Minisforum MS-01 PCIe Card and RAM Compatibility Thread

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ts128900

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Jun 3, 2025
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I'm looking to add a dual port SFP+ card to the PCI slot. All the ones I have tried does not fit well and don't slide in. Any suggestions? I could live with a dual port 10Gb RJ45 card .Thank you.
 
h0schi

h0schi

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Oct 24, 2020
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ts128900 said:
I'm looking to add a dual port SFP+ card to the PCI slot. All the ones I have tried does not fit well and don't slide in. Any suggestions? I could live with a dual port 10Gb RJ45 card .Thank you.
Click to expand...
What about an Intel X710-DA2 or an Intel X550-T2 ?
 
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ts128900

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Jun 3, 2025
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I've purchased a half height GTek version of X710-DA2. Haven't tried a X550-T2- I'll look. The problem seems to be how the mounting bracket is not able slide into the plastic bracket retainer. Thank you.
 
h0schi

h0schi

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Oct 24, 2020
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ts128900 said:
I've purchased a half height GTek version of X710-DA2. Haven't tried a X550-T2- I'll look. The problem seems to be how the mounting bracket is not able slide into the plastic bracket retainer. Thank you.
Click to expand...
IMG_5321.jpeg

As I can see from the pictures, the screws are accessible from above.
So you could try installing the slot bracket first and then the card.
Finally, screw the card to the slot bracket.
Maybe this can work ?
 
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h0schi

h0schi

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The battle for every degree

I modified the NUC fan a bit and installed it higher with standoffs.
I glued a 2mm thick EPDM / neoprene sealing tape around the upper fan grille so that both fans draw in the colder room air better.

IMG_5353.jpeg IMG_5352.jpeg
IMG_5354.jpeg IMG_5351.jpeg
 
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owl1

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Aug 8, 2023
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dokterdok said:
I attempted a little experiment: I trimmed the edges of a PE3162-4IL card to fit it into the MS-01 and installed three SSDs: 2x SN850X 4TB and 1x SN850P 8TB, all configured in a Btrfs RAID0 pool.

Despite the x8 electrical limitation, performance was solid. Using fio, I measured sustained sequential read speeds of ~6.5 GiB/s (~6842 MB/s), which is close to the theoretical maximum for PCIe Gen3 x8 (~7.8 GiB/s). Each drive negotiated correctly at PCIe 3.0 x4, confirming that the PLX switch on the adapter was doing its job. The only real bottleneck was the uplink to the CPU.

However, after leaving the system idle (Unraid 7.1) for 2–3 hours, I encountered an issue where the 8TB SN850P disappeared. There were no SMART errors, thermal warnings, or data loss, but nvme no longer reported the device, and a reboot was required to recover it.

I moved the 8TB drive to another slot on the adapter, but the same issue occurred after a few hours. Since then, I’ve been running the system for several days using just the two 4TB drives on the adapter, with the 8TB SN850P moved to the MS-01’s native PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, and it’s been stable. This points to a possible firmware issue with the SN850P, a power delivery or compatibility problem, or maybe PLX/drivers instability (even though I have a fan blowing on the side of the case and another on the back, and SSD temps stayed below 55°C). Shinreal suggested resetting the PLX EEPROM config using the Broadcom SDK, but wasn’t sure whether that would resolve the issue.

So in short: yes, it works — and it’s fast — but it hasn’t been fully reliable with the SN850P (or perhaps with more than two SSDs), and it’s obviously an extremely hacky setup. Still, there’s room for further experimentation.

EDIT 15 April 2025: Setting PCIe ASPM to L1 in the BIOS seems to have solved the stability issue (was disabled before). Now running smoothly for a couple of days with 3 drives on the expansion card.
Click to expand...
hi, what bios version are you running? I am on 1.26 and the ASPM for the PCIe is grayed out.
 
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InFeCtuS

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Jul 12, 2025
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I'm considering adding a PCIe network card, but I have a few concerns about choosing a specific model. I'd like something future-proof, preferably 2x2.5Gbps on copper, but that solution is probably out of the question. I'm afraid 2x10Gbps will get too hot, even if I'm currently using them at 1Gbps. Can you recommend something that will fit and work with the MS-01 without overheating? I have a few suggestions, if you could share your thoughts on how they perform and what temperatures they reach without modifications. I'd also appreciate your suggestions. Maybe an SFP adapter, though I've read about it getting hot?

1. intel i350 T2V2
2. intel x550 T2
3. card from alieexpress 2xi226 https://a.aliexpress.com/_EG2P30A
4. MikroTik S-RJ01
5. MikroTik S+RJ10

Generally I need to increase the number of RJ45 ports, preferably by two and with a throughput of 2.5Gbps, but if it's reasonable/cool and 1Gbps is recommended, then I will also accept it, although from the point of view of current networks I know that I should be looking at something faster.
 
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h0schi

h0schi

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InFeCtuS said:
I'm considering adding a PCIe network card, but I have a few concerns about choosing a specific model. I'd like something future-proof, preferably 2x2.5Gbps on copper, but that solution is probably out of the question. I'm afraid 2x10Gbps will get too hot, even if I'm currently using them at 1Gbps. Can you recommend something that will fit and work with the MS-01 without overheating? I have a few suggestions, if you could share your thoughts on how they perform and what temperatures they reach without modifications. I'd also appreciate your suggestions. Maybe an SFP adapter, though I've read about it getting hot?

