Minisforum MS-01 PCIe Card and RAM Compatibility Thread

[BlueChris]

Do I have to remove this black foam? I can only see 2 screws.

Yes, if you see the photos in the previous page in the middle of the foam there is the other 2 screws.
I haven't done myne yet since i wait the LM to arrive but i will try with a thermal pistol to unglue the foam.

BTW guys i need help.. i tried so far in the machine Proxmox8, Esxi8, XCP-NG and in the life of me i cannot passthrough the iGPU to a windows 10/11 vm. I dont want to buy an A2000 or A4000 atm since there isnt yet a single slot heatsink to buy anywhere...

Anyone has managed or tried to passthrough the iGpu to windows?

 

[BlueChris]

Thanks for the response. Does your system take awhile to boot sometimes? There are times where it takes over a minute to post. I do have 96GB of RAM so I'm not sure if this is why or not. I'm also wondering if it's something to do with unraid and/or my usb. It's not very old but I don't have anything to compare against.

Myne with 96GB ram also and the 12900H boots in 3-4 seconds....

 

[PigLover]

...BTW guys i need help.. i tried so far in the machine Proxmox8, Esxi8, XCP-NG and in the life of me i cannot passthrough the iGPU to a windows 10/11 vm. I dont want to buy an A2000 or A4000 atm since there isnt yet a single slot heatsink to buy anywhere...

Anyone has managed or tried to passthrough the iGpu to windows?

Yes. Its a bit of a PITA. It works really well using SR-IOV. Ultimately I like this method much better than a simple PCIe passthrough of the device because you can share the iGPU with up to 7 VMs simultaneously AND you don't lose video for the host itself. But for now it is not mainlined into the kernel and has to be done using a DKMS repo and a bit of config (its this way though at least kernel 6.8, with Proxmox currently at 6.5). I'm not sure what the status of getting this mainlined is.

Use this guide. Derek does a great job of detailing the steps and has clip-able commands so all you have to do is copy and paste each step.

His guide works whether you are using Secure Boot or not - but I prefer not having secure boot on if you are using DKMS modules because you have to authorize the module each time it re-compiles, which means each time the kernel gets updated in Proxmox. If secure boot was enabled when you installed proxmox you'll really want to follow the last step and pin the kernel. Authorizing the module requires console access at boot, which is a problem if your machine is stuffed headless into a server stack somewhere (ask me now I know this ).

If you DO NOT have secure boot enabled make sure you skip the steps where you import the module keys into MOK or you will find yourself stuck on reboot with the bootloader looking to approve the keys, but the Proxmox "non secure boot" install does not include the tool required to do it...which is kinda bad. The step you want to skip in a non secure boot install is "mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub"

 

[cloudhax]

Hello,
I think someone mentioned that earlier already, but I did not see any answers, so re-asking: is there a solid pcie-card that can be used to expose multiple ssds? Probably something PLX-based given the lack of bifurcation. And then there is the cooling matter.
Some quick research I did, did not lead to anything solid yet.
Thanks!

this card works to add 2x m.2 : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZHNTWNG

note you'll need to snap off the end at the perforation to get it to fit. it has asmedia switch chip, no bifurcation support required. limited to gen3 speeds, i dunno if gen4 cards like it exist?

 

[BlueChris]

Yes. Its a bit of a PITA. It works really well using SR-IOV. Ultimately I like this method much better than a simple PCIe passthrough of the device because you can share the iGPU with up to 7 VMs simultaneously AND you don't lose video for the host itself. But for now it is not mainlined into the kernel and has to be done using a DKMS repo and a bit of config (its this way though at least kernel 6.8, with Proxmox currently at 6.5). I'm not sure what the status of getting this mainlined is.

Use this guide. Derek does a great job of detailing the steps and has clip-able commands so all you have to do is copy and paste each step.

His guide works whether you are using Secure Boot or not - but I prefer not having secure boot on if you are using DKMS modules because you have to authorize the module each time it re-compiles, which means each time the kernel gets updated in Proxmox. If secure boot was enabled when you installed proxmox you'll really want to follow the last step and pin the kernel. Authorizing the module requires console access at boot, which is a problem if your machine is stuffed headless into a server stack somewhere (ask me now I know this ).

