Minisforum MS-01 PCIe Card and RAM Compatibility Thread

[qbaskas]

Hey everyone,
I'd like to ask about the QNAP TL-D400S with pcie controller. In the first post this hardware is mentioned as supported and on YT there is a video where it seems to be working. I'm trying the third day to run it, but without any luck. This is my second MS-01, the first one I sent back just because of this issue ( I thought it was because of CPU I had - it was 12900), but now I have 13900, identical setup as on YT and this card is still not recognized by the OS. I was trying Windows, Ubuntu, Debian. Under any OS lspci doesnt show this controller. I was trying with disks and without. I almost check every setting in the BIOS. I've checked this controller in DELL server and it was recognized properly.
Does anyone have this NAS (QNAP 4-port SFF-8088 adapter from the QNAP TL-D400S JBOD kit.) and have it working?

Please help.

Regards
Jakub

 

[thekobk]

OHHHH I saw the copper coloured connector, but they didnt seem to come off “easily” and I didn’t want to pull too hard. Thanks

The wifi card is ez to remove and replace. I replaced mine with Intel be200. No real reason other than I had it and why not add wifi 7.

 

[sandain]

I too am using the PM983 3.8TB SSD and can confirm it works.

One question for you, did you ever install Proxmox host on this disk with ZFS and boot off of it? This version of drive fails to boot with ZFS but works perfectly fine with EXT, which makes me believe this some funky vendor locked firmware.

I have so far had no luck installing Proxmox 8.1 with ZFS (raid 1), it reports an error on boot. It works just fine using ext4. I'll try installing with ZFS again and try to take note of the error message.

This is my first time using Proxmox, so I thought I was having issues when it never booted into a terminal. The web interface is working, and I just played around with a Debian install in a VM.

Did you ever get that pcie to u.2 card to fit? I bought a 14mm tall drive that wont fit in the regular slot (7mm max).

 

[GreenAvacado]

I have so far had no luck installing Proxmox 8.1 with ZFS (raid 1), it reports an error on boot. It works just fine using ext4. I'll try installing with ZFS again and try to take note of the error message.

This is my first time using Proxmox, so I thought I was having issues when it never booted into a terminal. The web interface is working, and I just played around with a Debian install in a VM.

Did you ever get that pcie to u.2 card to fit? I bought a 14mm tall drive that wont fit in the regular slot (7mm max).

Thanks for confirming the PVE host boot error with ZFS.

Error must be "Failed to flush random seed file: Time out" in red text, at least that's what I was getting. And issue is not PVE host or ZFS but this particular enterprise NVME. ZFS works just fine on regular NVME. I could not figure out workaround, so keeping PVE host boot on separate NVME disk as EXT and use the PM983 with ZFS on VM storage.

Only U.2 7mm height tall disk will fit on the MS01, this have been pointed several times on this thread.

 

[dalalaboi]

Let me get this straight, disk that was previously having trouble with problematic M.2 slot, works perfectly fine on the other M.2 slot? And now the good one turned bad? If that's the case ouch, tough luck, sounds like bad M.2 slot. But before giving up, I would try a third know working spare NVME disk to this M.2 slot before declaring it dud.

That's corect... will try another m.2 to test the slot further... very frustrating... thanks again for your help

 

[BlueChris]

Hey everyone,
I'd like to ask about the QNAP TL-D400S with pcie controller. In the first post this hardware is mentioned as supported and on YT there is a video where it seems to be working. I'm trying the third day to run it, but without any luck. This is my second MS-01, the first one I sent back just because of this issue ( I thought it was because of CPU I had - it was 12900), but now I have 13900, identical setup as on YT and this card is still not recognized by the OS. I was trying Windows, Ubuntu, Debian. Under any OS lspci doesnt show this controller. I was trying with disks and without. I almost check every setting in the BIOS. I've checked this controller in DELL server and it was recognized properly.
Does anyone have this NAS (QNAP 4-port SFF-8088 adapter from the QNAP TL-D400S JBOD kit.) and have it working?

Please help.

Regards
Jakub

Try to put tape on the smbios pins in the card. Many cards needed this fix to play correctly. Minisforum is aware of the problem and they suggested this solution.
More info here

 

[adman_c]

My i5-12600H barebones arrived yesterday, and I have it up and running with 64GB of Kingston Fury 4800. So far so good, and it idles in Proxmox at right around 11W, which is really impressive. That may even be lower than my Lenovo Tiny i5-8500T idled once I put a 2x SFP+ card in it. Need to do some more testing on it, but I'm looking forward to putting this little beast into production!

