Minisforum continues to surprise us with machines that are always more compact than the others. This time, the brand launches its NUCXI5 and NUCXI7 ultra-compact computers. However, the format and the cooling system strongly remind us of a laptop… To which we would have removed the screen!
NUCXI5 & NUCXI7: compact laptop-like PCs!
So, we find ultra-compact machines in the program, which is the trademark of the brand. However, what is surprising is the format of these PCs, slims and particularly high. Internally, we find a cooling system similar to that of a laptop. Indeed, we find a system of heat pipes drawing heat from the processor and the GPU to be cooled by two blocks of aluminum fins with turbine fans on the ends. In fact, it is as if we had a laptop without its screen. 
Anyway, we find a rather interesting configuration, the NUCXI5 having a Core i5 11400H (6 cores/12 threads) coupled with an RTX 3060 with 6 GB of GDDR6. On the other hand, the NUCXI7 has a Core i7 11800H (8 cores/16 threads) and an RTX 3070 with 8 GB of GDDR6. For the memory and storage part, we have several choices:
- Barebone: no RAM or storage
- 16 GB RAM + 256 GB SSD
- 16 GB RAM + 512 GB SSD
- 32 GB RAM + 512 GB SSD
- 32 GB RAM + 1 TB SSD
Prices for these models start at $979 (for the i5) and $1189 (for the i7) in barebone. With 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD , they reach $1249 and $1469 respectively.
This way to the Minisforum datasheet!
