Minisforum is back with another mini PC, but this time around, there is a very interesting twist. The new Minisforum B550 system is an AMD-based mini PC, equipped with a Ryzen 5000 CPU or APU, as well as a docking station, so you can run an external GPU for additional performance.
As reported by CnBeta (via Tom's Hardware), the Minisforum B550 mini PC comes with an optional docking station, which can be used to connect a dedicated graphics card to the system via a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
The docking station supports external GPUs of any length through a PCIe 3.0 interface. Additionally, the docking station has space to house an SFF/ATX PSU to power the GPU, as the system doesn't need it. Instead, it uses a dedicated 120W power adapter.
As for the mini-PC itself, it supports Ryzen 5000 chips with up to 12x cores and 65W TDP, including the Ryzen 5 5600X, the Ryzen 7 5700G and the Ryzen 9 5900. In addition, there's space for 2x M.2 PCIe 3.0/SATA slots and 2x SO-DIMM DDR4 memory modules, and it features a 1G LAN, USB-A 3.2 and USB-C ports, a DisplayPort, 2x HDMI ports, and 3.5mm audio connectors.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru says: In its basic form, the system looks quite ok for office use and casual gaming. However, once you hook it up with a dedicated GPU, it will perform better in almost any task you throw at it, but at the cost of a larger form factor. Users will have to decide whether the extra performance can compensate for the bigger footprint.