1. intel i350 T2V2
2. intel x550 T2
3. card from alieexpress 2xi226 https://a.aliexpress.com/_EG2P30A
4. MikroTik S-RJ01
5. MikroTik S+RJ10

Generally I need to increase the number of RJ45 ports, preferably by two and with a throughput of 2.5Gbps, but if it's reasonable/cool and 1Gbps is recommended, then I will also accept it, although from the point of view of current networks I know that I should be looking at something faster.
Click to expand...
If you get a chance to get a cheap x550, take this card - it‘s most future-proofed (1g, 2,5g, 5g & 10g).
otherwise the aliexpress-card is also ok and they will not overheating.

you can additional change/renew the paste/pad on the heatsink of these card to get this cards a bit cooler.
 
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InFeCtuS

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Jul 12, 2025
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Replacing the thermal paste or using PTM isn't a problem. The question is, does anyone actually use the X550? Is it passively cooled? Will it reach critical temperatures? In small cases, it's supposedly 70°C at idle and 90°C under load. In my opinion, these values are too high for 24/7 stable operation. Can anyone confirm this? I see your friend has a Supermicro AOC-SGP-I4. I know it's equivalent to the i350 T4. How does it perform? I see you have additional cooling. Was it necessary?
 
h0schi

h0schi

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InFeCtuS

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h0schi

h0schi

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InFeCtuS said:
How do you have the additional fan installed and what exact model is it from an Intel Nuc?
Click to expand...
See this post:

The fan and needed cables are noted in the post of @Miesepies
You need to build an adapter - the cable-colors of the fan are fine, but cable-orientation is different.

Miesepies said:
Unfortunately the header pins are not in the same order as the wiring of the fan. However the color of the wires do match. Note down the order of wire colors of the first fan header, and then use that to connect the wires for the new fan in the correct order.

I had it all written down on a piece of paper... which I threw away when I was done :( But it's not really hard.

I got the fan and a set of wires with the right size connectors from aliexpress:

For Intel NUC8I7BEH NUC8 I3 I5 I7 Computer Fan BSC0805HA-00 DC05V 0.60A 1Z24L9R 4 PIN New CPU Cooling Fan
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005029085173.html

Mini Micro JST 1.25 mm Pitch 4 Pin Male Plug and Female Socket Docking Terminal Connector with Wire Cables 15CM 28AWG
https://aliexpress.com/item/4000764828208.html
Click to expand...
 
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ghost.wookiee

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Jul 20, 2025
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For anyone struggling with high temps and stability, heres what I did to improve thermals. I just got my MS-01 this week, and have been fiddling with it all week. My BIOS shipped with v1.26. I have not upgraded to v1.27. I repasted as soon as I get it with Noctura NT-H1, so I dont have a baseline of what temps were before this. I wasnt happy with the results, so I tinkered with adding external fans and seemed to have slightly better results.

Finally I switched to the Thermal Grizzly PhaseSheet and placed fans on both the top and bottom of case, and my temps seem to be pretty stable and at a reasonable temperature. I also adjusted the fan curve in the BIOS.

Heres a chart of the difference in temps. thermals.png
 
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caplam

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Dec 12, 2018
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hi,
i did the same last year. The more important is the bottom fan blowing on ssds.
But if you have a pcie card which can run hot like an hba you definitely want a 80mm blowing on it. Hot air comes out through the holes of the pcie bracket.
 
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seraphimserapis

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Apr 22, 2025
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ghost.wookiee said:
For anyone struggling with high temps and stability, heres what I did to improve thermals. I just got my MS-01 this week, and have been fiddling with it all week. My BIOS shipped with v1.26. I have not upgraded to v1.27. I repasted as soon as I get it with Noctura NT-H1, so I dont have a baseline of what temps were before this. I wasnt happy with the results, so I tinkered with adding external fans and seemed to have slightly better results.

Finally I switched to the Thermal Grizzly PhaseSheet and placed fans on both the top and bottom of case, and my temps seem to be pretty stable and at a reasonable temperature. I also adjusted the fan curve in the BIOS.

Heres a chart of the difference in temps. View attachment 44741
Click to expand...

Do your two fans on top (e.g., the CPU side) pull air out of the case or push into the case? I also have two Noctua USB fans on top (2x 80mm) but haven't seen much improvement.
 
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renounce126

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Aug 8, 2025
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Hi,

I am running the Crucial 96GB kit but I have the same issue with my second unit now. The unit boots fine and runs perfectly, memtest passes, VMs start etc.

But the second I turn off the power for the MS-01 (either via disconnect or a shutdown for a longer period of time), the next boot causes the MS-01 to bootloop (it turns on, then quickly off, and does not even get to BIOS). At first, I thought it was a BIOS issue, so I disconnected the CMOS to clear it and then reconnected it. The MS-01 booted with no issues after the memory training was completed. I then shut down, plugged the CMOS back in, and it started fine. I performed a normal shutdown again (or disconnected the power cord), and I encountered the same issue. Weirdly enough, this didn’t happen at all when rebooting.

I sent the video to Minisforum and received an RMA unit.

I tested the RMA unit with their set of RAM, and everything worked fine, with no problems. I replaced the RAM with my Crucial kit, and the same behavior occurred on the new unit. This made me think, and instead of disconnecting the CMOS and wiping the entire BIOS, I simply removed and reinserted the RAM sticks. To my surprise, it booted well again. However, after performing the shutdown process, it bootlooped again.

I tried swapping back to the factory RAM, and everything works fine across multiple shutdowns.

Any idea what else I could try or do?
 
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