Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 review: AMD's Gorgon Point in a sleek mini PC desktop

Mini PCs have gained a following over recent years by bringing the best mobile silicon to the desktop. The mix of processing power, the compact chassis, power efficiency, and portability hits a PC sweet spot for many folks. Here we are looking at Hong Kong-based Minisforum’s update to its well-regarded AI X1 Pro 370 from last year – the new Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470. As given away by the name, this model packs one of the latest AMD Gorgon Point mobile processors.

Specifically, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 is installed in this machine, and the mini PC’s relative charms rely on the enhancements delivered by the AMD Ryzen AI 400 series. Sadly, the latest AMD mobile processors offer merely incremental uplifts, leaving enthusiasts underwhelmed. The CPU boost goes 100 MHz higher, and the NPU performance has been lifted from 50 to 55 TOPS in the latest silicon. Nevertheless, we thought it would be worthwhile to gauge the appeal of the new Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470, and check out the top-end AI 400 series laptop chip in a mini PC.

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Design of the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470

The Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 looks and feels well-made, hewn from premium materials, with nicely tactile buttons, and is reassuringly dense. An obvious comparison is against an Apple Mac Mini M4, but at 7.68 inches square and 1.87 inches tall, the Minisforum would be visibly larger than the Apple (5 x 5 x 2 inches), set side by side.

If getting something Mac Mini-sized with an x86 chip is crucial, Minisforum offers the AI X1 (non-Pro) models, which almost exactly match the Mac’s dimensions. These non-Pro models from Minisforum are a bit cheaper, but they have fewer expansion options, ports, and a less potent cooling system.

One of the design features I appreciate about the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 is that it has flexible positioning and mounting options straight from the box. It ships with both a metal VESA mount bracket and fixings, as well as a matching vertical stand. The larger ‘Pro’ models (our test model) also benefit from integrating a 135W PSU, so you only need a common figure-of-8 power lead (supplied) to the wall.

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The Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 has a decent selection of modern ports, mostly front and back. It is good to see OCuLink and 2x USB4 among them, and some will appreciate the dual 2.5G LAN ports at the back. I would have wished for more USB-A ports at the back and a rear audio jack, too.

Other design features of note, which might make this stand out from a raft of rivals, are Minisforum’s integration of a Copilot button on the front of the chassis, its responsive Windows Hello-friendly fingerprint sensor on the top of the chassis, and the inclusion of stereo speakers and dual-array microphones under the hood.

Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 Mini PC Specifications

Ports and Connectivity of the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470

While the AI X1 Pro 470 has a wide selection of ports, I’d like more. Having 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10Gbps) ports, a USB4 Type-C (40 Gbps, supports Alt DisplayPort 2.0 & 15W PD out), and a 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack on the front, alongside the power and Copilot buttons, is a good start. To the left side, there is a full-sized SD card slot, with a Kensington Lock on the right.

Round the back there are numerous of ports, including another USB4 Type-C (40 Gbps, supports 100W PD-in to power the PC, Alt DisplayPort 2.0, and 15W PD out), another USB Type-A (but USB 2.0), plus an OCuLink Port, HDMI 2.1 FRL, DisplayPort 2.0, 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45), and an AC inlet (next to a reset / clear CMOS hole).

That sounds like a lot of variety, but just a single slow USB-A around the back is poor. It means I’ll be using a USB-C dock/dongle at the back, so the front system ports can remain ‘clean’ and available for handy occasional peripheral plugging. On the other hand, this little PC can connect up to four 4K screens simultaneously, straight from the box.

Wireless connectivity is decent. A MediaTek MT7925 Wi-FI 7 Card fitted to the motherboard also provides Bluetooth 5.4 with BLE support.

Upgradability of the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470

Before even opening up this device, it is pleasing to see that both OCuLink and USB4 are available for fast docking and eGPU connectivity. Inside, there’s quite a bit of room for upgrades, too – especially for a mini PC.

Minisforum provides three M.2 storage slots. With my 32GB/1TB config, one of the slots already has a 1TB drive installed, specifically a Kingston PCIe Gen4 NVMe drive with HMB caching and QLC NAND. Adequate but nothing fancy, it managed peak read and write speeds of almost 5.7 GB/s and 5.0 GB/s, respectively, in ATTO Disk Benchmark. According to the specs, this mini PC can fit three such drives, maxing out at 12TB total capacity (3x 4TB). Extra fittings and thermal pads are supplied in the box.

