MinisForum BD790i User Experiences

[spuwho]

I am putting the BD790i through the paces. Current installation is as follows:

Generic 3U rack case
AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX (16c/32t)
Corsair CX650M
Mushkin Redline 96Gb RAM kit
Noctua 120mm fan
2Tb Samsung 990 EVO Gen 5 (2X) Nvme SSD
1Tb Samsung 990 EVO Gen 5 (2x) Nvme SSD

I ran a benchmark (on Linux) to see how fast the heat sink would warm up sans the Noctua fan. Less than 2 minutes until the unit shut down at 96 C.

Otherwise with the Noctua fan on, the CPU stays between 62C & 73C. SSD's around 49C

Assessment, that heat sink is not as functional as it should be, but I will remove it later and look at the issue.

Some Reddit users are reporting the plating that goes against the CPU die is uneven and they made up for it with lots of paste.

lspci shows that the SSD's are running at PCIe Gen 5 speeds but at 2 lanes. I wasn't looking for any speed gain, I wanted to see a Gen 5 indication.

Like typical MinisForum BIOS, the boot is really, really slow. If I hadn't owned their other mini-PC's I would have thought it was a DOA, it takes so long. (yes, I know why)

The BIOS menu is graphical now. The secure boot settings are unusual and not straight forward. All the typical settings are available.

Bifurcation is available on the PCIe x16 slot, but I haven't tested it, however some people on Reddit have it at 4x4x4x4 appears to work perfectly with an NVME adapter.

I also noticed a SR-IOV option, but I will look at that later.

Installing Linux, the BIOS refused to enumerate the SSD in M2 Slot zero, but happily enumerated M2 Slot 1.

Thinking I had either a bad SSD or bad M2 slot, I tested both and they were fine. So I installed only 1 SSD on slot 0 and it enumerated just fine and installed the OS.

After that I re-installed the SSD in slot 1 and it worked fine as well. Weird.

At the moment the PCIe x16 slot is empty as I test other functions, so I am using the Radeon M610 iGPU.

I am not a gamer, so I may put something less common in the slot for testing.

Thoughts for options, 10GbE adapter, multi-function NVME adapter, perhaps some higher speed ethernet.

I will have to come up with a test that can push the Gen 5 slot since there are no adapters in the market just yet.

Down the road, this might be a rack mounted Proxmox node. It's hard to get 16c/32t in a low power package and have it this small. (and this board is "tiny")

 

[CPNXP]

I ordered two BD790i with the intention of making them xcp-ng hosts, both of my boards will not hold BIOS settings when unplugged for more than 5 min. After contacting support they very quickly went to RMA after I supplied them my serial number. I'm pressing them on the nature of the issue as I have non sequential serial numbers (Two different orders weeks apart, both preorders). I really like the board as it's tested well so far for my setup it'd be great if it weren't for this one issue. I checked the battery and the exposed connections and they are showing 3.3v as I'd expect so the battery isn't dead. I'm inclinded to keep them as long as this issue doesn't affect their longevity since I already had to wait over a month for them. Would be good if I could figure out what was going on with them. As a note I had to disable Global C State support to get the xcp-ng installer to boot due to their kernel being very old.

 

[spuwho]

Interesting. I have had mine unplugged for 24 hours while I tested other gear. I will see if the BIOS settings are lost as well. That usually points to a bad flash ROM.

****Same Issue****

I turned it back on and the settings and system date are all lost.

 

[CPNXP]

Thanks for confirming @spuwho , I've been going back and forth with support and I am going to RMA one of my boards to see if the replacement has the same issue. Based on some Chinese I translated from support's email it seems they think the battery is dead but based on my testing with my multimeter the battery seems fine. I tried looking for a CMOS chip on the board because I wanted to check if it was getting the 3.3v but I only found a general SPI flash chip and no CMOS. I suspect the chip is under the heatsink so I can't get a good look at it. Granted troubleshooting electroics at that level isn't my specialty.

 

[Kyklas]

Hi,
I did a build with the BD790i and faced similar issues. The BIOS does not keep setting without AC power.
I have checked the coin cell battery, it is fine. I did try a different one, same issue.

In Linux, the monitor ITE IT8613E was reporting the battery voltage. I tested with the battery disconnected and voltage was still present, not a great indicator.

@spuwho I did not have as much issue with the M.2 detection. Did not look at the link speed I was getting.
Your report of heat makes me concerned for my build. May need to try a few things when I get a board back.

Thanks for this post, I was looking for other users with feedback/issue on the BD790i.
After waiting 30 days to get the board from pre-order, I sent my unit in RMA, just 5 days after getting it.
I am really hopeful for the BD790i to make a great system. A bit disappointed with that bios issue.

I am curious to know if BD770i users have the same issue ...

 

[jeloneal]

Hi, facing the same issue with bios here. Contacted support, but they said I would have to wait more than a month till a replacement would be shipped. Very unfortunate.