 

[BlueChris]

My i5-12600H barebones arrived yesterday, and I have it up and running with 64GB of Kingston Fury 4800. So far so good, and it idles in Proxmox at right around 11W, which is really impressive. That may even be lower than my Lenovo Tiny i5-8500T idled once I put a 2x SFP+ card in it. Need to do some more testing on it, but I'm looking forward to putting this little beast into production!

Myne idles with 2 NVME and 1 U2 PM983 at 35W... but i have in bios ASPM off to be sure that i dont get anything crazy in proxmox.
My VMs have in normal conditions the CPU at 3-4% ...
So why i am so high in consumption?

 

[nirbo]

Okay! I put some PTM7950 on my MS-01. Here are the results!

As you can see the thermal paste that was already on it is not nearly as sad as some of the other examples we've seen.



This was attempt 2. Attempt 1 was very funny. I cut it to size, plopped it on the die, went to press it down and SQUISH. Big oily fingerprint on my upside down PTM7950.



I applied it again a little cleaner because like a moron I got some specks of crap under my RAM and failed to seat the RAM properly after cleaning it and applying it the first time. I of course panicked. Didn't get a picture of third application, but I assure you it is neater!



While sending myself the pictures and writing this post the Cores haven't crested about 57 degrees.



After 10 minutes of FFXIV and Plex video it's still not crested 65 degrees.

After about 50 minutes it hasn't passed 69 degrees (nice).

Almost 2 hours of gaming and watching videos at the same time and it hasn't passed 74 degrees. Spending most of the time averaging in the 48-52 range. I'm pretty happy with this stuff.

 

[adman_c]

Myne idles with 2 NVME and 1 U2 PM983 at 35W... but i have in bios ASPM off to be sure that i dont get anything crazy in proxmox.
My VMs have in normal conditions the CPU at 3-4% ...
So why i am so high in consumption?

Your #1 problem is almost certainly disabling ASPM in the BIOS. I'd try enabling it to see if you observe any instability. Second, your U.2 drive will idle much, much higher than a M.2 drive, like ~5W at best for the U.2 vs < .5W for the M.2. But also bear in mind that this server is currently running *nothing*. If I was running even relatively light VMs I'm guessing it would average closer to 20-25. I should know in a few days when I move this into production to replace my lenovo Tiny.

 

[mman3222]

I installed ProxMox. Everything seems to be working great. I'm running PfSense, Diet-Pi, and Windows 11.

In Windows 11 is there anyway to pass on the actual CPU? I gave Windows 11 all 20 cores of the i9-13900H when creating the VM. I am going to be running Plex on Windows 11 and would like to pass on quick sync (I think that's what it's called.)

 

[GreenAvacado]

Your #1 problem is almost certainly disabling ASPM in the BIOS. I'd try enabling it to see if you observe any instability. Second, your U.2 drive will idle much, much higher than a M.2 drive, like ~5W at best for the U.2 vs < .5W for the M.2. But also bear in mind that this server is currently running *nothing*. If I was running even relatively light VMs I'm guessing it would average closer to 20-25. I should know in a few days when I move this into production to replace my lenovo Tiny.

I doubt ASPM will add much to power saving because PVE hardly puts any device in idle. Plus, the assertion that idle power is 11W is slightly misleading because once you have 10G SFP connected, power hardly every drops to 11W and stays well over 20W based on my experience.

 

[rog713]

Hey everyone,
I'd like to ask about the QNAP TL-D400S with pcie controller. In the first post this hardware is mentioned as supported and on YT there is a video where it seems to be working. I'm trying the third day to run it, but without any luck. This is my second MS-01, the first one I sent back just because of this issue ( I thought it was because of CPU I had - it was 12900), but now I have 13900, identical setup as on YT and this card is still not recognized by the OS. I was trying Windows, Ubuntu, Debian. Under any OS lspci doesnt show this controller. I was trying with disks and without. I almost check every setting in the BIOS. I've checked this controller in DELL server and it was recognized properly.
Does anyone have this NAS (QNAP 4-port SFF-8088 adapter from the QNAP TL-D400S JBOD kit.) and have it working?

Please help.

