MINISFORUM's F1FGM Motherboard: Brings Desktop Strength with Ryzen 9 9955HX
Hi PC builders and tech enthusiasts! Something pretty interesting was witnessed recently at Japan IT Week Spring. MINISFORUM, known for tiny systems and creative motherboard designs, launched a fresh board that literally turns heads: the "F1FGM." And the most exciting reason it has made heads turn is that it packs the highest-of-the-line Ryzen 9 9955HX mobile processor.
The "Mobile on Desktop" Concept: In Development
MINISFORUM has been undertaking this fantastic idea they call "Mobile on Desktop," or MoTD. What they essentially do is take robust mobile implementations of Ryzen CPUs and put them onto boards that accommodate normal desktop form factors like Mini-ITX or microATX. Boards like the BD770i in the past used Ryzen 7000 series mobile processors. They offered a neat way of building a budget PC with reasonable performance but generally played one step behind the pure cutting-edge desktop tech and occasionally omitted those flashy features that overclockers and enthusiasts like, including full RGB control.
The Star of the Show: Ryzen 9 9955HX, Unleashed
The F1FGM seems to have different ideas about that. This new board is powered by the *latest* generation of mobile Ryzen – AMD's Ryzen 9 9955HX from its Ryzen 9000 "Fire Range" series. This chip uses AMD's Zen 5 architecture and boasts a serious amount of cores (16 cores, 32 threads) with a boost clock up to 5.4 GHz. But here's where it gets seriously awesome: While this chip is typically rated around 55-75W, MINISFORUM is pushing it to an *amazing 160W* on the F1FGM! They claim this unlocks performance on a level with desktop-class CPUs, all while potentially maintaining a better overall value than buying a high-end desktop CPU alone from a motherboard.
Surprises Under the Hood: Memory and Cooling
Aside from the headline-grabbing CPU performance, there are some excellent engineering choices the F1FGM takes. Traditionally, mobile CPU motherboards have kept laptop-standard SO-DIMM memory. But not the F1FGM; it goes against the grain and includes standard, desktop-style DDR5 UDIMM slots! What a treat for PC enthusiasts! This brings support for more memory kits to choose from, increased speeds (up to 8000+ stated), and higher capacities (up to 256GB). This shift from SO-DIMM to UDIMM seemingly involved significant in-house R&D on the part of MINISFORUM.
Heat management from that uber-powered 160W TDP is important. MINISFORUM has equipped the F1FGM with a vapor chamber heat spreader exactly where the CPU lives. It's a pricey solution, but one necessary to facilitate that high level of heat to be transferred effectively from the chip and off to the user-provided CPU cooler. It looks like some serious cooling hardware to allow that 160W to happen.
Specs and Features for Builders
The F1FGM is a microATX form factor that's loaded with features for modern PC builds:
- Expansion slots: One PCIe 5.0 x16 and one PCIe 4.0 x16.
- Storage: Teeming with one PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, three additional M.2 slots (Gen4 speed support), and two SATA 6Gbps ports.
- Connectivity: Future-proof with two USB4 ports, fast 5 Gigabit Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 7.
- Enthusiast-Friendly: Includes four RGB LED headers to light up your build and BIOS DEBUG LEDs for easy troubleshooting.
- Overclocking Potential: MINISFORUM plans to grant access to most BIOS features, including CPU and memory overclocking.
When Can You Get Your Hands On It?
If you're eager to build a truly unique, performance-oriented PC out of the F1FGM, you're going to need to wait just a bit. MINISFORUM is busy optimizing the BIOS and other goodies, with shipments arriving in the second half of 2025. It almost looks like they're gearing up to directly take on some of the high-bells-and-whistles desktop mobos out there, offering exceptional performance for your money by leaning into the possibilities of the Ryzen 9 9955HX in this rare, but certainly interesting, package.
Source: PC Watch
