MINISFORUMMS-01 Mini Workstation Core i5-12600H Barebone Version Mini PC, HDMI + 2xUSB4 8K Display, 2x10G SFP+ Port, 2x2.5G LAN Port, Support M.2 2280/22110/U.2 SSD/RTX 3050 Graphics Cards

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.

Solid, stable, with IPMI. I built a few 10Gbit fiber routers with these. Running 24x7 for months without thermal issues or stability issues.

The MS-01 is a great, full features solution for running Proxmox. It small, quiet, has plenty of CPU power and connectivity. The PCIe slot is a little awkward to deal with, but that is really nit-picking. Super happy with the purchase.

I purchased the MS01-12600, with i5 processor, with plans to turn it into a pfsense firewall. Yes, this hardware is massive overkill, but I was willing to spend the money on something future proof, on account of it having two SFP+ ports.There are a lot of good MS-01 YouTube reviews out there. I’d recommend you watch them, especially the review by Patrick with ServeTheHome.In addition to the two SFP+ ports, it has two 2.5Gbps rj45 ports. One is a standard Intel i226-V chipset, while the second nic is the i226-LM. The LM chip supports Intel’s vPro remote management platform. Sounds good doesn’t it? I mean the more features the better, right? Well, the LM chipset will block dhcp offers, when running a dhcp server. Call it an undocumented feature. Your dhcp client will act like the dhcp server isn’t responding, when in fact it is, but the offers get blocked on the hardware level. Fun. Fun.While you could work around this by using the i226-LM on the WAN side, I’m not willing to do that, for fear of another vPro vulnerability being discovered.At the moment, there is no way to disable the vPro feature in the bios, in a manner that will allow a dhcp server to function on the i226-LM nic. I have been in contact with Minisforum support and am hopeful they will release a new bios with a fix for this.Of course, this doesn’t prevent one from using the MS-01 as a firewall. It has two SFP ports, after-all. However, it is disappointing to learn after purchase that one of the ports has this limitation.Dhcp issues aside, I would recommend this machine. It has a lot of features for its small size, which allows one to put it to a variety of uses.

I've been using this system for about a month now, and I'm really pleased with its performance. It replaced an older tower-case system as my main workstation. Once it's up and running, the system operates smoothly and handles demanding tasks without a hitch. I decided to max out the RAM and install fast SSDs, which has given the machine an impressive boost. While I opted not to use a dedicated graphics card—resulting in slightly lower benchmark scores—the unit still dominates in everyday performance.The setup process was generally straightforward. The most challenging part was realigning the fans on the underside after installing the SSDs—a task that required a bit of patience but was ultimately manageable. I did run into an issue early on, having to return my first batch of SSDs because their attached heatsinks prevented a proper fit. Fortunately, I found a suitable alternative without those extra components.One minor caveat involves a switch on the mainboard that needs to be set correctly depending on whether NVMe SSDs are being used. The English instructions in the online manual weren't very clear on this point, which led to a bit of confusion at first. Once I figured out the correct setting, everything fell into place.