Hey,
I'm planning a compact but powerful microserver build and would really appreciate your input. I'm currently considering three configurations — but maybe there's a better option I'm not aware of:
- Ryzen 9 5950X + ASRock B550 Pro4 (ATX, traditional build)
- MINISFORUM BD795M (Ryzen 9 7945HX, custom board)
- MINISFORUM MS-A2-US (Ryzen 9 7940HS, appliance-style form factor)
Primary requirements:
- Support for 96/128 GB RAM
- Proxmox
- Docker containers
- Energy efficiency and quiet operation are important
- Bonus points for a small footprint and low idle power draw
- IGPU (will be great addition)
I previously used an Aoostar GEM12, which worked well for a while — but unfortunately, it fried (bug in design). So now I'm looking for something more robust and reliable for continuous uptime. I'm torn between the raw power and expandability of the 5950X setup versus the compactness and efficiency of the MINISFORUM options
Any insights, real-world experience, or better alternatives would be super helpful!
Thanks in advance
@mateuszpredki Welcome to the forums! The great thing about building out a lab today is there are tons of options and great options at that for hosting a lab. I am definitely a big fan of mini PCs for this purpose now, especially considering heat and power draw concerns that I find myself more concerned with these days. What is your budget for your build? Also, I do have experience with the BD795M board. I really like the 7945HX processor definitely a beast.
I will say the power draw is a bit high on these boards at idle, in neighborhood of 35-40 watts. You can get this down by disabling the Core Performance Boost, but you will lose performance by doing this, but I have found the CPU is a beast enough that it still does everything I need it to do with CPB disabled.
I haven't had my hands on the MS-A2 personally, but I expect that it is a great little machine and I am still running my MS-01's in my "production" home lab environment as virtualization nodes.
Also, just throwing this in there that today's NAS devices are also great options, like the Aoostar WTR Max (which I reviewed recently) and the Minisforum N5 Pro, both of these support ECC memory which is great for stability.
I previously had Aoostar GEM12 and its fried (design failure) so Im little concern about this company. they do not respond to emails to solve this issue. I'm looking for something more robust and reliable for continuous uptime.
Budget is not an issue it should be good setup:
At least:
- Support for 96/128 GB RAM
- 16cores/32 threds
- Sata
- Low TDP
- IGPU (will be great addition for TDP ect)
- Proxmox compatibile (passthrough)
@mateuszpredki understood on the Aoostar. I don't have a lot of experience with them as a company to be honest, but did recently review the WTR Max which looks to be a nice unit and also has ECC memory, but I don't have enough time with it to speak about longevity. I will say this from my personal experience, I have had two Minisforum MS-01's running in the home lab in a cluster configuration 24x7x365 since the beginning of 2024 and they are still going without missing a beat. No hardware issues at all. Hopefully that gives you some context on their hardware. I wouldn't hesitate to vouch for the MS-A2 based on that as the design is similar.