Minisforum MS-01 Review The 10GbE with PCIe Slot Mini PC

By
Patrick Kennedy
-
40

Power Consumption and Noise

Included with the system is a 180W power brick. This is enough to power the system normally, but some users that want to get into expanding the system to its maximum potential with things like many SSDs and GPUs will likely end up seeing a 240-250W aftermarket power adapter. Also, an important note is that installing a GPU will lower the power limits of the CPU. One can set them manually in BIOS, but that is to protect the system from thermal and power overruns.

Minisforum MS 01 180W 19V Power Supply
Minisforum MS 01 180W 19V Power Supply

Idle power consumption was higher than the average mini PC. We saw around 25-29W at idle on our test system. Noise hit 37-38dba on our new 34.5dba noise floor set. The system under load would spin up to around 115W for ~45 seconds before pushing back down to 90-95W and run at that level consistently. Noise would get into the 44dba range and a bit more if it is run at 100%.

This is a big deal. We get a lot of functionality and performance here, but this is not an ultra low power system. It is going to be lower power than the Xeon E5/ or 1st/ 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable systems with similar CPU performance. It is also going to be a lot higher power than something like the Everything Fanless Home Server Firewall Router and NAS Appliance we just reviewed.

Key Lessons Learned

The Minisforum MS-01 is the kind of system that happens when product managers read the STH forums, comments, and so forth. This system has a huge processor (for a small system.) It also has a ton of expandability with three internal SSD slots and the PCIe slot.

Minisforum MS 01 7mm U.2 In M.2 Slot
Minisforum MS 01 7mm U.2 In M.2 Slot

At the same time, there were some strange bits. The switch that if set improperly can damage a SSD was one of them. The PCIe slot refusing to work with some cards. Other cards could fit in the chassis, but the chassis had to be disassembled to get the cards in the slot is another strange one.

Minisforum MS 01 With The QNAP Dual M.2 And 2.5GbE Card
Minisforum MS 01 With The QNAP Dual M.2 And 2.5GbE Card

Still, through our plug fest on the previous page, we managed to get a system with a 14 core/ 20 thread Core i9 CPU, 96GB of memory, dual SFP+ 10GbE and dual 2.5GbE networking, a 144TB hard drive storage array, three NVMe SSDs, and more. With specs like that, a huge portion of the market no longer needs used rackmount servers if we are being honest about the situation.

QNAP TL D800S With 8x 18TB In Minisforum MS 01
QNAP TL D800S With 8x 18TB In Minisforum MS 01

We would have loved to have IPMI, ECC memory support, four SODIMM slots, and so forth, but trade-offs were made. It does have us thinking about a future AMD version we hope gets made one day. While Windows and Linux users will be very happy with this machine, VMware ESXi requires a very annoying workaround to function with heterogeneous cores so an AMD version may be better for that market.

Final Words

The Minisforum MS-01 is a really awesome machine. Let us simply say that first. It is hard to make a system that pleases everyone. For one, I might want more RAM capacity and a lower-end CPU. On the other hand, this is a $619 list price CPU (Core i9-13900H) that comes in a system with a SSD, RAM, multiple network ports, chassis, and so forth for $829. That is a lot of extra components for $210. While I may want a lower power processor, I am not sure how much better of a value it would end up being.

Minisforum MS 01 Back
Minisforum MS 01 Back

The system’s base SFP+ and 2.5GbE networking are awesome. Having high-speed USB4 ports and a PCIe slot make this system extremely expandable.

Minisforum MS 01 LP PCIe Slot 3
Minisforum MS 01 LP PCIe Slot 3

The three, albeit funky, storage bays are extremely useful as well. This was a design choice to make the chassis slightly larger but add more expansion capabilities, and we fully support that choice.

Minisforum MS 01 WD U.2 Samsung And Kingston M.2
Minisforum MS 01 WD U.2 Samsung And Kingston M.2

We spent a ton of time and money on this review testing cards that we thought folks would be interested in. This was one of those reviews that we were very excited for the product, so we put extra effort into. Testing this alongside the C3758(R) system we just reviewed as well as N300 and N305 systems we will publish soon was fun because this used more power than four of those systems combined at maximum load. At the end of the day, if you are looking for a P-core enabled high-performance mini server or workstation, the Minisforum MS-01 is probably the best out there right now.

Where to Buy

Here are some of the parts that we installed in this system during the plug fest. We participate in various affiliate programs and may earn a small commission if you use these links. We need to pay for all of the hardware we bought for this somehow.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

40 COMMENTS

  1. This part is repeated twice in the article (Page 5), I’d edit one of them out real quick:

    “We spent a ton of time and money on this review testing cards that we thought folks would be interested in. This was one of those reviews that we were very excited for the product, so we put extra effort into.”

  2. So it doesn’t support PCIe bifurcation? Shame.
    Were any other plx cards attempted excluding the QNAP qm2-2p2g2t?
    It would be nice to try a simple dual NVME. Aiming for 5 nvme ssds at using the maximum bandwidth available.

