Minisforum UM880 Plus Review: A 2 Pint Powerhouse

In the world of handhelds, we’re focused on one thing: playing the game of “setup” with our devices. But we never ask what device we use to do that. Are we sending stuff from a laptop to a handheld? Do we have a proper desktop for it? Is that desktop too big?

Well, okay, no one is asking that last one except for me. In an attempt to downsize in space but not power, Minisforum has sent over their UM880 Plus for me to take a look at for review, and I’ve been digging into it practically non-stop since I got it. So now’s the time to take a look and see if maybe this is all you need for a PC?

Minisforum UM880 Plus: Specs

Right now, you can go to Amazon and grab the Minisforum UM880 Plus for about $520. There’s no barebones option at this time, and there’s only one configuration, but I’d say they made a good choice with it.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8 core/16 thread, Base Clock 3.8ghz/Boost Clock 5.1ghz)
GPU: AMD Radeon 780M (12 Graphics Cores @ 2700mhz)
RAM: 32GB DDR5 @ 5600mhz (Expandable to 96GB)
Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0SSD (1 Additional 2280 M.2 Slot internally)
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3
I/O: 3.5mm Jack, 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2, USB-C 4.0, 1x 2.5GB Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, Displayport 1.4, Optional Occulink
Dimensions: 130 x 127 x 55mm
Weight: 599 grams

Minisforum UM880 Plus at Amazon

The Unit Itself

Before even getting into what performance you get, it’s good to know what you’re buying first. The UM880 Plus is a small, silver, plastic mini PC that’s got ventilation on the sides and bottom, as well as a lightweight build to it, though that shouldn’t matter much if it stays stationary on your desk.

Overall, it does well to look unassuming despite the power it’s packing, and I’m happy to say for most users that’d be all you really need to know, as the 32GB of RAM and the terabyte of storage would cover a lot of average people, but I need to go deeper.

Opening It

When it comes to upgrading it, you’ve gotta bust the back open, and that’s where my first main complaint comes in. You have to peel off the bottom feet to access the screws. Minisforum includes spares in the box, but I’m still not the biggest fan.

Once the screws are out you have to pull back on some clips to pop the bottom panel off. Just be sure to be careful, as the fan is connected and needs to be unplugged. Once you’re in, you can see the two DDR5 slots, mine has Crucial RAM, and two 2280 M.2 SSD slots, mine has a Kingston drive.

If you want to use Occulink, you need to put it in that second SSD slot. That means you’re only getting a single SSD for storage upgrades and would likely need to replace the drive completely. While not ideal, 2TB drives are only $100 now, and if you know you’re going to make the upgrade, it’s not the worst idea to do it first.

Once it’s all upgraded, you can seal it up, hit the power button, and let it roar. Or not.

Volume

One of the advertised features of the UM880 Plus is the quiet fan on it. I would have to agree, out of my selection of mini PCs on hand, the UM880 Plus was easily the quietest of the bunch. Both my Beelink and GMKTec units with older Ryzen 7s were screaming half the time, and my 5800H Minisforum unit wasn’t much quieter.

In daily use, you should rarely hear the UM880 Plus, and even when you push it, it’s still not going to be the loudest thing in the room. I’m overall really happy with the volume, if anything. But that’s not the only thing to look at.

PC Performance

Here’s where I’m going to actually bust out a few other Mini PC’s for a proper comparison across a few benchmarks and games. We’re covering across Ryzen 7s going back to the 5800H in my Minisforum UM580D, as well as an Intel Core Ultra 9, and it’s been interesting to see where things land.

Synthetics

In Geekbench, the UM880 Plus and its 8845HS take a nice bump over last-gen Ryzen and the 185H in terms of single-core performance. Landing an average of 13,331 over the second-place options, around 10,500. GPU performance doesn’t see as big a jump as both units utilize the 780M, though it’s worth noting I had a strange drop going from Vulkan to OpenCL. Still, it manages to be well past performant here.

That trend continues into 3DMark as all three runs just continue to see a nice boost over prior generations. Also, letting you see just how far things have come from Vega and Ryzen 5000 in terms of mobile processors, having over doubled performance since then.

Game Benchmarks

I’ll make it brief, but we’ve reached a point where these systems can run games in 1080p if your settings are done right. I didn’t do that and pushed them to the limit. My games cover a bit of time, but are still games you might actually want to play.

Tomb Raider 2013 landed 76fps at 1080p ultra, Strange Brigade managed 45fps, and Forza Horizon 5 landed at 43fps. Both of which could easily be pushed to 60fps if you chose to drop your settings down to medium. At 1080p medium, Cyberpunk 2077 gave me 46fps. More intense modern games may need that drop in resolution to run at 60fps, but the fact you can do that at all now is incredible.

All of this is to say that things are a slight bump over last gen, a better choice than the inconsistencies of the 185H, and leagues better than the older Vega graphics. And if you want even more performance, the Occulink and USB-4 ports both will let you use an eGPU for increased performance. Just don’t use both for GPUs at once; SLI is still dead.

Emulation Performance

As shown already, the Radeon 780M packed away in the UM880 Plus is a powerhouse for portable performance. So that means it should do good, right? Well, the answer is duh. Everything up through Dreamcast and PSP is going to run exactly how you’d expect it, with the usual ability to upscale it to your heart’s content. As long as you’re not trying to go for a 10K Ultra Performance.

Stepping up into PlayStation 2 and GameCube, you’re going to see solid performance all around here as well. Despite the pain it causes me, Shadow the Hedgehog runs as expected on both PCSX2 and Dolphin, though with PS2, I’m going to be going more so towards Burnout anyway. But of course, you can’t stop there, can you?

Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Switch emulation is basically where everyone can peak nowadays. While I’ll never recommend you play the most demanding games on any emulator, there’s a wide variety of games worth covering across the three platforms. Though I’ll admit, with Switch, a lot of those indie games you could just as easily play on Steam with lower power requirements, you just have to make sure you own the games first.

Other OS Options

When it comes to PC’s, you should be glad to hear that running other operating systems ran just as well too. On an extra PNY SSD I had lying around, I was able to test a couple of alternative operating systems, including everyone’s favorite, Bazzite, as well as my personal Linux Distro of choice, ZorinOS.

The nice part is that both of them ran through the installation process with ease and booted up for use like it was nothing. If you were looking to turn the UM880 Plus into a small home console that could also be picked up and taken with you, this is currently one of the most powerful options you can grab outside of an HX370 or 395+.

If you’re looking to go the Linux route as a whole for your daily use, ZorinOS worked out of the box as well with all necessary drivers, and for me at least, just works at running everything I use on a daily basis. Which is just games and a lot of web-based applications.

Closing Thoughts

The Minisforum UM880 Plus has been a solid experience for me over the past few weeks of daily driving and testing it. For me personally, the next step is to see if it can really replace my desktop for most daily use. I’ve got an older Ryzen 5 5600G paired with an RX 6600. While the integrated graphics won’t match that, pairing it up with an eGPU on my desk and an Intel Arc B580 may be all I need to get me up and running again. And if not? This thing will make an awesome console PC.

For $520, I think you’re looking at a great value for a mini pc. It’s wild to see how good and cheap some of our options are getting in 2025. I just hope we don’t see a reversal of those trends with the recent releases of the HX370 and AI 395+ chips coming out. Unless those are truly game-changing platforms, the 8845HS in something like a UM880 Plus might just be all you need.

And a few games, of course.