Minisforum delivers a useful entry-level NUC
30-second review
Minisforum has garnered a solid reputation for building some truly great NUC designs. However, many of its designs won’t fit the impulse purchase pricing bracket, as most start at around $400 and go higher.
The Minisforum UN100D offers a much more affordable price point, starting at around $200, aimed at those who want a NUC but don’t need it to embarrass any desktop systems nearby.
This PC, using the Intel N100 processor and DDR5 memory, is at the low end of the Intel platform spectrum, and performance expectations should be adjusted accordingly.
That said, this system comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and it can be upgraded relatively easily to 1TB or 2TB in minutes.
Minisforum supplies it with a small phone-style PSU, a VESA mount and a HDMI cable.
This device’s critical selling point is that it uses only 9W of power, making it ideal for embedded applications such as kiosks or hardware firewalls.
The UN100D is less compelling as a daily working PC since the N100 has only four cores, and Windows 11 seems to expect more PCs these days. A machine with more power would be preferable unless you only surf occasionally.Minisforum Venus UN100D: Price and availability
How much does it cost? From $200
When is it out? Available now
Where can you get it? You can get it directly from Minisforum
Minisforum offers its US customers a slightly better deal than its European counterparts.
Stateside, the three SKUs on offer (8GB/256, 16GB/256 and 16GB/512GB) cost $199, £209 and $219 respectively. And, given the $20 price differential and the fact that you can’t upgrade the memory later, the top SKU is the one to pick.
For UK customers, those prices are £199, £219, and £229, roughly a 25% price hike, and other Europeans pay EU € 219, € 239, and € 259, about 10% more.
It’s also cheaper in the USA through Amazon.com, discounted to $189.99 for the top 16GB/512GB SKU.
This might seem like a bargain, but looking around most Mini PC brands reveals that N100 machines can be much cheaper. GMKTec has the NucBox G2 12GB/128GB for $139.99. It’s cheaper than the Beelink EQ12, which costs $259 for a 16GB/500GB SKU, and the $249 Geekom Mini Air12, which costs $249 for 16GB/256GB.
The UN100D is cheaper than many but not the cheapest option based on this platform.
One last note. Minisforum has made a UN100L model, which looks very similar in a silver case. Please Don’t confuse the two because the UN100L only has a single gigabit LAN port and uses SATA M.2 storage, not NVMe.
Value: 4 / 5Minisforum Venus UN100D: SpecsMinisforum Venus UN100D: Design
Thin plastic
Easy access
Onboard DDR5 memory
Being kind, the UN100D is lightly made, and that’s another way of saying it’s mostly plastic.
Considering how thin the sides and underside of this NUC are, we suspect it wouldn’t take much abuse. Using the provided VESA mounting plate is probably a good idea to keep it away from accidental damage.
While thicker sides and stronger materials are always preferable, one aspect that Minisforum engineers got right about this design is internal access.
The four screws to get inside might be under the rubber feet, but these pull out easily, and they aren’t held in place with double-sided tape. Once the screws are removed, the underside comes away, and the user can get to the M.2 slot and also a SATA connector for taking a 2.
