Minis forum MS-A2

[Brian Stretch]

Default fan setting on mine was not Quiet. Setting that helped. I reduced the max CPU boost clock like JaxJiang posted too. I'm debating getting a USB fan to help airflow but if I can keep power consumption down enough, meh? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JLV4BWC/

 

[JaxJiang]

I also received mine last week (the 9955HX variant) and so far (compared to the MS-01) theres two things that are really bothering me.

1. Cant get idle power down below 30W. This is with turbo-boost disabled, disabled X710 and Realtek NIC and WiFi card in BIOS and all the powersave settings within proxmox. Thats 10W more at idle than the MS-01 with a similar config replicated on the MS-A2. (as much as that is possible)
No Idea how they tested with 18W idle on kernel 6.11, my device is nowhere near those numbers on 6.11 or 6.14.

2. Both fans are noticeably louder than those on the MS-01. My MS-01 is practically inaudible for me when it's sitting in its (well ventilated) drawer. On the MS-A2 both fans are very much audible even when closing said drawer completely and the bottom NVMe/X710 fan has a very annoying high pitched sound that is even present on lower RPM.
Also cant just unplug the bottom fan, because then it's just cooking my NVMes.

Not happy with my purchase so far and really contemplating to send it back. Its a beast, dont get me wrong, but there have been choices made (like switching the fans for ones that have a really bothering sound profile) that make this device not being able to be used in a noise sensitive environment.

Hi Kernel version cause different idle power's problem. i will test more case.
Would post all of you device that you installed?

For idle/low load temperture problem, AMD's default default frequency policy is so radical. Before the release, there was no good way to lower the maximum single-core frequency. Recently, we found that the frequency can be limited by PBO. The Miniforum will release a new BIOS that optimizes low-load temperatures.

 

[netswitch]

I applied JaxJiang settings with -1000 PBO, I also set it to quiet. Still makes a lot of noise, will probably send it back and order an MS-01 instead.
I will also get Intel Vpro which might be interesting for remote control.

 

[JaxJiang]

I applied JaxJiang settings with -1000 PBO, I also set it to quiet. Still makes a lot of noise, will probably send it back and order an MS-01 instead.
I will also get Intel Vpro which might be interesting for remote control.

-1000 PBO make cooler.
noise problem.We will release a new fan tunning BIOS.
New BIOS allow user manual change fan setting.

 

[bugacha]

So I got MS-A2 9955HX variant today coupled with Crucial DDR5 96GB 5600MHz CL46 memory

Memory training time is insane. A simple Proxmox install with few reboots takes 30mins at least.

I'm on latest BIOS 1.01 - is there any way to reduce amount of time it takes to train the memory ?

Why hot reboots require memory training ??

 

[VivienM]

So I got MS-A2 9955HX variant today coupled with Crucial DDR5 96GB 5600MHz CL46 memory

Memory training time is insane. A simple Proxmox install with few reboots takes 30mins at least.

I'm on latest BIOS 1.01 - is there any way to reduce amount of time it takes to train the memory ?

Why hot reboots require memory training ??

That doesn't seem right - I'm running Proxmox with the 128GB Crucial kit, and mine takes a... normal... amount to boot. Could something else be going on, e.g. a storage drive taking forever to identify itself?

(And I've had a number of unplanned reboots, the power cord it came with was... extremely loose, would lose power as soon as you look at it funny)

 

[bugacha]

That doesn't seem right - I'm running Proxmox with the 128GB Crucial kit, and mine takes a... normal... amount to boot. Could something else be going on, e.g. a storage drive taking forever to identify itself?

(And I've had a number of unplanned reboots, the power cord it came with was... extremely loose, would lose power as soon as you look at it funny)

Thanks! looks like its PCIe card - HPE branded Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx which is PCIe 3.0 x8

Anyone has experience running additional PCIe 3.0 x8 cards in MS-A2 ?

 

[nicoska]

A more generic question: Do anyone of you tested a PCI GPU? If yes, which model?
Thank you

 

[JaxJiang]

A more generic question: Do anyone of you tested a PCI GPU? If yes, which model?
Thank you

RTX 2000 ADA Laptop
RTX 4060 Laptop
RTX 4070 Laptop
I Tested.
I am telling that chinese menufactory sell it on aliexpress. But still processing.
If there any update i will notify to you.

 

[nicoska]

RTX 2000 ADA Laptop
RTX 4060 Laptop
RTX 4070 Laptop
I Tested.
I am telling that chinese menufactory sell it on aliexpress. But still processing.
If there any update i will notify to you.

I cannot find any of it, neither in Amazon (IT) or Aliexpress

 

[bugacha]

Thanks! looks like its PCIe card - HPE branded Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx which is PCIe 3.0 x8

Anyone has experience running additional PCIe 3.0 x8 cards in MS-A2 ?

Answering myself - I have a faulty NIC. Tried it in another motherboard/PC - same result.

 

[wzyho]

I have been running my MS-A2 for a few weeks. I'm getting around 65-70 degrees celsius on idle (without JaxJiang's settings). I will try his settings to see if I can get temps down. I re-pasted the CPU with kryonaut grizzly but it didn't seem to help. On load, running ollama, it gets to 95 degrees, at around 20% utilization. I am definitely getting thermal throttled.

A little bit disappointed, and worried about CPU longevity.

 

[tempest]

I have been running my MS-A2 for a few weeks. I'm getting around 65-70 degrees celsius on idle (without JaxJiang's settings). I will try his settings to see if I can get temps down. I re-pasted the CPU with kryonaut grizzly but it didn't seem to help. On load, running ollama, it gets to 95 degrees, at around 20% utilization. I am definitely getting thermal throttled.