Regards
Jakub

My 12900 ms-01 works perfectly with the ASMedia cards that come with the TL-D400S & TL-D800S . However, I was never able to get it working consistently with several known working LSI HBA's.

 

[Volex]

My 12900 ms-01 works perfectly with the ASMedia cards that come with the TL-D400S & TL-D800S . However, I was never able to get it working consistently with several known working LSI HBA's.

As another reference point I couldn't get it working with a HP LSI9200-8e that was tested working on another PC, didn't go into troubleshooting really as it wasn't essential for my setup.

 

[webmaster]

I doubt ASPM will add much to power saving because PVE hardly puts any device in idle. Plus, the assertion that idle power is 11W is slightly misleading because once you have 10G SFP connected, power hardly every drops to 11W and stays well over 20W based on my experience.

With a 1GB SFP module (fiber internet) consumption increased by 1-2 W.

I can confirm the 12W idle too (with a good power meter), but only if you enable ASPM. However, consumption jumps massively even on light load. It is overall way less power efficient than my NUC 12 Pro. The cabinet really heats up now, with the NUC it stayed cool.

 

[adman_c]

I doubt ASPM will add much to power saving because PVE hardly puts any device in idle. Plus, the assertion that idle power is 11W is slightly misleading because once you have 10G SFP connected, power hardly every drops to 11W and stays well over 20W based on my experience.

That 11W number is with one 1G RJ45 and one 10G SFP+ connection. I tried to be clear that you'll never see it idle that low once VMs are running, even relatively light ones. I think the lowest I've ever seen my Lenovo Tiny with 10G idle with a single VM (pfsense doing pfsense things but not working especially hard) is right around 20W. If this can handle my firewall and a few other VMs while staying under 30W as its baseline (i.e. not actively trying to route 10G or transcode video), I'll be pleased as punch.

I can confirm the 12W idle too (with a good power meter), but only if you enable ASPM. However, consumption jumps massively even on light load. It is overall way less power efficient than my NUC 12 Pro. The cabinet really heats up now, with the NUC it stayed cool.

This is a good point, and may very well mean that my baseline will be more 30W-40W than 25W-30W. I have certainly noticed that 11th Gen+ Intel CPUs scale their power consumption with workload substantially less linearly than, say 8th-10th gen. We'll have to see what the 8-10% CPU-usage-baseline from an i5-8500T translates to on the 12600H.

 

[mman3222]

Is there anyway to passthrough the Intle iGPU to Windows in a VM? I followed this guide and it crashed my entire ProxMox. The Windows VM wouldn't start either.

 

[webmaster]

I have certainly noticed that 11th Gen+ Intel CPUs scale their power consumption with workload substantially less linearly than, say 8th-10th gen. We'll have to see what the 8-10% CPU-usage-baseline from an i5-8500T translates to on the 12600H.

I have the impression that the MS-01 is not very efficient. Maybe it is the H CPU that just scales up more quickly than the P in the NUC, or maybe it is the power supply design. The brick gets quite warm even with lower loads, I guess it is not the most efficient. If the power conversion on the MB is inefficient too, that will create quite some heat. Or it is even both.

Is your MS-01 running stable with all power save options on? Mine crashes frequently. If I disable the higher C-states it is stable, but also consumes more power.

 

[doremo]

I think 5g cellular cards are all m.2 not mini PCIe.

I know it doesn't fit your requirements but this external unit paired with a RM521F-GL has been solid for me and is one of the few solutions that does 3xCA and can be powered via PoE. Maybe you could mount it in a lockable vented weatherproof enclosure on a pole outside to keep it away from prying eyes.

I found the mini pcie version 5G Module which is RG255C supported global 5G network, I guess this the only one in the market

 

[adman_c]

I have the impression that the MS-01 is not very efficient. Maybe it is the H CPU that just scales up more quickly than the P in the NUC, or maybe it is the power supply design. The brick gets quite warm even with lower loads, I guess it is not the most efficient. If the power conversion on the MB is inefficient too, that will create quite some heat. Or it is even both.

Is your MS-01 running stable with all power save options on? Mine crashes frequently. If I disable the higher C-states it is stable, but also consumes more power.

Yikes. That's not good as I'm planning this to be the primary host for my firewall VM. I have proxmox set up so the firewall VM can fail over if the host crashes, but instability is the opposite of what I'm looking for. I guess I won't take the other host out of service unless/until this proves itself to be stable.