For those thinking about a new system that will perform with modern audio software workloads while offering low heat & wattage, is the Minisforum MS-A1 the answer?

A barebone system is currently $259.00 U.S. and, works with both Zen 4 & Zen 5 CPUs. All the way up to 7950X/9950X.

German Review

 

Last edited: Sep 2, 2024

i never try that yet.. seems a powerfull enough pc!! well... mini pc xd

 

Seems like an ideal low wattage high performance audio production solution. Very interested in this type of power sipping system. And the barebone option allows for choosing the optimum components including an internal U.2 along with the OcuLink for external PCIe devices.

 

Minisforum has steadily been knocking it out of the park lately, for such a small company they've been innovative as hell. Their Atom Man G7 PT look interesting too, 7945hx and a 7600mXT in a tiny little box. The CPU being replaceable in here as opposed to soldered is such a design win tho.

 

totally agree! u can even run some dota 2 or cs sometimes too ;)

 

On the minisforum page you linked, it shows that $259 "barebones" item has no CPU in it. When you add the optional Ryzen 7 8700G CPU, SSD, and RAM to it, it changes the price to $729, on sale. originally $909. I think maybe the 32gb RAM at that price is the main pro for it, over a Mac mini. But this thing is far from some fantastic deal.

 

That is why I only referenced the barebone option. You then have the option of CPU, RAM & storage to fit your needs and, at possibly better prices (of course dependant supply in your geographical location). Personally would not choose the populated option at that price either.

 

These are really aimed at server duties with the SFP+ ports etc, and with a decent amount of storage space I'd get one for audiogridder/VEP7 so that Spitfire Audio stops eating all of my main HDD space haha

 

I will buy one with a 7950x and 64 gig of Ram. I have another mini PC with an Intel I9 13900H and will use both with audio gridder. I have a 18.5 inch usbc monitor . Good solution for my portable setup.

 

Last edited: Jan 9, 2025

The MSA1 doesn't have spf+ port.

 

Last edited: Jan 9, 2025

Sorry, automatically assumed this was about the MS-01.

 

No Problem.

 

$259.00 U.S without CPU, I wonder how silent it is.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 9, 2025

If you install a 7950x for example, you'll get 2 pcie 4x4 M2 slots but you'll loose the usbc port. It will be a USB 3 gen 3.2.

 

On topic, now that I have worked out how to read (haha) - my friend has actually built an A1 with a 8700G CPU as a home server for docker etc. It's not noticeably loud under moderate load, I will try and get him to stress test it and see what it's like >80% utilisation.

He has noticed that it isn't particularly suited for RAID storage (server) as the PCIE lanes aren't equally allocated across all of the storage slots which is a shame if you were chasing the fastest response loading up large orchestral sets etc. But it is at least capable of a large total quantity set up JBOD. This could be due to the CPU he's chosen.