Minisforum MS-01 PCIe Card and RAM Compatibility Thread

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jdpdata

Member
Jan 31, 2024
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That's exactly what I'm weighing right now. The noise can be mitigated just by moving the rack to another room, but I'd have to knock some holes in the wall and run cabling to another location. In my case, the room would be on a different floor and the noise wouldn't bother me as much. I could also leave the rack where it is, and build a cooling+sound solution around it. Also, not ideal - and time consuming to boot. The other problem is, these old servers don't have any 10g networking or NVME, both of which I've decided I really need. Running a Proxmox/Ceph cluster on consumer class SATA SSD and 1Gb nics is really a bad idea.

I'll give Minisforum til mid next week. If I don't get a shipment confirmation, I'll just cancel the order and go a different direction.
You need to contact support and push them to ship your units ASAP. I demanded cancellation of my order and full refund. They offered $30 refund (which I haven't yet seen credited to my account) and shipped 2 of my 3 units out immediately. My pre-order date was on Jan 30th. So they're not prioritizing by order date. It's weird as you should have yours before me. Those screams the loudest will get their shipment out. Seems like those who order multi units like you and me are being pushed.
 

anewsome

Member
Mar 15, 2024
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I've read the whole thread, all 49 pages and I don't recall anyone showing screenshots of all the UEFI/BIOS setup screens. I'm interested to know if the power settings can be set to always power the unit on if power is applied.

I have some systems, when power is plugged in:

* Last State
* Power On Automatically
* Do Nothing

I'm curious if the MS-01 can be set to always power on when power is applied. If anyone knows of a screenshot gallery from the setup menus, please post a link.
 
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BlueChris

Active Member
Jul 18, 2021
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Athens-Greece
I've read the whole thread, all 49 pages and I don't recall anyone showing screenshots of all the UEFI/BIOS setup screens. I'm interested to know if the power settings can be set to always power the unit on if power is applied.

I have some systems, when power is plugged in:

* Last State
* Power On Automatically
* Do Nothing

I'm curious if the MS-01 can be set to always power on when power is applied. If anyone knows of a screenshot gallery from the setup menus, please post a link.
I cannot reboot myne atm but i am 99.999999 certain that the setting exist and i have myne in Last State
 

FreakyBigFoot

New Member
Feb 4, 2024
14
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3
So has anyone found a better power supply for the ms-01? I'm having some weird issues and at this point the power supply is the only thing I haven't been able to test. When talking to minisforum support they seemed very interested to know if my PSU was acting up..
 

skipper ohms

New Member
Jan 24, 2024
29
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So has anyone found a better power supply for the ms-01? I'm having some weird issues and at this point the power supply is the only thing I haven't been able to test. When talking to minisforum support they seemed very interested to know if my PSU was acting up..
Slimq 240 or 330 is nice because you can use some USB PD triggers to power another mini or wifi ap or whatever else in addition to the MS-01.
 
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skipper ohms

New Member
Jan 24, 2024
29
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I've read the whole thread, all 49 pages and I don't recall anyone showing screenshots of all the UEFI/BIOS setup screens. I'm interested to know if the power settings can be set to always power the unit on if power is applied.

I have some systems, when power is plugged in:

* Last State
* Power On Automatically
* Do Nothing

I'm curious if the MS-01 can be set to always power on when power is applied. If anyone knows of a screenshot gallery from the setup menus, please post a link.
The BIOS is very limited compared to full AMI BIOS menus, but you can definitely set it to power up when power is applied.
 

cloudhax

New Member
Feb 29, 2024
18
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FYI, to those planning to use NVME PCI switch card on the PCI slot.

96GB RAM will drop to 48GB due to SMBUS sharing bug causing conflict with DRAM module, something Minisforum has confirmed. You must put insulation tape to cover SMBUS pin on this card.



Other than that card seems to working, running at ~55C (measured over heatsink) with open case when idling.

I think I am running into this now, which pin(s) need to be taped? is it 'B5' and 'B6' as I've read about other hba cards needing this treatment? would that be the 5th and 6th pins on the side with the m.2 drives, counting from left? (as in the picture)

*edit - it appears me taping the 5th and 6th pins did get me past my issue, thanks
 
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Ricku

New Member
Mar 26, 2024
1
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1
Hi Everyone,

Just ordered my MS-01. My plan is to put Unraid on it and have it as a little home server running Plex and some other containers.

I was tempte to dabble with Proxmox, but I don't think I need to get that deep in to it! So, just a quick question... I have an old NAS sitting on my network which this will read and write to and my media library is in excess of 20tb. What NVME drives would you recommend, in what size and what configuration?

Would 2 x 2tb NVME mirrored be overkill? I can get a good deal on some WD 2TB SN770.

Thank you!
 

NerdAshes

Active Member
Jan 6, 2024
104
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Eastside of Westside Washington
Hi Everyone,

Just ordered my MS-01.

Would 2 x 2tb NVME mirrored be overkill? I can get a good deal on some WD 2TB SN770.

