Minisforum has introduced a brand new category of motherboards known as MoDT which brings the power of high-end mobile chips to Mini-ITX desktop motherboards and the company is kicking things off with its first design, the BD770i, which features the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU.
Minisforum BD770i Brings High-End AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU To Mini-ITX Motherboards, Full PCIe Gen 5.0 x16 dGPU Support Too
Minisforum's sub-division, EYERTEC, recently introduced the AD650i motherboard which features the Intel Core i7-12650H Alder Lake-H CPU. That motherboard offers some impressive CPU & NAS capabilities but one downside was the lack of discrete graphics support. With the BD770i, it looks like Minisforum is giving us an even better option with a better CPU and increased I/O options.
The mini-ITX M/B is the first MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) board powered by built-in AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU with dual PCIe5.0 M.2 slots.
This MoDT board features an integrated advanced cooling system, ensuring that both the processor and the dual PCIe5.0 SSDs maintain optimal performance temperatures. Crafted in the standard ITX form factor and equipped with a wealth of interfaces. Whether you're assembling a compact gaming system, a home theater, or a content creation workstation, the BD770i provides a solid, future-proof base for your projects.
via Minisforum
Starting off with the specifications, the Minisforum BD770i motherboard comes packed with the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU which is part of the Zen 4 "Dragon Range " lineup. It packs 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 5.1 GHz clock speeds, 40 MB of combined cache, and a default TDP of 55W which can be configured between 45-75W. The CPU supports DDR5-5200 memory and comes with full support for PCIe 5.0 hardware. The memory slots support two SO-DIMM modules so you can get up to 96 GB capacities using 48 GB modules but Minisforum is only listing a maximum of 64 GB capacities using 32 GB modules.
The motherboard is powered by a single 8-pin connector and the 24-Pin ATX connector so yes, you'd require a PSU if you are going to use this motherboard. The best decision would be to get a SFX PSU which are very popular and widely available through variant PSU brands.
As for cooling, the Minisforum BD770i comes pre-equipped with a passive heatsink which features at least 4 copper heat pipes and a aluminum fin block which is all nickel-plated and should be more than enough to cool the chip. There's obviously mounting holes on the top of the heatsink giving you the option to attach a 120mm fans.
In terms of I/O, the motherboard comes with a dedicated PCIe Gen 5.0 x16 slot which can support all of the latest graphics cards including the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 & the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. There are two M.2 slots too which support PCIe 5.0 interface and come with heatsink which is great to cool the high-end storage devices. You could also additionally mount a small fan cooler on top of the SSD heatsinks for even better cooling.
As for rear-panel I/O, you get WIFI 6E, a 2.5 GbE LAN port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a USB Type-C port and a large exhaust vent on the pre-installed I/O shield. Display outputs include DP1.4 and HDMI 2.0. The Ryzen 7 7745HX does comes with an onboard Radeon 710M "RDNA 2" iGPU but for graphics-intensive tasks, it is better to just use a dedicated graphics card with this motherboard.
Minisforum is pricing the barebone BD770i motherboard at a price of just $399 US which is very reasonable given what you are being offered. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AM5 CPU costs around $340 US for the chip alone and getting a Mini-ITX motherboard of this tier with the cooling will cost you around $150-$200 US more so it is definitely a great choice for SFF gaming builds. There's also a higher-end version with AMD's Ryzen 9 7945HX which will come in the form of BD790i though that variant has yet to hit retail availability.
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