J&W Minix 890GX-USB3 Review

Performance Analysis

While image editing performance wasn’t bad for the Minix at stock speeds, multi-tasking performance was average and video encoding was down at the bottom of the boards we’ve tested.

With the CPU overclocked to 3.5GHz, the Minix was much more competitive, more so than the Asus M4A88T-I Deluxe in image editing and multi-tasking, even though it still suffered in video encoding.

Overall, while the Minix was mostly outperformed by the Asus and other boards at stock speeds, with a bit of overclocking it picked up the pace.

However, the Minix didn’t perform well in Crysis, with a low minimum frame rate suggesting it struggled to shunt data around the various buses quickly enough.

With the system overclocked, the board could only muster a pitiful performance, however. As we detailed on the overclocking page, even the slightest increase in CPU frequency would cause woeful performance.

J&W states the board is not designed for overclocking, yet, without it the performance lags behind the competition in multimedia tests. However with it, and you risk the stuttering we saw in Crysis, so we can’t recommend overclocking on the Minix.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the slow stock speed and issues with overclocking looks bad, but in reality the J&W Minix 890GX-USB3 isn’t going to be in a PC that’s looking to break records. If you can resist touching the CPU frequency settings (J&W should really remove them entirely), the board is fast enough for basic use. But then again, so is the Asus M4A88T-I.

The clear advantage of the Minix is that it uses the SB850 Southbridge, meaning that it’s four SATA ports are all 6Gbps=compatible. It also has a very competitive list of features too: 802.11 WiFi, Bluetooth, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel HD audio, HDMI out, and optical S/PDIF, which do make it tempting for many uses.

We wonder why J&W bothered with the 890GX chipset instead of the cheaper 880G, as both house the same AMD UVD 2 capabilities and can be paired with the SB850 Southbridge. The advantage of the 890GX is not its faster IGP, which doesn't make a lick of difference in even low-end gaming, it's the fact the chipset can offer CrossFire support, which pointless on a mini-ITX board.

Couple that with the fact that, after tax and shipping, it's approaching €200 (£170) for us UK folk and you might as well get the similarly specced ASUS M4A88T-I Deluxe for almost 40 per cent less.

• Performance
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• 6/10

• Features
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• 7/10

• Value
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• 3/10

• Overall
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• 5/10

Score Guide