I continue to get more and more excited about the mini PC space and what is possible in the small form factor of computing. I am still rocking two MS-01’s in a cluster in my home lab. However, Minisforum this next week is set to announce what I think could be the most insane home lab mini PC that we have had available to us. The MS-02 Ultra is a mini PC with specs beyond what we have seen in this space. Leaked specs allow us to have a good idea of what this mini PC will be able to do. Let’s dive into what we know at this point and speculate on the home lab potential of this upcoming release.
Introducing the MS-02 Ultra
Minisforum has continued to push the envelope I think of what is possible in the mini PC space. They have been releasing innovative designs that certainly have allowed many of us, including myself to evolve our home labs from using big, loud, albeit powerful enterprise servers, to something that is much more efficient, cooler, and quieter.
The MS-01 and MS-A1 both seemed to be a sweet spot of size and components that I think moved us into a new area of what was possible. Recently, the S1-Max was released as an AI workstation for running local AI models.
Below are pics from the Reddit thread that posted pics of the now removed specs on Minisforum site:
The MS-02 Ultra, is a 4-liter workstation that mimics the design of the Minisforum S-1. So, we aren’t getting the same form factor of the MS-01, but rather one that looks like the S-1. With the MS-02, Minisforum is not afraid to keep the slightly larger size as a tradeoff so we have better expansion and networking. However, we will talk more about why that extra space is needed due to some exciting hardware capabilities with this one.
When will it be announced officially?
Minisforum will be officially unveiling the MS-02 Ultra at Japan IT Week on October 22nd, this coming week. However, due to the leaked images from Minisforum we know enough so far to have a good idea of what this mini PC will be packing.
More about the size
In terms of size specifics, the MS-02 Ultra is 221.5 x 225 x 97mm (about 8.7 x 8.9 x 3.8 inches). It is roughly twice as thick as its predecessor, the MS-01. Again, I think while this might sound like a step backward for the “mini” part of the mini PC, the extra space serves a purpose. This new model has more internal upgrade options and full-length PCIe slots that would not have been possible inside the MS-01 chassis.
The company describes the MS-02 Ultra as a “mini workstation.” This description, I think, fits the unit well. Its design allows you to have multiple high-speed components, better cooling capacity, and connectivity that you probably wouldn’t be able to find unless you looked at a very high-end desktop.
Minisforum with the MS-01 did a great job with the slide-out design of the unit. I think they took a step back with the MS-A1. However, they are making sure you have an easy way with the new MS-02 Ultra to pull the internal module from the outer shell for easy access. With this entrypoint, you get access to RAM, storage, and PCIe slots.
Intel Arrow Lake-HX power and comparing MS-A2
Let’s now talk about the processor. Going along with the MS-01, the MS-02 Ultra is an Intel-based mini workstation. It packs the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX. This is a new 24-core mobile processor that is part of Intel’s Arrow Lake-HX lineup. It brings the hybrid performance and efficiency cores. This will give the MS-02 Ultra serious performance and also efficiency compared to traditional desktop CPUs.
Also, this is about 6% faster than the MS-A2 Ryzen 9 9955HX overall. You have more threads to work with in the MS-A2, but 8 more real cores to work with in the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX. Take a look at the benchmark here:
Even though all of us have been hearing all the stories about how badly Intel is doing, to be quite honest I think they are leading quite a bit in the area of mobile processors. Seeing Reddit threads saying the same. So, I think this is a solid choice here.
Massive memory and storage potential
This is one of the specs that blew my mind when I saw it. Just when we are getting used to the fact that we can now put 128 GB of RAM in most DDR5 systems now that Crucial has released their 64 GB DIMMs, Minisforum is blowing our minds with the possibility in this new MS-02 Ultra of support for up to 256GB of DDR5-4800 ECC memory using four SODIMM slots.
That’s really insane capacity for a system this small. This I think is one of the most appealing specs in my opinion for the home lab. Especially for virtualization and memory-heavy workloads like video editing, AI inference, and database hosting, memory is ultra important.
One not so great spec here is the DDR5-4800 speed. It is looking like to use the 256 GB capacity, the speed must downlevel to DDR5-4800 since speeds of DDR5-6400 should be possible with this CPU. However, again, looks like that is the case when you fully populate it with 256 GB.
Storage
Storage options are looking quite impressive with the specs we know about. The system looks to include four M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots. These would support up to 16TB of NVMe SSD storage. That is a lot of capacity that definitely opens the door to many different local storage configurations. This could be used for striped performance with RAID 0, a RAID 1 mirror configuration, or even a Proxmox ZFS pool for home lab deployments.
If you are looking at storage limitations right now with your current environment or other mini PCs that you are looking at, the MS-02 Ultra will likely have tons of options that you can use.
