Minisforum Stuffs Entire Arm Homelab in the MS-R1
8 days ago
- #Linux-Hardware
- #Arm-SoC
- #Mini-PC
- The Minisforum MS-R1 features a Cix CD8180 Arm SoC with a 12-core CPU and Mali G720 iGPU.
- Hardware includes a full-size PCIe slot, NVMe storage, WiFi 6E, 9 USB ports (2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4), HDMI, dual 10 Gbps NICs, and an audio combo jack.
- Performance benchmarks show it outperforms SBCs like Raspberry Pi 5 but falls short of Apple's M1 Mac mini.
- The system has high idle power consumption (14-17W), which is worse than many Intel/AMD systems.
- Supports AI workloads with 64GB RAM but underperforms compared to the Orion O6 due to slower RAM speeds.
- Includes a full PCIe slot for GPU upgrades, tested with an RTX A2000, but driver issues were encountered on Debian 12.
- Ubuntu installation was smooth, with automatic GPU driver support, improving AI and gaming performance.
- Minisforum markets the MS-R1 as a homelab solution with Proxmox and Jellyfin guides, but it's not officially supported.
- Priced at $500-$600, it's a niche product for Arm enthusiasts, with better alternatives like the M4 Mac mini for general use.