers a choice between two different AMD Ryzen 7000 series mobile processors; the first is the Ryzen 7 7745X with 8 cores and 16 threads (model BD770i) or the Ryzen 9 7945HX with 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 4 processing power (model BD790i)

We have an integrated RDNA 2-based GPU, which has just 2 Compute Units, so it's a super limited GPU setup that won't be for 4K 120Hz gaming.

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Minisforum's new BD770i + BD770i MoDT motherboard (source: Minisforum)

Still, the AMD version here features a full-sized PCIe Gen5 x16 slot for any graphics card you want to throw into the system, as well as M.2 SSD storage that's Gen5-capable. Intel's mobile-focused MoDT motherboards don't feature Gen5 SSD support, so that's a win for the AMD-powered MoDT motherboard from Minisforum.

• Read more: AMD Mobile on Desktop Mini-ITX mobo: support Hawk Point APUs
• Read more: Mobile AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX outperforms Intel's flagship Core i9-13980HX CPU

The company has also used a fantastic cooling solution, with a bigger heatsink for the AMD Ryzen CPU, and a smaller one for the super-fast Gen5 SSD. Since this is a barebones system, you'll need to buy your own CPU fan, SSD, and SO-DIMM DDR5 memory. You can use the integrated GPU of course, but with a PCIe Gen5 x16 slot, you can use any graphics card you wanted on this bad boy.

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Minisforum's new BD770i + BD770i MoDT motherboard (source: Minisforum)

Minisforum's new BD770i with the Ryzen 7 7745HX processor will cost $399, while the BD790i with the Ryzen 9 7945HX processor will cost $519.

ETA Prime recently tested the Ryzen 9 7945HX variant, with the peak power consumption on the CPU hitting 100W during multi-core benchmarks, with max boost CPU clocks of up to 4.75GHz. In Geekbench 6 runs, there's a single-core score of 2890 points, while multi-core runs hit 16584 points. That means the mobile Ryzen 9 7945HX processor is around 1.6% and 14% slower than the desktop Ryzen 9 7950X, respectively.

Minisforum points out that its new Mini-ITX motherboard is the first MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) board powered by built-in AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX processor with dual PCIe Gen5 M.2 slots. It features an "integrated advanced cooling system" that keeps the CPU and dual Gen5 SSDs at optimal performance temperatures.

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Minisforum's new BD770i + BD770i MoDT motherboard (source: Minisforum)

It's made in the regular ITX form factor, featuring a bunch of connectivity that also keeps you up to date with ultra-fast external products like external SSDs and more.

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Minisforum's new BD770i + BD770i MoDT motherboard (source: Minisforum)

Minisforum's new MoDT motherboards feature an enthusiast-grade 2.5GbE ethernet port, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1 x HDMI port, 1 x DisplayPort, and 1 x USB-C port for displays... which support up to 8K 60Hz, too.