The Minisforum MS-A1 mini PC is the latest product unveiled. The MS-A1 has support for up to the AMD Ryzen 9000 series and up to 96GB of storage. The official launch of the Minisforum MS-A1 is coming on the heels of the earlier unveiling of the AMD-based mini PC. The MS-A1 differs from the Intel-based MS-01 as it supports socketed desktop CPUs and an OCULink connection for eGPU functionality.
The older Minisforum MS-01 is equipped with Intel’s H-series laptop CPUs but the AMD Ryzen 9000 series on the MS-A1 supports desktop-class CPUs. The models include the Ryzen 7 8700G and the Ryzen 5 8600G Phoenix APUs. The AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPUs on the new mini PC will require a BIOS update, according to Minisforum. The maximum TDP of the Ryzen APUs is 65W but when the dual-CCD variants (Ryzen 9 7900X or Ryzen 9 7950X) CPUs will support up to a maximum of 100W TDP. It is noted that this is significantly lower than the officially specified TDPs for those SoCs. Hence, the performance of the CPUs may be lower than what is specified.
The supported AMD Ryzen APUs for the MS-A1 offer sufficiently powerful RDNA 3-based integrated graphics although there is no support for internal discrete GPUs. The GPUs available are the Radeon 780M and Radeon 760M for less intensive graphical tasks. However, if you are interested in heavy-duty graphical operations, external graphics will be required. The MS-A1 has an OCULink port that enables seamless eGPU connection with transfer speeds up to 8Gbps. The OCULink port is significantly faster than the Thunderbolt 4 which peaks at 5Gbps.
The Minisforum MS-A1 has four M.2 2280 memory slots (up to 96GB) and offers a rich collection of ports. It has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI 2.1 connection, and one DP 2.0 port. It is also equipped with two USB 2.1 and one Type-C port, as well as an audio jack. The MS-A1 however lacks 10G Ethernet connectivity as only a single 2.5G Ethernet port is available.
Pricing & Availability
The barebones version of the Minisforum MS-A1 mini PC is priced at $259. The 32GB+1TB Ryzen 7 8700G version is retailed at $729. Minisforum is offering an introductory discount for the MS-A1 that’s up to $180 currently. More details about the MS-A1 mini PC can be obtained from the Minisforum website.
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