MINISFORUMVenus Series UN1265 Mini PC, 12TH Gen Core i7-12650H Small Computer, 32G DDR4+512G PCIe4.0 SSD, HDMI+DP+USB-C Triple 4K@60Hz Outputs, 2.5G RJ45 Port, WiFi6E, BT5.2, 4x USB Small Form Factor

This was a replacement for one that had some kind of electrical failure with smoke. Using it for regular office work and the fan is loud and seems to be working pretty hard. I was going to try it for gaming but now I'm afraid to put a load on it.

I am using this PC as my desktop for work -- software development -- so I am normally running a code editor, web browser, and of course, some background music. :) I will occasionally watch videos on YouTube, but I don't normally use my PC for gaming on a daily basis. Sometimes I will run a Steam game like Call of Duty, but haven't tried that on this unit yet.The i7-12650H seems to perform well and doesn't get too hot (I'm monitoring the CPU temp in the taskbar), even during some more intensive tasks. I did run a 4K 60fps YouTube demo video and turned on the stats for nerds and noticed that after about 10,000 frames, it had only dropped 8, and most of those appeared during the first 30 seconds or so which may have been while it was still buffering some of the video from the web.The case is attractive and small -- I only use mini PCs these days because I like the footprint on the desktop. It's quiet enough, which is important to me because I don't like the sound of a screaming fan while I'm trying to work. This one's fan is quiet most of the time and only really noticeable during tasks that would reasonably expect to draw more CPU effort.The one downside of the case/motherboard design is that the back of the unit does not have ANY USB-A 3.2 ports. There are two USB 2.0 ports; one of each would have been a more useful design. Fortunately, with most of these small form factor PCs, you're likely to be running a USB hub off one of those ports to give you enough for all of your devices (mouse, keyboard, printer, microphone, webcam, and others). Most of those devices don't need the faster USB 3.2 ports, so the 2.0 ports are fine for that throughput.There are two USB-A 3.2 ports on the front.There is one USB-C 3.2 port on the back, so you're not completely stuck without being able to have a higher-speed device like an external drive attached to the back of the unit full-time, which is exactly what I use that port for. I have a multi-port hub connected to one of the USB-A ports for all of my "slow" peripherals, and I use the USB-C port for an external drive as archival type storage with all of my music and videos on it. This works out fine, but I'd still like to have another spare high-speed port back there for the future.Inside I was able to add a SATA 2.5" SSD drive as my backup drive, where I store daily backups that run at night. This was where I ran into my first issues with this PC. I've had a Samsung EVO 850 SATA SSD for about 5 years that I've used as my daily backup drive. When I installed it in this machine, I couldn't get read or write speeds between the primary NVMe drive and the SATA drive over 40 MB/sec. And that would only last for about 30 seconds (probably due to write-caching), until it would begin to get slower and slower and eventually just stop in the middle of the transfer. Sometimes it would start writing again at an abysmal speed measured in KB/min, but then stop again for long periods of time. Apparently, this was not working as designed. I checked the cable, reinstalled the drive, even formatted the drive (after backing up my backups), but nothing worked. In a few cases, the drive wouldn't even be recognized for more than a few seconds, then disappear from File Explorer. I even updated the drive's firmware but that didn't help either. Ultimately, I pulled the drive from its internal SATA connection and connected it to a Sabrent USB-A to SATA connector and plugged it into the USB-A 3.2 port on the front of the machine. The drive worked great. I could copy large files to it back and forth all night long, with no slowdowns or pauses. It just worked.Since that drive was about 6 years old, I decided to buy a brand new Samsung EVO 870 SATA SSD. I installed it the next day and partitioned/formatted it (NTFS). Exactly the same results. Slow or hanging large file copies while installed internally, but worked properly via the Sabrent USB-A to SATA cable adapter. Apparently the machine doesn't like Samsung EVO SSDs, which is a shame because they are normally great drives.Just to confirm the problem was the Samsung drive(s), I purchased a WD Blue SA510 SATA SSD drive and installed it the next day, partitioned it and formatted it and began testing. Straight away, the drive worked perfectly, copying large files at an average speed > 300 MB/sec, and holding that speed steadily across a 15 GB transfer. So is it just Samsung EVOs? To test further, I purchased a new Crucial MX500 SATA SSD and installed it, partitioned it, and formatted it. Just like the WD drive, it ran perfectly. I copied all of my backups, which included several 15+ GB files along with several 50+ GB files, and over the course of about 15 - 20 minutes, it never paused or hung, and carried a 300+ MB/sec transfer speed steadily the entire time.Two different brand SATA SSD drives worked perfectly connected internally, but two EVOs, one old, one new, both failed to work consistently internally (truthfully, they were unusable), but both worked without issue externally via a USB/SATA cable connection.At least the machine is working well with two other drives, so I know the SATA port works and can be used as intended. Just be aware if you are planning to use this machine with an internal SATA SSD drive that's made by Samsung (perhaps just the EVO line?) -- it may not work properly. I would really like to know what the cause of this is, but I don't have any more time to investigate.The only other nit I have about the machine is the case design with regard to disassembly for modifications. I've had a Minisforum PC in the past that had a push-pop top that would pop up and open when a simple push-down on the top front two corners -- really great design. Most other mini PCs I've had would simply have 4 screws on the bottom and then the top popped off. This one uses four bottom screws, but they are located under the adhesive rubber feet. After you remove/replace the feet a few times, the adhesive pads peel off and are unusable, so I had to stick the feet to the bottom of the case right next to the screw holes rather than covering them where they were designed to go. This causes no additional problems and allows me to open the case at will without having to move the feet each time.However, once you get the screws out, the fun is just beginning. The case doesn't just come apart at that point. The case bottom is one with the case back plate (where the port holes are), and the way it attaches, you must insert a spudger tool or flat-head screwdriver in a marked slot on the bottom-front to pop the bottom off of the case top. Then, it still won't just pop off because the back plate is now stuck to the top with several tabs that insert into the top cover in such a way that you can't easily pop them out. There's a careful dance of trying to get the back plate out away from the ports that stick through it so those ports don't stop it from pulling away from the rest of the case top, making the entire process much more tedious than it has to be, and every time you do it, you are fearing that you're going to snap the case bottom from the back plate portion as you pull it away because one is freed and the other is stuck, but both must be removed as one piece (because they are).Anyway, I've gotten to where I can remove it without damaging it, but it's always difficult and annoying for no good reason (and I've had it apart at least 8 or 10 times swapping drives and performing various tests).Once you get past the case design, lack of rear USB-A 3.2 ports, and the case disassembly drama, AND if you don't need to use a Samsung EVO internal SATA drive, everything else seems to be just fine, at least for now. My last mini PC (from a different well-known brand) only started showing signs of failure after about a 5-6 weeks of use (random but frequent reboots while doing next to nothing). This machine replaced that one, and I hope its fate will be more positive. The last one was a Ryzen 7 7735HS, which seems to have many reports of random crashes both under Windows and Linux, so I am thinking that chip/chipset may not truly be ready for release. I switched back to this Intel-based device due to that issue, so I'm hoping Intel comes through on the stability front.Overall, I'd recommend this PC if you are aware of the port, case design, and internal SATA drive compatibility issues and those don't seem to be show-stoppers for you. If you never plan to upgrade the machine and just want to use it as it, you may never experience any of the issues I did. Once running, however, the machine does perform well, and should suit the needs of most users, except perhaps heavy gamers, as most mini PCs just aren't graphically outfitted for that type of video performance. For a casual "once in a while" gamer who's not running bleeding edge games, I think it would be just fine.