If you DO NOT have secure boot enabled make sure you skip the steps where you import the module keys into MOK or you will find yourself stuck on reboot with the bootloader looking to approve the keys, but the Proxmox "non secure boot" install does not include the tool required to do it...which is kinda bad. The step you want to skip in a non secure boot install is "mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub"

Thx, great info in there and i might try it but i need full gpu passthrough to get video output.
This is what im trying to figure out.

 

[GreenAvacado]

this card works to add 2x m.2 : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZHNTWNG

note you'll need to snap off the end at the perforation to get it to fit. it has asmedia switch chip, no bifurcation support required. limited to gen3 speeds, i dunno if gen4 cards like it exist?

View attachment 35151

Anybody knows how much power these card burn? Someone mentioned these run fairly toasty.

EDIT: One reviewer on Amazon pointed that the controller run 70C, ouch. Can someone confirm or deny?

 

[ms264556]

Thx, great info in there and i might try it but i need full gpu passthrough to get video output.
This is what im trying to figure out.

I couldn't find a single successful report of iGPU-passthrough-with-video anywhere (but maybe my google-fu is weak). Do let us know if you ever manage this.

Even the reports of ordinary-GPU-passthrough-with-video are for gaming - they all disable nesting to get things working, which stops WSL working, so it's very poor as a Dev box.

I gave up and switched to proxmox-on-windows (since I just want to test/stage VMs before pushing them to my prod proxmox) & it's been great.

 

[GreenAvacado]

I couldn't find a single successful report of iGPU-passthrough-with-video anywhere (but maybe my google-fu is weak). Do let us know if you ever manage this.

Even the reports of ordinary-GPU-passthrough-with-video are for gaming - they all disable nesting to get things working, which stops WSL working, so it's very poor as a Dev box.

I gave up and switched to proxmox-on-windows (since I just want to test/stage VMs before pushing them to my prod proxmox) & it's been great.

Doing Intel iGPU passthrough is fairly straightforward and the process is no different than discrete GPU. Blacklist the drivers and the whole drill.

That said, I have done that with Intel N5105 CPU, works like charm and think it should work for MS01 CPU too. One hurtle I did run into was drivers, was non-issue on Linux VM and display output on physical monitor worked right out of the box but Window always threw Code 43 error.

 

[ms264556]

Windows with a passthrough GPU appeared to work for me, but then I got hit with the issue where it fails to boot after 3 restarts. Then the fix for that prevented nested virtualization (which Windows uses a lot, if you want to do more than play games).

Basically, if you want to run windows and also proxmox then I found it 100x easier to add proxmox to windows than the other way.

 

[BlueChris]

Doing Intel iGPU passthrough is fairly straightforward and the process is no different than discrete GPU. Blacklist the drivers and the whole drill.

That said, I have done that with Intel N5105 CPU, works like charm and think it should work for MS01 CPU too. One hurtle I did run into was drivers, was non-issue on Linux VM and display output on physical monitor worked right out of the box but Window always threw Code 43 error.

I dont see this.. all over the internet there are problems with the error 43...

Windows with a passthrough GPU appeared to work for me, but then I got hit with the issue where it fails to boot after 3 restarts. Then the fix for that prevented nested virtualization (which Windows uses a lot, if you want to do more than play games).

Basically, if you want to run windows and also proxmox then I found it 100x easier to add proxmox to windows than the other way.

I will try that thx

 

[pimposh]

note you'll need to snap off the end at the perforation to get it to fit. it has asmedia switch chip, no bifurcation support required. limited to gen3 speeds, i dunno if gen4 cards like it exist?

View attachment 35151

There you go mister. Only price is very unlike above.

EDIT: One reviewer on Amazon pointed that the controller run 70C, ouch. Can someone confirm or deny?

Yes. It is toasty.

 

[GreenAvacado]

There you go mister. Only price is very unlike above.



Yes. It is toasty.

Toasty as if you could burn your finger on the heatsink or uncomfortable? And is this at idle or operating full blast?

 

[pimposh]

Well i got other variant of this aliexpress board and i’d say heatsink is more than uncomfortable during lane switching (sustained write). When idling it’s warm.