A little bit disappointed, and worried about CPU longevity.

It is a Notebook and not Server CPU, they are designed for that thermal and boost much higher then server cpus. My MS-A2 9955HX device is mostly ideling at 59-69 degree celsius in Proxmox with 6.14-bpo kernel. With CachyOS (just tested the live system) its around 10-15 degree celsius lower due to the power mangement patches in their kernel. I would prefer the new Zen 5 based Epyc 4xxx, but it came to late, my MS-A2 was already on the way.

 

[bugacha]

It is a Notebook and not Server CPU, they are designed for that thermal and boost much higher then server cpus. My MS-A2 9955HX device is mostly ideling at 59-69 degree celsius in Proxmox with 6.14-bpo kernel. With CachyOS (just tested the live system) its around 10-15 degree celsius lower due to the power mangement patches in their kernel. I would prefer the new Zen 5 based Epyc 4xxx, but it came to late, my MS-A2 was already on the way.

Could you elaborate how exactly you would have used Epyc 4xxx? Do you mean use A1 version instead?

 

[tempest]

Could you elaborate how exactly you would have used Epyc 4xxx? Do you mean use A1 version instead?

In generell, i prefer server CPUs, my previous machine was an Intel Atom C3955 16 Core embedded on a Supermicro Board. But its very old now, so i looked for something new. It is the first time i go with a Mini PC as a Server. But for longevity, i think a server board with something like an AMD Epyc 4005 would be a better choice, they have 16 CPU cores with 65w TDP and of course some with highter TDP.

 

[PnoT]

I'm considering purchasing one of these to replace my current TrueNAS server, but I was curious about how you would go about attaching a small enclosure to hold 6-8 SSDs. A PCI card with external connections would probably work, but I haven't set one of those up in a while. Do you have any recommendations or experiences with setting up one of these units?

 

[YYZ]

I also received mine last week (the 9955HX variant) and so far (compared to the MS-01) theres two things that are really bothering me.

1. Cant get idle power down below 30W. This is with turbo-boost disabled, disabled X710 and Realtek NIC and WiFi card in BIOS and all the powersave settings within proxmox. Thats 10W more at idle than the MS-01 with a similar config replicated on the MS-A2. (as much as that is possible)
No Idea how they tested with 18W idle on kernel 6.11, my device is nowhere near those numbers on 6.11 or 6.14.

2. Both fans are noticeably louder than those on the MS-01. My MS-01 is practically inaudible for me when it's sitting in its (well ventilated) drawer. On the MS-A2 both fans are very much audible even when closing said drawer completely and the bottom NVMe/X710 fan has a very annoying high pitched sound that is even present on lower RPM.
Also cant just unplug the bottom fan, because then it's just cooking my NVMes.

Not happy with my purchase so far and really contemplating to send it back. Its a beast, dont get me wrong, but there have been choices made (like switching the fans for ones that have a really bothering sound profile) that make this device not being able to be used in a noise sensitive environment.

I received my Minisforum MS-A2 a few days ago and I'm having a similar experience, one of the fans has a very annoying high pitch sound that is killing me.

I don't have a reliable way of testing the power consumption, but had been playing a bit with the cpu scaling governor settings and found that "ondemand" gives me the best balance between keeping the frequencies low, but scaling when there is load.

Also found that kernel 6.11 takes the minimum frequency to 600mhz, while 6.14 takes it to 1.48ghz, so I'm staying with 6.11.

Which cpu scaling governor setting are you using?

 

[bugacha]

Which cpu scaling governor setting are you using?

ondemand

I have this in Proxmox grub cmdline

amd_pstate=passive

 

[Mixus]

Would post all of you device that you installed?

Sure, for RAM I am using a 64GB Kit (2x32GB) from Kingston Fury KF556S40IBK2-64 and I have two NVMe SSDs installed:
one WD SN7100 2TB WDS200T4X0E-00CJA0 in the slot that is enabled for PCIe Gen 4x4 by default (leftmost slot that is also used for U.2)
and one 512GB Kingston OM8SEP4512Q-A0 drive harvested from another Minisforum PC (UM780 XTX) in the middle slot. I did not enable PCIe Gen 4 on the middle slot in the BIOS.

Thats it. No PCIe devices in the top slot, or the rightmost NVMe slot.
These are the same drives that were being used in my MS-01 that could achieve idle power consumption below 20W.

Also found that kernel 6.11 takes the minimum frequency to 600mhz, while 6.14 takes it to 1.48ghz, so I'm staying with 6.11.

That is something I have observed as well, but I also have that behavior (not going below 1.48 GHz) on kernel 6.11. Did you set anything specific on 6.11 to let it go below that?

Which cpu scaling governor setting are you using?

powersave (as used on my MS-01), but I hardly see a difference in idle power consumption compared to performance.

 

[YYZ]

The Miniforum will release a new BIOS that optimizes low-load temperatures.

When is this being released? Can we get a beta version to test?

ondemand

I have this in Proxmox grub cmdline

amd_pstate=passive

I think I was able to improve the fan sound by lifting the unit with some improvised feet. It also improved the temperature of my NVME drives.

That is something I have observed as well, but I also have that behavior (not going below 1.48 GHz) on kernel 6.11. Did you set anything specific on 6.11 to let it go below that?

powersave (as used on my MS-01), but I hardly see a difference in idle power consumption compared to performance.

No extra setting. Are you using amd-pstate=active? If so, try setting it to passive and play again with the CPU governor settings.