  3. Looks like they won’t ship until Jan 20? I have 2 on order, also have 2 RTX A2000’s. Should make for an interesting homelab.

  4. How does the iGPU on this compare to a laptop dGPU like a laptop version of an RTX 2070? If significantly worse, do they make graphics cards that would fit in this unit’s pcie slot that would provide that sort of slightly boosted level of graphics performance?

  7. Anyone who is buying one and planning to use it for firewall duty, could you check throughput of IMIX traffic when running through Suricata or ZenArmor? Really interested what this CPU can do.

  11. Frustratingly, on the uk store site the 12900H model is no longer showing a barebones option, and that’s the one I would be interested in :/

  12. I would buy a lot of these if it had PCIe 16x with Bifurcation, and IPMI. So much potential…. Maybe a PRO version or Rev 2 model with these features

  14. Going to order at least one soon.

    @All the ones concerned with bifurcation: you can circumvent this lack via active adapters sporting onboard PCie switches. Costly, but effective when lacking bifurcation.

  16. i just ordered one and i will be getting the power usage down as much as i can. (not going to be using hyperthreading for starters and limiting burst.)

  17. Consider their weird NIC choices on their AMD mini PCs, I wouldn’t put hope on the AMD version of this platform, but if you are not so into VMware camp like me you would be fine.

  18. And TBH I would rather they make the chassis thicker or wider so I can have the PSU internalized, than finding ways to accommodate this god horrid large power brick that would get moved easily and take up a lot of space, especially when you buy a cluster of them.

  19. What about using an external thunderbolt expansion case for those who want to link in a 4090? I know that begs the question of “why mini-pc” but it would allow for a flexible arrangement in a short-rack depth.

    Also, for v2.0, ECC support pls!

  20. Wish you would stop getting my hopes up with 10GbE in the title.. I need ethernet.. For love of all that’s holy can we get Base-T instead of SFP+

    I have my CAT7 already run, what I’m in need of is 10Gbase-T!

  23. Just got mine in. I was wanting to run a standard SATA SSD, Will that not work or is there some config im missing?

    The BIOS is very basic so i cant tell on a hardware side if the device is being recognized.

  24. I ordered a barebone MS-01 system (based on the i9-12900H) on January 13, 2024. Given the website’s very clear warning, I thought it wouldn’t ship until March 29th. To my very pleasant surprise, it arrived today (January 24, 2024)! Now I have to scramble to pick up done memory and NVMEs!

  25. Wow…the space under the heat dissipation bracket & fan is TIGHT. I applied a thin heatsink (.5mm silica gel pad & 1mm copper plate) to the first SSD, but there wasn’t enough clearance for the second SSD!

  26. Can someone please suggest a beefier power supply for the Minisforum MS-01? Along the line of 240W+ that will be compatible with the MS-01. Thanks in advance.

  27. Can someone tell me if I can connect an eGPU via the USB4 (thunderbolt 3) port? If so this would help greatly to over come the power, low profile PCIe slot, and heat limitation for attaching a dGPU to the system.

  28. Great review

    Question on the primary NVMe slot and the specs. They state 2TB max on the website. Can a larger M.2 drive capacity fit with double sided memory chips or will it only support single sided M.2 drives up to 2TB max only?

  31. Anyone got the KVM working? I enabled Intel AMT with KVM and can access the WebUI. But there ist no KVM to connect to.

  32. hello about the Bradcom lsi 9300-8e card, it seems that all the card i found on amazon or ebay seems to be very long… wath is the lenght of the tested card?
    in fact i want to replace asm1164 qnap card (not compatilble with my freebsd xigmanas ) by a LSI compatible model and i want to know to by one..

    could some body helpe me

  33. Any recommendations for a cheep JBOD that can be used with a HBA on IT mode to run with proxmox and TrueNAS Scale? Thank you kindly

  37. I’ve got the 12600H and I’m super happy, but I’ve bought 1x16G 1.1v 5600 DDR5 stick, and the bios is showing only 4800. I thought that since 1.1v it should run at least 5200, but there is no option at the BIOS. Anyone else?

    I’ve also installed OPNSense on this beast, but i’m having a lot of issues with the X710 and IGMP and Multicast traffic, hence my TV is just not happy.

  38. https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/minisforum-ms-01-heating-problem.43519/

    Someone mentioned experiencing overheating issues when using the LSI 9300-8e in the MS-01.
    Is it really okay to use it without any modifications? The article only mentions that it is recognized, but the ability to use it long-term is a separate issue.
    Should I consider a separate cooling solution for the LSI 9300-8e?

    I asked Minisforum if they would release a product with enhanced PCIe cooling, and they responded that a BIOS update would solve the heating issue.
    However, it seems hard to believe that a BIOS update could resolve PCIe heating problems.

    I am seriously considering purchasing this product,
    but if a separate cooling solution is necessary for the LSI 9300-8e,
    I will just build an SFF instead.

  40. Has anybody been able to stick a coral TPU inside the WiFi slot? I can’t find any detailed motherboard specs.

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