Minisforum MS-S1 Max Power Consumption and Noise
Thanks to the inclusion of a 320 Watt internal power supply – needed not only to power the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 SoC but also numerous USB ports and even a PCIe x16 card slot – the Minisforum MS-S1 Max can pull quite a bit of power under load. Even that is altered by its four performance modes, which can shift the TDP of the SoC from 60W all the way up to 130W.
Since we opted to do our performance testing in performance mode, we have done the same thing for power and noise testing as well. In this mode, idle power consumption is around 9 to 12 Watts, bouncing around a bit as Windows works on background tasks. Meanwhile max load power consumption we saw running AI inference was around 120 Watts – though we can push it a bit further with non-standard testing that makes heavier use of that Max+ iGPU as well.
The acoustics in performance mode, as you might imagine, however, are not very impressive. The system is not dead silent even at the best of times, but under load, we were measuring upwards of 43dBA at 1 meter from the system. Lower performance modes will bring this down some, but idle noise never drops as low as our lab’s noise floor, so there is always a bit of noise coming from the mini-PC.
Key Lessons Learned
Having looked at four different Ryzen AI Max-powered mini-PCs at this point, we have developed an increasingly comprehensive view of what the ecosystem around these mini-PCs offers. Overall, Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max was our favorite of the Ryzen AI Max systems.
Being positioned as a high-end system, the MS-S1 Max has no shortage of bells and whistles. While Minisforum cannot do much to alter the SoC itself, they have surrounded it with a fantastic degree of expandability. The internal half-height PCIe slot gives the system a lot of traditional flexibility that few mini-PCs offer. Meanwhile, the use of 80Gbps USB4 v2 ports means that there’s plenty of bandwidth for external peripherals, not to mention the longevity afforded by supporting the very latest and greatest USB standard. Coupled with the dual 10Gb Ethernet ports, the MS-S1 Max ends up with a great feature set that complements its use both as an AI dev box and even as a rackmount system.
We also really liked the case design and serviceability. Being able to slide off the case just by removing two screws is fantastic, especially as it gives easy access to all the user-serviceable components without needing to remove any other fan or cover. As a result, the MS-S1 Max is very easy to work on, as you do not need to go digging through multiple layers of cooling or components to swap our SSDs or the like.
While this bit on the niche side in the AI development space, the ability to run Windows is undoubtedly a boon for this box. With so many other high-performance mini-PCs like Apple’s Mac Studio systems and NVIDIA’s DGX Spark systems currently focused on macOS and Linux respectively, it is nice to have the option to run Windows here, even if it will not necessarily be used. While we do not focus on gaming performance, with the iGPU being so capable, having an x86 CPU, and Windows, means that you can have very solid gaming performance on the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, as we have gone into in previous reviews.
Final Words
With its wide array of features, easy expandability, and chart-topping performance for a Ryzen AI Max 395+ box (beating all of the rest of our Ryzen AI Max+ 395 systems in both GPU workloads and multi-threaded workloads), it is easy to see why we have been enamored with Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max. Minisforum has released a high-end Ryzen AI Max system, and it delivers exactly the kind of system that showcases AMD’s high-performance SoC in the best possible light.
In terms of hardware and performance, the worst thing we can say about the MS-S1 Max is that the acoustics are middling for a mini-PC, largely a consequence of Minisforum making sure they would be able to cool the Ryzen SoC even at its highest performance mode. In that respect it would be nice if the MS-S1 Max were a little quieter, though that should not be taken to mean it is loud.
Otherwise, the high-end, high-priced nature of the box does make for some interesting alignments in the competitive landscape. With a sticker price of $2900-$3000, this system is running right up against the low-end configurations of NVIDIA’s GB10 systems, the cheapest of which start at around $3000. As a result, Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max is in direct competition with those boxes. On the one hand, it lacks the 200G NICs that are the backbone of the NVIDIA system, but on the other hand, the MS-S1 Max has far more expandability than the NVIDIA system, both inside and outside. As a result, the MS-S1 Max offers an interesting variation on how a high-end AI development-focused mini-PC can be configured, one with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Conversely, however, this does make the MS-S1 Max a relatively expensive Ryzen AI Max+ 395 system if you only need the bare essentials. In our Substack for CES 2026, we went into how memory pricing and availability is leading companies like Minisforum to focus on existing models like the S1-Max rather than launching new Strix Halo products.
On the whole, Minisforum did a great job overall with the MS-S1 Max, and it shows in virtually every way. In our testing it has become our favorite of the Ryzen AI Max systems, and all of this has been well-earned by Minisforum’s feature and design choices.
Where To Buy
If you wanted to find the Minisforum MS-S1 Max online, here is an Amazon Affiliate link.
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!