I tested a Windows PC that outdoes the M4 Mac Mini in several ways – and it's on sale

When Apple upgraded its Mac Mini with the M4 processor last year, we saw some renewed interest in the mini PC category overall. All the power of a desktop, but packed into a tiny frame? Yes, please. Apple isn’t the only one making impressively bite-sized computers, however. 

Purveyor of minis, Minisforum recently released its AI370 EliteMini, a device we reviewed and praised its 8K monitor support, 4TB of storage, and powerful hardware for under $1,000. Similarly, the G7 Ti Mini had impressive raw power, but I noted its noisy fans. 

Also: This mini Windows PC I tested competes with gaming laptops twice the price

Now, the brand’s latest Mini PC — the Minisforum AI X1 Pro — ups the ante with some serious hardware: AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, an AMD Radeon 890M GPU, up to 96GB of RAM, and 4TB of storage, all in the same size as a Mac Mini and at a competitive starting price of $1,129 (on sale right now starting at $899). 

As a designated Copilot+ PC (yes, that is a Copilot button on the action front of the device), the aptly named AI X1 Pro is specifically designed to compete with the Mac Mini M4, particularly when it comes to AI features, high-resolution external monitors, and gaming. 

Also: This budget Lenovo PC is the desktop I recommend to most people – even if you’re not a gamer

The AI X1 Pro does all of these things well, with impressive performance, multitasking across multiple monitors, and solid gaming performance, all while running cool and virtually silent. Let’s take a look at what this powerhouse is capable of. 

The processor here is top-of-the-line for AMD — it boasts 12 cores and 24 threads with a max clock speed of 5.1GHZ and 80 TOPS for AI-powered tasks. In my benchmarking of the device, it performed very well, on par with the Mac Mini M4 regarding raw output, but like any benchmarking numbers, that’s only part of the picture. 

The AI X1 Pro supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 and has a built-in power supply, making it ready to go out of the box. However, you’ll want to hook up at least one high-quality monitor to get the most out of it. In my testing, I connected two monitors — one of which was 4K — and its performance was silky-smooth and gorgeous.

The device does feature its own audio, but this is one area it doesn’t excel at. The built-in speaker on the device is sufficient for basic content — although I would say my laptop has better audio quality. Similarly, the on-board mic is good enough for quick calls, but I wouldn’t count on it over a dedicated webcam or microphone. 

These things are hardly dealbreakers, however, as users of the Mini will want to connect their own speakers with every other peripheral. 

Also: Finally, a Windows PC alternative to the Mac Mini that gives me even more power

It’s easy, too, with this many ports. It comes with three USB Type-A ports, two USB4s, a 3.5mm combo jack, HDMI, Kensington Lock, and more. Basically, everything you need to fire up and customize your workstation.

It also features an Oculink (PCIe 4.0) slot for high-performance storage and docking stations with a bandwidth of up to 64 GB/s. The Oculink can also connect to an external GPU, allowing users to harness a more powerful graphics system for higher frame rates and 4K gaming.  

This allows the AI X1 Pro to level up as a gaming machine or dedicated creator’s device, improving the integrated GPU’s performance. It also supports Rebar, or Resizable Base Address Register, which improves communication between the two. 

Gaming performance on the AI X1 Pro is quite good, but the system does require some optimization to fully take advantage of all the powerful hardware here. I fired up a handful of titles on Steam and had no issues, but I will say some of the more memory-demanding games required some settings tinkering to feel like a true gaming rig. 

Also: I found the most portable keyboard and mouse combo for traveling – and the battery life is fantastic

I was much more impressed with Minisforum’s cooling technology here, as AMD’s Ryzen 9 already runs cool, but the device’s slightly larger size allows for a bit more in the way of cooling components. The fan kicked on during heavy gaming, but it was quiet enough to go largely unnoticed. 

Where the AI X1 Pro really excels is AI-related tasks. During testing, I fired up DeepSeek and OpenAI’s Chat GPT, and both perform exceedingly fast. Even longer, more complex queries like requests for code were fast and responsive. 

ZDNET’s buying advice

Minisforum AI X1 Pro is essentially a Mac Mini M4 powered by AMD’s powerful Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip. It has some of the fastest AI-powered capabilities I’ve seen on any device, laptop, desktop, or mini.

Also like the Mac Mini, it’s certainly capable of gaming, but I wouldn’t peg this as a gaming-first device. Instead, I’d recommend this device for developers and creatives looking to run powerful AI tasks in applications like Deepseek or OpenAi, or users who like to utilize external GPUs to tinker with performance optimization.