Recently, we talked about Minisforum MS-01 -> NAS, which is an excellent Homelab device, especially if we can get access to that new addon that converts 3xNVMe SSD to 6xNVMe SSD. But there is a new device recently released by Minisforum: MS-A1. Very similar to MS-01, but with a few differences. First of all, it’s AMD-based, and it accepts AM5 Socket CPUs. You can get it with AMD Ryzen 7 8700G or barebone, which means no CPU – and you can add it yourself. It also features AMD Radeon™ 780M graphics card, with 12 GPU cores, a graphics card frequency of 2900MHz, 4 M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD slots with transfer speeds of up to 7000MB/s, and 2x 2.5G RJ45 network interfaces. Unfortunately, it lacks SFP+ ports you can find on MS-01. Also, it officially supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 5200MHz and up to 96GB.
This seems to be an incredible and very versatile device that you can use in your Homelab for a long time, especially given its max memory support and 4 NVMe slots. You can either get a prebuilt version with AMD Ryzen 7, 8700G 32GB DDR5, and 1TB SSD or get a Barebone version and configure it to your needs.
We have a sample build you can use to get a machine with maximum memory and a great SSD, and in the future you add more SSD drives as your needs grow:
Direct links to parts used in this build:
- MS-A1 AMD Ryzen 7 8700G 32GB DDR5 1TB SSD – https://amzn.to/4cdWBWi
- Barebone – https://amzn.to/3ysG9Uv
- WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X – https://amzn.to/3Yqx2hJ
- Crucial RAM 96GB Kit (2x48GB) DDR5 5600MHz – https://amzn.to/4caDBbd
- AMD Ryzen 7 8700G – https://amzn.to/3Yrcohv
As mentioned, this seems to be a great device, and I’m really considering getting it as a replacement for the much bigger and WAY louder Supermicro 5019D-FTN4 AMD Epyc 3251 that I have rack-mounted.
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