- Minisforum MS-R1 includes a full PCIe x16 slot supporting discrete GPUs or additional storage
- Compact 1.7-liter design maintains a 28W TDP for quiet, efficient operation
- Up to 64GB of LPDDR5 ECC RAM ensures reliable multitasking performance
Minisforum has launched the MS-R1, its first ARM-based mini PC, featuring a 12-core Cixin P1 SoC with eight Cortex-A720 cores and four Cortex-A520 cores, capable of reaching up to 2.6 GHz.
This device uses an integrated Immortalis-G720 MC10 GPU and supports up to 64 GB of LPDDR5 RAM with ECC running at 5500 MT/s.
Storage starts at 1TB NVMe SSD and can be expanded to 8TB via PCIe 4.0 M.2 or U.2 options.
A compact ARM machine with big promises
The MS-R1 includes a full PCIe x16 slot with a x16 physical interface but x8 bandwidth, allowing for discrete GPUs, high-speed NICs, or additional storage modules.
The MS-R1 offers a variety of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, dual 10GbE ports, and an HDMI port.
It also comes with a DisplayPort-compatible USB-C port and multiple regular USB-A and USB-C ports.
Its compact 1.7 liter form factor and 28W maximum TDP make it suitable for mobile workstations or small office setups where space is limited.
Audio input and output include a 3.5mm and HDMI combo jack, and internal features include a 40-pin GPIO and multiple UART pins.
This business PC supports UEFI boot, allowing installation of conventional Linux distributions and virtualization setups directly from a USB drive.
This feature allows users to run Linux and other operating systems without complex board-level configurations, although there is no mention of Windows support on ARM.
For AI performance, the MS-R1 uses the CIX CP8180 processor, which delivers up to 45 TOPS of compute, including 28.8 TOPS of the NPU for AI inference and edge workloads.
Users can take advantage of the PCIe x16 slot for external GPU acceleration or additional storage, enabling experimentation with AI or data-intensive workstation workloads in a compact form factor.
The MS-R1 is now available globally through the Minisforum online store and offers a combination of compact size, expandable storage and ARM-based AI capabilities.
The base unit of the MS-R1, with 32GB of RAM and no storage, starts at $503. However, the top model with 64GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD costs $695.90.
Through Tom Hardware
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