Thank you!
Mirrored drives are fine, just remember that you'll be getting the slower of the two speeds from the existing PCIe slots.
(PCIe 4.0 x4) x1
(PCIe 3.0 x4) x1

While the WD 2TB SN770 is PCIe 4.0 x4 - if mirrored, it'll be running are PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. Not a big deal really. You may be able to save money however, getting two PCIe 3.0 x4 drives ;-)

What NVME drives would you recommend, in what size and what configuration? My plan is to put Unraid on it and have it as a little home server running Plex and some other containers. I have an old NAS sitting on my network which this will read and write to.
If it's just accessing an old NAS on the LAN and running a couple of containers in Unraid.. it needs a single 128GB NVME. You can have two drives to ensure data protection with a parity disk, but you don't "need" it. Your OS and containers will hardly use any space. You'll get better longevity out of your NVME drives, if you get bigger drives. So the short of it is.. your real needs are small, you can get bigger drives to gain better TBW specs.

The old NAS is doing the heavy lifting for you. You "may" want to replace the old NAS with the MS-01 and a JBOD enclosure. You can then use the old NAS as a backup target. Check This Out where servethehome goes over how perfect that option is for you..
 
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GreenAvacado

Active Member
Sep 25, 2022
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Curious did nobody ask MS if future version MS01 of BIOS will unlock PCI bifurcation?

My understanding is i9 CPU is not the limiting factor here. Only if they enable 4x4 bifurcation for that PCI slot.
 

BlueChris

Active Member
Jul 18, 2021
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Athens-Greece
Curious did nobody ask MS if future version MS01 of BIOS will unlock PCI bifurcation?

My understanding is i9 CPU is not the limiting factor here. Only if they enable 4x4 bifurcation for that PCI slot.
This question was asked before and someone replied that if the CPU don't support it, it will never happened and from what i had read on internet this is correct. Only if minisforum add a plx chip in their next hardware this will happen but with ms-01 is not doable.
For this reason i bought the 2 x nvme plx card that some people bought here with the plan to take out of the box 2 x nvme to pci adapters for pcie4 cards.
Haven't got the time to test this even though i got all the parts.
 

nirbo

New Member
Mar 4, 2024
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I just got a support message back about mine

I ordered to Canada on Jan 21 and they're now telling me they are out of stock and will ship mine at the end of May.

Anyone else getting this run around?
 

cloudhax

New Member
Feb 29, 2024
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one of my MS-01 has been consistently locking up every day, the unit is powered up but the display output is frozen and doesn't respond to keyboard inputs, etc. and no network ping response. conveniently past the amazon return window
 

jdpdata

Member
Jan 31, 2024
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I just got a support message back about mine

I ordered to Canada on Jan 21 and they're now telling me they are out of stock and will ship mine at the end of May.

Anyone else getting this run around?
Wow that's absolutely BS. They keep pushing my ship date as well (pre-order Jan 30th). I complaint profusely and demanded refund. Then somehow they magically found 2 units to ship to me. On DHL truck right now out for delivery. Super fast as it was shipped just couple days ago from Hong Kong. They under-estimated how popular this machine would be. My advice, cancel order or just sit and wait if you really want it. I still have a 3rd unit waiting for shipment between April-May.
 

spuwho

Member
Jan 10, 2024
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Curious did nobody ask MS if future version MS01 of BIOS will unlock PCI bifurcation?

My understanding is i9 CPU is not the limiting factor here. Only if they enable 4x4 bifurcation for that PCI slot.
Did you see the prior note from Minis Forum about bifurcating that slot?
 

spuwho

Member
Jan 10, 2024
40
12
8
Wow that's absolutely BS. They keep pushing my ship date as well (pre-order Jan 30th). I complaint profusely and demanded refund. Then somehow they magically found 2 units to ship to me. On DHL truck right now out for delivery. Super fast as it was shipped just couple days ago from Hong Kong. They under-estimated how popular this machine would be. My advice, cancel order or just sit and wait if you really want it. I still have a 3rd unit waiting for shipment between April-May.
Received an email that my order has been pushed out until the end of April. Original ship was end of March.
 
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GreenAvacado

Active Member
Sep 25, 2022
153
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This question was asked before and someone replied that if the CPU don't support it, it will never happened and from what i had read on internet this is correct. Only if minisforum add a plx chip in their next hardware this will happen but with ms-01 is not doable.
For this reason i bought the 2 x nvme plx card that some people bought here with the plan to take out of the box 2 x nvme to pci adapters for pcie4 cards.
Haven't got the time to test this even though i got all the parts.
Can confirm this directly looking into the datasheet. PCI bifurcation is not supported on H series of processor. Look like only lane reversal is supported on x8 lanes:

Page 140.


1711992005048.png
 
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jdpdata

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Jan 31, 2024
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Curious as why some of you people want to cram even more NVMe on this tiny machine. Isn't 3 slots enough already? If you need more storage than that, wouldn't an external NAS makes more sense. Bunch of drives will cause major heat issues especially in tiny package as this.
 

GreenAvacado

Active Member
Sep 25, 2022
153
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Curious as why some of you people want to cram even more NVMe on this tiny machine. Isn't 3 slots enough already? If you need more storage than that, wouldn't an external NAS makes more sense. Bunch of drives will cause major heat issues especially in tiny package as this.
I would avoid populating all three M.2 slots for this reason alone -- heat. While the fan is there to help, heatsink can't be mounted on two of those M.2 slots due to low clearance. Instead I'd use these slot for low power TPU like Google's Coral or something that comes out in future.

And I believe that's is the reason why so many people are using the PCI slot on the other side of extra NVMEs.