Without having MS01 on my hands i would say these (passively cooled plx cards) are not best choice as they will quickly build up heat in MS01 chassis.

Why not to go eg. QNAP or any other actively cooled?

Too bad MS01 does not support bifurc since this one is really useful.

MB842MP-B_Removable 2 Bay M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe 4.0 x8 Mobile Rack Enclosure for PCI Express Slot (PCIe Bifurcation required)

global.icydock.com

And this one probably won’t fit either…

Quad M.2 NVMe Ports to PCIe 3.0 x16 Bifurcation Riser Controller - Support Non-BiFurcation Motherboard

SI-PEX40152; pcie nvme solid state drive;pci ssd 1tb;two ssd drives;nvme m2;nvme ssd connector;m 2 pcie nvme;pci express ssd;nvme ssd adapter;pci express hard drive;pcie nvme ssd adapter;pci ssd;pcie nvme;pcie nvme ssd;ssd m2 nvme;nvme m 2 adapter;nvme m

www.sybausa.com

If you want PLX card, you want good PLX card. Unless you enjoy random disconnects and pool (if used) degradations. There is no shortcut here.

 

[BlueChris]

For me an external exlosure is much better, this tiny box cannot hold all this things allone.. imagine if you put one of this cards in it.

 

[GreenAvacado]

Not that I disagree given it there are two Thunderbolt 4 port that can be put to good use.

Found this dual NVME RAID on Amazon. Not too bad. Anybody has opinion on this using it with TrueNAS or better compact options? One my OCW is rather big in size.

 

[thekobk]

Not that I disagree given it there are two Thunderbolt 4 port that can be put to good use.

Found this dual NVME RAID on Amazon. Not too bad. Anybody has opinion on this using it with TrueNAS or better compact options? One my OCW is rather big in size.

I believe it's USB 4 but thunderbolt 3.

 

[Sebo]

When you passthrough the dedicated Intel Arc GPU to a guest VM (on Proxmox), can the iGPU be still usable by the Proxmox host (for access to the console via the HDMI port) ?

Because, as I understand, you need to probe the i915 driver (echo i915 > etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, see here) making the iGPU not usable by the host (because i915 is the driver used for both iGPU and Intel Arc GPU). I'm I missing something ?

No idea TBH. I have yet to test the setup. I'm abroad right now and will be able to do that in about two weeks.
From quick googling it seems to be possible by using driver_override instead of blacklisting driver

 

[shmokey629]

Has anyone actually for real managed to remove the plastic back plate to install a card that otherwise wouldn't fit (due to protruding ports on the card)? In the video says they noticed the clips, and they imply the plate can be removed, but can it actually?

 

[GreenAvacado]

Has anyone actually for real managed to remove the plastic back plate to install a card that otherwise wouldn't fit (due to protruding ports on the card)? In the video says they noticed the clips, and they imply the plate can be removed, but can it actually?

Ran into the same situation with protruding dual SFP+ NIC cage that totally refuged to slide in without removing the plastic back plate. And taking that back plate out turns out to be real pain if you can't keep several clips depressed at once.

Figured easy way out was to unscrew the low profile bracket from the card, slide that in and put the card back and screw it back. Easy-peasy.

 

[shmokey629]

So I did manage to remove the back plate. What was not obvious to me was that there actually wasn't a way to do it without any damage at all. Not realizing that, I thought there must be an easier way, and basically almost tore down the whole thing looking for a way. I removed the CPU heat sink too though I only had old thermal paste to replace it with so I'll have to redo it with new paste again.

Long story short there are plastic rivets holding the plastic backplate to the metal backplate. It is NOT enough to simply undo the plastic clips. In the end I'm not sure what exactly I did but suddenly the back plate came loose and I realized the rivets had ripped out. So I don't think there's a way to remove the back plate without losing warranty. All the clips are still intact though.

So, I can confirm that the Dell HBA355e works with the MS-01, with the above caveat. The screws for the PCIe bracket are under the card, so it's not possible to to install the bracket and the card separately. Nonetheless the MS-01 booted without any issues and PERCCLI sees the card. It is running at about 70-72c without anything attached. If it goes any higher in use I might install a fan.