Minisforum MS-S1 Max Internal Hardware Overview
Opening up the Minisforum MS-S1 Max, one of the things that pictures do not capture very well is just how easy it is to get inside of this mini-PC. Removing two screws from the rear of the system is all it takes to release the chassis, allowing it to slide right off to access the internals.
Once inside, we can quickly see what Minisforum has put so much of the space within the PC to use on: cooling. A pair of powerful blower fans and a similarly large heatsink, only hinted at from the outside, are in play here to keep the system cool.
Digging a bit deeper, removing the fans exposes the heatpipes used to route heat from the various chips on the motherboard to the heatsink. Because Strix Halo hardware is designed to be soldered down – particularly with its use of LPDDR5X memory for maximum memory bandwidth – there are no user-serviceable parts beneath those heatpipes. The SoC, memory, and various on-board controllers are all there for life. With Minisforum (currently) only offering a single configuration of the MS-S1 Max with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 128GB of LPDDR5X memory, the company only needs to produce a single board design here.
As for the components that are user-serviceable from this side, all three of the M.2 slots are within easy reach – you do not even need to remove the fans. The smaller card is the customary Wi-Fi + Bluetooth adapter, provided via a MT7925B controller. This supports both Wi-Fi 7 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.4, making it current for wireless connectivity.
Meanwhile, directly above this slot is one of the mini-PC’s two M.2 slots for SSDs. The default configuration ships with this slot empty, but there is a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection available there for further upgrades.
Otherwise, the primary M.2 slot is found towards the other end of the PC. Our sample shipped with a 2TB SSD made by Kingston, whose use of QLC makes it one of the only areas where we can knock the otherwise high-end M1-S1 Max.
We can also flip over the MS-S1 Max to get access to the other side of the system, which contains another set of user-serviceable components.
First up is the integrated power supply, a 320 Watt model produced by Lite-On. At first glance such a powerful PSU for a SoC with a peak power consumption of 160W may seem like overkill. But the PSU also needs to provide power for multiple USB-C ports, cooling, and the PCIe slot. So Minisforum’s peak power needs are higher than they may first appear.
Meanwhile, since it is separated from the system’s primary cooling loop by being on the backside of the system, the PSU also comes with its own fan.
Finally, towards the right of the case is the PCIe slot we previously mentioned. The MS-S1 Max is designed to accommodate a half-height full-length PCIe card for further expandability. Do note, however, that while the slot is physically a x16 slot, electrically it is only a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot. As such the system is not engineered to handle high-performance cards needing a great deal of PCIe bandwidth. Also, there is limited airflow on the bottom side of the chassis because the primary fans are on the other side. We usually suggest actively cooled cards in these Minisforum slots.
Our tour of the hardware is complete. Let us talk about performance.
Is there a block diagram of how all the things are connected? My understanding is of the PCI-E lanes on Strix Halo makes me think there are must be switch chips in this.
Any chance of testing the USB4 v2 ports since that is what sets this apart imho.
Thanks for the review!