Three PCIe slots in a mini chassis
This is another spec that blew me away when looking at the specs we know currently. The MS-02 Ultra has three PCIe slots. Yes, that is right, not a mis-type here, three. The MS-02 includes:
- 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slot
- 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot
- 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 slot
Now, you are probably wondering, the CPU only supports 24 PCIe lanes. So how are they managing to fit these in there? Minisforum is apparently using some clever switching to enable all three slots for different combinations of add-in cards.
There is no doubt that users won’t get full 16-lane bandwidth on all three PCIe slots at the same time. However, for things like a GPU, another high-speed NIC adapter or some type of storage controller, this will likely be a setup that can be used for those purposes.
Again, it is not exactly clear yet how Minisforum is pulling this off, but they are definitely prioritizing flexibility over raw bandwidth. For home lab builders, I think this is definitely a good tradeoff. It gives us flexibility in lab environments and use cases like multi-NIC networking, NVMe RAID cards, or even an AI accelerator such as an Intel Arc GPU or NVIDIA low-profile 4060 card.
25Gb networking built-in
Another incredible spec with the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra. It has a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot pre-installed with a 25Gb NIC card. This provides two 25Gb SFP+ ports, one 10Gb Ethernet port, and one 2.5Gb Intel i226-LM port. Wow! Talk about networking flexibility and capabilities.
It also combines Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 (via an M.2 2230 E-key module). So, needless to say, this system is a going to be a networking powerhouse. It’s overkill for general use but perfect for home labs or other power users who need lots of bandwidth at their disposal.
For home lab setups running Proxmox, VMware, or Hyper-V, these 25Gb interfaces could make this a dream host for their setup. The 25 GB ports will allow us to have even more networking flexibility and raw bandwidth. This will be even faster backups, shared storage connectivity, or high-speed clustering between nodes. When you think about it, most high-end mini PCs, we feel lucky to find ones with 10 gig ports, but 25 GB is just insane.
Connectivity and I/O
Let’s not forget about the connectivity and I/O options with the MS-02 Ultra. The specs we have so far looks like it will have plenty of external connectivity.
This will include:
- 2 x USB4v2 Type-C ports (80 Gbps, DisplayPort Alt Mode)
- 1 x USB4 Type-C (40 Gbps)
- 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10 Gbps)
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x 3.5mm audio combo jack
With dual USB4v2 ports capable of 80 Gbps each, you will be able to connect external GPUs, NVMe docks, or 8K displays. The HDMI 2.1 output supports high-refresh, high-resolution displays. This will make this system equally great as a video workstation, gaming box, etc.
Power supply
One of the other interesting specs about this mini PC/mini workstation is that it only has a 350W internal PSU. That is pretty modest compared to a full desktop. However, for the size of the MS-02 in its 4 liter footprint, this seems about right. However, when thinking about the power consumption of modern GPUs, running any GPUs above 100W will be cutting it close. But if you have a low-profile GPU or high-performance network and storage cards, you should be fine.
Rack mount?
The Minisforum S1 Max is rackmountable. So, it makes me wonder, since the MS-02 looks very similar to the S1 Max if it will also be able to be mounted in a rack as well. So far, we just don’t know if that is the case with the MS-02 as of yet.
Looking like it could be perfect for creators, developers, and home labbers
The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra is shaping up to be an awesome choice for some of the following use cases:
- Virtualization host with Proxmox or ESXi
- AI inference workstation with a low-power GPU
- Compact NAS or media server
- Edge compute node with advanced networking
- Developer machine for container and Kubernetes work
Community reactions and expectations
I think the community is excited about the new mini PCs that Minisforum has been bringing to the table. However, with the Minisforum MS-02, I think they are definitely doing the right thing by enlarging the chassis so we can have better airflow and ease of add-in cards so it gives you more options in what you want to do with the system.
There are some concerns though:
- PCIe lanes – how is this going to work? What are the limitations?
- Power supply – 350W feels anemic for the hardware and add-in cards
- Price? Guessing this is going to be pretty expensive
Many of these questions are yet to be answered, but hopefully we will get the official word this coming week from Minisforum on exact specs and what price range this mini workstation will fall into.
Wrapping up
If you were like me, the MS-01 was perhaps the perfect balance between price, performance, and size. The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra looks like a step forward in many directions, especially for home lab.
With a 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, support for 256GB ECC DDR5 memory, four PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots, three PCIe expansion slots, and 25Gb networking, Minisforum has created a mini workstation that has insane specs, and basically on paper at least, everything we could hope for.
Stay tuned for October 22 at Japan IT Week. What are your thoughts on this upcoming release???
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