MINISFORUM MS-01 Workstation Core i9-13900H Mini PC Barebone Version Without RAM SSD and OS 2xUSB4 1xHDMI Display 2x2

I have two of these in a proxmox cluster. I added 64 GB of RAM and a 4TB NVME and smaller NVME for the boot drive. Both SFP+ ports are being used one for VMs and one for NFS storage. Connectivity and stability have been rock solid. VMs are very snappy most Linux based and the system has been up 24x7 since I got them and no issues. Run cool with current workload. They are running a nine node K8S cluster. I plan to add a third unit for full high availability and then the K8S cluster will be evenly distributed across the machines. I also have a few other VMs that are running on them too. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to setup a home lab and minimize their power bill. Read more

My personal laptop died in late November of 2024 so I decided to replace it with the MS-01. I ordered the Core i9-13900H (32+1T) but in reflection should have ordered the Core i9-13900H (0+0) because I used the 1T NVMe from my dead laptop and ordered the 96GB upgrade kit ( Crucial RAM 96GB Kit (2x48GB) DDR5 5600MHz (or 5200MHz or 4800MHz) Laptop Memory CT2K48G56C46S5) which will arrive after this review. To begin the packaging this comes in is very nice and the padding is almost 2 inches thick making it very ship worthy. Access to the BIOS which is very clean and easy to use is accessed by hitting the DEL key when the Minis Forum logo appears. This unit recognized and booted effortlessly from the NVMe that was in my laptop. I examined the boot drive that came with my MS-01 and all drivers were loaded but downloading the Windows 11 drivers from the Minis Forums sites is a bit challenging but once you find the drivers they are all in one RAR file. The MS-01 is very quiet, sleeps well and wakes up easily. Under heavy load the fan is noticeable but not to the point of being obnoxious. I purchased this primarily for the dual NIC cards and the (3) NVMe slots as well as the (2) Type C ports and once the drivers are installed, they work flawlessly. The build in GPU is running a pair of LG Ultrawide monitors at 2560x1080 each and while the resolution is not quite as crisp as I hoped, it is still very clear and I suspect higher quality type C cables may help this. Screwless entry to open the case is great but there is one design flaw that I have found. One cannot access the button that opens the case with the CAT5e cables in place and one cannot access the locking clips that hold the CAT5e cables in place due to the case design. To remove the CAT5e cables one must use a tiny screwdriver to press down on the locking clips. I spent a few hours researching GPU’s that would fit in this case and the options are few, especially of you are not comfortable tearing down a GPU and installing a custom GPU Cooler. Overall I am very impressed with the unit. Read more

This is an amazing little machine. I chose to upgrade to this as my previous virtualization machine was a cruddy 6-core CPU thin client that barely did the job. Since I share an office with my significant other I can't just get a big system, or a datacenter server, so this is the best option. This thing is a beast. I threw in the maximum 96GB of RAM and filled all of the NVME slots, installed a low profile Nvidia GT 1030 GPU, and installed TrueNAS Scale on it. I'm able to run a handful of my VM's, as well as quite a bit of the applications available from the TrueNAS app library, and this thing has had zero issues. I would highly recommend this if you want some solid virtualization hardware in a small form factor. Read more

Great PC, working well for 2 weeks now as my opnsense router, no worries at all Read more

I bought this to replace my old Dell Precision T7600 dual Xeon/64GB lab pc that was running Proxmox. It's about 1/10th the size of that PC and uses much less power. It is expensive, and getting more expensive due to the RAM shortage. I connected this to my Ubiquiti DMSE with a 10Gb SFP cable without any trouble. I was able to easily add 2 more 1TB NVME drives by removing the fan. This thing is really fast and easy to setup for a lab build. If you are sitting near it, you will hear the fans come on when it is under a load Read more

I had reservations about buying this mini workstation. I was concerned with power and expansion but this thing screams. I use it for photo editing and video production. It keeps up with me. I have been very happy with it. No issues. Easy memory and storage upgrades. Read more

Very impressed with this purchase. I bought it to replace an Asus (nee Intel) NUC which kept overheating, the MS-A2 gets pretty warm (because of excellent CPU performance) but they did a great job on cooling. Fit and finish is excellent and it's the easiest case to open I have ever encountered! Having 3 x storage/NVMe slots (configurable) is great, I've got 1 x SATA and 2 x NVMe drives - no more slow external USB connection. I have two nits. One is just an annoyance: finding some settings that are "front and centre" is most BIOSs ARE available but tucked away -- specifically what the BIOS does when power is restored. I couldn't find it without Support help! The other thing is, due to its compact size, it can't accommodate much in the way of graphics cards (and its graphics performance is not stellar). For its designed purpose (high speed communications, great CPU performance) it's a stellar choice and I'm glad I bought it. Read more