Minisforum MS-A1 is an AMD-powered high-end mini PC with up to 96 GB of memory, OCuLink support

In December of last year, Minisforum lifted the curtains off its MS-01 high-end mini PC, boasting up to an Intel i9-13900H and Iris Xe (G7) integrated graphics. Unfortunately, however, neither did it have the option for an AMD version, nor did it ship with an OCuLink port which would've allowed for substantially faster eGPU connections. With the recently unveiled MS-A1, which is essentially an AMD-powered alternative to the MS-01, Minisforum has seemingly addressed the above qualms.

Launched at Computex 2024, the Minisforum MS-A1 will certainly please fans of Team Red, thanks to its 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 8700G 'Phoenix' APU packed with Zen 4/RDNA 3 goodness. Lower-tier versions with a Ryzen 5 8600G, or a Ryzen 5 7600 'Raphael' will also be on offer. The highest-end R7 8700G beats out the MS-01's 14-core Intel i9 13900H by a small margin, which is to be expected since the 8700G is a desktop-class chip while the i9 13900H is a mobile variant.

Further, the system can support up to 96 GB of memory, thanks to the dual SODIMM memory slots with unspecified speeds - considerably more than the MS-01's maximum memory support of 'only' 64 GB. But the biggest win reveals itself when we turn our attention to the graphics side of things, where the integrated RDNA 3-based Radeon 780M (12 CUs) completely sweeps the floor with the Iris Xe G7 (96 EU) graphics piggybacked on the i9 13900H.

For workloads where the Radeon 780M's admirable graphics grunt won't suffice, the MS-A1, like most other recent mini PCs, features an OCuLink connector which allows for eGPU connections with a significantly lower performance hit when compared to Thunderbolt 4, thanks to the former's PCIe 4.0 x4 lanes with much higher transfer speeds (5 GB/s vs 8 GB/s).

Coming to connectivity options, the MS-A1, similar to its Intel-based sibling, gets a healthy list of ports including 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB 2.1, 1x Type-C (Power Delivery, DisplayPort), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 2.0, and an audio combo jack. Unlike the MS-01 however, 10 G ethernet is suspiciously absent, so customers will have to contend with a single 2.5 G ethernet port.

There is no word on pricing or availability yet, but we can expect more details in the coming weeks. However, given that theMS-01typically retails for around ~$549, it would be safe to say that the MS-A1 will most likely be priced similarly.

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