This ‘AI mini PC’ can pack up to 128GB of DDR5 RAM, using two SODIMM slots. You can buy it barebones direct from Minisforum or Amazon. We received a 32GB/1TB model for testing. These Ryzen AI 300 and 400 chips can be sensitive to memory bandwidth, especially for tasks that lean on the iGPU, so it was unfortunate that the 32GB here was a single DDR5-5600 module. In a ‘normal’ market, we think Minisforum would have supplied 2x 32GB, or a 2x 16GB option, but this 32GB was supplied with a single SODIMM, which seems to be a by-product of the RAMpocalypse.

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Adding or changing RAM or storage requires removing five screws from the bottom of the device (1 short, 4 long), followed by 7 further internal screws marked with triangles. Then lift the PSU with the secondary cooling fan gently, as there are three wired connections to the motherboard. You don’t need to detach these cables; there’s enough clearance to lean this assembly to the side, get in, and reach the RAM and SSD slots.

Productivity and AI Performance on the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470

We tested the Minisforum AI X1 Pro system, and its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 processor, using the supplied RAM/Storage configuration with Windows 11 pre-installed and the default ‘Balanced’ profile selected in the BIOS. VRAM was set at 8GB in the BIOS.

Taken in isolation, the results look pretty good. However, as I had an Asus Zephyrus G16 with 32GB quad-channel DDR5-7500 RAM at hand (my personal desktop replacement portable), I thought it would be interesting to check the difference between the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Asus laptop, PL1 65W, PL2 70W) and Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (Minisforum mini PC, PL1 60W, PL2 65W).

Due to the aforementioned mini PC RAM configuration, the older-gen, thermally-constrained Asus laptop trounced the new-gen Minisforum challenger. Disappointing. I wanted to see if the Minisforum could fight back if I upgraded it to dual-channel. Luckily, I could source a matching DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM, so I’ve also tabulated those results. Spoiler: the RAM upgrade makes a huge difference, convincingly putting the Gorgon Point processor in the mini PC into pole position most of the time.

Above, you have two popular synthetic CPU benchmarks that concentrate on CPU performance. Then the Procyon AI tests I did looked at AI image generation using the onboard NPU. These results equate to a series of 500x500 pixel AI-generated images being produced from a prompt in Stable Diffusion Lite every 10 or 11s. Last but not least, Handbrake was used to convert a reference 4K/60 HDR nature video to 1080p/30.

Gaming Performance on the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470

What we said about the single-vs-dual channel memory above applies even more in 3D gaming workloads that need to squeeze the best out of the Radeon 890M iGPU. Most readers will know about the theoretical benefits of improved memory bandwidth for Radeon iGPU graphics performance, but seeing, feeling, and measuring it is something else. We can thank the AI industry for opening our eyes to this and moving an extra matching memory module far beyond an impulse purchase.

As I was thinking this Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 would be a good candidate for a living room TV connected media box and 'Steam Machine,' I tested Cyberpunk 2077 using the ‘Steam Deck’ preset at 1080p. The system did pretty well after it was upgraded to dual-channel RAM.

Overall, the gaming frame rates of 50-60fps on the dual-channel RAM-equipped X1 Pro 470 point to it being a pretty decent entertainment box for the living room scenario that I was thinking about. With all these tests done at medium settings (except CP2077), there are still plenty of settings that can be adjusted to achieve an average 60fps at 1080p, if you insist on that.

Bottom Line

During even the most demanding tests, the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470 stayed pleasingly quiet and cool. Running through the benchmarks and stress tests, I didn’t see any processor temperatures rising above the low 70s (Celsius). Moreover, the weighty dual-fan cooling seems to do its job pretty quietly inside the slick metal alloy shell. These are definite advantages over my Zephyrus with Ryzen Ai 9 HX 370.

An unobtrusive fan profile is important to me for long-term use of any PC as a daily driver. I think this system could make the grade, with its idle noise level of 28dBA and highest reading of 32dBA from approximately arms-length away (positioned beside my monitor on the desk).

I’ve enjoyed testing the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 470. It looks good, feels well built, offers flexible mounting and positioning options, and runs cool and quiet. Being able to check it out in dual-channel memory mode also raised my opinion of the device. A decent USB4 dock attached to the rear provides the ports I need, while keeping it tidy, too.

Given the small changes delivered by AMD’s latest mobile chips, bargain hunters might be more interested in the AI X1 Pro 370 from last year, which is still available at $735 barebones, or $1,184 for the 32GB/1TB config. Also, if the AI X1 Pro 470 with 32GB/1TB config we received ($1,379.00 on Amazon) isn’t your little dream machine, the barebones model with HX 470 is just $779. To that, you'd need to add a dual-channel DDR5 SO-DIMM kit, an M.2 SSD, and Windows (or Linux).